"The Role of Stress Levels in Infertility: What you can do to minimize the deleterious effects"
by Sheila Scharnowski, RNC, MS
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Reproductive Endocrinology
Colorado Reproductive Endocrinology
Introduction
For those who have not yet achieved an ongoing pregnancy, the anguish of waiting and repetitive cycle failures engender sorrow and despair. As time goes on, the prolonged cumulative effect of this stress can actually cause physiological responses counter productive to reproduction. In the paragraphs below the escalating stages of despair are described and relaxation ideas are suggested to help you counteract the deleterious effects of stress.
Infertility strikes one couple in six. The older a women the more likely she is to need medical intervention to conceive. In this most intimate area of a couple's life the stress of medical treatments demands escalating amounts of time, emotional investment and money. A woman, undergoing infertility therapy herself, wrote the following quote that eloquently expresses the anguish of an infertility patient.
"My infertility is a blow to my self-esteem,
a violation of my privacy,
an assault on my sexuality
a final exam on my ability to cope,
an affront to my sense of justice
a painful reminder that nothing
can be taken for granted.
My infertility is a break in the continuity of life.
It is above all a wound…
To my body, to my psyche, to my soul."
-Jorgensen, l981. On healing. Resolve Newsletter, Dec., 1.
The "wound" to the psyche and soul that Ms Jorgensen addresses in her quote is the area where patients can make a difference in their own treatment and the subject of this article. The physician is providing the very best medical care for the "body" but to treat the "wound to the psyche and soul" will require the mental participation of the patient. This article will empower the infertility client to take charge of the progressive stress levels engendered by infertility treatments by explaining:
- The progression of infertility's despair.
- The consequences to reproductive function that stress can cause.
- And how to utilize joyful and relaxing activities to diminish stress.
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