Suspension of fertility treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: views, emotional reactions and psychological distress among women undergoing fertility treatment.
Reprod Biomed Online
; 42(4): 849-858, 2021 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1071868
ABSTRACT
RESEARCH QUESTION What are the views and emotional reactions of patients towards the suspension of fertility treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what are the factors affecting their psychological distress? DESIGN:
A cross-sectional study conducted in an academic fertility centre. Online questionnaires were distributed between 18 April 2020 and 23 April 2020 to patients whose treatment cycle had been postponed or discontinued. The outcome measures included agreement with the reproductive society guidelines to postpone treatments; willingness to resume treatments, given the choice; patients' emotional reactions; and psychological distress level, measured by the Mental Health Inventory validated scale. A multivariate linear regression was conducted to identify factors associated with psychological distress.RESULTS:
Because of the small number of male respondents, only women were included in the analysis (nâ¯=â¯181). Forty-three per cent expressed disagreement with the guidelines and 82% were willing to resume treatments, given the choice. Sadness and anxiety were the most common emotional reactions expressed towards the guidelines. In the multivariate analysis, COVID-19-related anxiety (Bâ¯=â¯0.145, Pâ¯=â¯0.04) and disagreement with treatment suspension (Bâ¯=â¯-0.44, Pâ¯=â¯0.001) were found to be significantly associated with patients' psychological distress. Background characteristics of patients did not contribute significantly to their distress.CONCLUSIONS:
Suspension of fertility treatment during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with patients' negative emotional reactions. Anxiety related to COVID-19 and disagreement with treatment suspension were found to be significantly associated with psychological distress among women undergoing fertility treatment, regardless of their background characteristics. Our findings suggest the need to monitor the mental health of patients and provide psychological support should a shutdown of fertility care re-occur.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
/
Infertility
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Language:
English
Journal:
Reprod Biomed Online
Journal subject:
Reproductive Medicine
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.rbmo.2021.01.007
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