Impact of Stress and Financials on Romanian Infertile Women Accessing Assisted Reproductive Treatment

Abstract

Around 20% of couples worldwide are affected by infertility issues, with numbers in the European Union reaching as high as 25%, while access to reproductive care varies significantly by geopolitical and country-specific variables. The purpose of this research is to shed light on the unique social, psychological, and financial difficulties faced by Romanian couples seeking access to assisted reproductive therapy (ART). A cross-sectional study was conducted between 2017 and 2019 to involve women who accessed ART at fertility clinics in Romania by completing two infertility surveys. We analyzed the data in terms of all facets of infertility and ART, including the effect of personal background and stress levels on succeeding to conceive, the impact of treatment costs, and household income. A total of 829 participants completed the survey. We observed that high stress exposure leads to a substantially higher duration to conceive using ART, although the proportions of successful pregnancies did not differ between low-stress and high-stress groups. A significantly higher number of couples achieved pregnancy when their monthly household income was higher than EUR 1000 and if the ART method was more expensive. Additionally, we observed that advanced age, high stress levels, and the high cost of ART had a negative association with achieving pregnancy using ART. The findings indicated that Romanian couples experiencing infertility must contend with significant expenses for specialist infertility treatments, as well as treatment-related stress, both of which have a detrimental effect on their odds of attaining conception.

The Implication of Misinformation and Stigma in Age-Related Quality of Life, Depression, and Coping Mechanisms of Adult Patients with Psoriasis

“…Lastly, more researchers observed that individuals with psoriasis who were female had a worse quality of life and were more likely to be stigmatized than patients with the condition who were male [ 28 ]. However, other researchers found that gender did not have a major role in determining quality of life [ 29 ]. In the current research, we found that the amount of stigmatization experienced by male patients was much greater than that experienced by female patients, although the quality of life experienced by female and male patients was almost same.…”

A Cross-Sectional Study of the Marital Attitudes of Pregnant Women at Risk for Cystic Fibrosis and Psychological Impact of Prenatal Screening

“…In addition to the stress faced by women undergoing invasive diagnosis procedures, others experience high levels of stress due to infertility reasons. A vast amount of research has documented the challenges faced by infertile couples and the stress connected with the different phases of the assisted reproductive methods journey, demonstrating the need for counseling [ 38 , 39 ]. These couples manifested high levels of anxiety over the health of their newborns when they faced infertility issues.…”

The value of motherhood and psychological distress among infertile women: The mediating role of coping strategies

“…If the answers to the question "Does stress affect fertility?" might seem contradictory, according to the previous studies (9)(10)(11)(12), the answer to the question "Does infertility affect stress?" seems significantly more straightforward (13).…”

“…The link between stress and infertility has generally been studied using a bidirectional approach, i.e., exploring the impact of stress on fertility and the impact of infertility on stress and overall psychological wellbeing. If the answers to the question “ Does stress affect fertility ?” might seem contradictory, according to the previous studies ( 9 – 12 ), the answer to the question “ Does infertility affect stress? ” seems significantly more straightforward ( 13 ).…”