infertility-related stress in men as well as women may have an effect on treatment success, according to new study findings.

“Our results clearly demonstrate that male stress does play a role in treatment failure, albeit a weaker one than that observed for women,” Drs. Jacky Boivin of Cardiff University in the UK and Lone Schmidt of the University of Copenhagen write in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility.

Boivin and Schmidt evaluated the effects of both partners’ level of stress on fertility treatment outcome by asking couples about to begin a cycle of treatment to complete the Fertility Problem Stress Inventory.

Twelve months later, couples were asked if treatment had been successful.

A total of 818 couples were included in the analysis, about 60 percent of whom had a successful treatment outcome.

Both male and female stress scores were associated with treatment outcome, the researchers found.

Nonetheless, the effect was more pronounced for women. Women reporting more marital distress required an average of three treatment cycles to conceive, compared with two for the less-distressed women. More-distressed women were also less likely to become pregnant in a given cycle.

The researchers also found that stress in personal and marital areas was more strongly associated with treatment outcome than stress arising from social circumstances.

“Our findings add to the growing evidence base that links negative psychological states and traits to treatment failure,” Boivin and Schmidt conclude. “In light of this mounting evidence, it may now be time to focus on the factors that moderate this relationship and interventions to minimize such effects.”

SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, June 2005.