Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jan;30(1):35-41.
doi: 10.1007/s10815-012-9904-x. Epub 2012 Dec 5.

Relationship between psychological stress and reproductive outcome in women undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment: psychological and neurohormonal assessment

Yuan An  1 , Zhuangzhuang Sun, Linan Li, Yajuan Zhang, Hongping Ji
Affiliations

Relationship between psychological stress and reproductive outcome in women undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment: psychological and neurohormonal assessment

Yuan An et al. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2013 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate whether psychological stress, as well as changes in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) at different time points during a first in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle, correlates with the reproductive outcome.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted in 264 women undergoing IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment between January 2009 and March 2010. Standardized psychological questionnaires were used to assess anxiety and depression. Norepinephrine and cortisol in serum were measured with specific assays.

Results: The non-pregnant women reported higher anxiety and depression scores at the pregnancy detection day compared with the pregnant group. Lower levels of norepinephrine and cortisol at the time of oocyte retrieval and lower levels of cortisol at the time of pregnancy test were found in women with successful treatment. Significant increases in serum norepinephrine and cortisol values were observed during ovarian stimulation. State Anxiety scores were negatively correlated with live birth rate, and positively associated with serum norepinephrine and cortisol values.

Conclusions: State anxiety is associated with both pregnancy rate and live birth rate in IVF patients, an effect that is partly mediated by activities in the HPA and SNS.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The variation of serum norepinephrine and cortisol during the study. T1: before the start of treatment, T2: day of oocyte retrieval, T3: day of pregnancy detection, T4: 5–8 weeks of gestation for 92 pregnant women
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Verhaak CM, Smeenk JM, van Minnen A, Kremer JA, Kraaimaat FW. A longitudinal, prospective study on emotional adjustment before, during and after consecutive fertility treatment cycles. Hum Reprod. 2005;20:2253–60. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dei015. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ardenti R, Campari C, Agazzi L, La-Sala GB. Anxiety and perceptive functioning of infertile women during in-vitro fertilization: Exploratory survey of an Italian sample. Hum Reprod. 1999;14:3126–32. doi: 10.1093/humrep/14.12.3126. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Boivin J, Takefman JE, Tulandi T, Brender W. Reactions to infertility based on extent of treatment failure. Fertil Steril. 1995;63:801–7. - PubMed
    1. Yong P, Martin C, Thong J. A comparison of psychological functioning in women at different stages of in vitro fertilization treatment using the mean affect adjective checklist. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2000;17:553–6. doi: 10.1023/A:1026429712794. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kolonoff-Cohen H, Chu E, Natarajan L, Sieber W. A prospective study of stress among women undergoing in vitro fertilization or gamete intrafallopian transfer. Fertil Steril. 2001;76:675–87. doi: 10.1016/S0015-0282(01)02008-8. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms