Stress and fertility

When your body is under stress and needs more cortisol, the body may have to direct resources from other areas to make that cortisol.  In this case it would draw upon the hormones pregnenolone and progesterone. Pregnenolone is necessary for the production of DHEA, testosterone and oestrogen (all of which are necessary for pregnancy) and progesterone which nourishes the lining of the uterus before and during pregnancy. This causes two more problems.

First, a percentage of progesterone is being used to make cortisol.  You can NOT make cortisol without progesterone.  The adrenal glands literally steal the progesterone, which leads to lower levels of progesterone in the rest of the body.  This throws off the balance of progesterone to estrogen which affects fertility and causes PMS, hot flashes, and night sweats.  This is significant problem for women in pre- and post- menopausal stages, when hormone production becomes highly dependent on the adrenal glands!

Secondly, it reduces the available pregnenolone that is needed to produce DHEA, testosterone and estrogen which means it produces less of these anti-aging pregnancy hormones. Consequently not only does this affect fertility but it speeds up the aging process also.