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Does Counseling Help?
It is not clear from the study if stress plays a direct role in infertility, or is instead a predictor of other lifestyle behaviors that can have an impact on the ability to conceive.
"Couples who are highly stressed may smoke more or drink more or generally not take good care of themselves," Boivin says.
The research has been mixed on whether psychological counseling may help stressed couples overcome infertility, although the benefits in terms of stress reduction are clear.
In a study reported by researchers at Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center the pregnancy rate among infertile women who got counseling in addition to fertility treatments was more than double that of women given fertility treatments alone.
But infertility psychotherapist Alice Domar, PhD, who led the study, said more study is needed to establish a definite link between psychological counseling and better pregnancy results among infertile women.
"I don't want to give the impression that if a woman doesn't get pregnant it is due to stress alone," says Boivin. "In most cases the reason that infertility treatments don't work are biological, not psychological, and the importance of psychological factors probably differs from person to person."
SOURCES: Boivin, J. Fertility and Sterility, June 2005; vol. 83: pp. 1745-1752. Jacky Boivin, PhD, senior lecturer, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. Alice Domar, PhD, director, Mind/Body Center for Women's Health and the Mind/Body Medical Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.