Performance anxiety during infertility treatment: effect on semen quality

Abstract

The requirement to obtain a semen sample at a specific time for an infertility treatment procedure has potential to produce considerable performance anxiety. This study was designed to evaluate the semen quality of men participating in infertility treatments associated with heightened performance anxiety. The most recent pretreatment semen analysis and the infertility treatment semen analysis, as well as the first and last procedure semen analyses, were compared using paired t-tests for 77 patients undergoing assisted reproductive technology procedures and 121 patients undergoing intrauterine insemination. No significant differences were noted in either of these groups of patients. However, in men with total motile sperm counts of less than 40 million, semen parameters improved significantly in the procedure semen analyses. Thus, participation in infertility treatments associated with performance anxiety does not appear to be detrimental to semen quality, and in certain groups of patients semen quality may improve.