Fertility & Stress

Fertility & Stress

9th February 2016 05:28 PM

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How can a belief you don't even know you hold affect your fertile body?

If you are experiencing fertility issues, it is vital to care for your emotional health, and to plan your emotional support structure.

The fertility journey is often stressful, and if you are feeling even a little bit irritable, anxious, tense or angry, the hormones released are quite different to those released when you are feeling happy and relaxed.

Here's the technical bit... Hormones from the part of the brain called the hypothalamus, which links the brain to the nervous system, stimulate hormones in the pituitary gland, which controls various bodily functions, which stimulate hormones in the ovary, which release a luteinising hormone, which drives the ovary and triggers ovulation.

For many ladies, this complex sounding sequence of events happens automatically and without any fuss every month, for years and years and years...including all of the years she is actively trying not to get pregnant, and perhaps using contraception...and then things sometimes change, for no apparent reason, other than the fact that the woman is no longer trying not to get pregnant.  She is now trying to get pregnant.

So what happens?  In some cases, the perception of pregnancy alone can prevent a woman from conceiving.  She may have been raised with a set of values which could include something along the lines of it being wrong to have sex or get pregnant.  Some parents instil fear into their children about what might happen if they 'bring any trouble home.'  So somewhere in the subconscious mind of many women (and men) is something about sex being wrong, naughty, dirty, and a possible pregnancy leading to shame, embarrassment and certainly trouble.  Of course, this isn't the case for many people, but for those who have grown up with that set of beliefs, it can be quite difficult to suddenly persuade the subconscious that sex and pregnancy are perfectly healthy, wonderful concepts, and the subconscious mind can be quite stubborn when it comes to shifting these beliefs.

There are therapeutic techniques which can help change limiting beliefs and create a warm and nurturing approach towards sex and pregnancy, and for many people, simply changing their beliefs (beliefs they are often quite unaware that they have) can lead to a fertile body and pregnancy. 

For the first couple of months of trying for a pregnancy, the onset of the menstrual period may not be too disappointing, but when a couple have been trying for several months, or even years, worry can set in, and any stress, or upset of the hypothalamus (brain talk again, sorry) can affect the finely tuned sequence of events mentioned earlier, affecting your fertile body.

Stress can subtely undermine the entire process, whether your fertility is natural or assisted, whether it is causing a delay to your monthly period, or causing you to tense up even slightly during IVF injections or by causing sleeplessness and generally disturbing your emotional balance.

Anything you can do to relieve that stress response changes every organ and feedback system in the body, and by accepting psychological and emotional support on your fertility journey, and creating a strong mind-body connection, you can help to relieve some of this stress, bringing you into a state of emotional, physical and psychological balance, where you will be best equipped to deal with whatever outcomes your fertility journey brings to you.

 

Franca is an experienced Hypnotherapist, Counsellor and Mind Coach with a broad range of expertise; specialising in Anxiety, Sexual Issues and Fertility Issues.  See her website for more details.

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Treatments: Hypnotherapy

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The views expressed in these blogs are those of the blog authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Bridge Centre for Natural Health.