The effects of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms on the clinical pregnancy rate in women undergoing IVF treatment

OBJECTIVE: Women undergoing assisted reproductive technology treatment, are often anxious and depressed because of their fertility problem and the uncertainties of the treatment with which they have to deal. On the other hand, recent studies have shown that the effects of psychological distress on the IVF treatment outcome is unclear. This study aimed to examine the effects of anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms before IVF treatment on the clinical pregnancy rate, controlling for known confounders. RESULTS: In total, 142 women undergoing IVF treatment participated in this prospective study. The clinical pregnancy rate was 26.8% in this study. Controlling for age, infertility duration, and cause of infertility, there were no relationship between IVF outcome and anxiety (relative risk (RR) = 1.00; 95% CI 0.91–1.09), depression (RR = 0.96; 95% CI 0.88–1.05), and stress (RR = 1.01; 95% CI 0.96–1.07) symptoms. High woman’s age and women with both cause of infertility were independent predictors of IVF clinical pregnancy rate. In sum, we found that anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms were not associated with the IVF clinical pregnancy rate.