Stress it affects many crucial moments of our life, and of course it also affects couples who wish to have children and decide to undergo fertility treatments. To the burden of not being able to conceive in a natural way, there is the concern of whether I will achieve it through assisted reproduction.
While there are studies that suggest that stress does not affect female fertility, and that stressed women become pregnant in the same proportion as unstressed women, I think that the emotional pressure behind fertility treatment leads to greater or lesser extent, to a situation of distress for the couple. Especially if the pregnancy does not come after several attempts.
Some experts compare it to a stress level similar to that of a patient suffering from cancer or a cardiac pathology, to the point that it can negatively affect the success of the treatment.
In women, stress affects the menstrual cycle, resulting in anovulation, irregular cycles or lack of menstruation. While in men the volume of semen and the concentration of sperm decreases.
The most nervous peaks for the couple in treatment are usually the day of ovarian puncture, embryo transfer and 15 days of waiting to know the result of the blood pregnancy test.
I know couples who have had a really bad time during treatment and one is the typical case of “when I relaxed I got pregnant”. So yes I think stress affects fertility treatments. The illusion that is deposited in this type of interventions is maximum and the disappointment when it does not have the expected result, even more.
I also think it should be lent more attention to the emotional and psychological aspect of couples, prepare those who need it psychologically and attend to the doubts and concerns that may arise throughout the treatment. Have you gone through a fertility treatment? How have you lived it?
