Emotional Support for Infertility Patients: Integrating Mental Health Professionals in the Fertility Care Team

Abstract

Patients seeking fertility treatment are at risk of experiencing psychological distress, with both women and men reporting higher levels of depression and anxiety during infertility treatment than patients in the general population. Multiple professional societies, fertility care providers, and patients have advocated for integrating mental health providers in the treatment of infertile patients in order to provide comprehensive patient-centered care. Research with other patient populations shows that embedding mental health professionals into clinics provides the greatest benefit to patients. Despite acknowledging the importance of mental health in infertility care, professional societies, such as ASRM and ESHRE, have not universally standardized recommendations or methods for imbedding mental health providers in the fertility team. This review article aims to serve as a resource for providers and patients to appraise the available literature on the importance of embedding mental health providers into the fertility treatment team and discusses feasible methods to develop this comprehensive care team.

Keywords

• infertility
• fertility treatment
• integrated behavioral health
• depression
• anxiety