Abstract
PurposeTo examine the psychological impact of fertility treatment suspensions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and to clarify psychosocial predictors of better or worse mental health.Methods92 women from Canada and the United States (ages 20–45 years) whose fertility treatments had been cancelled were recruited via social media. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, perceived mental health impact, and change in quality of life related to treatment suspensions. Potential predictors of psychological outcomes were also examined, including several personality traits, aspects of social support, illness cognitions, and coping strategies.Results52% of respondents endorsed clinical levels of depressive symptoms. On a 7-point scale, participants endorsed a significant decline in overall quality of life (M(SD) = -1.3(1.3), p < .0001) as well as a significant decline in mental health related to treatment suspensions on a scale from -5 to +5 (M(SD) = -2.1(2.1), p < .001). Several psychosocial variables were found to positively influence these outcomes: lower levels of defensive pessimism (r = -.25, p < .05), greater infertility acceptance (r = .51, p < .0001), better quality social support (r = .31, p < .01), more social support seeking (r = .35, p < .001) and less avoidance of infertility reminders (r = -.23, p = .029).ConclusionFertility treatment suspensions have had a considerable negative impact on women’s mental health and quality of life. However, these findings point to several protective psychosocial factors that can be fostered in the future to help women cope.
Highlights
One in six reproductive-aged couples experience infertility, defined as being unable to achieve pregnancy despite 12 months of focused attempts to conceive [1]
Male and female-factor infertility are prevalent, women generally bear the brunt of infertilityrelated burden: even in cases of male-factor infertility, treatments such as intrauterine insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilization (IVF) require that women attend near-daily ultrasounds, self-inject gonadotropins, and undergo invasive and painful procedures
More than half of the participants had had an IVF cycle cancelled and approximately one third were in the midst of IUI. 36% of the participants were ages 35–39 and 12% were aged 40 or older
Summary
One in six reproductive-aged couples experience infertility, defined as being unable to achieve pregnancy despite 12 months of focused attempts to conceive [1]. On March 17th, 2020, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society announced their recommendations to immediately suspend all in-person fertility treatments throughout Canada and the U.S indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic [8, 9]. These recommendations included delaying the start of new treatment cycles and, in many cases, abandoning treatment cycles that had already begun. To our knowledge, there have been no studies examining the mental health impacts of fertility treatment suspensions This was the purpose of the current investigation. The current study aimed to clarify predictors of better or worse mental health during this challenging time
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