Comparison of multiple psychological distress measures between men and women preparing for in vitro fertilization

Objective: To compare multiple measures of psychological distress between men and women preparing for IVF. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Outpatient, academic infertility clinic. Patient(s): One hundred sixty-two consecutive couples presenting for infertility treatment with IVF. Intervention(s): Measures were completed as part of a routine, infertility-focused psychological evaluation, including the Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, State-Trait Anger Inventory, and Impact of Events Scale. Main Outcome Measure(s): Scores of above psychological questionnaires. Result(s): Psychological distress scores were statistically significantly higher among women than men for symptoms of depression, state anxiety, infertility specific distress, and general perceived stress. However, aside from infertility-specific distress (d = .43), effect sizes for the paired differences between females and males ranged from d = .18 to .23. Conclusion(s): Women consistently scored higher on multiple measures of psychological distress than their male partners in the context of preparing for IVF. Comparison of infertility-specific distress scores yielded the largest statistically and clinically significant difference compared with traditional measures of general depression and anxiety symptoms.