Previous research has shown that childbearing is associated with short-term improvements in women's subjective well-being but that these effects depend on the timing and quantum of the birth as well as on the parents' education and socioeconomic status. These studies did not address whether and, if so, how this effect varies according to the mode of conception. This represents an important knowledge gap, given that conceptions through medically assisted reproduction (MAR) have been increasing rapidly in recent decades, exceeding 5% of live births in some European countries. Drawing on nine waves (2009/2010-2017/2018) of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we use distributed fixed-effects linear regression models to examine changes in women's mental health before, during, and after natural and MAR conceptions. The results show that the mental health of women who conceived naturally improved around the time of conception and then gradually returned to baseline levels; comparatively, the mental health of women who conceived through MAR declined in the year before pregnancy and then gradually recovered. The findings also indicate that women's happiness decreased both two years and one year before an MAR conception and then increased above the baseline in the year of pregnancy. We further show that the deterioration in mental health and subjective well-being before an MAR conception affects both partners, which could be part of a longer process in which the partners potentially suffer from stress related not solely to the MAR treatments themselves but also to the experience of subfertility.

中文翻译：

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向第一次生育过渡的心理健康：医学辅助生殖重要吗？

先前的研究表明，生育与女性主观幸福感的短期改善有关，但这些影响取决于生育的时间和数量以及父母的教育和社会经济地位。这些研究没有说明这种影响是否以及如果是的话，这种影响如何根据受孕方式而变化。这代表了一个重要的知识差距，因为近几十年来通过医学辅助生殖 (MAR) 进行的受孕迅速增加，在一些欧洲国家超过 5% 的活产。借鉴英国家庭纵向研究的九波（2009/2010-2017/2018），我们使用分布式固定效应线性回归模型来检查自然和三月受孕之前、期间和之后女性心理健康的变化。结果表明，自然受孕的女性的心理健康在受孕前后有所改善，然后逐渐恢复到基线水平；相比之下，通过MAR怀孕的女性的心理健康在怀孕前一年下降，然后逐渐恢复。研究结果还表明，女性的幸福感在 MAR 受孕前两年和一年均下降，然后在怀孕当年增加至基线以上。我们进一步表明，在受孕前，心理健康和主观幸福感的恶化会影响伴侣双方，这可能是伴侣双方可能遭受的压力不仅与 MAR 治疗本身有关，而且与不孕不育的经历。