How does stress relate to infertility?
Dr. Mehmet Oz Answered: You hear stories all the time. As soon as a seemingly infertile couple decides to stop trying and go the adoption route, bam, the woman becomes pregnant. There’s a reason for this: The stress of trying so hard has stopped. In fact, research shows that women who are emotionally expressive about fertility treatments had a harder time getting pregnant than those who were better able to deal with the stress of infertility internally. This applies to men, too. Stress seems to affect both sperm quality and quantity, making it more difficult to conceive. Historically, when we faced stress in our environment (like a famine), our ancestors were in no position to make babies. In the male, increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol seem to inhibit production of normal semen. In women, increased cortisol influences the other stress hormones coming from the ovaries and adds a supersonic drum roll to a very delicate symphony. The resulting cacophony makes pregnancy very
