FERTILITY STATUS AND SYMPTOMS IN CHILDBEARING COUPLES

The symptoms of 58 pregnant couples-37 with a history of infertility a nd 21 without a history of infertility-were compared. The Symptomatolo gy Inventory, a checklist of 42 common physical and psychological symp toms of pregnancy, was completed by each spouse from months 4 to 9 of pregnancy. For purposes of analysis, the individual symptoms were grou ped into three categories: physical symptoms, negative affective sympt oms, and positive affective symptoms. Although the infertile pregnant couples did not experience more symptoms than fertile couples, their p attern of reporting pregnancy-related symptoms was quite different. In terms of both number and type of symptoms, infertile spouses' symptom s tended to be positively related. Compared to fertile couples, the in fertile couples experienced symptoms globally and were more consistent in the number of symptoms reported by each spouse. Additional researc h is needed to confirm these findings and to determine the implication s of these differences for childbearing and the marital relationship. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.