"Just relax and don't think about it… Take a vacation…" – most likely I've triggered within you a strong desire to strangle or kill me right now, haven't I?
Even so, you may consider staying here for a short while, because what you are about to learn will help you to remain in one piece the next time you hear: "Just relax and forget about it". And as a result, you may find yourself feeling stronger when dealing with this "Female Infertility" beast.
As frustrating as this is, there is evidence that stress may negatively impact fertility in women. And if there was a chance to increase your chances to conceive even by 1%, would it be worth getting a better understanding of how stress and infertility may affect each other and then learn how to control the agony?
Female Infertility & Emotional Stress
Most likely you already know that stress has two components: physical and emotional and both of them can contribute to making your body "baby-unfriendly" and here's why.
Some cases of female infertility are the result of
- inadequate nutrition or
- intense exercise
And the reason why poor quality nutrition and/or intense exercise may negatively affect fertility is because any one of them or both can cause menstrual problems such as irregular periods or a complete lack of menstruation.
That's why it is important for you to protect yourself from experiencing undue physical stress. What can occur in your body when you experience emotional stress?
There have been studies¹ which show that infertile women tend to have an unusually high amount of cortisol in their blood, which is the stress hormone which appears to be responsible for suppressing female ovulation.
It is unknown whether the hormone causes the infertility or vice versa, but it's an intriguing observation. It's been estimated that 5% of women have stopped ovulating due to stress at some point in their lives.
You don't need me to tell you that with everything that's involved with the infertility treatment process, it's impossible for any woman struggling with female infertility to completely avoid stress. But…
There are some coping strategies which can help you deal with it.
Coping With Infertility Stress
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is one of the ways to deal with emotional stress.
CBT helps couples to deal with cycles of negative thinking and learn to counter it. This method was tested with women who had experienced an unexplained halt in ovulation, and after five months ninety percent of them had resumed ovulation. In the control group, only twenty-five percent began ovulating.
Beginning ovulating doesn't mean getting pregnant though… That's why I think it is important for you to know about another way of coping with infertility related stress. Unfortunately it's "unadvertised" – intentionally or not.
I'm talking about guided imagery or self-hypnosis. One of the reasons why it's very effective (especially when it's done correctly) is because it is able to do what none of the medications can: re-set the mind-body connection.
Results? – Very inspiring… In one study 55% of infertile women who learned simple guided imagery (or self-hypnosis) techniques ended up pregnant.
Next time, I will share with you simple yet effective stress reducing techniques (provided by Increasing Fertility Center) you can start using immediately.
Ellen Andrew,
Fertility Reporter
References:
¹ – Environmental Health Perspectives - report on factors affecting fertility.
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