Stress and Fertility

What does stress do to your fertility?

We hear it often, and we actually know it well: stress has a negative effect on fertility.

##We hear it often, and we actually know it well: Stress has a negative effect on fertility.

At the time I thought it was a rather superficial question, especially in light of the fact that they didn’t ask about my diet and lifestyle at all.

So far I still think it is, but today I have gained a much greater understanding of the impact stress has on our health and fertility. So suddenly the question makes quite a lot of sense!

But what is it that happens in the body when we are stressed?

Well, first of all, your body goes into this flight-or-fight mode, where it is ready to fight a wild bear for survival!

There is simply more blood supply to both arms and legs, so we can run faster and hit harder! SMART!

The downside here is that that blood supply is stolen from all your non-vital organs.

The body knows that now is not the time to eat, solve complex problems or have sex. Therefore, you get, among other things, less blood supply to your digestion, your brain and your uterus.

It is quite unfortunate when we would like to get a good yield from the nutrients in the intestine, which would then like to find their way down to the ovaries and uterus, where they must help maintain the area.

The nutrients must, together with the oxygen, reach all the cells and ensure good conditions for a future pregnancy.

In addition, your adrenal glands begin to produce the fight hormones adrenaline, norepinephrine and the stress hormone cortisol.

Here, it is especially the long-term impact of cortisol that can have a negative effect on your health.

In the short term, cortisol can strengthen the immune system and increase the body’s ability to heal wounds, but in the long term, the hormone has the opposite effect. You become dull and tired and the immune system is negatively affected.

In addition, it happens that cortisol production is prioritized higher in the body than all other hormones, including your sex hormones.

This means that over time you may find it difficult to produce the right amount of e.g. progesterone and testosterone.

This can cause both a shorter luteal phase (the phase from ovulation to menstruation), spotting before periods and a lack of sex drive.

Another unfortunate side benefit of cortisol is that it contributes to an increase in your blood sugar.

Why is high blood sugar bad for fertility?

This means that you have to produce more insulin to ‘clean up’ and move the sugar out to the cells in your muscles.

If you don’t exercise and you don’t have good muscle mass to take on the extra blood sugar, you can eventually run into problems with insulin resistance. This means that your cells simply do not respond very effectively to insulin, creating a higher long-term blood sugar.

High blood sugar is one of the most important causes of inflammation in the body, which in turn is a driving force when we talk about lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s and autoimmune diseases… Apart from diabetes of course.

But why is stress and the subsequent inflammation a direct problem for fertility?

Stress increases the body’s inflammation, i.a. by ‘burning’ your magnesium faster.

Magnesium is an important key to activating more than 700 enzyme functions in the body. This means that these functions do not run optimally when there is not enough magnesium present.

This is also one of the reasons why the lack of magnesium contributes to both increased inflammation and an imbalance in the hormones. (Among other things, because magnesium is the key to the enzymes that activate progesterone production).

In addition to stress, both birth control pills, coffee and alcohol increase the need for magnesium in the body. It is therefore not that difficult to become deficient in magnesium with our modern lifestyle.

If you first become magnesium-deficient, experiments have shown that it can cause depression, anxiety, migraines, muscle cramps, imbalances in the metabolism, sleep problems, adrenal fatigue, high blood pressure and atherosclerosis… And yes, in other words, have a negative effect on your fertility.

When inflammation is present, the mitochondria cannot produce the energy as efficiently anymore. This means that your egg will be of poorer quality.

The eggs are the largest cells in your body and have over 300,000 mitochondria that produce energy. Your egg cell must use that energy to mature and to copy its own DNA and divide correctly after fertilization.

Stress, and especially prolonged stress, therefore has a very direct influence on all the systems that help you get pregnant; Your digestion, your nutritional status, your hormonal balance, your blood circulation in your uterus and the quality of your egg cells.

That is why one of the most important things we look at is your emotional and mental stress load right now.

Effective tools to reduce stress and inflammation are absolutely invaluable in the fight for the two lines on your pregnancy test!

Do you want to know more about why your body
reacts the way it does?

Let’s have a chat about how your body reacts

and how I can help you towards a positive pregnancy test

What does stress do to your fertility?

We hear it often, and we actually know it well: stress has a negative effect on fertility.

##We hear it often, and we actually know it well: Stress has a negative effect on fertility.

But what is it that happens in the body when we are stressed?

Why is high blood sugar bad for fertility?

But why is stress and the subsequent inflammation a direct problem for fertility?

Do you want to know more about why your bodyreacts the way it does?

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Do you want to know more about why your body
reacts the way it does?