The Impact of Stress on Fertility
Making the decision to be on your fertility journey is commendable. At the Tao of Wellness, we ask you to come in regularly for acupuncture treatments. We recommend changing your diet and send you home with Chinese herbs to drink daily. Every little bit helps with your success in getting pregnant naturally or with assisted reproductive technologies.
One aspect that I try to impress upon my patients is lowering their stress levels to improve their fertility chances. I see the difficulty some have in not being able to get pregnant naturally or when having a failed IVF. It can be psychologically, emotionally, and physically taxing. And it's totally understandable for those coping with fertility issues to be stressed.
Let's discuss the physiology of stress and how it affects our fertility.
Hormones are sensitive to your environment. The body is always looking for balance and when real or perceived threats to homeostasis happen, the body has to respond accordingly.
This is what the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis does. The primary function of the HPA axis is to regulate the stress response. It includes a group of hormone-secreting glands from the nervous and endocrine systems: the Hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands. In a stressful event, it cascades through these glands triggering the adrenals to secrete cortisol.
Cortisol controls metabolism, glucose, sleep cycles, and inflammation. But too much cortisol in the bloodstream can shut down the Hypothalamus, the chief endocrine gland, and its normal response to secrete Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH). This signals the pituitary gland to release follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). FSH is important for the maturity of the egg and LH is important for ovulation. If chronic stress is there, egg quality, ovulation, fertilization, and implantation rates may suffer.
So what can we do about taking care of ourselves? Here are a few tips.
Self-Care: it's not selfish.
Do you meditate? Now is a great time to pick up this gentle, nourishing practice. Like massages? Go get one. Have a favorite movie? Take some time to watch it. Love acupuncture? Make the time to go! And if you feel like you’re rushing, you are pushing it too much. Slow down. Delegate some tasks. Take deep breaths throughout the day.
Don’t overdo your exercise regimen.
Walking, yoga, pilates, qi gong, a little strength training. All of these are good. Just don’t go crazy with the amount or the intensity. You want enough to move your blood and get the endorphins going without burning yourself out.
Get good sleep.
Start training yourself to get a proper amount of sleep. Get to bed on the same day you woke up! Shooting for 8 hours is great, but aim to get good quality sleep. Unplug your devices, take a bath, and dim the lights for one hour prior to bedtime.
Be grateful.
Look for all the areas you can find to be grateful for. You woke up this morning. You can see the world around you with your eyes. You can take shower and have running hot water at the turn of a handle.