Search

Background: Stigma is the experience of feeling different from socially accepted norms which can lead to personal devaluation or fear of disapproval from others. For men and women experiencing infertility, stigma has been associated with psychological distress, feelings of otherness in relation to people with children, and selective disclosure with others about their infertility challenges. However, there are few studies which examine how infertility stigma and being open with others are related to depressive symptoms and meaning in life for men and women diagnosed with infertility., Methods: Participants experiencing infertility were recruited for this cross-sectional study during November 2023-January 2024 via announcements on infertility discussion listservs and social media accounts. Four-hundred fifty-eight women and 89 men completed an online survey. Participants were primarily from the United States (81%), followed by Europe, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand. Participants completed validated and reliable measures of infertility stigma, openness with others, depressive symptoms and meaning in life., Results: Hierarchical regression models explained substantial variance (adjusted R-squared) for depressive symptoms (41% men; 27% women), search for meaning in life (12% men; 14% women), and presence of meaning in life (19% men; 25% women). For both men and women, higher personal infertility stigma was significantly related with higher depressive symptoms and search for meaning. For both men and women, higher openness with others about infertility was significantly associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and greater presence of meaning., Conclusions: The current findings support prior research indicating a significant association between infertility stigma and depressive symptoms and adds to the infertility literature by offering new insights into the relationships between stigma, openness with others, and meaning in life. Health care providers can use these findings to assist individuals and couples in reducing infertility stigma through collaborative conversations that reduce feelings of personal failure. Providers can also help those with infertility challenges to reduce psychological distress and increase meaning in life through accessing existing social networks and expanding social connections with others in ways that facilitate support., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethical approval and consent to participate: The study was approved by the Chapman University Institutional Review Board (IRB-23–312) October 30, 2023. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Coping with difficulty conceiving and the ensuing fertility treatments is a stressful experience that impacts many aspects of women's lives. On the basis of Lazarus and Folkman's model of stress and coping and Schaefer and Moos's model of personal growth, and in view of the sparse literature on cultural aspects of infertility and personal growth, this study examined the relationship between stress on the one hand and personal growth and life satisfaction on the other among Arab and Jewish Israeli women. Furthermore, it investigated the moderating role played by perceived stigma, coping flexibility, cultural orientation (individualism and collectivism), and ethnicity. Two hundred five Arab and Jewish Israeli women undergoing fertility treatment completed self-report questionnaires. The results show that Arab women reported higher levels of personal growth and individualism than Jewish women. In the whole sample, a linear negative relationship was found between stress and life satisfaction, and a curvilinear relationship was found between stress and personal growth. In addition, perceived stigma, collectivism, individualism, and coping flexibility were found to moderate the association between perceived stress and personal growth. The findings provide further understanding of personal growth in the context of infertility, showing that personal resources and perceptions are more important than cultural differences in this regard.

COVID-19 has impacted all levels of daily life for people everywhere, with particularly serious implications for pregnant women. This paper examines the COVID-19-related childbirth anxiety (CCA) of Israeli women in the first two waves of the pandemic. We first present two psychotherapeutic case studies with pregnant women in the two waves. This is followed by an empirical study that compared the contribution of background variables, psychological distress, economic concerns, and personal resources to CCA in two samples, Wave 1, March-April 2020 ( n = 403) and Wave 2, September-October 2020 ( n = 1401), and two subpopulations, Jewish and Arab women. Findings reveal that CCA was significantly lower in Wave 2 than in Wave 1. Furthermore, poorer health, higher education, being an Arab, later gestational week, at-risk pregnancy, wave, higher psychological distress, greater economic concerns, and lower self-compassion contributed to higher childbirth anxiety. Wave moderated the association between optimism and anxiety. The findings of the empirical study, together with insights from the case studies, provide evidence of a decrease in CCA later in the crisis, and indicate the significance of resources for coping with the psychological implications of the pandemic. Moreover, they suggest the importance of empowering self-reliance techniques, such as self-compassion, which was significantly associated with lower anxiety, above and beyond the background and psychological variables. Clinical Impact Statement: Using both psychotherapeutic cases and empirical findings, this study points to the risk and resilience factors that contributed to pregnant women's COVID-19-related childbirth anxiety (CCA) in the first two waves of the pandemic. The study suggests that CCA was higher in the first wave, as well as among women from a minority group. At the same time, the research shows that resilience resources of optimism and self-compassion contributed to the reduction of anxiety. These findings may guide interventions for the vulnerable group of pregnant women in times of crisis.

In the course of their work, medical teams are routinely exposed to difficult and stressful situations. The few studies in the literature that have examined physicians' perceptions and responses to such situations have focused primarily on the fields of emergency medicine and chronic and terminal illness. However, the field of fertility medicine can also evoke complex feelings among physicians. The present qualitative study examined the perceptions of fertility physicians treating women undergoing egg donation. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 fertility physicians, and a categorical analysis was performed. The main category to emerge was the physicians' perception of egg donation and its implications. Two prominent themes were identified within this category: doctor-patient communication surrounding egg donation and how the idea was presented to the patient; and doctors' perception of the implications of egg donation, including maternal identity, the relationship between mother and infant, and the mother's sense of the child's identity. This is the first study to consider the response to fertility treatments, a contemporary and sensitive topic, from the perspective of the physicians. The findings can contribute to physicians' understanding of themselves and can help to devise ways to assist them in managing their emotional responses to their work for the benefit of both themselves and their patients.

This paper reviews research on gay and lesbian parent families in Israel through cultural lenses while recognizing the diversity of these families. The major aims of the review are: (1) to provide an overview of the situation of LGBTQ parent families in Israel, as well as of the sociocultural background of the Israeli context and its effects on sexual minorities and LGBTQ parent families; and (2) to identify the limitations and lacunas in the existing research and shed light on what remains to be explored. We searched numerous databases for relevant studies, adopting a narrative approach to summarize the main findings while taking into account the literature on the socio-cultural context in Israel and its impact on sexual minorities and LGBTQ parent families. The search yielded empirical results only for gay and lesbian parent families, with studies emphasizing the challenges they face and the factors related to their well-being and that of LGB individuals aspiring to become parents. In addition, it revealed that research on children's psychosocial adjustment as a function of parental sexual orientation is quite scarce in Israel. Moreover, it indicated the absence of investigations of bisexual, transgender, or queer parents. We conclude that the sociocultural context of Israel, including its pronatalist and familistic orientation, may play an important role in shaping the experiences of LGBTQ parent families, and should be taken into consideration when studying LGBTQ parents.