. Farangis Sharifi; . Robab Latifnejad Roudsari
Volume 12, Issue 5 , June 2022, , Pages 1-11
Abstract
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is common in infertile women in differentcountries. The purpose of the current study was to review the infertile women’s ...
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The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is common in infertile women in differentcountries. The purpose of the current study was to review the infertile women’s needs in relationto CAM use. This narrative review was conducted through searching English databases includingScopus, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane library as well as Persian databases consistedof SID, and Magiran. The used keywords included “CAM/therapy, needs, and Infertility.” All studiespublished in English peer‑reviewed journals from conception to October 2020, which examined theinfertile women’s needs in the field of CAM use were included in the review. In the process of dataextraction, two researchers screened the title, abstract, and full text of the articles. Out of the 2166articles reviewed, 29 articles including six qualitative and mixed methods studies, four review, and 19quantitative studies met the inclusion criteria. The results showed that infertile women have differentneeds in six domains consisted of educational and informational needs, the need for psychologicalcounseling, supportive needs, the need for CAM use counseling, the need to treatment consistent withwomen’s culture and demands, and the need to the integration of CAM with conventional medicine.Awareness of infertile women’s needs toward CAM use can help health policymakers and plannersin designing and implementing counseling services in accordance with the demands and cultureof infertile couples. It also helps to develop a coherent program to integrate the use of CAM in theclassical infertility treatment.
