Stress can make women infertile, research has revealed. Scientists found that those with high levels of a stress hormone stop ovulating and are therefore unable to conceive. Women with hectic jobs are those most at risk, and are often most in denial about the stress in their lives, say, researchers.
They also found that simple ‘talking therapies’ can reverse the effect of stress and boost a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant. The research was presented yesterday at the annual conference of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague.
Professor Sarah Berga, from Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, studied 16 women in their twenties and the thirties who were normal weight but had not had a period for six months. She found they had high levels of the hormone cortisol which is linked to stress.
Eight of the women were given cognitive behavioral therapy and the rest no treatment. The therapy was designed to give women a better sense of perspective and improved self-worth to help cut stress levels. But Professor Berga said it did not involve telling women to ‘pull themselves together’
