Is 'Stress' a factor in TTC?

[Flipperty]

Just wondered what you all think as some say it is , some say not....

We have been trying TTC for over 2 years now....


My life is pretty chaotic with always something going on - since TTC for #1 we have had our wedding to plan, I did pretty much most of it including organising it all, making cake and flowers etc ... we run our own business - then we took on another shop, then we decided to sell house and now it's sold we are moving - we are always busy and have something or other going on.... I am now 39

Just wondered what others think?

 

[readyformore]

This topic seems to come up a lot on a variety of forums. It really saddens me to think that women are blaming themselves for not being pregnant because they want it too much, or are too stressed.
This is a response I posted to the same exact question in the ltttc forum. I just copied and pasted.


"Nope. Not at all.

Women get pregnant after rape. Women get pregnant in abusive relationships. Women that are homeless get pregnant. Women living in areas of warfare get pregnant. Women that have 12 kids and can't afford to feed them get pregnant.

If stress is causing you not to ovulate, then yes, stress will interfere.

If you are ovulating, your body does not care what you are thinking about. The sperm and the egg aren't forming some master plan to prevent implantation simply because it's being thought about too much. And the embryo isn't waiting around until it senses PMA to implant. You can have a negative attitude and get pregnant as well.

In fact, until the past 100 years or so, lack of birth control was a HUGE issue for the world's female population. Maternal mortality rates were quite high. Women couldn't feed their children and faced the risk of dying from pregnancy/birth complications. If these women could have stressed themselves into preventing pregnancy, they would have done it. In fact, ancient Egyptians used to make a paste with crocodile dung and insert it into the vagina to try to prevent pregnancy.
If you could stress about it and prevent pregnancy, that would be WAY better birth control than crocodile dung! "

Very relaxed and mellow people go through infertility. In fact, for the first 10 months of my ttc experience, I was very relaxed and had a great attitude. It was stress free basically. Why didn't it happen then? Same thing with my first pregnancy. In fact, with that pregnancy, I was going through IUI for the fourth time, and my grandfather passed away. His funeral was 2 days within when I had my IUI. I can't imagine anything more stressful. I didn't get pregnant when I was relaxed, and I did get pregnant when I was stressed. Now, I know that I am not representative of the entire female population, but I truly believe that those that feed the idea of "just relax and it will happen" into our heads, have never gone through infertility. With that being said, I am sure that about 10 people will come after me and state how they ttc for 3 years and relaxed and it happened for them.

Any doctor will tell you that for us, it's age more than anything that is a contributing factor.

 

[sarahincanada]

I agree with ready, although the people who get pregnant after rape etc perhaps are very fertile people. could there be a link between those with infertility and stress? we dont know. it seems unlikely, like ready says, that the sperm and egg stop doing their job because of other factors in the body. now that I am pregnant Im amazed at how the body knows instinctively how to make a baby, every little detail and step. Sure it sometimes goes wrong and people have problems or sick babies, but the majority of the time it knows what to do and gets it right. so you would think the same would go for conception.

I had a really stressful incident happen to me when 7 weeks pregnant (fingertip got chopped off in a dog fight and i lost a lot of blood), the dr kept reassuring me nothing that had happened would cause harm to the baby. so that also makes me think that stress and fertility/reproduction are not really linked.

I failed my fresh IVF cycle, I had a really painful egg retrieval and my body was tired from all the meds. I will never know if those 2 embryos were good embryos that failed to implant as my body was stressed (my husbands belief). I tend to disagree and feel that they were just 2 bad embryos. I got pregnant on my FET when I was so much more calm, doing acupuncture and only had 3 early morning visits to the clinic (vs about 10 on my fresh cycle). Could less stress be the reason for success, or it was just a good embryo? I will never know.

so after all that waffling I would have to say Im not sure!!!

 

[Hopin&Prayin]

I've heard stress can throw off alot of things from Ovulation to Aunt Flow.. Im just going to do the have fun and not think about it (getting pregnant) thing... Ever hear about Women who have struggled and tried and tried to get pregnant.. then they go on a vacation, relax have fun and BAM end up pregnant.. I do believe stress has alot to do with it.. all the planning and preparation for the "fertile" time.. but it also can contribute to the person ttcing... hormones, eggs, cysts and age but age is not always a factor.. I try to think positive, pray and wait and see plan.. the dreaded 2ww Ugg.. lol

I'm probably not much help but I'm sending good vibes and baby dust your way Good Luck and my prayers are with you

 

[TacoTime]

This topic seems to come up a lot on a variety of forums. It really saddens me to think that women are blaming themselves for not being pregnant because they want it too much, or are too stressed.
This is a response I posted to the same exact question in the ltttc forum. I just copied and pasted.


"Nope. Not at all.

Women get pregnant after rape. Women get pregnant in abusive relationships. Women that are homeless get pregnant. Women living in areas of warfare get pregnant. Women that have 12 kids and can't afford to feed them get pregnant.

If stress is causing you not to ovulate, then yes, stress will interfere.

If you are ovulating, your body does not care what you are thinking about. The sperm and the egg aren't forming some master plan to prevent implantation simply because it's being thought about too much. And the embryo isn't waiting around until it senses PMA to implant. You can have a negative attitude and get pregnant as well.

In fact, until the past 100 years or so, lack of birth control was a HUGE issue for the world's female population. Maternal mortality rates were quite high. Women couldn't feed their children and faced the risk of dying from pregnancy/birth complications. If these women could have stressed themselves into preventing pregnancy, they would have done it. In fact, ancient Egyptians used to make a paste with crocodile dung and insert it into the vagina to try to prevent pregnancy.
If you could stress about it and prevent pregnancy, that would be WAY better birth control than crocodile dung! "

Very relaxed and mellow people go through infertility. In fact, for the first 10 months of my ttc experience, I was very relaxed and had a great attitude. It was stress free basically. Why didn't it happen then? Same thing with my first pregnancy. In fact, with that pregnancy, I was going through IUI for the fourth time, and my grandfather passed away. His funeral was 2 days within when I had my IUI. I can't imagine anything more stressful. I didn't get pregnant when I was relaxed, and I did get pregnant when I was stressed. Now, I know that I am not representative of the entire female population, but I truly believe that those that feed the idea of "just relax and it will happen" into our heads, have never gone through infertility. With that being said, I am sure that about 10 people will come after me and state how they ttc for 3 years and relaxed and it happened for them.

Any doctor will tell you that for us, it's age more than anything that is a contributing factor.

I love this line: The sperm and the egg aren't forming some master plan to prevent implantation simply because it's being thought about too much.

Very funny and very true!