Objective: In this study, it was aimed to focus on the psychological
aspect of unexplained infertility by comparing the mental symptoms of
infertility due to known causes and fertile patients. Patients and
Methods: 60 unexplained infertility patiens, 50 infertile patients with
a known cause and 56 fertile patients were included in the study.
Socio-demographic data form, Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20),
Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SAS) and Anxiety Sensitivity Index
(ASI-3) were applied to the patients. Results: No significant
differences in the levels of alexithymia, somatosensory amplification,
and anxiety sensitivity were detected across the groups
(p>0.05). When the correlation of clinical scale scores
with each other was analyzed in the whole group of infertile patients
regardless of the cause, anxiety sensitivity was found increased as
difficulty identifying feelings increased. Conclusion: In our study, it
has been found out that; regardless of the knowledge of the etiology of
infertility, the levels of alexithymia, somatosensory amplification, and
anxiety sensitivity of infertile cases did not differ from those of
fertile women. However, it has been shown that as the difficulty in
identifying emotions increases in infertile cases, anxiety sensitivity,
which may cause psychological infertility, also increases.
Levels of anxiety sensitivity, somatosensory amplification and alexithymia in patients with unexplained infertility
