The effectiveness of a collaborative infertility counseling (CIC) on pregnancy outcome in women undergoing in vitro fertilization: a randomized trial

BACKGROUND: The optimal objective of infertility treatments is to increase pregnancy rate. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a collaborative counseling program on pregnancy rate in women undergoing in vitro treatment. METHODS: This was a parallel group randomized trial on a sample of 60 women attending to an infertility research center affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences for fertility treatment. Women were randomly assigned to an intervention or a control group. Then, a five-session program offered to the intervention group while the control group received nothing expect the usual care. The primary outcome for the study was positive pregnancy test at the end of study. Statistical analyses including independent samples t-test were performed to explore the data. RESULTS: The outcome analysis showed that there were no significant differences in pregnancy rate between the intervention and the control groups (P = 0.298). Also, there were no significant differences in follicle and embryo numbers between two groups. However, a significant difference was observed between two groups in terms of oocyte numbers where the intervention group had more oocyte (P = 0.014). CONCLUSION: Overall the findings indicated that the collaborative infertility counseling did not improve treatment success in infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization. TRIAL REGISTRATION: IRCT201110267915N1. Registered 2014.07.25-Retrospectively registered (http://en.irct.ir/trial/8359).