New study: Depression in men can lead to reduced rate of pregnancy in women.

A recent study, published on Thursday in “Fertility and Sterility”, suggests that there is a connection between the fertility level and mental health of men and women both. The research has the data from 1.608 men and 1,650 women, who were selected from six sites in the US, via the NIH’s (National Institutes of Health) Reproductive Medicine Network. A lot of participants are the couples in real life, and were undergoing the fertility treatment, like artificial insemination or medication of ovarian stimulation, but not IVF. Depending on the data, around 2% of men and 6% of women from total participants were reported with major depression events.


However, the cases of major depression are small in number, just 34 men; an analysis is done to found the difference in 34 men and the other male participants of the study. The men with major depression have 60% fewer chances to have a live birth compared to the other men (participants) of the study. To put it specifically, among the 34 men, only 9% or 3 couples reported having a live birth. Whereas, on the other hand, 25% of couples have a live birth in which the men are not experiencing heavy depression issue. Esther Eisenberg, researcher from NIH and her co-author presented a theory that there can be numerous reasons behind the interference of depression on fertility in male, which includes sexual dysfunction because of the lesser libido, inhibited or delayed ejaculation, erectile dysfunction; reduce in number of sexual intercourse, or even a bad impact on sperm count. However, there is no solid evidence or link between depression and infertility in men, the author said, “The study offers the physicians and men with infertility issues with new data to analyze and consider while choosing the appropriate treatment.” The study supports the earlier studies, which involves the data about semen and sperm quality and stress.