by Mark Henderson, Science Editor
A study into the effects of therapy offers new hope to thousands of women
STRESS may be one of the main causes of female infertility, preventing thousands of otherwise healthy women in Britain from starting a family.
Many women who struggle to conceive could increase their chances greatly by learning to cope more effectively with the stress of daily life, scientists said yesterday.
Research in the United States has shown that psychological treatment designed to relieve stress can achieve spectacular results, restoring fertility to women who do not ovulate or menstruate.
The findings suggest that teaching stress-reduction techniques could be one of the most effective ways of treating this condition, known as amenorrhea, which affects up to one in ten women of reproductive age, and is caused by stress about half of the time. The work could also be significant for a much larger group of women, who still ovulate and have periods, but whose fertility is impaired by the effects of stress, researchers told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Prague.
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