PSYCHOLOGICAL MORBIDITY AND THE AVAILABILITY OF ASSISTED CONCEPTION -A GROUP COMPARISON STUDY

Background Given its limited availability, it is worth while to explor e the relationship between the non-availability of assisted conception and psychological morbidity among subfertile women, to see if those d enied the procedure experience poorer health. Methods A non-randomized group comparison study was carried out in Bradford Health Authority, England. Sixty-six women who had reached the point at which assisted c onception was deemed appropriate, but for whom such treatments were no t available, were compared with 49 treatments were not available, were compared with 49 parous women, and 73 newly diagnosed subfertile wome n. The General Wellbeing Index (GWI) was used to measure their psychol ogical wellbeing. Results Cases and subfertile controls have similar l evels of wellbeing, whereas parous controls have significantly higher average levels than cases. This pattern is seen in the simple unadjust ed comparison and also when adjustments are made for the distributions of age, life event score and social class. Conclusions Subfertile wom en experience poorer psychological health than similar parous women. S ubfertile women, for whom assisted conception is an appropriate but un available treatment option, appear to have similar psychological healt h to those who are being investigated and treated by other means.