Stress is known to cause some nasty illnesses such as heart problems, irritable bowels, hair loss, skin issues, headaches, reduced immunity, cancer… I could go on. But can stress make you infertile? Well the evidence that stress may play a role in infertility is beginning to stack up in an alarming way. As if trying to get pregnant isn’t stressful enough!
Am I Suffering from Stress?
Have you ever been stressed by a situation, while someone else in the same boat doesn’t appear to be stressed at all? Well, this is the problem with stress; what may stress one person, may not stress another. And two people experiencing stress may not experience it in the same way. This makes it really hard to diagnose.
Sometimes you will know full well that you are stressed. Other times, you may not realise you are stressed at all. This is especially the case if stress has been building up slowly over time. Bearing this in mind, here are the most common symptoms you may have if you are suffering from stress:
- Being anxious or worrying for no good reason
- Mood swings, particularly to tearfulness or anger
- Constantly feeling tired, lacking energy or motivation
- Difficulty getting to sleep and/or disturbed sleep
- Loss of your normal sense of humour
- Depression or feeling constantly low
- Feeling unable to cope with work or friends
- Headaches, upset stomach, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
If you have any of these symptoms, you may be suffering from chronic stress which could be affecting your fertility. Keep reading, but also consider seeing your doctor as the stress may be affecting more than just your fertility.
How Can Stress Affect My Fertility?
Do you know a couple who had been desperately trying to get pregnant for years, but weren’t successful until they gave up trying? These stories are common and often the stress of trying for a baby is attributed as the reason the couples don’t get pregnant. But can stress really prevent you from becoming pregnant?
The actual degree to which a couple’s fertility is affected by stress is difficult to determine and will vary from couple to couple. As an example, one study has suggested that it plays a role in up to 40% of couples with unexplained infertility, where no other underlying cause for difficulties conceiving has been found. This is not to say that stress is the only cause for failing to conceive, but it may well be the tipping point.
Here are a few of the ways stress can affect your fertility:
Stress messes with your hormones
When you are stressed, you release more of the hormones adrenaline, cortisol and prolactin. High levels of all of these have the overall effect of reducing ovulation, which in turn can impact the regularity of your period.
Stress can delay your period
Not only can stress make your period late, but you might even skip one altogether. Irregular periods make it more difficult for couples to time when to have sex to the maximum effect. Skipping a period means you’re unlikely to be fertile at all for that cycle.
Stress may affect implantation
High levels of stress can also affect the proteins within the lining of the uterus. While the impact of this is not yet fully understood, researchers believe it is likely that stress may affect embryo implantation.
Stress can reduce libido
Ever been put off having a bit of fun under the bedsheets because you are just too tired, too worried, or can’t be bothered? Well that lack of desire might be because you are stressed, a well-documented effect that has been aptly named Stress Induced Reproductive Dysfunction.
Unhealthy coping methods
Many of the activities people use to handle stress are often bad for fertility. Heavy drinking, smoking, and binge eating are the most commonly thought of unhealthy stress coping mechanisms. These aren’t the only stress coping mechanisms or stress related activities that can be harmful to your fertility. So, what might you be doing because of stress that may be harming your health? Here are some more examples: excessive caffeine consumption, high sugar intake, not getting enough sleep, taking drugs, being slothful, and compulsive spending. Okay, the last of those points isn’t likely to affect your fertility, but the others will.
Other effects of stress on fertility
The examples above are the better known ways that stress can affect your fertility. However, stress and infertility research are not as far advanced as other branches of science. After all, stress is not an easy thing to accurately measure, as what stresses one person may not affect another. Think of it like a rollercoaster. Some people might love going on a rollercoaster, others will be terrified at just the thought of it.
Also, how a person reacts to stress is highly subjective. They might say they’re really stressed, but are they as stressed, more stressed, or less stressed than someone else who doesn’t say anything. Just how do you compare it?
Because of this, few things have divided the opinion of researchers as much as the impact of stress on fertility. There have been stress and infertility research studies suggesting stress is a significant factor in infertility while others claim it has very little impact. There is even a paper stating stress has no effect on fertility whatsoever (the last one is mainly based on dubious theory, so I’d ignore it).
Ignoring the conflicting studies, the majority of fertility experts do believe that stress can be a factor in getting pregnant. And there are plenty of known areas still left to research in the field of stress and infertility.
For example, the hormones I mentioned earlier (adrenaline, cortisol and prolactin) don’t just mess with ovulation. These hormones are also involved, to a greater or lesser extent, with other aspects of fertility and reproduction.
Given how stress is a known contributing factor in so many other diseases, I believe that in time we will find that stress plays a greater role in infertility than we currently recognise.
How to Reduce Stress When Trying to Conceive
Wouldn’t it be great if you could just chuck in that stressful job and go live on a beach? Unfortunately, in the real world, solving work stresses is not always as simple as just changing jobs. Especially if your finances are also a concern. So, while eliminating the cause of your stress may not be entirely possible, you can still focus on how you manage and cope with the resulting stress.
It is important to find a way to relax that works for you. Whether this is exercise, reading a book, taking a long bath or letting off steam with friends, anything that can relax you and take your mind off your worries will be beneficial. However, be careful that you’re not replacing one problem with another. It’s not an excuse for alcohol binges or excessive comfort eating of chocolate.
Here are a few suggestions of common activities that help to reduce stress when trying to conceive:
- Exercise
- Yoga
- Massage
- Meditation
- Mindfulness
- Get more sleep
- Reduce Caffeine
- Cut down on sugary foods
- Avoid Alcohol
You’ll need to experiment with these, and any other relaxation methods you may wish to try, to find out which works best for you. I’ve also got a couple of cheap and easy bonus suggestions that really helped me destress big time:
Switch Off from the News
Have you seen the news? Wars, famine, murders, catastrophes, general skulduggery. It’s quite upsetting if you think about it. The trouble is that your mind can’t tell the difference between what it sees on media and actual personal interactions. It’s why so many people get upset when a celebrity dies.
When I first tried getting pregnant, I stopped watching and reading about the news. For the first week I found it difficult not getting my regular news updates. FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is a terrible thing. But as the week went by, I didn’t get murdered, the stock market didn’t crash, no war came to my neck of the woods. Slowly, but surely, I began to feel more at ease and less and less like I was missing out. If anything truly important happened that I needed to know about, I found out that my friends and colleagues would quickly tell me about it anyway.
To this day, I recommend switching off from the news to anyone who sees me for stress.
Keep a Journal
Journaling is a simple and popular activity that has been credited with improved mental agility, healthier relationships, personal growth and a host of other benefits. I took it up myself several years ago and one of the big benefits I found was a huge decrease in my levels of stress.
So how do you do this amazing thing? Well really, it’s just another term for keeping a diary. Every day, you simply write down all the important things that happen to you or you thought about.
While ‘keeping a diary’ sounds a bit geeky (I’m guessing that’s why it’s been rebranded as ‘journaling’), the benefits are real. Writing your thoughts down on paper forces you to clarify your thinking. This can put things in perspective, helping to keep mole hills from becoming mountains, while committing negative thoughts to paper can stop them from going round and round in your head without end. It helps you to focus on the important things in life and ignore the distractions. Most importantly for stress, people who regularly journal report they are more in touch with their emotions and feel better able to cope with whatever life throws at them.
There are many ways you can write a journal. You can create a document on your computer, there are apps available for smart phones, expensive leather-bound journaling diaries are available to buy. Personally, I use a relatively inexpensive paper notebook and pencil (because I like to rub out mistakes). This is because I find the act of physically writing to be more satisfying than typing it into a computer or smartphone.
Whatever method you choose to do journaling, just remember to set some time aside every day to do it. Otherwise you won’t get the full benefits.
Does Stress Affect IVF Success?
Many people have wondered if there is link between stress and IVF treatment success. Certainly any of the fertility problems caused by stress listed earlier could affect the success of IVF (with the exception of loss of libido, as IVF doesn’t work that way). But does stress affect IVF success in its own right?
Well, having IVF is stressful in itself, what with the numerous tests and procedures that occur. Not to mention the pressure for success that you may experience. All this is likely to make existing effects of stress worse.
The good news is that this is recognised and many fertility clinics now offer relaxation strategies for couples, alongside fertility treatments.
Alternative Therapies for Infertility and Stress
Generally speaking, I am not a fan of treating infertility with alternative therapies. Their claims of helping couples get pregnant lack any evidence with scientific rigor. However, there is one area I do believe they can help; stress.
Acupuncture, reflexology, hydrotherapy and aromatherapy have all been shown to reduce stress. By reducing stress, these alternative therapies may indeed be helping improve couple’s fertility.
Of course, there are cheaper methods of reducing your stress than paying for a course of alternative medicine. You could just simply opt to go for a nice massage or spa day instead. Or a good pampering can help improve almost anyone’s outlook.
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