Link between stress and lower pregnancy rates.

According to a new study from the National Institutes of Health and the UK's University of Oxford, there is a link between the stress and lower pregnancy rates in women.

WebMD.com reports that the study “followed 274 couples trying to conceive for six months. None of the women in the study had a history of infertility, and all tracked their monthly cycles using at-home fertility kits. On their sixth cycle day each month, the women provided saliva samples that were tested for alpha-amylase and another stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol levels did not appear to influence conception during the six days when pregnancy was most likely to occur. But women with the highest alpha-amylase levels were roughly 12% less likely to get pregnant during each cycle than women with the lowest levels”.

English News.cn adds that Germaine Buck Louis, director of the division of epidemiology, statistics, and prevention research at the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development said: “Overall, 25 percent of the women in the study who had the highest alpha-amylase levels had roughly an estimated 12-percent reduction in getting pregnant each cycle in comparison to women with the lowest concentrations”.

So if you are trying to get pregnant, stress can reduce your opportunities. Now you have another reason for avoiding stress and to try to be happier!

By Patricia Rivero.