Women with spontaneous 46,XX primary ovarian insufficiency (hypergonadotropic hypogonadism) have lower perceived social support than control women.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that women with spontaneous primary ovarian insufficiency differ from control women with regard to perceived social support and to investigate the relationship between perceived social support and self-esteem.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, National Institutes of Health.

Patient(s): Women diagnosed with spontaneous primary ovarian insufficiency (n = 154) at a mean age of 27 years and healthy control women (n = 63).

Intervention(s): Administration of validated self-reporting instruments.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Personal Resource Questionnaire 85 and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.

Result(s): Women with primary ovarian insufficiency had significantly lower scores than controls on the perceived social support scale and the self-esteem scale. The findings remained significant after modeling with multivariate regression for differences in age, marital status, and having children. There was a significant positive correlation between self-esteem scores and perceived social support in patients. We found no significant differences in perceived social support or self-esteem related to marital status, whether or not the women had children, or time since diagnosis.

Conclusion(s): This evidence supports the need for prospective controlled studies. Strategies to improve social support and self-esteem might provide a therapeutic approach to reduce the emotional suffering that accompanies the life-altering diagnosis of spontaneous primary ovarian insufficiency.