Why do couples discontinue in vitro fertilization treatment? a cohort study

Cumulative Birth Rates With Linked Assisted Reproductive Technology Cycles

“…[8][9][10] Even when treatment is covered by insurance, discontinuation rates are high, ranging from 17% 10 to 65%. [11][12][13][14] In our study, the discontinuation rate was 25% after an unsuccessful first cycle and 33% after subsequent cycles.…”

Couples’ discontinuation of fertility treatments: a longitudinal study on demographic, biomedical, and psychosocial risk factors

“…According to these studies, a psychological burden is the most commonly cited reason by patients for discontinuation [3,5,10,[12][13][14]. Psychological variables have also been found to predict discontinuation [9,15], and associations between discontinuation and marital and personal problems [13,16,17], perceived poor diagnosis [5,13], female age [15,18,19], and parity [20] have also been reported. Although these studies have helped elucidate the discontinuation phenomenon, gaps in the literature remain (for a review, see Gameiro et al [21]).…”

“…Different reasons have been reported, such as emotional stress [12] but also successful pregnancy [10]. Second, most studies ask participants to select the main reason for discontinuation from a preexisting list of possible reasons [12,13,22] (see [16,20,23] for exceptions). However, discontinuation may be based on multiple reasons, including non-listed reasons or aspects patients are unable to self-report owing to lack of self-awareness.…”

Reproductive Psychology and Infertility

“…Most studies on stress and in vitro fertilization have identified a relationship between higher stress levels and a lower percentage of pregnancy and livebirths [18][19][20]. Stress exposure itself has even been directly related to conceptive failure [14] and considered as the most common reason for fertility treatment interruption [21].…”