BACKGROUND: The literature regarding the associations among depression, anxiety, and fecundity is inconsistent. While cross-sectional studies suggest that depression and/or anxiety may adversely affect fecundity, the sole cohort study showed only a small association.
OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the association of self-reported depressive symptoms, self-reported diagnoses of depression and anxiety, and psychotropic medication use with fecundability in a prospective cohort study.
STUDY DESIGN: Data were derived from Pregnancy Study Online, an Internet-based preconception cohort study of couples attempting to conceive in the United States and Canada. At baseline, female participants completed a survey that assessed demographic information, history of physician-diagnosed depression and anxiety, self-reported depressive symptoms (assessed by the Major Depression Inventory), and use of psychotropic medications. Women completed follow-up surveys every 8 weeks for up to 12 months or until reported conception to assess changes in exposures and pregnancy status. We estimated fecundability ratios and 95% confidence intervals using proportional probabilities regression models. The analysis was restricted to 2146 women who had been attempting to conceive for ≤6 cycles at study entry.
RESULTS: Severe depressive symptoms at baseline, regardless of treatment, were associated with decreased fecundability compared with no or low depressive symptoms (fecundability ratio, 0.62; 95% confidence interval, 0.43-0.91). The fecundability ratio associated with a 10-U increase in Major Depression Inventory score was 0.90 (95% confidence interval, 0.83-0.97). Women who reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms and had never received psychotropic medications (fecundability ratio, 0.69; 95% confidence interval, 0.48-0.99) or who were currently being treated with psychotropic medications (fecundability ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval, 0.44-1.20) had decreased fecundability relative to women who had no/mild depressive symptoms and had never used psychotropic medications. Former users of psychotropic medications had increased fecundability regardless of the presence of no/mild depressive symptoms (fecundability ratio, 1.22; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.39) or moderate to severe depressive symptoms (fecundability ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 0.80-1.76).
CONCLUSION: We found an inverse association between depressive symptoms and fecundability, independent of psychotropic medication use. Use of psychotropic medications did not appear to harm fecundability.
