stress = infertile?

Stress makes women infertile, stress-busting therapy can help them, says new study

Posted on : Wed, 21 Jun 2006 19:02:00 GMT | Author : Martin Booth News Category : Health

NEW YORK: Stress can cause infertility in women and stress-reducing therapy can help them conceive, studies by an American researcher have revealed. Prof Sarah Berga of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, says women with infertility complaints need not resort to costly drugs and instead they should look at reducing stress through several known measures. This is known to restore ovulation and fertility. Berga told the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague that stress can be a cause of infertility, in men and in women, and "it can be managed. But by managing it you improve your fertility." She said small amounts of stress can cause amenorrhea, or lack of monthly periods and ovulation, which was previously associated with under-nutrition and excessive exercise. Berga and her team had carried out a pilot study testing cognitive behavior therapy on 16 women aged between 20 and 35 years, of normal weight and who had suffered from amenorrhea for more than six months. They were also found to have higher levels of cortisol, a hormone whose levels go up in stressed people. They were divided into two groups, one group receiving cognitive behavior therapy, which comprised intake of nutritious food, exercise and other stress-busting measures, and the other no treatment. Some 20 weeks later, more than 80 per cent of the women who received the therapy started to ovulate again with their levels of cortisol dropping, against 25 per cent in the other group. Two of the women also became pregnant shortly after finishing the treatment. Berga is now planning a larger study covering some 2,000 to 4,000 women to further investigate the link between stress and fertility.