Mind/body approach may help ease infertility: target depression.(Gynecology)

Stopping the downward spiral of emotions associated with infertility can be a key factor to successfully overcoming the condition, according to Alice D. Domar, Ph.D.

Research throughout the world during the past 10-15 years has made it clear that distress, especially in the form of depression, can hamper fertility, said Dr. Domar, director of the Mind/Body Center for Women's Health at Boston IVF.

Conventional wisdom held that women's anxiety-related stress exerted negative effects on fertility, and that this became progressively worse with continuing failure to conceive. But during the past decade a shift in thinking has occurred, with the focus on depression rather than anxiety as central to the distress/infertility dyad.

Most of the literature to date has looked at stress and depression as resulting from infertility, said Dr. Diana Dell of Duke University, Durham, N.C.

"An underrepresented part of that whole picture is the extent to which antecedent depression may contribute to otherwise unexplained infertility," Dr. Dell said.

Linking depression with infertility makes sense evolutionarily, Dr. Domar told this newspaper.

"If a woman is really depressed she can't take care of herself, let alone a baby, so it makes sense for the body to shut down for awhile until things get better," she said.