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Stress prevents pregnancy, lowers fertility

 Fertility
Posted on Mar 10 2011
Blog/ News / Articles >> Fertility

By Bridget Coila, New Orleans Healthy Living Examiner

If you’re trying to get pregnant and failing, stress may be the culprit, say researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the University of Oxford.

The harmful effects of excess stress even affect women who’ve had no previous problems with infertility.

The study, published online in the journal Fertility and Sterility on August 11, 2010, found that women with the highest levels of a compound called alpha-amylase had the most trouble conceiving a child. The women under higher levels of stress were 12% less likely to conceive during their fertile window, the six days of each cycle when they are most likely to get pregnant.

According to study author Germaine Buck Louis, Ph.D., M.S., director of the NICHD’s Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research, stress can be a self-perpetuating cycle as women trying to conceive become more concerned with each cycle that they might not be able to have a baby.

Interestingly, short-term stress may be more dangerous than long-term stress. Cortisol levels in the women who had difficulty conceiving were not any higher than the other women. Alpha-amylase is a marker of recent stress, while high cortisol is indicative of long term stress. This leads to hope that the stressors affecting fertility may be controlled, giving women hope that they might be able to relax long enough to increase their chances of getting pregnant.

Some healthy ways for women to reduce stress include yoga, massage, counseling, meditation and biofeedback.

Hypnofertility can also be an excellent method to assist couples in concieving by lower stress levels, creating a better hormonal balance and removing emotional blocks.

Last changed: Mar 10 2011 at 9:31 PM

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