Infertility-related stress in men and women predicts treatment outcome 1 year later

Jacky Boivin, Lone Schmidt
2005 Fertility and Sterility  
Objective: To examine the separate and joint effects of male and female fertility problem (FP) stress and the source of stress (e.g., personal, social, marital) on treatment outcome. Design: Prospective, epidemiological cohort design. Setting: Fertility clinics in Denmark. Patient(s): Eight hundred eighteen couples who were about to begin a new course of treatment. Intervention(s): An FP stress inventory was administered at the start of treatment, and the treatment outcome was evaluated 12
more » ... s later. Main Outcome Measure(s): Number of treatment cycles in 12-month study period and treatment outcome (i.e., success, no success). Result(s): Fertility problem stress was associated with a poorer treatment outcome in women (pooled withingroups [WGr] correlation,WGr ϭ .517) and men (WGr ϭ .392) with the effect significantly more pronounced for women (z ϭ 3.19, PϽ.001). Fertility problem stress arising in the personal and marital domain showed greater associations with treatment outcome than did FP stress from the social domain. Logistic regression indicated that women who reported more marital distress required more treatment cycles to conceive (median 3) than women reporting less marital distress (median 2) (odds ratio [OR] ϭ 1.20: Model 2 (3) ϭ 77.21, PϽ.001). Conclusion(s): The findings provide evidence that infertility-related stress has direct and indirect effects on treatment outcome. (Fertil Steril 2005;83:1745-52.
doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2004.12.039 pmid:15950646 fatcat:odyzaxkdfjegfgddo463vbrb3a