Success of in vitro fertilization and its association with the levels of psychophysiological stress before and during the treatment

Abstract

Despite the advance of assisted reproduction, high rates of failure in treatment are still observed. Herein, we investigated how the psychophysiological stress profiles of patients can modulate the in vitro fertilization treatment (IVF) outcome. The women who had failure in IVF (n = 13; 65%) had higher baseline salivary cortisol awakening response and anxiety-state during treatment than patients who became pregnant (n = 7; 35%). Patients with major stress levels and religious coping style showed lower social support, which was correlated with higher anxiety. Therefore, we appointed stress modulators that negatively affect IVF and should be improved aiming to increase its success.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to all patients who volunteered for this experiment, and Center for Assisted Reproduction at the Januário Cicco Maternity School Hospital of Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte for institutional support.

Disclosure statement

This research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel (CAPES) from Brazilian Ministry of Education and by National Science and Technology Institute for Translational Medicine (INCT-TM Fapesp 2014/50891-1; CNPq 465458/2014-9).