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Women undergoing infertility treatments
are bound to feel stressed by the sometimes uncomfortable
and nerve-wracking procedures, but the success of their treatment
may in part depend on minimizing worries and fears.
Women who felt optimistic at the outset
that the treatment would work were more likely to give birth.
In fact, the most stressed-out women were 93%
less likely to have a baby by the end of the 5-year study
compared with their more relaxed peers.
This research determined that success
rates for in vitro fertilization (IVF), may in part, be related
to psychological stress. Clinicians could play an important
role in counseling couples about stress reduction.
Women who reported the highest stress
levels at the outset had fewer eggs retrieved and fertilized,
compared with women who expressed optimism that they would
become pregnant. Stressed women also had fewer embryos transferred
into their wombs.
Women who reported feeling angry, hostile
or depressed had fewer eggs to fertilize and fewer embryos
to transfer.
The babies of women who felt "guilty" for considering
stopping fertility treatment had lower average birth weights,
and women who said that they "would do anything for a
child" were five times more likely to have a multiple
birth.
Fertility
and Sterility October 2001;76:675-687
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