Stress Hormones and Fertility: Stress May Prevent Release Of GnRH
We all know that stress can impact fertility. Fight or flight responses affect hormones and so on. But another hormone, GnRH is also affected and a lack of this hormone prevents other hormones from releasing at the right time.see also: www.getpregnantover40.com for more on stress, hormones, and infertility
Gonadotropin-Inhibitory Hormone can prevent the release of GNRH and it has a connection with stress. We've all probably heard of cortisol as the stress hormone, but this article talks about GNIH and how it can cause hormonal imbalance.
So there really is a reason to take a "procreation vacation". Read more:
New research from the University of California Berkeley is also showing that stress can also impact fertility by causing the increase of another reproductive hormone called Gonadotropin-Inhibitory Hormone (GnIH). This hormone further impedes procreation by preventing the GnRH hormone from being released.
"Stress had already been shown to affect all those other more traditional players in the sex hormone cascade but no one had looked at GnIH yet," says Elizabeth Kirby, a member of the research team. "So, our research basically adds a new piece to the puzzle of sex and reproduction - a new hormone known to suppress reproduction is also now known to increase in response to stress."
from
chicagotribune.com