Not getting pregnant doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an infertility issue at play. However, the possibility cannot be completely negated either. There can be numerous reasons that could impact a couple’s ability to reproduce. And stress happens to be among the most common ones.
This stress can be caused by anything, professional issues, relationship issues, chronic disease, etc. At times, not being able to produce a baby causes stress. According to experts, stress shouldn’t be taken lightly as it can lead to infertility as well. This isn’t exactly medically proven but, it is believed that there is a connection between stress and infertility.
About 12 percent of married women are facing infertility problems. But not all of them have infertility due to stress. Similarly, female infertility treatment is not the possible solution to solve their infertility and stress issues at the same time.
In this article, you are going to learn about the actual relationship between stress and infertility and the impact of stress on your fertility.
When Does Stress Matter?
The first thing to discuss fertility and stress at one forum is the time period during the female’s reproductive cycle when stress needs to be noticed. You can notice and study the stress at the start of the cycle or any time during the cycle. You can also do so regularly or after a gap of one day to 30 days.
You can notice that people with high stress levels are involved in many other activities. They start smoking, increasing alcohol consumption, and disturbing their diet. All these things are also major causes of infertility. So it is hard to describe whether they are facing infertility issues due to stress or other activities they are doing due to stress. It might be the combined effect of these two.
Biological Connection of Stress with Infertility
Biological evidence is present that describes the connection between stress and infertility. This connection is related to the hypothalamus of the brain that stimulates the release of most of the hormones in your body.
When the stress level rises in your body, your nervous system contacts the brain and tells him the problem. From the brain, a report is sent to the hypothalamus, which is also a part of the brain. Hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary gland in your body to release the stress hormone that is known as cortisol.
When cortisol’s amount is normal it is beneficial for your health as it regulates the blood sugar level and provides energy to your body to come out of the stress conditions. But when released in high amounts on a daily basis it can leave harmful impacts on the body.
And your pituitary gland and hypothalamus are also responsible for the release of reproductive hormones such as gonadotropic hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone. So when these glands are already busy in releasing the stress hormone, it can affect the release of the reproductive hormones. You also need to study the effects of cortisol on various parts and steps of the reproductive cycle.
Experimental Study to Show Connection
An experiment was performed in the United Kingdom to determine the connection between infertility and stress. For that purpose, a group of 50 or more women was selected who were trying to get pregnant. During the 6th reproductive cycle, their cortisol hormone level was checked to determine the level of stress.
Results show that the women having a low level of stress hormones take less time to get pregnant than those with higher levels. But the women with higher levels tend to get pregnant more than other women. So these are unclear.
Male Infertility
Male infertility can also be affected by stress levels. But this is not a big deal as stress can only decrease the concentration and count of sperms. But you know that only a single healthy sperm is required for fertilization.
Takeaway
IVF treatment in Lahore and other advanced methods can treat infertility depending upon the reason of infertility. But the direct relationship between stress and infertility is still unclear as simply relaxing your nerves cannot help you to get pregnant. But try to keep the stress away from you, as it is good for your overall health.