The majority of people can become pregnant fairly easily within a year or two, but this is not the case for everyone.
Any medical difficulties can be addressed by a doctor or consultant, but around a quarter of all couples who struggle with fertility have no recognized physical cause.
There’s mounting evidence that stress has a significant impact on fertility, and this is what Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help you with.
Your way of life can have a big impact on your capacity to conceive. We are also able to make better lifestyle selections when we are less stressed.
How can Solution Focused Hypnotherapy help you?
- Reducing stress
- Reducing depression
- Increasing feelings of calm and relaxation
- Reducing inflammation in your system – boosting your immune system
- Restoring physical, mental, and emotional balance and well-being
- Helping to make any advised lifestyle changes in order to increase your chances of conception
What difference does it make to be less stressed?
It’s been found that when women suffering from stress, anxiety, or depression were treated, they had a 60% chance of becoming pregnant within six months, compared to only 24% when they were left untreated. Research shows that around 30% of couples who begin the IVF process naturally conceive prior to receiving any medical treatment. This is due to the relief and relaxation experienced when the process of IVF begins. The mind relaxes and so too does the body, resulting in hugely increased chances of conception.
Stress alters the biochemistry and rhythms of the body dramatically.
Stress or anxiety can alter the production of hormones required for ovulation, implantation, and sperm quality, in addition to affecting general health.
Because the body’s top priority is to stay alive, when we are expecting a treat or stress, taking care of a fetus and subsequently a small child would only put us under unnecessary strain.
The hypothalamus regulates both the stress response as well as the sex hormones, which is why excessive stress can lead to anovulation (when an egg doesn’t release from an ovary during your menstrual cycle), irregular menstrual cycles, and in more severe cases, to complete suppression of the menstrual cycle.
When we are stressed, the adrenals release adrenaline. Adrenaline aids us in escaping from danger, but it also suppresses the creation of progesterone, which is necessary for the formation and maintenance of a uterine lining, preventing fertilisation.
Prolactin (a hormone generated by the pituitary gland to induce milk in preparation for nursing) reduces a woman’s fertility, making it more difficult for her to conceive while breastfeeding. The pituitary gland produces a lot of prolactin when you’re stressed.
After prolonged stress the sympathetic nervous system can become hyper-stimulated. A hyper-stimulated nervous system sends less blood to the uterus and ovaries, thereby impairing their optimal functioning (Lewis 2004)
Poor sleep effects our physical health – like water from a burst pipe in your home, the effects of sleep deprivation will seep into every nook and cranny of biology, down into your cells, even altering your most fundamental self – your DNA. (Prof Matthew Walker)
The body stays in some degree of a fight or flight state for as long as an insufficient sleep condition lasts, and for some time afterwards.
We are grumpy and irritated when we are sleepy, and this might destabilise your relationship over time, resulting in less prospects for pregnancy.
Sleep deprivation raises our chance of developing diseases and disorders that might influence fertility, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.
What impact does one’s way of life have?
In order to achieve balance in our lives, we must reduce the habits that harm us and enhance the activities that improve our well-being. This includes achieving a healthy work-life balance.
The following lifestyle modifications will help you become more fertile:
- Stop Smoking/Vaping: Women who smoke/vape are 50% more likely to miscarry, while men who smoke/ vape have a 20% lower sperm count and 20% worse sperm motility.
- Stop Drinking: It has been shown that alcohol might decrease fertility and sperm quality. Even modest drinking (less than three units per day) reduces the odds of getting pregnant.
- Stop Using Drugs: cocaine constricts blood arteries, which could disrupt the placenta and produce irregular periods. In males, marijuana reduces sperm count, sperm motility and testosterone levels.
- Limit Caffeine Intake: caffeine raises the risk of miscarriage and may also increase the incidence of endometriosis.
- Stay Away From Saunas: anything that boosts a man’s testicles’ temperature will reduce sperm production and motility.
- Gently Exercise: some evidence suggests that intense exercise (heart rate greater than 110 beats per minute) may reduce the odds of conception. (Domar and Kelly, p271 in Domar and Kelly, 2002).
If you are having difficulties conceiving, get in touch. You really don’t need to put yourself through a long and challenging fertility treatment process.
