Quality of life and infertility stress in homologous and heterologous medically assisted reproduction: the role of common and specific psychopathological traits

Purpose: This study compared the quality of life/stress between individuals undergoing homologous and heterologous medically assisted reproduction (MAR) and explored the role of psychopathological traits. Design and methods: Two hundred and twenty-six participants in homologous (52.2%) and heterologous MAR (47.8%) completed Symptom Checklist 90-R, Fertility Problem Inventory, and Fertility Quality of Life. Findings: The homologous group showed higher depressive/anxious and obsessive-compulsive traits, hostility and interpersonal detachment, and worse quality of life/stress than the heterologous one. In the homologous pathway, those with higher interpersonal detachment showed worse quality of life, in the heterologous one those with greater paranoid traits had greater stress. Practice implications: Psychiatric nursing support should focus on interpersonal detachment in homologous and paranoid traits in heterologous MAR.