Genesis Fertility Clinic Blog
searching: “stress”
December 3, 2009
Letting Go
We’ve all heard of infertile couples who “give up” after years of fertility treatments and then conceive on their own. Another seemingly common story is of the couple who spends years trying to conceive, who then adopts a child, and shortly thereafter conceives on their own.
Is this just random luck? Is this just background fertility demographics? Or is there something therapeutic about “giving up” or “letting go” of the stress of infertility that can help you conceive?
A study published in Fertility & Sterility in October, 2009, suggests that women who “let go” during IVF treatment are more likely to conceive than those who do not. The IVF process involves many steps beyond a woman’s control – hormone response to medications and procedures to remove eggs and replace embryos. In such low-control situations, women can respond by either trying to alter or take control of the events (called problem-focused coping; PFC) or by letting go of control and regulating their emotional response to the event (called emotion-focused coping; EFC).
In this study, the authors examined 88 women undergoing IVF for various causes of infertility and explored how they coped with the stress of IVF. Those women who employed EFC were almost twice as likely to conceive than those who employed PFC.
Why? Perhaps high levels of stress, worry, rumination, etc. cause physiological changes that affect eggs or uterine health. There have been several small studies looking at this, but no clear explanation of the association between stress and IVF outcome is available yet.
This study suggests that no matter what the explanation is, though, if a woman can “let go” during IVF (meditation? Chinese medicine? deep breathing? other relaxation techniques?), she might be more likely to conceive.
It’s hard to “let go,” but figuring out how to do it might pay off in IVF success.
Dr. Beth Taylor
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility