Feeling stressed? It may not mean your fertility treatments won’t work, a study finds

What do women who are trying to conceive hate to hear the most? Relax and you’ll get pregnant--a statement that can not only induce guilt, but also may make stress levels worse. Well, perhaps women can relax now, since a study finds that for women going through assisted reproduction treatments such as IVF, being stressed out and tense might not affect how the treatments work.

The findings came via a meta-analysis of 14 studies that involved 3,583 infertile women in 10 countries who were involved with a fertility treatment cycle. They ranged in age from about 30 to 37 years old and had dealt with infertility for 2.6 to 7.8 years.

Researchers focused on studies in which women were assessed for anxiety or depression before they started assisted reproduction.

After analyzing data on who got pregnant and who did not, researchers found that feeling tense, worried or nervous is not apt to be the cause of fertility treatment not working. “These findings should reassure women that emotional distress caused by fertility problems or other life events co-occuring with treatment will not compromise their chance of becoming pregnant,” the authors wrote.

The study appeared online recently in the British Medical Journal.