Is stress really stopping me getting preggers?

[MissLaRue]

I'm looking for some advice/tips anything really as I have been told that stress can reduce your chances of getting pregnant.
DH & I have been tring for a baby for 8 months. I know thats not long in the great scheme of things but to us it seems like a lifetime. We are both young ish, fit & healthy. None smokers, only drink occasionally. Healthy diet etc but I just can't seem to get preggers. We haven't had any kind of fertility tests as we are only 8 months in and I have heard you need to have been trying for at least a year to get any kind of treatment.
I am wondering if stress is stopping us conceiving. My DH has 2 kids who stay with us twice a week.. They are wonderful. They don't give us any hassle really, just the occasional strop. I get a bit stressed out with the ex w sometimes though. I had a promotion in October which is more work, more responsibility & more stress. Me & DH argue sometimes over work/kids/exw/money/no babies etc and I'm wondering if this is slowing us down?
Hubby doesn't have a stressful job. The only stress in his life is me! Any advice?

Hi, I am in a very similar situation to you, have been ttc for a year now, both young, fit non smokers, been monitoring my cycle, using opk, taking vitamins the works and still no BFP-dh says he is sure its not happening because I'm getting so stressed about it!
One of my closest friend was ttc for 5 years- got so upset and stressed, finally had a little girl through IVF, three months after she was born she was pregnant naturally! This makes me think that maybe stress does have some part to play-but who knows?! Only hope you get your BFP soon, do you know when you ovulate etc? Xx

I think stress does have an effect on trying to get pregnant. We started trying when my dear mum was ill, thinking it would cheer her up no end to hear she would be a grandma. Sadly it wasn't to be and then she got progressively worse and died. A few weeks after she died we tried again and fell straight away. When we tried for dd2 I fell straight away then too. My mum always fell pregnant pretty much immediately too. I'm sure the stress of the situation stopped me from conceiving. I think my body knew I wasn't ready for pregnancy yet.

Good luck anyway, hope you get there!

I do think there is a psychological link; on a physical level my consultant told me that your FT are made from the same tissue as your bowels and you know how your bowels can feel knotted and tense when you are stressed? He seems to think your FT react in the same way, to prevent unnecessary pressure [ie. pregnancy] in times of stress/trauma.

However ime the most patronising piece of TTC advice is to relax

Personally no I don't think it has anything to do with it, and its very patronising of anyone to say so . I've been TTC for about 20 months now. I was not at all bothered in the first few months, but no BFP. I had varying periods of stress, and non stress since. I lead a very active busy life and actually don't think about TTC that often. I'm not pregnant yet despite having a fairly low stress life. If "relax" was all I had to do I'd have been pregnant many times over.

Also re natural pregnancy after IVF, it's relatively common and I suspect has rather more to do with your body/hormones being kick started by pregnancy. I don't actually think mothers of newborns are that relaxed .

I don't want to rub it in but I am pg & I wouldn't say I had the most relaxed life... I have a 23mo DD, work 3 days a wk as a sci teacher, DH commutes to London for work & last month when we conceived, he was trying to get a new job & we were trying to sell our house. I would suggest that none of these things are particularly conducive to feeling stress-free!!

If stress plays a part, I suspect that it is down to not feeling in the mood for sex at the right times, perhaps causing you to eat less healthily or drink more caffeine, which may make your cells work less efficiently, producing less CM etc.

I have also heard many cases of women having babies after IVF. I agree with muddy I think the hormones have been 'kick started'. Look at Jools Oliver...

Finally, I suspect those 'we relaxed on hol & got pg' stories are down to the actually feeling like having lots of sex, regardless of whether its the 'right time' & therefore it becomes the right time.

Fingers crossed for you, hope you all get your BFPs soon.

Apparently generally high levels of stress over an extended period of time is not really the problem as your body adjusts to the higher stress levels but acute peaks in stress (due to a stressful event or an illness) can delay or suppress ovulation for that cycle.

I don't think we're saying that difficulty in conceiving is just caused by stress, but that if you are particularly stressed by something it may have an effect if you are trying at the time. Obviously there's all sorts of reasons why someone can't get pregnant.

I think personally stress can affect conception as if you're stressed and tired you want fancy having much sex. I've never noticed stress having an effect on my cycles. I've heard people say that stop stressing about ttc if you want to get pregnant but who STARTS off being stressed by it?! I'd guess the vast majority of people are very relaxed about ttc for the first few months at least, it's only when you've been trying for a while and it's not happening it becomes stressful.

Nevertheless I do make an effort to stay relaxed. Yoga is great and I'll try to book a massage in for around ovulation - only done this twice but the first time I did this I concieved (sadly mc) and the second time was last week so fingers crossed, it can't do any harm and is nice!

oh and I have acupuncture, it's nice to feel like you are doing something positive if nothing else.