All parents know that the arrival of a child is often a test for the couple, and that it can generate some tension between the two partners. But a new study shows that struggling to have a child is an ordeal that risks committing the couple even more quickly to the path of separation. This study published in Acta Obstetricia and Gynecologica Scandinavica and led by Danish researchers, shows that there are three times more divorces among couples who have made several attempts at in vitro fertilization (IVF) than among couples with a child.
For this study, Dr. Trille Kjaer and his team used the Danish National Patient Registry and in vitro fertilization statistics from 1990 to 2006. They followed the cases of 47,515 Danish women who were 32 years old on average when they started their treatment for infertility.
They found that 57% of women had had at least one child after fertility-boosting treatment and 43% had failed to have a child. Among the latter, 27% were no longer living with their partner seven years later, i.e. three times more than among women who had had at least one child.
IVF: a factor of stress and depression
Previous studies had already shown that unsuccessful in vitro fertilization increases the level of stress and depression in women. “Failed ivf has a very negative impact on mental health. However, not everyone is psychologically strong enough to cope and hold on, failure after failure,” the researchers explain. “But now that we know that there is also an increased risk of separation, we are going to work with the medical teams to support couples from the very beginning of their in vitro fertilization process. In this way, we hope to be able to avoid certain ruptures”.
Since the birth of Louise Brown, the first “test tube baby”, in 1978, more than 5 million IVF babies have been born worldwide (the figure of 5 million was reached in 2008). From now on, 350,000 babies are conceived each year by in vitro fertilization, that is to say 0.3% of the 130 million children who are born in the world.
