Elsevier

Fertility and Sterility

Volume 94, Issue 4, September 2010, Pages 1457-1459
Fertility and Sterility

Psychological factors
A prospective investigation into the reasons why insured United States patients drop out of in vitro fertilization treatment

Presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 21–25, 2006.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2009.06.020Get rights and content
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Objective

To determine the primary reason why insured patients drop out of IVF treatment in the United States and to identify methods to decrease such behavior.

Design

Prospective patient survey.

Setting

Private infertility clinic.

Patient(s)

Women under the age of 40 years, who had insurance coverage for at least three IVF cycles, who did not conceive and who did not return to the clinic for a third treatment cycle.

Intervention(s)

One hundred thirty-two eligible patients received a study packet of questionnaires in the mail.

Main Outcome Measure(s)

Subject responses to questionnaire.

Result(s)

Forty-seven subjects returned the questionnaire. The most common reason for terminating treatment was stress (39%). Subjects reported that the two main causes of stress were the toll that infertility took on the couples' relationship and being too anxious or depressed to continue. The top-rated suggestions for patient support were written information on how to deal with psychological stress and easy and immediate access to a psychologist or social worker.

Conclusion(s)

Patients undergoing IVF in the United States report similar reasons for terminating treatment as patients in Europe and Australia. However, this is the first study to gather patient suggestions for treating the problem.

Key Words

IVF
drop-out
treatment termination
patient distress
stress

Cited by (0)

A.D.D. has performed consulting for Schering Plough and received grant support from Johnson and Johnson. M.A. has performed consulting for EMD Serono. K.S. has nothing to disclose. L.C. has nothing to disclose. M.I. has nothing to disclose.

Supported by Organon Pharmaceuticals, the Netherlands.