Does stress prevent conception?!

[BusyBee27]

I’m sure this has been discussed in the past, but I couldn’t see any recent posts about it and so I thought I’d start a new thread ...

Last month was our first month TTC (baby #1) and I got pretty stressed out by the TWW ... I’m a bit of an anxious, Type A character and I found the not knowing very difficult! I also have cycles of varying lengths, which makes it difficult to know what’s going on at any given time, ifykwim 🙈 Anyway, I decided to tell my parents that we’d started TTC (for support) and DM has been stressing me out every since by saying that I mustn’t get stressed or I’ll never get pregnant ... the thing is, that just makes me more stressed and now I’m stressing about being stressed, especially as my fertile period is fast approaching and I’ve spent the last ten days arguing with various tradesmen! 👎🏻

So, my question is: does stress really prevent conception, or just lower chances a bit? It it does, then what have you folks done to keep stress down whilst TTC? Stories of conception at times of extreme stress welcome!

Studies suggest not. TTC IS stressful and you can drive yourself mad. That's not a healthy way to live, really... and I think it's more about your sanity than chances of being successful.

I also an anxious type with irregular cycles. I also think it took a few months to get the pill out of my system. Stress hormones can prevent ovulation I think, but think of all the babies who are conceived and born in war zones! Or other extreme stress environments.

In a word, yes.

When you're stressed your body pumps out adrenaline and cortisol. This can block the creation of sex hormones which are essential for a healthy cycle. Your body will always preferentially produce stress hormones over sex hormones. Survival depends on it.

I asked my doctor about this and she told me that it’s unlikely. Obviously being as calm as possible helps, and not to plan things too much as this puts pressure on things.
Stress can obviously mess with your cycles and stuff but my doctor told me to start taking folic acid tablets so it’s already in the body. X

Thanks guys, good to hear other people’s thoughts! I’m trying hard not to stress about TTC, but we've had contractors in the last couple of weeks and lots of house-related issues, so I've been getting stressed about that instead 🙈

Oh and I haven’t been on hormonal birth control in years, so don’t think that’s causing the irregular cycles, sadly!

@Chesh: thanks, it’s helpful to hear that the doctor wasn’t overly concerned about it! Have you been TTC for long? Any tips for avoiding/reducing stress?!

@BusyBee27 I’ve been TTC with my other half for about 12 months or so on and off - by that I mean we were ‘trying’ but I wasn’t actively looking at my dates etc. We have been trying for about 4 months now where I’ve actually tracked my cycles and used apps etc.

I have recently had bad anxiety so I’ve taken up yoga and mindfulness kind of exercises. I do 5 minutes meditation using an app at night before I go to sleep and it seems to help me with the empty mind before bed.
The girl who works with me on it told me to read books that speak to me or listen to podcasts of people speaking about positivity and that kind of stuff but admittedly I haven’t done that yet!
Just fill your time with as much nice things as possible. X

Stress does weird, wonderful and awful things to our bodies.
Like a PP said, it messes with cortisol (adrenaline) which then messes with your hormones etc.

I’m proof of that as 2 years ago I spent a whole year working ridiculous hours and I made myself terribly ill. I was very stressed and my cortisol levels were reading triple what they should have been. It then had an effect on my hormone levels and I started experiencing early menopause symptoms.

Luckily I cut back and de-stressed in time before too much damage was done.
I’ve managed to conceive twice very quickly (one resulted in miscarriage)
So saying all of that, I think it would have to be a tremendous amount of stress with a mixture of bad eating, being generally unhealthy, working lots of hours, lack of sleep etc etc for there to be a lot of damage done.
Like someone else said, babies are conceived all the time during stressful periods in peoples lives. X