"Stress really can be a cause of infertility, in men and in women, and it can be managed," said Professor Sarah Berga, of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, at a fertility conference.

    Berga said a combination of small stresses can cause amenorrhea, a lack of monthly periods and ovulation, which has previously been associated with under-nutrition and excessive exercise.

    Berga said that people often tried to deal with stress by exercising, but experiments showed that this only raised stress levels further. Likewise, lounging around at home was not enough to reduce anxiety.

    In a small pilot study, Berga and her team tested the impact of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) on women of normal weight who had suffered from amenorrhea for more than six months.

    A total of 16 women aged between 20 and 35 with stress-related amenorrhea, were split into two groups. Half received 20 weeks of CBT, a form of psychotherapy that was designed to adjust their way of thinking and reduce their stress levels. The other half did not receive any therapy.

    "A staggering 80 percent of the women who received CBT started to ovulate again, as opposed to only 25 percent of those randomized to observations," said Berga, adding that their levels of cortisol had also dropped.

    Two women who received CBT became pregnant shortly after finishing the treatment.

    "This study underlines the important contribution that lifestyle factors make in determining overall health and reproductive health in particular."

    Berga is beginning a study of between 2,000 and 4,000 women to further investigate the link between stress and fertility. "If the larger scale study confirms our earlier results, we will have very strong evidence for offering stress reduction as an effective therapy for a significant group of infertile women," she said. Enditem

(Agencies)