According to a recent study, held by the University of Louisville, stressed women who are looking to form a family are less likely to get pregnant than those with reduced stress levels.
Stress seems to affect almost every part of people’s lives, and now scientists have proven that women who experience more stress are forty percent less likely to conceive a child. According to the research, the amount of stress in a woman can measure her fertility levels.
Researchers from the Kentucky’s University of Louisville decided to measure the old common knowledge argument that relaxed and happy couples are better are conceiving by studying cases of women who were hoping to get pregnant.
Stress and pregnancy
The study was led by Dr. Kira Taylo, an epidemiologist from the University of Louisville, who, along with a team of experts, reviewed and analyzed the data of over 400 different cases involving women with the desire of a child.
The women participating in the study were forty years old and younger, and researchers measured their stress levels, menstruation cycles, took urine samples, measured intercourse activity, contraception intake as well as alcohol, caffeine and smoking habits to get a wider look at the woman’s life.
The study lasted for over nine months or eight and a half menstrual periods or ended when one of the subjects became pregnant. The study also took into account the women’s self-reports of stress levels.
“Some individuals are skeptical that emotional and psychological attributes may be instrumental in affecting fertility,” said lead-author Taylor in a press release
The team of researchers studied each stage of the subject’s menstrual cycle until the moment they were ovulating and calculated that women with high-stress levels were less likely to conceive during that period of the cycle. To determine if the results were
To determine if the results were cleared, researchers put into account the women’s body, age, intercourse activity, mass and alcohol/tobacco use. Regardless of those levels, women with more stress were less likely to conceive.
In the end, researchers concluded that those women who showed high-stress levels had forty percent fewer chances of having a child during that menstruation cycle, however, women who feel stressed every day for a year have forty-five fewer chances of conceiving.
“These findings add more evidence to a very limited body of research investigating whether perceived stress can affect fertility, ” said Taylor.
Researchers explained that women who were expecting to conceive a child but felt stressed should consider taking steps to reduce their worrying by participating in stress management’s programs, being more healthy and active in their daily lives.
This is not the first time scientists have reviewed the stress-fertility relation in 2014 another research showed that women who were feeling more stressed had one-third less chance of becoming a mother and had twice the possibilities of facing infertility.
Researchers from the University of Louisville published their findings in the Annals of Epidemiology Journal.
Source: Annals of Epidemiology
omg! Stress whether physically, emotionally and mentally can put a strain either you are trying to get pregnant or not. When i was trying to get pregnant, i was so afraind that I might not get pregnant because of pcos that it was shattering me inside. When I realized that i am creating more problems for my body i decided to do yogo and tried conceiveeasy. And with the free kit that i got plus yoga I was able to get pregnant in a couple of months.