Stress, Getting Pregnent, and the Power of Positive Thinking
We have all heard the stories or had a friend, family member or co-worker who tried for years to get pregnant. They struggled monthly to correctly time sex with ovulation, the man switched from briefs to boxers and stayed out of hot tubs, they consulted fertility specialists, maybe even tried several rounds of in vitro fertilization and spent tens of thousands of dollars. Finally, after years they resigned themselves to a life without children or started looking into adoption, only to get surprised by the most unexpected pregnancy. The take home message: Once you stop stressing over becoming pregnant, you get pregnant. Simple? Right? It’s not really so simple, or 1 in 7 couples would not be struggling with infertility. The real take home message: Stress plays a key role in infertility, enhancing your fertility, and getting pregnant.
Women suffering from chronic stress experience menstrual irregularities, hormonal changes, have impaired ovulation, experience weight gain, and increased cortisol and prolactin levels, all factors which interfere with conception. Infertility is a double whammy for stress. First, women who suffer with depression, anxiety, and chronic stress have difficulty getting pregnant. Secondly, struggling to conceive is stressful itself. So, even if you don’t begin depressed, anxious, or stressed out, struggling with fertility or undergoing infertility treatment creates it own stress. To explain how severe the stress is for women suffering with infertility, studies have shown that women undergoing infertility treatment experience stress levels similar to persons struggling chronic diseases such as cancer or autoimmune disease.
What to do about stress?
Fortunately, there are many options to help ameliorate the effects of stress: meditation, yoga, exercise, hobbies, counseling, acupuncture, adaptogenic herbs, and journaling are all effective stress reduction exercises. The following article the Power of Positive Thinking details the dramatic benefits stress reduction can have enhancing fertility.
The Power of Positive Thinking
