Association Between Psychotherapy and IVF Success Rates

You are invited to take part in a research study about the association between psychotherapy, social support, and IVF success rates. This form is part of a process called “informed consent” to allow you to understand this study before deciding whether to take part.

This study seeks 342 volunteers who are:

• Women aged 18 to 49.
• Completed at least one IVF cycle in the United States.
• Participated in psychotherapy (licensed professional), social support (not licensed, and is not a spouse), or neither

This study is being conducted by a researcher named Shannon Perry-Gbenoba, who is a doctoral student at Walden University.

Study Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the inclusion of psychotherapy or social support during IVF treatment may be related to live births.

Procedures
After you consent, this study would involve you completing the following steps:

• Confirm that you qualify by answering a few questions about the study requirements
• Complete an anonymous online survey (5 - 10 minutes)

Here are the types of questions you will be asked:

• What age group are you in?
• What is the highest level of education you have completed?
• Before or during the IVF process did you participate in psychotherapy for all cycles?
• Did you have IVF insurance coverage during your IVF cycle?
• How many embryo transfers did you undergo during the IVF process?
• If a live birth was achieved during IVF, how many embryo transfers were required to be successful?

Voluntary Nature of the Study
Research should only be done with those who freely volunteer. So everyone involved will respect your decision to join or not. If you decide to join the study now, you can still change your mind later. You may stop at any time.

Risks and Benefits of Being in the Study
Being in this study could involve some risk of the minor discomforts that can be encountered in daily life such as sharing sensitive information. With the protections in place, this study would pose minimal risk to your wellbeing. If distress arises, support and referral can be obtained via dialing 988 for a national crisis hotline.

Like most research, this study offers no direct benefits to individual volunteers. The aim of this study is to benefit society by examining whether there is a relationship between psychotherapy or social support and the IVF process, which could inform on future practice. Results of this study will be published in Scholarworks and possibly other research sources that are easily found if you search online for the researcher’s name along with the study topic.

Payment
There is no payment for this study.

Security
The researcher is required to protect your privacy. Research files will be kept secure by password-protection.

Protecting your responses
The researcher is authorized to publicly share anonymized group patterns from all volunteers’ responses. The researcher will not use your responses for any purposes outside of this research project. Survey responses will be destroyed after a period of 5 years, as required by the university.

Contacts and Questions
You can ask questions of the researcher by shannon.perry-gbenoba@waldenu.edu. If you want to talk privately about your rights as a participant or any negative parts of the study, you can call Walden University’s Research Participant Advocate at 612-312-1210. Walden University’s approval number for this study is 04-24-26-1182085. It expires on April 23rd, 2027.

You might wish to retain this consent form for your records. You may ask the researcher or Walden University for a copy at any time using the contact info above.

Obtaining Your Consent

If you feel you understand the study and wish to volunteer, please indicate your consent by clicking below.