Infertility as a lonely struggle? Coping stories of previously infertile women

Abstract

In this narrative study, we explored the meaning infertile women attribute to social support in coping with their infertility-related challenges. Written accounts and episodic interviews with 26 previously infertile Finnish women were used as data. Two different coping story types emerged: coping alone and coping with support. In the coping alone type women neither sought nor received support. Their coping appeared as a lonely struggle. In the coping with stories, women turned to their spouses, peers, or professionals, but still emphasized that they would have needed more support. Based on our findings, we underline the need for individually tailored support.

Author contributions

Siru Lehto: The conception and design of the study, significant intellectual contribution to the study, ideation and discussion, methodology, data collection (written accounts and interviews), formal analysis, writing first draft and revision of commented versions, approval of final version.

Eija Sevón: The conception and design of the study, intellectual contribution to the study: ideation and discussion, methodology, interpretation and commenting analysis, supervision, co-writing, reviewing and editing drafts, approval of final version.

Marja-Leena Laakso: The conception and design of the study, intellectual contribution to the study: ideation and discussion, interpretation and commenting analysis, commenting drafts, supervision, approval of final version.

Anna Rönkä: Project leader, the conception and design of the study, intellectual contribution to the study: ideation and discussion, interpretation and commenting analysis, supervision, reviewing and editing drafts, approval of final version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.