Women who work as teachers are six times more likely to conceive using IVF than women in other professions, according to new research.
When the website Fertility IQ studied data from 1,123 respondents who had opted for fertility treatment, they found that some occupations has a significantly higher success rate than others.
The site’s findings, which will be presented to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine congress in Salt Lake City, Utah, showed bankers and software developers tended to be less successful when it came to getting pregnant through IVF.
While it varies from woman to woman, on average 28 per cent of women become pregnant after the first cycle of IVF.
Speaking to DM, Fertility HQ founder Jacob Anderson said:
‘Patients who reported their occupation as teacher during the time of treatment recorded a six-fold higher likelihood of success, after controlling for variables like age, income, race and geographical location.
‘Patients who reported working in fields categorized as sales, marketing and public relations recorded a two-fold higher rate of success.’
Mr Anderson said that women with jobs that allow them to plan and organise IVF appointments easily seem to have more success:
‘This is a very fragile process – if you are hours too early, or hours too late, the IVF procedure may not work.” he said.
In follow-up interviews, the researchers found that the majority of the teachers who has undergone IVF treatment had done so during school holidays, which could mean that they were less stressed ahead of each appointment.
