London – It has long been thought that stress can hinder a woman’s chances of getting pregnant.
Now science may have an answer to the problem.
Researchers discovered that cutting levels of a recently discovered hormone called RFRP3 stopped stress from affecting pregnancy rates.
The breakthrough offers hope of a drug that could switch off the effects of stress on the body.
One in six couples today have trouble starting a family naturally so an effective treatment could have a huge impact.
RFRP3 is produced in the brains of all mammals and has the effect of switching off the reproductive system before puberty.
It is thought it is released to protect the body at times of stress – so shuts down reproduction when it might be harmful for a woman to conceive.
The team at the University of California, Berkeley, at first tested whether the hormone can also shut down reproduction later in life.
They put female rats under psychological pressure for several hours a day for almost three weeks and then tried to mate them. The stressed-out creatures were less interested in mating and when they did get pregnant, they were more likely to miscarry than usual.
As a result, their odds of giving birth plummeted to a quarter of the usual number.
Importantly, the effects of stress were felt long after the animals’ lives returned to normal.
Those given four days recovery from stress – the equivalent of a month for a woman – had birth rates just as poor as creatures that were still highly stressed.
Crucially, amounts of RFRP3 remained high. Researcher Daniela Kaufer said: ‘Our study shows that the dramatic decrease of reproductive functions lingers well beyond the end of stress and beyond the time when we see high levels of stress hormones in the blood.
‘This can explain the high incidence and long-lasting effects of stress on human infertility.’ Professor Kaufer then showed that reducing RFRP3 stopped stress from affecting fertility.
Rats with low amounts of the hormone were just as likely to get pregnant as others, despite being stressed.
The professor said: ‘That was extremely surprising. It was the best case scenario you could imagine.’
The study’s lead author Anna Geraghty said: ‘A strikingly high proportion of healthy women struggle with fertility and our findings provide a new focus for the clinical study of human reproductive health.’
The technique used to lower levels of RFRP3 in the study may not be suitable for use in women.But scientists can now look for a drug that has the same effect.
Professor Kaufer, who is also a yoga instructor, acknowledges that it may well be questioned whether a stress-busting drug is appropriate, when a change in lifestyle can aid relaxation.
But she said: ‘It is not always as easy as that. I can tell people to beat stress but it is not always feasible.’
Professor Geeta Nargund, medical director of the Create Fertility clinic in London, agreed that stress can affect fertility. She said: ‘Most women are multi-tasking and modern life is stressful.
‘This is an interesting study. If the results can be reproduced in humans, it could have positive implications in addressing stress-related infertility.’
But Professor Charles Kingsland, of the Hewitt Fertility Centre at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, said that everyday stress has the potential to harm fertility only if worries become so overwhelming that a woman has trouble eating and sleeping.
Daily Mail