The Role of Stress in Infertility

Abstract

Stress and infertility coexist. their relationship, far from being linear, is extremely complex. Both the infertility diagnosis and its treatment, put people at risk of developing emotional problems and imbalance: the therapeutic failure of assisted reproduction techniques is about 70%, and among the people within this group around 50% will suffer from severe psychological alterations. Nevertheless, infertility is not just the cause of emotional maladjustment, but could also be considered its consequence. The aim of this work is to explore this relationship from a bibliographic review of the most outstanding research on the subject, in order to have full knowledge about the stress – infertility relationship, to develop a more efficient psychotherapeutic approach and to effectively contribute to this problem.