IVF stress relieved with mind/body programs

I’ve written other posts about the stress of IVF. If you’ve done it yourself or know someone who has then you know. It’s awful. There are the real highs and lows and the chemically induced highs and lows. The anxiety of waiting. It’s very real and has been documented and studied.

A new study in Fertility and Sterility shows that women who use a mind/body program for stress reduction while undergoing IVF have a remarkably higher pregnancy rate: 52% as compared to 20%.

“The intersection of stress and fertility is a controversial one, but we do know that stress can reduce the probability of conception,” said Alice Domar, PhD, OB/GYN at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Executive Director of the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health in Boston.

Domar introduced the mind/body program in 1987 specifically for women undergoing IVF. The goal of the program is to help women and couples find ways of reducing stress, anxiety and depression by using relaxation and stress management strategies. It’s a ten week program.

“The study supports the theory that psychological distress may be an important detriment to IVF outcome,” according to the article. Domar continued, “We worked with a small group, about a 100 women total, so we’ll need to continue with a larger group of patients to see if the results bear out. But there is a strong indication that stress levels and IVF outcomes are linked and that intervening with mind/body therapies can help.”

Source: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, ScienceDaily