Effect of couple counseling on stress and dyadic coping in infertile couples: a randomized clinical trial

To assess the effect of couple counseling on stress and dyadic coping in infertile couples

This is a randomized clinical trial, phase II, in which 70 eligible couple will be randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups

The eligible infertile couples referring to the Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan city during the study period will be enrolled in the trial and will be randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups through the block randomization.

Inclusion criteria: Age of 20 to 45 years, Primary infertility at least for one year, Stress in both couples, Literate, Exclusion criteria: Attending to other educational programs in the past, Any mental or neurological disorder

Intervention group: Providing routine infertility services and care in addition to couple-centered counseling (including familiarity with stress, personal coping, marital coping and problem-solving skills, observance of fairness and justice in marital relationship, marital communication skills, increasing individual coping skills and marital coping skills and increasing solving skills) each session lasts 90 to 120 minutes, one session per week for 7 sessions Control group: Providing just routine infertility services and care

Primary outcome: Measuring stress, measuring dyadic coping

The patients will be randomly assigned to intervention and control groups using block randomization. For this purpose, we will prepare four sheets of paper, writing on two sheets the name of the intervention and on the other two sheets the name of the control. The paper sheets will be pooled, placed in a container, and randomly drawn one at a time for each patient without replacement until all four sheets are drawn. The four paper sheets will be then placed back into the container, and this action repeated until the sample size is reached.