MPH503, Infertility and Public Health, Mod 5 Case Assignment Essay

MPH503, Infertility and Public Health, Mod 5 Case Assignment - Essay Example Issues with infertility are painful psychologically as well as physically. There is always the self defining issue of "what is wrong with me?" The reduction in self esteem is very difficult to deal with and when family who are supposed to be support dont understand what is wrong but what the couple is going through, it becomes even more difficult (Schneider, 2005). Further, much of the treatments are painful and sometimes embarrassing so there is much stress related to the treatments for both of members of this couple. There are many things that can be done for support for this couple. Trying to get them involved in a support group, however, is probably one of the most important as no one can really understand their issues as well as someone else with the same type issues. This allows them to talk about them with a group of people that feel the same way and will not tell them to go on vacation and everything will be better. Focused counseling is shown to help when it is couple targeted as shown in a study completed by Glover, McLillan, and Weaver (2008). There is some controversy in the literature about the type of support that is given to a couple undergoing in vitro fertilization. According to Knoll, Kuenti, and Bauer, (2008) some kinds of support may turn out to be more detrimental than helpful. Women seem to benefit from a different kind of help than their spouses. Women seems to do best with emotional support while men do best with instrumental support. Neither kind of support in the literature seems to make as big a difference in stress levels as groups involvement as in support groups. One of the recommended approaches is to help the couple look at and find new meaning for their life goals. This is sometimes best done in discussion with people that have been through the same issues as they have. Those couples that have been in trial for 5 years or more and are still unsuccessful need this kind of help more than