By Meghan Belnap
What do hormones have to do with fertility? In a word, everything. Without the correct hormonal balance, you can’t get pregnant at all. Once you understand your hormones, you can use this knowledge to increase your chances of getting pregnant.
What Hormones Are Involved?
Hormones control a woman’s monthly cycle. To start the cycle off, the pituitary gland releases the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). This hormone tells your ovaries to start maturing eggs. As the follicles mature, estrogen levels go up. Once they reach a certain level, your body knows the egg is ready, and the pituitary gland will produce a luteinizing hormone (LH) whichcausesthe ovary to release the egg.
At this point in the cycle, the body will have increased levels of progesterone. This hormone prepares the uterine lining for pregnancy. If the egg is fertilized, hCG will be produced and progesterone levels will continue to raise. If not, they will fall and the menstrual period will begin.
Getting pregnant has a lot to do with timing, and that timing depends on hormones. If her hormones are all balanced, a woman is most fertile a few days before ovulation.
What Can Go Wrong?
Besides FSH, LH, hCG, progesterone, and estrogen, the body also produces prolactin. Prolactin stimulates milk production, but it also affects menstruation and ovulation. If your body has too much prolactin in the blood, it will inhibit FSH and block the triggering of ovulation. This is why women typically don’t ovulate or conceive when they are breastfeeding (source: Parenting).
If the body has too much or too little of any of the necessary hormones, the menstruation cycle and fertility can be disrupted. For example, if the body doesn’t produce LH, or the LH is inhibited in any way, you will not ovulate and will not be able to get pregnant.
What Influences Hormonal Balance?
The delicate hormone balance in the body can be influenced by a few different factors, such as:
- Weight. Body fat cells store estrogen, causing lower-than-normal estrogen levels. This can lead to cycle irregularities and infertility issues.
- Thyroidproblems. The thyroid plays a big role in hormone production. If the thyroid is producing too many or too few hormones, the menstruation cycle may be disrupted.
- Stress. The stress hormone, known as cortisol, inhibits sex hormones, contributing to infertility.
- Nutrition. If you aren’t getting enough vitamins, minerals, and fluids, your body will not function properly. Additionally, food with human-made chemicals can damage your endocrine glands, which will throw your hormones out of balance.
- Chemicals. Chemicals from other sources besides food can also have similar negative effects in the body. Xenohormones are also a concern—human-made chemicals that act like hormones in your body. They either change natural hormones or inhibit their production/reception.
What Can Improve the Balance?
If hormone imbalance is lowering your fertility, there are things you can do to return your hormone levels to normal.
Do your best to keep your body healthy. Get plenty of exercise, eat a healthy diet, and get enough sleep. Also try to lower stress levels in your life. Healthy exercise and nutrition will help with stress levels, but look into other ways of stress management such as relaxation techniques.
A hormone doctor, like Dr. John Jain, reproductive endocrinologist, can run blood and/or saliva tests to look for imbalances that may be contributing to infertility. If an imbalance is found, he or she can prescribe medicines to correct the problem. One method is to inject artificial hormones into your body. These can either fool the brain into triggering processes like ovulation, or can block hormone receptors.
If you are struggling with infertility, don’t give up hope yet. Your problem could be the result of a hormone imbalance. Talk to a fertility doctor or endocrinologist about testing your body’s chemical balance, and do all you can to keep your body healthy and regular.