Evaluation of factors associated with the anxiety and depression of infertility patients and the effect on in vitro fertilization outcomes

Objective To investigate factors related to the anxiety and depression of female infertility patients and to evaluate whether anxiety and depression is related to the outcomes in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Methods The self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS) were used to evaluate anxiety and depression among the women undergoing IVF. Clinical and laboratory data of patients were analyzed, and pregnancy outcomes were followed up. Results A total of 842 patients were enrolled in this study. There were 29.5% of the cases with anxiety or depression, 18.4% of the cases with anxiety, and 21.6% of the cases with depression. The lower educational background was identified as risk factor associated with both depressive and anxiety symptoms (P=0.012; P=0.001). Patients with infertility duration longer than 10 years tended to be more depress. There were no significant differences between the pregnant and non-pregnant women in terms of the SAS scores and SDS scores. The result of logistic regression analysis showed that the anxiety or depression was not related to the outcomes in women undergoing IVF. Conclusion Higher education is a protective factor for anxiety and depression of female infertility patients. We found no evidence that anxiety and depression had any influence on the outcome of IVF treatment. It is unclear whether severe anxiety and depression is related to the outcomes in women undergoing IVF. Key words: Infertility; Anxiety; Depression; In vitro fertilization (IVF)