Does psychological stress affect the outcome of in vitro fertilization?

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of psychological stress before and during IVF treatment on the outcome of IVF, controlling for known physiological predictors.

This is a prospective, longitudinal study. A total of 166 women were studied during their first IVF treatment. They answered questionnaires concerning psychological and social factors on two occasions. Psychological well-being was measured by the Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) index and psychological effects of infertility were assessed by 14 items.

In the analysis of the psychological variables, no differences were found between pregnant and non-pregnant women. The total number of good quality embryos, the number of good quality embryos transferred, and the number of embryos transferred were significantly higher in the pregnant than in the non-pregnant group. In a multivariate analysis, the number of good quality embryos transferred was the only variable that was independently associated with pregnancy.

We found no evidence that psychological stress had any influence on the outcome of IVF treatment. When counselling infertile couples, it might be possible to reduce the stress they experience during the treatment procedure by informing them of these findings.