Hi gals,
I came across this article.. enjoy reading!!
Question: I'm feeling stressed out lately -- Will this affect my chances of getting pregnant?
Answer: It might stress can interfere with getting pregnant. In fact, if you're stressed because you're having a hard time getting pregnant, people often say, "just relax, and it will happen." Although this can be insulting, there's a kernel of truth to it.
That's because stress can affect the functioning of the hypothalamus the gland in the brain that regulates appetite, emotions, as well as the hormones required to release the eggs. If you're stressed out, you may ovulate later in your cycle or not at all. So if you're only having sex around day 14 thinking this is when you're about to ovulate then you're probably not going to get pregnant.
It's important to differentiate between constant and sudden stress. Your body often acclimates to constant, everyday stresses so you'll probably ovulate fairly consistently each cycle. It's the sudden stress a death in the family, divorce that can throw your cycle off and interfere with conceiving. But this varies from woman to woman. Some women find that even a trip out of town can delay ovulation; others find that a severely traumatic incident doesn't impact their cycle at all.
It's also important to note that positive stress can also affect your cycle; you might ovulate later or not at all. Brides often report strange cycles because they're happily stressed about their weddings. It doesn't matter that the stress is good it can still affect ovulation.
If you're trying to get pregnant and you're under stress, your cervical fluid may give you a warning that something's wrong. Rather than noticing increasing cervical wetness as you approach ovulation, you might find patches of wetness interspersed with dry days it's as if your body is trying to ovulate, but the stress continues to delay it. You won't know that you've ovulated unless you're tracking your basal body temperature and you see the sustained rise about a day after ovulation.
The good news is that delayed ovulation lengthens your entire cycle; it does not shorten the luteal phase the period typically lasting 12 to 16 days after ovulation to the start of your next menstrual period. This is important because a short luteal phase has been linked to early miscarriage. So while stress may screw up your ovulation, it won't necessarily mess with your chances of a successful pregnancy.