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Stress in couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology

  • Gynecologic Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correspondence to this article was published on 02 September 2020

Abstract

Purpose

To determine the associations between pre-treatment self-reported stress level, salivary cortisol levels, and clinical pregnancy outcome in couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology treatment (ART).

Study design

Seventy-five couples (150 patients) undergoing ART treatment were enrolled in this study. Psychological variables were assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, State–Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Beck Depression Inventory. Salivary cortisol levels were obtained from each couple prior to commencing gonadotropin treatment at several times (upon waking and at 15, 30, and 60 min after waking).

Results

There was no statistically significant association between the self-reported stress levels and the ART treatment outcome in couples. Women with a successful outcome after ART treatment had higher median salivary cortisol levels than women who had an unsuccessful result [24.7 (19.9–63.1) vs. 20.7 (10.4–30.4), respectively]. There was no statistically significant difference in the median salivary cortisol levels of men in relation to ART treatment outcome. Salivary cortisol levels of the couples were not correlated.

Conclusions

Women who had higher median salivary cortisol levels in the pre-treatment period had a higher clinical pregnancy rate. This result suggests that moderately increased activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis during ART treatment might be associated with successful conception.

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey

    Gorkem Tuncay, Abdullah Karaer & Umran Karabulut

  2. Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey

    Sedat Yıldız

  3. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey

    Ismail Reyhani & Süheyla Unal

  4. Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey

    Tuba Özgöcer

  5. Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Adıyaman University, Adıyaman, Turkey

    Cihat Ucar

Authors
  1. Gorkem Tuncay
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  2. Sedat Yıldız
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  3. Abdullah Karaer
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  4. Ismail Reyhani
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  5. Tuba Özgöcer
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  6. Cihat Ucar
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  7. Umran Karabulut
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  8. Süheyla Unal
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Contributions

GT: protocol/project development, data collection, and manuscript writing/editing. SY: protocol/project development, data analysis, and manuscript writing/editing. AK: protocol/project development, data collection, data analysis, and manuscript writing/editing. İR: data analysis and manuscript writing/editing. TÖ: data analysis and manuscript writing/editing. CU: data analysis and manuscript writing/editing. UK: data collection and manuscript writing/editing. SÜ: data analysis and manuscript writing/editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abdullah Karaer.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

Institutional review boards approved the study (Approval no. 2017/127). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and informed consent forms had been obtained from all study participants.

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Tuncay, G., Yıldız, S., Karaer, A. et al. Stress in couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology. Arch Gynecol Obstet 301, 1561–1567 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-020-05549-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-020-05549-8

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