Highlights
- •A physician phone call during the waiting period mitigates patient anxiety/distress
- •Most participants who received the physician call reported it to be helpful
- •Most participants who received the physician call reported a decrease in anxiety/distress
Abstract
Research question
Can an empathic physician phone call in the interval between embryo transfer and first
serum human chorionic gonadotrophin measurement decrease anxiety and distress amongst
patients undergoing IVF?
Design
This was a randomized controlled trial at a single academically-affiliated fertility
centre including patients aged 18–43 undergoing their first embryo transfer with autologous
fresh or euploid cryopreserved embryos following preimplantation genetic testing for
aneuploidies (frozen embryo transfer, FET/PGT-A). After embryo transfer, participants
were randomized to a 5-minute scripted phone call (intervention) from a single physician
3–4 days after embryo transfer or to routine care. The primary and secondary outcomes
included were change in State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Hospital Anxiety
and Depression Scale (HADS) scores from the start of IVF stimulation to 8–9 days after
embryo transfer, respectively.
Results
A total of 231 participants (164 fresh, 67 FET/PGT-A) were randomized to intervention
(n = 116) or routine care (n = 115). While mean STAI and HADS scores increased in both groups, the intervention
group experienced lower mean increases than the routine care group for both the STAI
(3.3 [0.97] versus 7.8 [1.10], respectively; P = 0.002) and the HADS (0.3 [0.44] versus 2.4 [0.53], respectively; P = 0.003). Most participants in the intervention group found the call helpful (91.4%)
and reported that it decreased distress and anxiety (81%).
Conclusions
A brief empathic phone call from a physician during the waiting period resulted in
significantly lower self-reported levels of patient anxiety and distress. As the intervention
in this study averaged 5 min, implementing this in clinical practice would not be
onerous and may ease the distress associated with the waiting period.
Keywords
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Biography
Jaimin S Shah, MD, is a Clinical Fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School and Boston IVF. He completed his medical school and residency at the McGovern Medical School in Houston, Texas. His research interests include mental health and perinatal outcomes.
Key message
A brief empathic physician phone call during the waiting period resulted in significantly lower self-reported levels of patient anxiety/distress. As the intervention used in this study averaged 5 min of physician time, implementing this in clinical practice would not be onerous and may ease the distress associated with the waiting period.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 05, 2022
Accepted:
April 29,
2022
Received in revised form:
April 22,
2022
Received:
November 30,
2021
Declaration: The authors report no financial or commercial conflicts of interest.Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Reproductive Healthcare Ltd.
