THE INFLUENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL-FACTORS ON THE OUTCOME OF THE FERTILIZATION STEP OF IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION

Our objective war to determine whether psychological factors have an i nfluence on the outcome of the fertilization step of in vitro fertiliz ation (IVF) trials. The design was a prospective cohort study. We stud ied 48 women and 32 of their spouses. Each subject was assessed psycho logically on the day before oocyte retrieval (OR) with the Child Proje ct Questionnaire (CPQ) and the Ways of Coping Checklist. In addition, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was filled in by subjects 2 days bef ore OR, and the State form was completed again for 6 additional days. The outcome measure was the success of fertilization step. Logistic re gression analysis was used to test the influence of psychological fact ors while taking into account the effect of medical and sociodemograph ic variables. The following variables were found to be statistically s ignificant predictors of fertilization: normal sperm; tubal lesions or occlusion; women's factor II of the CPQ, i.e. Perception of Marital H armony in the Project to Conceive a Child. We conch,de that, even when the influence of biomedical variables is taken into account, the wome n's Perception of Marital Harmony in the Project to Conceive a Child, is a statistically significant predictor of the success of the fertili zation step of IVF.