A novel study found that emotional stress does not affect the success of IVF or other supportive reproductive methods. In order to chase away the fable that stress prevents women from conceiving. The research team from Cardiff University analyzed fourteen earlier studies including three thousand and six hundred women.
The study examined women who had their stress levels evaluated prior to commencing treatment and then endured a single cycle of assisted reproductive therapy. Their stress levels were calculating using psychological methods and included features like anxiety, tension and depression.
In every study, research team observed if women who were stressed prior to begin of their treatment were less or more prone to get pregnant. The results of the study found that stress had no impact on if a woman get pregnant or not, with women who were stressed getting pregnant at similar rates to those who were not.
The report evaluated earlier studies into the effectiveness of assisted reproductive therapy. The report was encouraging, stated patient charity infertility Network. According to lead author Prof Jacky Boivin from Cardiff University, it was a common fable that women who were stressed would obstruct the efficacy of fertility treatment.
There are numerous mythologies about how people get pregnant. Women undergoing fertility treatment and do not get pregnant early on frequently blame themselves for getting too stressed out and the longer they remain not pregnant the more stressed they get. This just strengthens the fable, added Prof Boivin.
But she felt that it was significant women did not ignore the stress that they were feeling. Fertility treatments are stressful in themselves. Women should not ignore feeling stressed because apart from anything it could mean that they do not persist with treatment. Due to involvement of stress in undergoing treatment, about one third of couples end assisted reproductive therapy early.
The report was encouraging, but agreed it was vital not to overlook stress. Whilst stress may not impact on the success of treatment, the need for patients to receive support and understanding should not be ignored, explained Clare Lewis-Jones, chief executive from the charity Infertility Network UK.