What if I told you that stress was the most important thing that you need to
address on your fertility journey? And what if I can show you why it's a problem
and give you some tips on what you can do to address it? Well, that's exactly what
we're going to talk about in this episode of Fertility TV. So, keep watching to learn more.
My name is Dr. Marc Sklar, also known as the fertility expert, and welcome to Fertility TV,
your YouTube channel dedicated to helping you get pregnant. I've been working with couples
for over 18 years from all over the world in my online Fertility Hope coaching programs and right
here in San Diego at my clinics. But before we get started talking about stress and fertility, I want
to invite you all to join me for a free training that I'm going to be hosting for all of you. We're
going to be talking about fertility, stress, all the things you could be doing to support that
and manage that. But also so much more, because I can't talk about it all in this video or,
and sometimes, in all of my videos, and that's why I'm going to do that free training, but you've got
a register to join me for that. And you can do that by using the link in the description below.
I know that many, if not all of you have been told, just relax and you'll get pregnant.
Don't stress about it. Listen, I'm sure you're tired of hearing that and so am I. I hate
hearing it because it's really not practical advice. So, I want to give you some practical
information and advice on ways that you can manage your stress. But before we get into it, let's
talk about the ins and outs of stress and how it affects your fertility. If you didn't have stress
before you started trying to get pregnant, and many of us have stress for all sorts of reasons,
whether it's family life, friendships, work, just managing too many things and trying to get
too many things done all at the same time, we all have stress in varying degrees. But
certainly the fertility journey and the longer you're on it, after months and months of trying,
and not having the results that you want, can certainly put more added pressure on you and which
increases your stress and potentially your anxiety and makes things more difficult.
It makes your relationship with your partner more difficult and just managing life a little bit more
difficult. So, we need more support when it comes to stress. And we do know that stress dramatically
impacts our fertility, our reproductive function, our hormones, ovulation and menstruation,
and these are all valuable things that need to be regulated, and they're hard enough to regulate
without added stress. So, what is it that's going on in the body and what does it do to the
body that is impacting your fertility? So, several recent studies have found a link between a woman's
day-to-day stress levels and their ability to get pregnant. And I'm going to read this to you.
"Women whose saliva had high levels of alpha-amylase, an enzyme that marks stress
that you can track," it's an enzyme they can track that when stress increases, this enzyme increases.
"Took 29% longer to get pregnant compared to those who had less." That's dramatic, right?
I mean, that's over a quarter more time to get pregnant than those who didn't. So, that's just
one example. Your body is smart, it's really amazing, it knows what to do. And it knows that
when you're having increased stress, whether it's a short period of time or a longer period of time,
that it's not the ideal time to get pregnant. And when stress increases, odds are that you're having
less sex with your partner, you're smoking more and you're drinking more to cope with the stress.
Women cope with stress differently. Where men might want to have more sex, women
typically want to have less. And so, we look for different ways to cope,
and that's where the alcohol potentially, and smoking come in, maybe even marijuana. And these
are all ways that we all cope with stress, but they're not the ideal ways to cope with stress.
Actually, when we have more stress in our lives, we need to rely
more on our good coping mechanisms. This is not the time to abandon healthy eating, slow down on
exercise and not do things that bring you joy in life. This is the time to do more of those things,
because that is the right way to manage your stress, and to allow you to cope better. We
also know that stress hormones like cortisol, which is just one of your stress hormones,
can actually disrupt the signaling of the brain to the ovaries, which can disrupt ovulation. That's
not ideal when we're trying to have a baby and know when we're ovulating at the right time,
so you can time intercourse appropriately. ...Are struggling with fertility issues,
have the same amount of stress as those women who are dealing with cancer or HIV. That's dramatic.
I mean, when you're going through cancer and HIV, those are life-threatening issues,
and we know that women who are going through fertility issues have the same anxiety and
depression as those other women. That's impactful to our overall health and certainly our fertility.
Additionally, stress can impact your sleep, your quality of sleep. So, when you have increased
amounts of stress, you can potentially also have a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep.,
so that we don't get the same quality of sleep. And this is the time where we actually
need better quality of sleep, because this is what allows us to rest, recover and regulate
our body. And if we can't sleep properly and get good quality sleep for enough amount of time,
then those things are also compromised. Three tips, three things that you can do right
now to improve the way you manage your stress. But before I get there, I want to hear from all
of you. Did you know all of this, about stress? Did you know how it impacts your fertility,
how it impacts your body's ability to regulate your menstrual cycle? If you did, comment
below. And if you didn't, comment below. Let me know. I want to hear from all of you. Okay. So,
tip number one, exercise. This is the time to exercise. It's not the time to stop exercising,
which is what I hear all the time. "I've been so stressed and so busy that I just haven't had the
time to exercise." I'm telling you, this is the time where you need to do more. And it doesn't
need to be crazy extreme. You could just go for more walks. You can go for a little run
or a light jog. You can go for a bike ride. You can go for a hike. Whatever it is,
this is the time to exercise more, or keep it consistent versus pulling back on that. Exercising
releases endorphins. It allows our body to feel good, feel more euphoric, feel happy and joyful,
and this helps to regulate your stress levels. This is a wonderful way for you to manage your
stress levels and something to help also manage your overall health. So, exercise
is tip number one. Cognitive behavioral therapy. Women who actively engaged in
cognitive behavioral therapy were twice as likely to conceive than those who didn't.
So, what is cognitive behavioral therapy? It is actually psychotherapy. This is talk
therapy. This is where you can go to a trained counselor who can help guide you, work through
your issues, work through your stressful issue, maybe even work through your relationship issues,
to help you manage them better. This is such an important piece. First,
let me address the elephant in the room. No one wants to go to therapy, right? But it is so
valuable and so helpful for all of us, especially for fertility. If it can increase your chances of
getting pregnant twofold, wouldn't you want to do that? Even if you don't do it all the time,
just the tips and the tools that they impart on you, and the time that you create the space that
you create to sit down and do cognitive behavioral therapy, is so beneficial and it shows that you
are committed to the process. So, that is tip number two. Tip number three is something you
can take. So, this product right here is called Nirvanagaba. This helps you with stress relief,
with helping you sleep better and overall regulating your stress levels. I actually
helped to formulate this product right here so I know exactly what's in it, which is Ashwagandha,
a special type of Ashwagandha, and Gaba. And they work beautifully to help regulate
stress levels, to help you sleep. And in turn, that may also help you to get pregnant. So,
this is a wonderful little product right here. You just take one pill twice a day.
Not my company at all, I just helped them formulate the product. But in return,
they're allowing me to give all of you a discount. So, you can get 10% off if you use the code, when
you check out, DRSKLAR, D-R-S-K-L-A-R. We're going to put that code down below in the description
with the link, so that if you want to check it out, you can get it right there. Now there's
so many things that we can do to improve our fertility and manage our stress for that matter,
but I couldn't talk about all of it in this video, which is why I'm doing a free training.
I'd love to have you all join me for that free training. I'm going to dive deeper into stress,
how you can manage it, things you can do to take care of your stress.
And of course, so many other things that you can do to improve your fertility.
But you've got to register to join me. So, I'm going to invite you all to join me for that,
by registering using the link in the description below. I'd love to see you there. All right. So,
if you found this information helpful, let me know. Leave a comment, tell me what's the one
thing you're going to try now of the three tips I gave you to manage your stress. So,
let me know by commenting below. And by the way, when you do comment below,
it allows this video to be seen by more women who need help on their fertility journeys,
so by commenting, you're helping a lot of women throughout the world get pregnant. That's awesome
and so impactful. So, thank you for doing that. If you like this video, give me a thumbs up.
If you are not already a subscriber to my YouTube channel, that's right, if you're not a subscriber
to my YouTube channel, then you should be, so hit that bell to subscribe and get notified
when I put out a new video for all of you. If you want to check out some of my other videos,
I'm going to leave them right here for you guys as well. And until the next video,
I want you all to stay safe, stay healthy, and most of all... That's right. Stay fertile.