Is there a connection between mental health concerns and infertility/miscarriage? There’s a fascinating study published in 2011 in the Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences that says… yes!
A fertility clinic at the Tehran University in Iran looked at pregnancy outcomes after treating infertility patients for depression. After diagnosing 140 couples with depression, and having all factors about equal (years of infertility, years of marriage, age, occupation, and education level), they were divided into 2 groups. The group who received 6 months of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), 20-60mg daily of the anti-depressant fluoxetine, and individual therapy from a clinical psychologist BEFORE receiving infertility treatments had a 47% pregnancy rate. In this experimental group, they did not receive infertility treatment until their 6 months of psychiatric treatment were over. The control group, who received psychiatric treatment at the same time as infertility treatment, had a pregnancy rate of only 7%.
The other interesting thing about the results was that out of the 33 couples in the experimental group who conceived, 9 of the pregnancies were spontaneous, so they did not need assistive reproductive technologies!
What does this tell us? It underscores the importance of mental health and self-care before trying to conceive. When we want a baby, we tend to want to rush the process and get obsessed with it, but it’s better to take a step back. We need to make sure our mood is stable and we’re taking care of our mental and physical needs.
What if you already feel your mental condition is stable and you still struggle to conceive and carry to term? One thing you can do is take a probiotic supplement. This can rebalance your gut microflora, which are instrumental in producing neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. These neurotransmitters are crucial to stabilizing mood. Another simple way to boost neurotransmitters is to get regular exercise that you enjoy.
If you already exercise and take a probiotic supplement and your anxiety and depression are under control, you may need individualized help to get (and stay) pregnant. A comprehensive stool analysis (to see your gut bacteria) and a series of hormone tests throughout your cycle may be just what you need.
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation here to see if this may be the key to unlock your fertility!
