Old-fashioned, common sense advice to just relax and manage stress may actually work to help some women get pregnant.
Old-fashioned, common sense advice to just relax may actually work to help some women get pregnant.
For years women seeking to get pregnant have been advised by friends and family to stop stressing about it - an idea that not all obstetricians and gynecologists have embraced. But research presented at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Atlanta suggests there may be something to it.
It has been found that women who took part in a stress management programme while having a second round of assisted fertility treatment had a 160 percent greater pregnancy rate than women getting IVF alone. Reproductive health experts have long wondered about the impact that stress may have on fertility, thus impeding a woman's ability to conceive. The following study shows that stress management may improve pregnancy rates, minimising the stress of fertility management itself, improving the success rates of IVF procedures, and ultimately, helping to alleviate the emotional burden for women who are facing challenges trying to conceive.
Researchers randomly assigned 97 patients at the clinic to take part in a 10-session mind/body programme while undergoing in-vitro fertilization treatments. The programme had no effect on how many women conceived during the first try with 43 percent of the women getting pregnant. But for women who failed the first time and were having a second try, 52 percent who took part in the mind/body programme became pregnant, compared to only 20 percent of those who did not.
It is evident from the above findings that a holistic approach to infertility care leads to better outcomes for patients. But a second study found that while complementary and alternative medical therapy was popular among couples getting infertility treatments, it did not make women any more likely to get pregnant.
A team of researchers from the University of California, USA, questioned 431 couples undergoing infertility therapy and found that 28 percent had tried some kind of alternative medicine, mostly acupuncture or herbs, but they were not any more likely to achieve pregnancy.
For years women seeking to get pregnant have been advised by friends and family to stop stressing about it - an idea that not all obstetricians and gynecologists have embraced. But research presented at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Atlanta suggests there may be something to it.
It has been found that women who took part in a stress management programme while having a second round of assisted fertility treatment had a 160 percent greater pregnancy rate than women getting IVF alone. Reproductive health experts have long wondered about the impact that stress may have on fertility, thus impeding a woman's ability to conceive. The following study shows that stress management may improve pregnancy rates, minimising the stress of fertility management itself, improving the success rates of IVF procedures, and ultimately, helping to alleviate the emotional burden for women who are facing challenges trying to conceive.
Researchers randomly assigned 97 patients at the clinic to take part in a 10-session mind/body programme while undergoing in-vitro fertilization treatments. The programme had no effect on how many women conceived during the first try with 43 percent of the women getting pregnant. But for women who failed the first time and were having a second try, 52 percent who took part in the mind/body programme became pregnant, compared to only 20 percent of those who did not.
It is evident from the above findings that a holistic approach to infertility care leads to better outcomes for patients. But a second study found that while complementary and alternative medical therapy was popular among couples getting infertility treatments, it did not make women any more likely to get pregnant.
A team of researchers from the University of California, USA, questioned 431 couples undergoing infertility therapy and found that 28 percent had tried some kind of alternative medicine, mostly acupuncture or herbs, but they were not any more likely to achieve pregnancy.
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