28 Aug Depression Risk Not Raised After Unsuccessful Fertility Treatments
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Camilla Sandal Sejbaek PhD
Department of Public Health
University of Copenhagen
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Previous literature have shown ambiguous results when investigating the association between becoming a mother and depression among women in fertility treatment. Small questionnaire-based studies with self-reported depression have shown that women in unsuccessful fertility treatment had a higher risk of depressive symptoms compared to women in successful fertility treatment. Two larger register-based studies using clinical depression (depression diagnosed at the psychiatric hospitals) have shown that women becoming a mother are at increased risk of clinical depression.
Our findings, from a large register-based study with about 41,000 women in assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment, showed that women WHO became mothers had a higher risk of clinical depression compared to women in ART treatment WHO did not become mothers. The risk of clinical depression were more than five-fold higher within the first 6 weeks after becoming a mother to a live-born child.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Response: Clinicians working with fertility patients and the patients themselves should be reassured that women in assisted reproductive technology treatment and who do not become mothers are not at increased risk of a clinical depression. It is sad to go through fertility treatment and not have your wish fulfilled, but our findings suggest that these women are not at increased risk of a clinical depression compared to women who do become mothers.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: I think it would be very interesting to investigate depression more broadly among women in assisted reproductive technology treatment and fertility treatment as a whole. Furthermore, I think it could be interesting to investigate if the risk of clinical depression among women in ART treatment is the same as in a background population.
Citation:
Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2015 Aug 3. doi: 10.1111/aogs.12705. [Epub ahead of print]
Are repeated assisted reproductive technology treatments and an unsuccessful outcome risk factors for unipolar depression in infertile women?
Sejbaek CS1, Pinborg A2, Hageman I3, Forman JL4, Hougaard CØ1, Schmidt L1.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:, & Camilla Sandal Sejbaek PhD (2015). Depression Risk Not Raised After Unsuccessful Fertility Treatments
Last Updated on August 28, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD