Stress and Infertility

Are you and your partner having trouble getting pregnant? Are you especially discouraged and frustrated because tests show that your eggs and sperm are healthy and viable and that you should be able to conceive a child-but you can’t?

That’s a painful dilemma to be in-and you’re not alone, many couples share your problem. These couples should be able to conceive a child, but again and again, they fail to do so, even with the help of a good infertility clinic.

The Bad News

What most couples will never learn from their infertility clinic is that the real culprit is STRESS. Studies show that healthy people with fertility problems have high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood. When you’re stressed cortisol releases into your blood and cortisol interferes with conception.

And it doesn’t help that the frustration of your not being able to get pregnant creates more and more stress for you and your partner. You’ll need to solve the stress/infertility problem on your own, because most infertility clinics don’t understand or account for it adequately, if at all.

Here’s How Stress Hormones Cause Infertility

Stress hormones like cortisol do three things that prevent conception. They interfere with ovulation, egg implantation and sperm production. Consider the following:

1. Ovulation- stress hormones mess up the timing of a woman’s ovulation. For example, a woman will have difficulty getting pregnant, if she ovulates too close to her period.

2. Egg implantation-a woman may successfully create a fertilized egg, but stress hormones can prevent that egg from implanting properly

3. Sperm production-stress hormones interfere with a man’s testosterone production, which causes his sperm count to plummet to levels that prevent conception

Unfortunately, infertility doctors and staff often underestimate how stressful infertility can be. Consider what Dr. Alice Domar, professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School has had to say. When asked “How stressful is infertility?”-Dr. Domar replied:

“In a word: very. Research has shown that women with infertility have the same levels of anxiety and depression as do women with cancer, heart disease, and HIV+ status. Infertility can be very lonely.”

Many infertility clinics don’t know enough mindbody science to really understand the role of stress in infertility or to train couples how to reduce their stress and stress hormone levels. And so the stress levels go up with each failed attempt along with the chances for repeated failure. A vicious cycle gets set up whereby

• A couple can’t get pregnant because of stress,
• which causes more stress
• which causes more failed attempts
• which causes more stress
• and so on and on and on.

Well-intentioned infertility staffs too often tell their patients: “Just relax”. But according to infertility expert Dr. Sandra Berga, chair of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University in Atlanta -such advice not only doesn’t work, it can be maddening.

You can’t just relax if you don’t know how to. There’s an art and science to reducing stress and stress hormone blood levels. It’s fairly easy to learn and do, if you have the right knowledge, tools and training support.

The Good News

The good news is that you may indeed succeed in having a baby, after you learn how to reduce your stress levels. If you and your partner’s problems conceiving are not strictly biological, then lowering your stress levels should be at the top of your things to do list, because you will improve your chances of getting pregnant considerably.

Your mind and body are not separate. They’re an interdependent unit – the mindbody. And so, what you think and feel affects every cell in your body. The foundation of your stress-related infertility problems is that your mind triggers the release of stress hormones.

Don’t feel that this means you are lacking in some way. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is entirely an unconscious event. You don’t do it. It happens to you.

Yours and your partner’s fears and worries over conceiving a child trigger stressful states of mind, including fear, worry and depression. A part of your brain then makes a mistake that sets in motion your body’s “Fight or Flight Response”. Stress hormones then pour into your blood, to prepare you to fight or flee from life threatening danger.

This “communication error” is responsible for your stress-related infertility problems.

Here’s What You Need to Do

You need to learn how to correct this communication error, so you’re not floating in stress hormones while you try to conceive a child.

Good news. The same mindbody situation responsible for your infertility problem offers you the solution. With the right knowledge and tools, you can make sure that stress hormones don’t ruin your chances for having a baby.

You need to learn how to do the following two things:

1. Stop/reduce the unnecessary release of stress hormones into your body
2. Flush stress hormones out of your system as quickly and thoroughly as possible
   • So they don’t seep into and linger in your blood, tissues and cell

Once you learn how to do these two things, you’ll then improve

• Egg and sperm production, and your chances for
• Implanting a fertilized egg

Ask your doctor if she or he knows a good stress expert you and your partner could consult with. Ask friends and family as well. You are welcome to download “The Little Black Book of Stress Relief Secrets”, which is Free for a limited time.

One thing is very important for you and your partner to do immediately. Stop giving yourselves a hard time. If you can relate to your situation with friendship and generosity toward each other-then that in itself will cut your stress and improve your chances for conception.