The impact of infertility diagnosis and subsequent treatment on couples’ relational dynamics in South West Nigeria

Abstract

Infertility research in Nigeria focused on the experience of women dealing with infertility with little attention placed on how couples experience infertility as a dyadic experience. This research aims to explore the impact of infertility diagnosis and subsequent treatment on couples’ relational dynamics in South West Nigeria. This is considered significant because although infertility may only be diagnosed in one partner, both partners experience the challenges of infertility. How each individual makes sense of their experience is in turn going to have an impact on their partner. This is an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study which provides a foundation for developing a more empathic and contextualised understanding of couples’ infertility as it impacts their relational dynamics (Smith et al. 2009). Ten couples were interviewed as a dyadic semi structured interview. Two superordinate themes emerged: “How couples co-construct their experience of infertility when their expectations were not met,” and “How couples manage and protect their relationship while dealing with a diagnosis of infertility.” The first superordinate theme made sense of how elements such as family, culture, societal norms, fertility treatment challenges and affect dynamics (the feeling of anger and resentment) impact the couples’ relational dynamics. The second superordinate theme interprets how the couples with infertility manage their experience of infertility using religion, emotion masking, avoidance and substitution mechanism. Findings further reveal how the couples communicate and interact during the experience of infertility and the meaning the couples ascribe to infertility as a couple. The new knowledge created by this study reinforces the need to study the experience of infertility as a dyadic experience, as how individual partners experience infertility invariably impacts the other. Thus, the findings from this study have filled a gap in the body of knowledge in Nigeria on the impact of infertility diagnosis and subsequent treatment on couples’ relational dynamics in South West Nigeria. This study recommends the provision of policy targeted at increasing the awareness of infertility in Nigeria as well as providing an appropriate and adequate health care plan. Further research is needed to explore the impact of religion as a coping mechanism for couples diagnosed with infertility in Nigeria.