Stress and Infertility

Q. My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for over two years and I’m really getting concerned. My work is very stressful and I wonder how much stress has to do with our problem staring a family?

A. Both human and animal studies have demonstrated a negative effect of both acute and chronic stress on hormone production and fertility. Animal studies are much more convincing, given our ability to perform experiments in a very controlled environment. The difficulty with interpreting such studies is that stress is difficult to measure and what may be stressful to some is just a mere annoyance to others. Likewise, different individuals will experience varying degrees of their own innate stress response (eg, rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, stomach upset) when faced with the same unpleasant circumstances. What seems clear is that removing the stress, or learning to better cope with it, has a positive impact on fertility. For example, recent reports on the efficacy of teaching women how to elicit a relaxation response to previously upsetting situations using mind/body techniques supports the notion that thoughts influence the body’s physiology. Is stress typically the sole cause of infertility?—No. But it is an irrefutable contributor to fertility problems in many cases.