I am reading a book called Why zebras don’t get ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky which is all about stress and our health and I find it fascinating. There is so much in the book that I highly recommend you read all of it if you haven’t come across it already. But today I would like to share some insights about how stress can affect your fertility:
- The secretion of various reproductive hormones such as oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone is inhibited.
- The pituitary secretes prolactin, which, among other effects, plays a role in suppressing reproduction during stress.
- Menstrual cycles can become irregular or cease entirely
- Interest in sexual behaviour decreases.
Stress is like an emergency situation for our bodies.
And “during an emergency, it makes sense that your body halts long-term, expensive building projects. If there is a tornado bearing down on the house, this isn’t the day to repaint the garage. Hold off on the long-term projects until you know there is a long term. Thus, during stress, digestion is inhibited-there isn’t enough time to derive the energetic benefits of the slow process of digestion, so why waste energy on it? You have better things to do than digest breakfast when you are trying to avoid being someone’s lunch.
The same thing goes for growth and reproduction, both expensive, optimistic things to be doing with your body (especially if you are female). If the lion’s on your tail, two steps behind you, worry about ovulating or growing antlers or making sperm some other time. During stress, growth and tissue repair is curtailed, sexual drive decreases in both sexes; females are less likely to ovulate or to carry pregnancies to term, while males begin to have trouble with erections and secrete less testosterone.”
Impressive, isn’t it!
It makes sense to me. If it makes sense to you too, join my online or in-person yoga classes. You will feel feel much calmer after!
Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash
