Did you know that taxing your adrenal glands (those little organs that sit atop your kidneys)—with too many stimulants (like caffeine or fish oil capsules!), stress, and not enough sleep—could be affecting your fertility? Trying to start or expand your family can be stressful enough, but if your adrenals are taxed, that can make conceiving that much more difficult. Tired, worn out, overtaxed adrenals can affect both men and women’s fertility (this isn’t just about us ladies, gentlemen!).
When adrenals are overtaxed, it can contribute to reproductive issues in both men and women. The high levels of cortisol production from ongoing stress snowball into hormone imbalances, a feeling of constant fatigue, and even more stress and anxiety once fertility problems show up.
A study showed that stress and anxiety contribute to infertility in women partially because they increase the amount of cortisol in the blood. When cortisol levels remain elevated for an extended period of time, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) falls out of balance. That goes on to affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadotropic axis (HPG), which can “affect the hormonal profile in critical stages of the fertilization process.” When your hormones aren’t balanced, your fertility is compromised.
While the adrenals are working so hard to produce cortisol in response to ongoing stress, they’re dropping the ball on secretion of the other hormones necessary for fertility. The production of estrogen, progesterone, and DHEA takes a hit. Remember, cortisol is meant to be released short-term, in response to stress (fight-or-flight situations), so it wouldn’t normally interfere with these other hormones long-term, and fertility wouldn’t suffer. Chronic stress throws all of that out of whack. Eventually, the adrenal glands become too exhausted to keep up with the body’s cortisol demands and production of that drops off to lower than normal levels.
Even in men, an elevated rate of cortisol production can decrease fertility. In another study that looked at 60 subjects under fertility screening, the ones with the lowest sperm counts and motility were also the ones who had elevated cortisol serum levels. They had been under psychological stress for a prolonged period of time and their adrenals were working overtime to release cortisol. Adrenal fatigue can make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep at night, and a study in the Journal of Epidemiology showed that sleep disturbances, too, can alter semen quality. (As a side note, not getting enough sleep can contribute to adrenal fatigue, too, because it increases the production of cortisol, creating a vicious cycle.)
In addition to infertility, there are several other signs of adrenal fatigue, including:
In our society, where it sometimes feels as if everyone is “on” all the time and rushing from place to place, fueling yourself with the right foods and allowing yourself to relax and get a full night’s sleep each day may seem impossible. The last thing you want to hear when you’re all stressed out and struggling to get pregnant is, just relax! You probably want to shout at them, shut uuup!, even though that is one part of healing the adrenals and may help you get pregnant. To reverse the effects of adrenal fatigue, you need to nourish your body, mind, and soul. You have to train your body to slow down in order to keep moving forward, not run harder.
Relaxation may not be a switch you can flip the way those well-intentioned people seem to suggest when they find out you’re suffering from infertility, but making changes to your life will change your feelings of well-being overall. When you nourish yourself this way, by being careful about what you put into your body (and mind) and giving it time to rest and recuperate each day, you’ll find that you did “just relax” after all. It’s not exactly that simple because it may involve making some huge adjustments to your lifestyle, but teaching yourself to live a healthier, more balanced life will result in more happiness overall–and fertility in all areas of your life- including manifesting all your goals and dreams.
