Stress increases IVF success chances?

Wouldn't you think that being relaxed would increase your chances of getting pregnant when you are going through fertility treatment? Common sense certainly tells me that this is logical. But, apparently I am wrong. A new study carried out by Dr Robert Hunter from Staten Island University Hospital, New York, indicates the complete opposite. Women suffering from a lot of stress about their fertility treatments up to twice as likely to get pregnant during each cycle, he says.

Dr Hunter looked at a sample that is objectively too small to give much clarity, but his findings are interesting nevertheless. He examined 217 women. They were asked to rate their stress levels on a scale of one to ten. Unsurprisingly, Dr Hunter expected to find that those with the lowest stress levels were the most likely to get pregnant. But no the group that rated their stress levels from seven to ten had a 50 to 60 percent pregnancy rate. The women who reported being fairly relaxed about getting pregnant, and said their stress levels were in the one to three mark, had a much lower pregnancy rate of 30 percent.

The researcher himself was just as surprised as you are likely to be: We were a little surprised by the outcome of the study. We were expecting the opposite result. Now, let's recognize that the women Dr Hunter surveyed could be a fluke of nature, and a larger scale study could find the exact opposite. Still, paradoxically, his results could send out messages to women who are receiving IVF and are extremely stressed about it that they can sit back and relax. Stress does not have to get in your way when you are hoping to have a baby through IVF, and it could, perhaps, even help you. Want to increase your IVF success? Try being stressed about it! What do you think about this? Have you had IVF, and how stressed were you? Did you get pregnant, and how many cycles did it take you? For more info about IVF, check out: How do you find out if your fertility clinic has ever had an embyo mix-up?