Fertility and the Mind-Body Connection

Stress and Infertility

According to Alice D. Domar, Director of Women’s Health Programs at the Mind/Body Institute at Harvard Medical School, women trying unsuccessfully to become pregnant have levels of stress equivalent to women with cancer, HIV, and heart disease. Study after study shows the link between high levels of stress and infertility. Women (and men) who are struggling with infertility are often told to “Just relax!” But … relax, how?

Often relaxation is hampered by immediate concerns and worries: high gas prices, job insecurities, money worries. Sometimes it’s long-term habits, conditions and traits that get in the way, and stay in the way: perfectionism, depression, full-blown anxiety, grief.

Hypnotherapy and the Energies Therapies are invaluable resources in healing blocks to conception and/or to carrying babies to full-term. By developing and maintaining a relaxation response in the body, you are promoting fertility, as well as overall good health.

Hypnosis and IVF

In the May 2006 issue of The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, an article entitled “Fertility and Sterility” broke some important ground. The article reports the findings of researchers at the Academic Fertility and IVF Unit, Soroka Medical Center, in Beer-Sheva, Israel, who set out “to combine the benefits provided by hypnosis, such as anxiety and stress reduction, with the most awaited and therefore stressful event during IVF – the transfer of embryos into the woman’s uterus – with the objective of improving pregnancy and implantation rates.”

The result?

• A significantly higher pregnancy rate was observed in the hypnosis group compared with the regular embryo transfer cycles.
• Significantly reduced stress indicators during and after the implantation.

Bottom line?

If you know someone who has had difficulty conceiving, suggest hypnotherapy. It works!

And my own note on the subject: Let’s stop calling them infertility treatments and begin to use the more positive (and accurate) fertility treatment, instead. Remember that the subconscious mind is very literal. Words matter!

Helping women – and men – “call in their babies” is a special joy for me.