Effectiveness of infertility counseling on pregnancyrate in infertile patients undergoing assistedreproductive technologies: A systematic review andmeta-analysis

Background: Psychological interventions such as counseling for infertile patientsseem to increase pregnancy rate.Objective: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine ifcounseling improves pregnancy rate among infertile patients. Thus, randomizedcontrolled trials investigating the effect of counseling on pregnancy rate in infertilepatients undergoing ART were pooled in a meta-analysis.Materials and Methods: The databases of PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, GoogleScholar, and Persian databases including SID, Iran Medex, and Magiran weresearched from 1997 to July 2016 to identify relevant articles. Included studies weretrials on infertile patients (women or couples) receiving counseling independent ofactual medical treatment. The outcome measure was pregnancy rate. Out of 620relevant published trials, a total of nine RCTs were ultimately reviewedsystematically and included in a meta-analysis to measure the efficacy of counselingon pregnancy rate. Odds ratio and Risk difference were calculated for pregnancyrate. All statistical analyses were done by Comprehensive Meta-analysis Version 2.Results: Nine RCTs involving 1079 infertile women/couples were included in thestudy. The findings from RCTs indicated significant effect of counseling onpregnancy rate so that there was a positive impact of counseling on pregnancy rate(OR= 3.852; 95% CI: 2.492-5.956; p=0.00) and (RD= 0.282; 95%; CI: 0.208-0.355;p=0.00).Conclusion: Counseling was found to improve patients’ chances of becomingpregnant. So counseling represents an attractive treatment option, in particular, forinfertile patients who are not receiving medical treatments

Keywords:

Counseling assisted reproductive techniques , Infertility , Meta-analysis , Pregnancy rates