The Fact
In a prospective study of 259 healthy women, high daily perceived stress was associated with 9.5% lower estradiol, 10.4% lower free estradiol, 10.4% lower luteal progesterone, 14.8% lower luteinizing hormone and 2.2 times the odds of not ovulating compared with low daily stress.
What This Means
Stress is not only a feeling. Her stress system can change measurable endocrine signals. Because estradiol and progesterone perform jobs throughout the brain and body, a stress-related shift in those signals can reach far beyond reproduction.
A woman living under chronic pressure may be experiencing a physiological endocrine change at the same time she is being told she is simply “stressed.”
Sources
- Schliep KC et al. Perceived stress, reproductive hormones, and ovulatory function: a prospective cohort study. Epidemiology. 2015. PMID: 25643098.