Anxiety, depression and probability of live birth in a cohort of women with self-reported infertility in the HUNT 2 Study and Medical Birth Registry of Norway

OBJECTIVE

The 'psychogenic' hypothesis has a long history in the field of infertility. The present study investigated whether anxiety or depressive symptoms are associated with probability of subsequent live birth in a cohort of infertile women from the general population.

METHODS

Using linked data from 12,987 women in the North-Trøndelag Health Study 1995-97 (HUNT 2) and the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN) a cohort of 467 women with self-reported infertility was followed prospectively in the MBRN for 11 years with regard to live birth. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured at baseline in HUNT 2 by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), i.e. the Anxiety (HADS-A) and Depression (HADS-D) sub-scales. The relationship between anxiety or depressive symptoms and live birth in the MBRN was analysed using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.

RESULTS

Anxiety and depressive symptoms were not associated with live birth rates. For anxiety symptoms, the crude hazard ratios (HR) for live birth was 1.004 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96; 1.05); adjusted HR = 0.99 (95% CI = 0.94; 1.04), for depressive symptoms crude HR was 0.98 (95% CI = 0.92; 1.04); adjusted HR = 1.01 (95% CI = 0.94; 1.08). Among the 104 women with HADS-A ≥ 8 and/or HADS-D ≥ 8, 34 (32.7%) were registered with live birth in MBRN during the period of observation. However, 100 (27.6%) of the 363 women with both HADS-A ≤ 7 and HADS-D ≤ 7 were registered with live birth.

CONCLUSION

Anxiety and depressive symptoms are not associated with probability of live birth in women with self-reported infertility in the general population.