Unit:
Faculty of MedicineLibrary of the School of Health Sciences
Dissertation committee:
Γεώργιος Χρούσος, Ομότιμος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Παναγιώτης Βάκας, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Μαρίνα Οικονόμου, Καθηγήτρια, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Κωνσταντίνος Πανουλής, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Ιωάννης Ζέρβας, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Μακάριος Ελευθεριάδης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Λέων Αραβαντινός, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Διαχείριση stress και υπογονιμότητα: Η επίδραση της θεραπευτικής αντιμετώπισης του stress στην έκβαση του αποτελέσματος της εξωσωματικής γονιμοποίησης.
Translated title:
Stress managment and infertility: The effect of stress managment on IVF outcome
Summary:
The objective of the study was the comparative analysis of psychometric data retrieved from women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) before and after an intervention of 8 stress-management sessions. Moreover, the percentage of IVF success was assessed against the fluctuation of the participants’ stress levels. In this study, 74 women participated in the intervention group and 70 women in the control group. Initially, data on demographics and medical history of all participants were recorded. Following, 8 weekly stress-management sessions were conducted including only the intervention group. On the 1st and 8th week sessions, both groups completed psychometric questionnaires for the collection of initial and final data, based on the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21), the Perceived Stress Scale 14 (PSS-14) and the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI). After the completion of the intervention, the outcome of the IVF process in terms of pregnancy rates was also recorded. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 22.0). The statistical significance of the differences between the initial and final data on each group and between groups, as well as the differences of each group over time were identified. The p value for statistical significance was defined for p<0.05. The analysis indicated that total stress in the intervention group declined significantly (p<0.001) with respect to all the parameters in the PSS-14, DASS-21 and FPI scales, with the exception of the need for parenthood parameter which did not change significantly (p=0.002), while the control group presented significant increase (p<0.001). The difference of stress levels between the two groups for each scale and in total was also defined to be significant. Concerning the demographic data, lifestyle and medical history of the participants and their spouses, no significant differences were detected (p>0.05). The percentage of IVF success was found to be related to the levels of perceived stress on the PSS-14 scale (p=0.029) but not to any of the parameters on the DASS-21(p=0.197) and FPI (p=0.611) scales. Definitive variables for IVF success were the participants’ age (p=0.046), the increase of which was inversely proportional to IVF success, and the spouses’ medical history of cryptorchidism (undescended testicles) (p=0.05). The high significance of these variables actually obscured the effect of the intervention for stress relief on IVF success. This is a pilot study indicating encouraging results concerning the positive effect of interventions for stress management for women undergoing fertility treatment but the correlation of such interventions with treatment success requires further investigation.
Main subject category:
Health Sciences
Keywords:
Stress management, Psychosocial intervention, Perceived stress, Fertility problem inventory, IVF
Number of references:
267
