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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on November 5, 2007
Human Reproduction 2008 23(1):112-116; doi:10.1093/humrep/dem357
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Low negative affect prior to treatment is associated with a decreased chance of live birth from a first IVF cycle

C. de Klerk1,5, J.A.M. Hunfeld1, E.M.E.W. Heijnen2,4, M.J.C. Eijkemans3, B.C.J.M. Fauser2,4, J. Passchier1 and N.S. Macklon2,4

1 Department of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Erasmus MC, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Erasmus MC, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands 3 Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands 4 Department of Reproductive Medicine and Gynaecology, University Medical Centre, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands

5 Correspondence address. Tel: +31 10 408 78 05; Fax: +31 10 408 94 20; E-mail: c.deklerk{at}erasmusmc.nl


   Abstract
Top
 Abstract
Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Funding
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
BACKGROUND: Psychological variables, such as anxiety and depression, may have a negative impact on IVF outcomes, but the evidence remains inconclusive. Previous studies have usually measured a single psychological parameter with clinical pregnancy as the outcome. The objective of the current study was to determine whether pretreatment or procedural psychological variables in women undergoing a first IVF cycle affect the chance of achieving a live birth from that cycle.

METHODS: Between February 2002 and February 2004, 391 women with an indication for IVF were recruited at two University Medical Centres in The Netherlands. Pretreatment anxiety and depression were measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. The Daily Record Keeping Chart was used to measure negative and positive affect before treatment and daily during ovarian stimulation. Multiple stepwise forward logistic regression analysis was performed with term live birth as the dependent variable.

RESULTS: Regression analysis showed that women who expressed less negative affect at baseline were less likely to achieve live birth (P = 0.03). After one IVF cycle, women who received a standard IVF strategy were more likely to reach live birth delivery than those who received a mild IVF strategy (P = 0.002). A male/female indication for IVF was associated with a higher chance of achieving term live birth than a female only indication (P = 0.03). Age, duration of infertility or type of infertility were not independent predictors of live birth.

CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between psychological parameters and IVF success rates is more complex than commonly believed. The expression of negative emotions before starting IVF might not be always detrimental for outcomes.

Key words: assisted reproduction/IVF outcome/live birth delivery/psychology/stress


   Introduction
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Funding
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
IVF is a demanding and stressful treatment for patients, requiring daily hormone injections, ultrasound scans, semen analysis and invasive procedures, such as oocyte retrieval (Mahlstedt, 1994Go). Furthermore, IVF is usually the final treatment option for infertile couples, and failure will probably mean their remaining childless. It is therefore not surprising that both women and men demonstrate elevated levels of anxiety during IVF treatment, especially at oocyte retrieval and pregnancy testing (Boivin and Takefman, 1996Go; de Klerk et al., 2006Go). In women who do not achieve pregnancy via IVF, an increased prevalence of subclinical anxiety and depression has been reported (Verhaak et al., 2005Go).

Although IVF treatment is known to increase stress (Verhaak et al., 2007Go), the evidence for an association between stress and IVF outcome is inconclusive (Eugster and Vingerhoets, 1999Go; Wischmann, 2003Go; Klonoff-Cohen, 2005Go). Several studies have shown psychological stress to have a negative impact on IVF treatment outcomes. Smeenk and colleagues (2001)Go e.g. found that pre-existing psychological variables, especially state anxiety, are independently related to the probability of becoming pregnant after IVF/ICSI. In contrast, a recent large multi-centre study showed no associations between stress levels and IVF outcomes (Lintsen et al., 2006Go). In the latter study, depression and anxiety were measured prior to the first cycle of IVF, and again one day before oocyte retrieval.

The conflicting results in this research area may reflect limitations in study sample size and design, since most previous studies were either retrospective or cross-sectional. Moreover, psychological measurements have usually been limited to a single stress parameter. Since the majority of studies reported clinical pregnancy as the endpoint, data relating to spontaneous abortion and premature delivery are scarce. To date, only one study has reported live birth delivery as an endpoint (Klonoff-Cohen et al., 2001Go). In this study, live birth rate was negatively influenced by baseline stress, but not by procedural stress. If the impact of stress on IVF outcomes is to be properly addressed, more large prospective studies that apply multiple stress measures and report live birth as the endpoint are required. The objective of the present two-centre study was therefore, to prospectively examine anxiety, depression and affect in women before and during a first IVF or IVF/ICSI cycle and to study their relationship with live birth delivery rates.


   Materials and Methods
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
Results
 Discussion
 Funding
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
Subjects
Between February 2002 and February 2004, couples about to start their first cycle of IVF or IVF/ ICSI treatment at the Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, and the University Medical Centre, Utrecht, were recruited to the study. The study was approved by the Ethical Review Boards of the two participating clinics. Only couples with no previous unsuccessful IVF treatment were included. Inclusion criteria limited participation to women aged <38 years, with a regular menstrual cycle (25–35 days) and a body mass index of 18–28 kg/m2. These study criteria were chosen to exclude women for whom either mild stimulation or single embryo transfer (SET) was considered a priori to be inappropriate (Hohmann et al., 2003Go). Couples received either mild ovarian stimulation (including GnRH antagonist co-treatment) and SET or conventional GnRH agonist long-protocol ovarian stimulation with the transfer of two embryos (Eijkemans et al., 2006Go; Heijnen et al., 2007Go). Patients who met the eligibility criteria were either recruited by their treating physician during the IVF planning consultation (Rotterdam) or by one of the medical researchers before their IVF planning consultation (Utrecht). After written consent was obtained from both partners, women received a booklet containing all psychological questionnaires.

Measures
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a general stress measure that was developed as a screening tool to measure anxiety and depression experienced by medical patients in the past week (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983Go). Both subscales (range 0–21) of the HADS consist of seven items, which are scored on a 4-point-Likert scale from 0–3. Higher scores imply the presence of more symptoms. Cut-off scores for possible and probable depressive and anxiety disorder are 7/8 and 10/11, respectively. The Dutch version of the HADS has shown good test–retest reliability, homogeneity and internal consistency (Spinhoven et al., 1997Go).

The 21 items of the Daily Record Keeping Chart (DRK) represent emotional reactions common to women receiving infertility treatment (Boivin and Takefman, 1996Go; Boivin, 1997Go). Each item is rated on a 4-point-Likert scale (‘none’ to ‘severe’). Scores on four subscales can be obtained: depression/anger; uncertainty; anxiety; and positive affect (range 0–12). The depression/anger, uncertainty and anxiety subscales can be combined into a single scale measuring negative affect (range 0–36). The DRK has demonstrated good criterion-related validity, good convergent validity and good internal consistency. Cronbach coefficient alphas varied from 0.76 to 0.88 for the individual subscales (Boivin, 1997Go). The DRK is available in Dutch translation (de Klerk et al., 2005Go).

Additional data on the subjects’ demographics and infertility history were obtained from medical records.

Study design
This psychological study was part of a 2-arm randomized controlled, non-inferiority, effectiveness trial, which encompassed the medical, economical and psychological evaluation of mild ovarian stimulation combined with SET compared with standard IVF treatment. Clinical outcomes of this randomized controlled trial have recently been published elsewhere (Heijnen et al., 2007Go). Only women who had sufficient knowledge of the Dutch language to fill out the questionnaires were invited to take part in the psychological study (n = 391). Pretreatment stress was measured with the HADS on the day of IVF planning consultation carried out within 6 weeks of commencing treatment. Women also completed the DRK daily for 1 week, starting on the day of the planning consultation. Procedural stress was measured daily with the DRK from the first day of ovarian stimulation until the day before oocyte retrieval. The endpoint chosen for this study was term (≥37 weeks gestation) live birth resulting from the first cycle of IVF.

Statistical analyses
Demographics and data on infertility history were analysed using Student’s t-test for continuous variables and {chi}2-test for categorical variables. Daily DRK scores were computed into two average scores: one for baseline and one for ovarian stimulation. Group differences in psychological variables between women who achieved live birth and women who did not were analysed using Student’s t-test. Multiple stepwise forward logistic regression analysis was performed with term live birth as the dependent variable. Independent variables included all psychological variables, age, duration of infertility, cause of infertility, type of infertility and IVF strategy. All analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 10.1). Significance testing on all outcome measures was done at 0.05 level of significance (two-tailed).


   Results
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
Discussion
 Funding
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
Of the 391 women that were recruited, 32 (8%) women dropped out of the study before commencing a first IVF cycle. Ten women had a spontaneous pregnancy, 10 women did not start IVF treatment, and twelve women discontinued participation in the study (Heijnen et al., 2007Go). Seventy women (19%) failed to fill out one or more baseline psychological questionnaires and were therefore excluded from analysis. The excluded women differed significantly from analysed women only in terms of cause of infertility (Table I). Of the remaining 289 women, seventy-three participants (25%) achieved a live term delivery after the first IVF cycle. Table II shows the sample characteristics with respect to psychological variables of women who achieved and failed to achieve live birth. Univariate testing showed that the mean score for baseline negative affect was significantly lower in the latter group (P = 0.02). With regard to changes in affect between baseline and ovarian stimulation, no significant differences were found between these groups. Pearson correlation coefficients between psychological variables are shown in Table III.


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  		Table I. Baseline demographical and medical characteristics of participants.

 

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  		Table II. Psychological characteristics of participants.

 

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  		Table III. Pearson correlations between psychological variables.

 
The findings of the stepwise logistic regression analysis are given in Table IV. Live birth was predicted positively by baseline negative affect as measured with the DRK (P = 0.03). Baseline anxiety, depression and positive affect as well as affect (both positive and negative) during ovarian stimulation were omitted from the model due to a lack of correlation with live birth. Of the medical variables, IVF strategy (mild or standard) and cause of infertility were shown to have a significant effect on the probability of live birth delivery. After one IVF cycle, women who had received a standard IVF strategy were more likely to reach live birth delivery than women who underwent a mild IVF strategy (P = 0.002). Furthermore, a male/female indication for IVF was associated with a higher chance of achieving term live birth than a female only indication for IVF (P = 0.03). In this study neither age, duration of infertility or type of infertility were found to be independent predictors of live birth.


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  		Table IV. Logistic regression model with variables predicting term live birtha.

 

   Discussion
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
Funding
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
This study examined the relationship between pretreatment and procedural psychological variables with term live birth in women undergoing a first IVF or IVF/ICSI cycle. No evidence was found for an association between psychological variables and IVF outcome when using a general depression and anxiety measure. However, a small but significant effect of DRK-scores on live birth rates was observed. Perhaps surprisingly, women who showed few feelings of anger, depression, uncertainty and/or anxiety (e.g. negative affect) before treatment were less likely to achieve term live birth than women who expressed a moderate level of negative affect. Neither positive affect nor negative affect during ovarian stimulation did influence the possibility of live birth.

Infertility-specific questionnaires such as the DRK are likely to be more sensitive to the diverse reactions women might experience during the various stages of IVF treatment than general stress measures such as the HADS. The fact that the DRK is a prospective diary-based measure, whereas the HADS is a retrospective measure, may further benefit the sensitivity of the DRK. This might be a reason why the results from this study are incongruent with earlier studies (Smeenk et al., 2001Go) in which general stress measures were mostly used. The results of a recent study by Cooper et al. (2007)Go, in which an infertility-specific questionnaire (e.g. Fertility Problem Inventory) was used, were in line with the results of the present study. The authors reported that couples who did not get pregnant during their first IVF cycle expressed less infertility-related stress before treatment than conceiving couples. However, no conclusions can be made about the effect of strong infertility-related stress and IVF outcomes based on the results of either study, as mean scores on the infertility-related stress questionnaires were all in the low to moderate range. Therefore, it remains possible that the expression of high infertility-related stress is harmful. However, the expression of moderate infertility-related stress seems more beneficial than extreme low levels of negative affect.

It may be hypothesized that the association between extreme low levels of negative affect and negative IVF outcomes could be explained by the fact that women receiving IVF frequently use defence mechanisms such as repression and denial to cope with the emotional strain associated with treatment. Previous studies have shown that patients underreport feelings of stress during IVF treatment, afraid that they might be dropped from the IVF programme or that they might be ‘jinxed’ (Haseltine et al., 1985Go; Boivin and Takefman, 1996Go). Positive thinking seems to be the most frequently used coping strategy during IVF treatment (Callan and Hennessey, 1988Go). In the present study, low scores for negative affect might indicate the use of repression and positive thinking strategies. It is possible that the use of these strategies elicit physiological responses that adversely affect IVF outcomes. Psychological defence strategies, such as repression, have been found to be associated with autonomic reactivity that may be a risk factor for medical illness (Shedler et al., 1993Go). Future studies are needed to explore the possible association between repressive coping strategies and IVF outcomes.

In contrast to previous studies (Templeton et al., 1996Go; Macklon and Fauser, 2004Go) no associations between age, duration of infertility and live birth rates were found in the current study, possibly due to the study’s strict inclusion criteria. However, a lower chance of achieving term live birth was observed when a female only indication for IVF was present than when a male/female indication (including unexplained infertility) existed. These findings are congruent with the results of a study by Omland et al. (2005)Go in which unexplained infertility was associated with higher live birth rates compared with minimal endometriosis-associated or tubal factor infertility. As shown before (Heijnen et al., 2007Go), women who had received a standard IVF strategy were more likely to reach live birth delivery after a single treatment cycle than women who underwent a mild IVF strategy.

Despite the large sample size, the use of multiple stress measures and the use of live birth as the endpoint, there are some limitations to this study. Only women who were eligible for mild ovarian stimulation combined with the transfer of a single embryo were included. Therefore, it might not be possible to generalize the results of this study to IVF patients with a less favourable prognosis. Furthermore, no records were kept on non-respondents. Based on the average number of couples who undergo IVF treatment annually in the two participating hospitals and who would qualify for the study (n = 300), the estimated response rate was calculated to be ~65% (391 out of 600). In addition, 19% of the participants could not be analysed due to missing psychological data. In these women, a female factor was more often the cause of infertility. Finally, this study did not measure stress in male patients. The results of the few studies that have addressed stress scores in the male partner also suggest a complex association between infertility-related stress and IVF outcomes (Merari et al., 2002Go; Boivin and Schmidt, 2005Go; Cooper et al., 2007Go).

In general, stress is perceived to be detrimental to fertility and outcomes of infertility treatments. Many clinicians as well as researchers implicitly subscribe to the psychogenic model of infertility which can easily result in ‘victim blaming’ (van Balen, 2002Go). As a result, couples opting for IVF may downplay their negative emotions, as they often feel dependent on their physicians for their continued treatment participation. The results of this study show that the relationship between psychological variables and IVF success rates is more complex than commonly believed. Patients should not be discouraged to express negative emotions related to infertility and its treatment.


   Funding
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Funding
Acknowledgements
 References
 
This study (no. 945-12-010) was funded by ZonMw (The Netherlands).


   Acknowledgements
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Funding
 Acknowledgements
References
 
The authors would like to thank all couples who participated in this study. We would like to extend our thanks to all the staff involved at the Erasmus MC and the University Medical Centre Utrecht.


   References
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Funding
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
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Submitted on May 11, 2007; resubmitted on September 24, 2007; accepted on October 2, 2007.


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