<h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666699;"><span style="color: #808080;">How Much Does Stress Impact My Fertility?</span> </span></h3>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #666699;">When we talk about "stress" we do not mean the normal daily routine of our crazy, hurried lives. We do not mean anxiety created about a deadline coming up or the length of our to-do lists, which are specific issues that may change our priorities temporarily. The fundamental truth is that our modern lives have created unparalleled levels of depression, anxiety and stress. Expectations and demands come as a result of societal and family pressure, not to mention financial and career anxiety that underlies everything.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #666699;">Our program goes to the heart of the matter and counter-balances stress with deep relaxation.  And we take it one step further and provide visualization exercises that track to your monthly cycle, opening the mind-body connection.  Underlie that with wonderful alpha-state music that sets the stage for peace and tranquility. </span></p>

<h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #808000;"><span style="color: #6c6c6c;">Stress negatively impacts our fertility. And unfortunately, stress is compounded when we try to conceive month after month, creating a downward spiral that is difficult to break.</span>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><br id="w592" /><span style="color: #666699;">You may have heard countless stories of couples who give up on pregnancy and finally elect to adopt, and then miraculously get pregnant.  Or, they go on vacation to forget their tribulations with their infertility struggle, and then viola, they get pregnant while away.  Up until now, such anecdotal stories were just that - wives tales that had the effect of causing even more stress on infertile couples making them think the failure to conceive was their fault. </span><br id="n0re0" /></p>

<h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #6c6c6c;">Recent studies conducted by leading researchers in the infertility field are impressive and starting to gain increased attention from the medical establishment:</span></h4>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666699;">Emory University's Dr. Sarah Berga describes the link between stress and infertility with the fact that the hypothalamus is fertility's "master of ceremonies," a major nerve center in the brain that ALSO is the regulator and receptor of stress, emitting cortisol when needed to keep our bodies in balance.  Let us repeat this extraordinary fact:  a walnut-sized portion of our brain  - the hypothalamus -  handles BOTH stress and the functioning of our reproductive system, underscoring that every month there is a very delicate interplay of hormones leading to successful ovulation.</span><br id="a9kj1" /></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #666699;">As outlined in the article entitled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/health/04conv.html">"A Low-Tech Approach to Fertility:  Just Relax"</a> published by <em>The New York Times</em>, Dr. Berga's studies are summarized here:</span></p>

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	<li><span style="color: #666699;">A cascade of events, beginning with stress, leads to reduced levels of two hormones crucial for ovulation.</span></li>
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	<li><span style="color: #666699;">In a study of 16 women reported in 2003 journal of Fertility and Sterility, Dr. Berga showed that ovulation was restored in 7 of 8 women who underwent cognitive behavioral therapy, compared with 2 of 8 who did not get therapy.</span></li>
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	<li><span style="color: #666699;">The research she had done along with her published studies, "small but scrupulous, are starting to convince her critics."</span></li>
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	<li><span style="color: #666699;">In 2006, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &amp; Metabolism, she reported that women who did not ovulate had excessive levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in the brain fluid.</span></li>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><br id="f_my" /><span style="color: #666699;">Other studies and data points include the following:<br id="o.:_1" /></span></p>

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	<li><span style="color: #666699;">Recent studies conducted at Harvard Medical School on 184 women going through relaxation training for infertility:  55% had a viable pregnancy within one year, compared to only 20% of the control group achieving a viable pregnancy;</span></li>
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	<li><span style="color: #666699;">In a study with women undergoing donor sperm insemination, those with higher levels of anxiety prior to undergoing inseminations took significantly longer to conceive (Demyttenaere, Nijs, Steeno and Koninckx, 1988);</span></li>
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	<li><span style="color: #666699;">Women who were not stressed and/or depressed before starting IVF treatment had a conception rate twice as high as women who were stressed and/or depressed before treatment (Thiering, Beaurepaire, Jones &amp; Saunders, 1993);</span></li>
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	<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #666699;">Research has shown that women undergoing treatment for infertility have a similar, and often higher, level of stress as women dealing with life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.  In addition, they report that "infertile couples experience chronic stress each month, first hoping that they will conceive and then dealing with the disappointment if they do not.  When diagnosed with infertility, many couples may no longer feel in control of their bodies or their life plan.  Infertility can be a major crisis because of the important life goal of parenthood is threatened.</span></li>
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