Experiences and psychological distress of fertility treatment and employment

Abstract

Difficulties experienced in combining work and treatment suggest that support is needed. Specific workplace policy, guidance for supervisors and flexibility in fertility clinic times should help support employees during treatment and reduce psychological distress, thereby potentially influencing physical health and treatment outcomes.

Risk factors for resignation from work after starting infertility treatment among Japanese women: Japan-Female Employment and Mental health in Assisted reproductive technology (J-FEMA) study

“…Specific workplace policies, guidance for supervisors and flexibility in fertility clinic times due to the requirement of sudden and frequent leaves for numerous tests and treatments would significantly help employees during their treatment and would greatly reduce the psychological distress, thereby potentially influencing physical health and treatment outcomes. 27 The strength of the present study investigating factors of infertility treatment associated with resignation from work was its comprehensive survey design, widely conducted in female patients attending fertility clinics. The large sample size allowed us to robustly examine the associations of infertility-related and work-related factors with regard to resignation after adjustment of multiple clinically and socially relevant confounders despite some missing data.…”

“… 25 As longer duration to conceive has been robustly associated with greater distress, 13 26 the interactions between emotional and physical problems associated with infertility treatment are complex and likely to be compounded by the difficulties of combining work, treatment and associated job insecurity. 27 In addition, the initial eagerness to seek treatment may diminish over time, with patients having more likely to consider the idea of infertility as a reality. 28 Female workers who have been infertile for ≥2 years might already have a higher risk for resignation at the time of the diagnosis of infertility.…”

“…Specific workplace policies, guidance for supervisors and flexibility in fertility clinic times due to the requirement of sudden and frequent leaves for numerous tests and treatments would significantly help employees during their treatment and would greatly reduce the psychological distress, thereby potentially influencing physical health and treatment outcomes. 27 …”

Social consequences for women undergoing fertility treatment

“…In this issue, two papers focus on areas which would not be traditionally addressed in psychologically focussed studies; these include the effects of fertility on women's working lives and factors which influence women when contemplating egg freezing. In an online survey of 563 women in the UK Payne et al [2] consider psychological distress but also the impact of combining work and treatment. Given that many women work in full or part-time employment this context is highly relevant.…”

Assisted Conception

“…Other meta-analytic research and a critical review provide further evidence that psychological support or psychological treatment during ART (i.e., tailored to remove or reduce the psychological distress) may improve treatment outcomes (Frederiksen et al, 2017;Hämmerli et al, 2009). However, this is seldom offered routinely as part of the treatment process (Payne et al, 2017), particularly in the longer term when third-party treatment is used (Crawshaw et al, 2016). Women undergoing fertility treatment whether successfully (Toscano & Montgomery, 2009) or unsuccessfully (Gameiro & Finnigan, 2017) are known to report psychological distress, and their support needs are well known (Boivin et al, 2005).…”