DALLAS, April 15 (UPI) -- Couples undergoing fertility treatments and trying to conceive a baby are urged to ease the anxiety and reduce stress, a U.S. reproductive specialist says.

Dr. Ellen Wilson of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas says it's not clear whether anxiety affects the outcome, but tension can influence how prepared couples are to receive an infertility diagnosis and complete treatment.


"We encourage our patients who are undergoing infertility treatment to try various methods of stress reduction, whether it's listening to relaxing music, taking yoga classes or even trying acupuncture, which is increasingly more common," Wilson says in a statement. "All of these can help patients manage the diagnosis as well as the treatment of infertility."

At Southwestern, infertility specialists provide couples with counseling services with the treatment protocol, Wilson says.