It is not entirely clear exactly how stress affects fertility. There is no confirmed evidence that increased stress levels interfere with pregnancy or affect conception. There is evidence that reducing stress levels contributes to a better quality of life during a difficult period of life.
What is stress?
Stress is usually called an event that a person perceives / feels as a threat. To protect itself, the body modulates the body's fight-or-flight response.
What impact can stress have on a patient undergoing fertility treatment?
Sometimes in patients who are being treated for infertility, stress arises against the background of difficulties in conception, overly active treatment and procedures. Other patients withdraw into themselves and isolate themselves from family, friends, and society. None of these extremes are appropriate for patients seeking to cure infertility and start a family.
How can I reduce my stress levels on my own?
Reducing the stress in your life while undergoing fertility treatment alone can help you get pregnant. However, developing a stress management strategy to manage the stress associated with infertility diagnosis and treatment can help you feel more confident and improve your overall health.
It has been found that stress interferes with making rational, well-considered decisions. Reducing stress levels helps patients explore, explore, and accept all possible solutions to problems more consciously. By reducing stress levels, the pros and cons of different treatment options can be looked at and analyzed more effectively.
Reducing stress levels has a positive effect on health. While there is no expectation that fertility treatment will be stress-free, finding ways to minimize stress during treatment can be of great help to patients. It is helpful for patients to seek out methods of lightening their burden in fertility treatments.
There are many methods to help reduce stress levels; some of the most popular methods recommended for patients undergoing fertility treatment are presented below:
- Acupuncture
- Aerobics (may need to be reduced during treatment)
- Interact with experts in the field of stress management
- Guided imagination
- Keeping a diary
- Listening to music
- Massage
- Meditation
- Body-oriented groups
- Mindfulness
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- Psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy
- Self-help books
- Support and educational groups
- Visualization
- Walking / Hiking
- Yoga
How can I help my friend / lover?
Our friends and loved ones can face challenges. Advice that patients need to be less nervous can make them feel responsible for provoking their own infertility and cause guilt about it. Advice to just relax can add more stress. However, it is worth asking how your partner / friend is feeling and suggesting concrete and practical ways to deal with stress. This can improve the quality of life and partially restore the patient's sense of self-confidence. For many people who are being treated for infertility, it is very important to just have friends / loved ones who will be there and can listen.
The goal of stress reduction is to minimize, not ignore, stress by finding techniques that best suit the needs of patients.
