The Effect of Depression and Anxiety on the Outcome of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)

Success of assisted reproductive treatment may be dependent a variable factors such as the woman’s distress level at the term of the treatment. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of anxiety and depression of infertile women on the outcome of ART. This case-control study was performed on 300 infertile women who volunteered to undergo ART in Montasariya Infertility Center of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. They consecutively invited and agreed to participate. Before down-regulation by means of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues patients were asked to complete the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory to measure anxiety, and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to measure depression and individual specifications’ questionnaires. Pregnancy tests were done 15 days after performing IUI and IVF. There were no significant statistical relation between different levels of depression and the infertility treatment outcome (p = 0.19). This relationship was significant between different levels of state and trait anxiety and treatment outcome (p = 0.019 & p = 0.016). With the increase of anxiety the positive result of pregnancy test was less probable. An accurate assessment of the infertile women by a team of specialists consisting of a clinical psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a gynecologist is needed so that their anxiety would be reduced and better outcome achieved.