Telehealth provider experience in reproductive endocrinology and infertility clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

PURPOSE: To assess telehealth services offered by reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialists and to gauge provider experiences with incorporating telehealth into their practices. METHODS: A 16-question web-based survey on use of telehealth was distributed to Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) clinics and to Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (SREI) members. Clinic demographic data, telehealth descriptive data, and provider satisfaction with use of telehealth were assessed. Results were collected via Survey Monkey. RESULTS: A total of 1160 individuals (330 SART clinic contacts and 830 SREI members) were reached via email with an 18.6% (216) survey response rate. All respondents indicated that they offer telehealth visits. Several telehealth platforms were used, with Zoom (62.7%) and telehealth through the clinic's electronic medical record platform (34.8%) being the most common. The majority of participants (87.0%) anticipate they will offer telehealth visits after the COVID-19 pandemic. Roughly two-thirds (64.4%) of respondents anticipate fewer telehealth visits after the pandemic because of logistics, cost, and patient/provider preference. Nearly all providers are either "very satisfied" (66.2%) or "somewhat satisfied" (31.0%) with telehealth overall. CONCLUSION: Telehealth enabled safe patient-provider interactions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. While only one-third of survey respondents offered telehealth services before the pandemic, nearly all providers express satisfaction with telehealth and anticipate they will offer telehealth services henceforth.

Perceptions of the COVID-19 Pandemic among Women with Infertility: Correlations with Dispositional Optimism.

People who are more optimistic may experience better psychological health during stressful times. The present study examined the perceptions and emotions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic among American women who were experiencing fertility problems. We tested if dispositional optimism in these women was associated with less negative perceptions and emotions. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of patients from a single private infertility and reproductive clinic in an urban area in the Midwest, United States. Women, age 18 or older, primarily White and educated, who presented for an appointment to the clinic were invited to participate in an email-based survey. Respondents (N = 304) reported their perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility treatment, emotions associated with this impact, and perceived stress and depressive symptoms. They also completed measures of dispositional optimism and expectations for a future pregnancy. Findings indicated that women perceived an overall negative impact of the pandemic on their treatment plans, which was associated with more negative emotions, lower expectations of future pregnancy, and greater stress and depressive symptoms during the pandemic. However, further correlational analyses revealed that being higher in trait optimism was associated with perceiving a less negative impact of the pandemic, experiencing fewer negative emotions, and less overall stress and depressive symptoms. Although women with fertility problems have perceived the pandemic as negative and disruptive, those who are higher in optimism may be less affected.

The emotional impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in women facing infertility.

People facing infertility are inevitably affected by COVID-19 pandemic, having to delay their parental projects. This study aimed to explore the emotional impact (depression and anxiety symptoms and perceived stress) of the COVID-19 pandemic in Portuguese women pursuing assisted reproductive technology (ART). Results showed 67.4% of participants were in confinement but were dealing with it in a reasonably positive way. Women who continued to work at their workplace presented significantly higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms than those who stayed at home. No significant differences were found regarding depression and anxiety symptoms scores when comparing the current sample with an infertility reference sample and a community sample. Depressive and anxiety symptoms remained stable, but there was a significant decrease in perceived stress over the eight-week period. Although these findings do not suggest a worsening of psychological difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, health professionals should be attentive to patients' long-term psychological consequences. It may be helpful to provide additional psychological support to women when restarting their ART treatments.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Infertility: Gynecological Dilemma from an Indian Perspective.

As the emaciated healthcare system is attempting to break the tide of the novel coronavirus pandemic across the globe, the highest cost of this fight is being borne by the third world countries. India is currently experiencing the peak incidence of COVID-19 cases. For the last 9 months, non-emergency services including OPDs have been suspended in majority of the hospitals to divert resources for combatting emergency medical care during this deadly pandemic. This temporary pause and containment could be detrimental to even patients suffering from malignancy. During this critical hour, commencement of infertility treatments including assisted reproductive technologies (ART) will add to additional burden upon the crippled medical fraternity. Fate of thousands of patients seems to hang by a fine thread now. In the resource-poor countries, it is our duty to divert maximum medical power to curtail this contagious pandemic rather than focusing on non-urgent treatment services.

Infertility and reproductive rights after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020 by the World Health Organization, halting the principal income activities worldwide. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the imminent economic recession will be worse than the global financial crisis of 2008, which severely affected the economy of Southern European countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain. There was then an abysmal drop in the Spanish yearly population growth curve as families could not afford to have children in that economic context; this only worsened the already existing demographic problems in that Spain has a constantly ageing population and one of the lowest fertility indicators in Europe. Taking into consideration that female age is the most important independent variable of success at the time of conception, probably thousands of potentially fertile couples were lost while waiting for more promising circumstances. With the COVID-19 pandemic a similar situation is being faced, where reproductive rights are imperiled by not being able to choose when to have children due to economic coercion. Therefore, governments worldwide should take measures to palliate the possible sociodemographic crisis that will follow the economic recession and try to ease the burden that many families might face during the following years.