How do psychological factors affect fertility problems and assisted reproductive outcome(s)?

Infertility is a stressful event in the life of couples who aim to achieve a major life goal: parenthood. Although the impact of the infertility experience in couples’ individual and marital adjustment has been addressed in research, the question of how psychological processes affect the etiology of fertility problems and treatment outcome is not yet clarified. However, due the strong interplay between the neuroendocrine systems that regulates psychological processes and the reproductive system, through effects in the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, it can be expected that complex and interrelated effects occur between psychological and psychophysiological processes and fertility problems and their treatment.

This research project aims to clarify the role of psychological processes in infertility and assisted reproduction, accounting for the interplay of psychosocial adjustment and physiological processes in reproductive outcomes, in a sample of couples undergoing infertility treatment.