Is your infertility stressing you out?  Or is it the other way around?

By Tracy B. McGinnis, SHE KNOWS/ PREGNANCY AND BABY.COM

There is no doubt that infertility causes stress, but can stress cause infertility? We talk to the experts, as well as women struggling to get pregnant, to find out the link between stress and infertility

Tracy Serebin knows what it feels like to try to get pregnant for a long time without anything happening.  Serebin’s experience inspired her to write, Searching for Inspiration on the Infertility Roller Coaster.  “In the book, I’m relaying my own experience with infertility treatments and it’s very emotional,”  says Serebin,  “I believe holding stress in is a major contributing factor to being receptive or closed off from becoming pregnant,” she adds.

THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION

Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility specialists at Greenville Hospital System University Medical, one of the leading academic research centers in the Southeast, also believe that stress can affect fertility, and they developed the Mind/Body program (modeled after the Harvard Institute's Mind/Body program).

“Mind/body participants are taught stress-reducing techniques, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, yoga, massage, meditation and guided imagery. They also learn how to elicit the relaxation response, a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress, resulting in a decrease of heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension,” says a spokesperson for the center.

“Infertility is a medical condition and there is no evidence to suggest it’s all in your head,” says Reproductive Endocrinology Associates of Charlotte (REACH) psychological consultant Eugenia Gullick, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist whose subspecialty is the evaluation and psychological management of infertility.   “Infertility is a mind/body experience that generates stress, which is known to trigger physiological responses,” says Gullick.  “Stress does not cause infertility, but infertility causes stress,” she adds.

Gullick explains that stress can be an indirect cause of infertility.  “For example, women who suffer from depression can then have appetite loss and subsequent weight loss, which can then become annovulatory, a condition in which women do not produce eggs each month, which creates infertility.”

WHO IS AT RISK?

Highly successful women or those that tend to be perfectionists and have compulsive tendencies may find it especially challenging to deal with infertility and stress.  Gullick offers some suggestions to cope with the stress of infertility including:  stress reduction and relaxation techniques, breathing techniques, yoga, acupuncture (for stress reduction), and psychotherapy.

“Studies have shown that ‘whole patient approaches’ like those at REACH help patients learn how to “let go of the desire to control the outcome,” explains Gullick.  “The effort to hold on generates even more stress.”

MIND AND BODY RELAXATION

Internationally renowned stress expert and founder and CEO of The Stress Institute, Dr. Kathleen Hall,  agrees, “Stress can affect fertility by putting emotional strain on the mind and body and learning relaxation can help.”

Hall says there are many ways to help your mind and body relax during what many, who experience infertility, consider to be the most stressful period in their lives.

S.E.L.F. is a program that Hall developed for The Stress Institute to help people “hold on to the promise and experience of our own happiness, balance and well-being.”

S.E.L.F.

          S= Serenity- meditation, minis, guided imagery

          E= Exercise- office yoga, stairs, walking

          L= Love- friends, family, community

          F= Food- nourish mind, body and soul


According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s Website,  about one-third of infertility cases can be attributed to male factors, and about one-third to factors that affect women.

“For the remaining one-third of infertile couples, infertility is caused by a combination of problems in both partners or, in about 20 percent of cases, is unexplained.”

Although the ASRM does point out that women/couples who are being treated for infertility do experience stress, a patient fact sheet on stress and infertility provided by the organization says that stress is probably not causing a person’s infertility, noting that no proof has been found that links stress as a cause of infertility.

The ASRM adds that “occasionally a woman having too much stress can change her hormone levels and therefore cause the time when she releases an egg to become delayed or not take place at all.”

TIPS TO STRESS LESS

The ASRM offers these tips and resources for help:

Talk to your partner and to other people going through infertility
Read books on infertility
Learn stress reduction techniques
Avoid a lot of caffeine or other stimulants
Exercise regularly
Learn as much as you can about the cause of your infertility and treatment options available, as well as your insurance coverage and financial plans for your fertility treatments
Resources:  
RESOLVE - a national organization for couples with infertility. 

SOURCE: PregnancyandBaby,com