Abstract
Our objective was to examine the feasibility of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) as a biomarker to predict clinical pregnancy outcomes and investigate its potential associations with perceived anxiety, resilience, and depressive symptoms. A total of 43 participants were assessed using HCC, the state trait anxiety inventory (STAI), resilience scale (RS), and the depression subscale of the symptom checklist 90-R (SCL-90-R). Participants were approached at their second consultation with the reproductive endocrinologist (T1), before scheduling their IVF cycle, and then 12 weeks after (T2), at their post-transfer visit with the study coordinators, before the human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) pregnancy test. The logistic regression model revealed that HCC at T2 predicted 46% of a positive pregnancy test [R2 = 0.46, (ß = 0.11, p < 0.05)]. Pregnant women had higher levels of resilience at T2 (M = 149.29; SD = 17.56) when compared with non-pregnant women at T2 (M = 119.96; SD = 21.71). Significant differences were found between both groups in depression at T2 (t = 3.13, p = 0.01) and resilience at T2 (t = −4.89, p = 0.01). HCC might be a promising biomarker to calculate the probability of pregnancy in women using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).
Highlights
Infertility is the inability to achieve a viable pregnancy after one year of unprotected intercourse and is estimated to affect more than 186 million people worldwide [1]
We examined whether hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) was a feasible biomarker of chronic stress to be implemented in infertility and whether it was associated to reproductive outcomes
We found that HCC levels at then weeks after (T2) could predict 46% of positive pregnancy, providing some evidence of the potential associations between HCC during an IVF cycle and a positive pregnancy test
Summary
Infertility is the inability to achieve a viable pregnancy after one year of unprotected intercourse and is estimated to affect more than 186 million people worldwide [1]. Women take the societal pressure and carry more guilt for infertility even though men are responsible for over half the cases of involuntary childlessness [2]. This can be a contributing factor to the psychological impact that women experience at a greater level than men. The experience of infertility can be considered upsetting on its own, as it includes several elements that can be perceived as stressful: Unpredictability, negativity, uncontrollability, and ambiguity [2]. Public Health 2020, 17, 3020; doi:10.3390/ijerph17093020 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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