Stress and Unexplained Infertility

TCM recognizes stress and emotional imbalance as one of the major reasons for being unable to conceive, which typically coincides with a Western diagnosis of unexplained infertility. TCM recognizes a pattern imbalance caused by emotional stress and has a treatment protocol to reverse this process.

Here are a few common effects of stress:

• Stress can affect the hypothalamus, which affects a women's ability to ovulate.
• Stress leads to the adrenals borrowing more progesterone to make more adrenal hormones, therefore chronic stress can lead to lowers progesterone levels.
• Stress can increase cortisol levels, which can blocks progesterone receptors and interfere with the embryo implanting into the uterine lining
• Stress can increase prolactin levels and interfere with ovulation.

More Detail:

In Chinese medicine, body, mind and emotions are an integrated whole with no beginning or end, in which the internal organs are the major sphere of influence. The emotions become causes of disease only when they are particularly intense and, most of all, when they are prolonged over a period of time, especially when they are not expressed or acknowledged.

Physician, Gabor Mate, explains in his book, "When the Body Says No - The Cost of Hidden Stress" the link between stress and disease and how stress affects the delicate balance of the hormonal system:

"Hormone production is intimately affected by psychological stress. Women have always known that emotional stress affects their ovarian function and their menstrual cycles. Excessive stress may even inhibit menstruation. The body's hormonal system is inextricably linked with the brain centres where emotions are experienced and interpreted. In turn, the hormonal apparatus and the emotional centres are interconnected with the immune system and the nervous system. These are not four separate systems, but one super system that functions as a unit It is impossible for any stressful stimulus, chronic or acute, to act on only one part of the super system. What happens to one will affect all."

TCM has recognized for thousands of years that stress has an effect on health and reproduction, and more recently so has western medicine. Current research has documented the benefits of acupuncture for stress relief. This new evidence may partly explain how acupuncture can help infertile couples by reducing the effects of stress on the body.

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