New research on stress and infertility

The breaking news published online in the journal Fertility and Sterility and summarized this week in the Science section of the New York Times, (Old Maxim of Fertility and Stress Is Reversed) is that women who stopped using contraceptives took longer to become pregnant if they had higher saliva levels of the enzyme alpha-amylase -- a biological indicator of stress.

Specifically, women with the highest concentrations of alpha-amylase were 12 percent less likely to become pregnant each month than those with the lowest levels.

So what are the implications of this new research? The researchers say theirs is the first study to link a biomarker for stress with delayed conception in normal, healthy women, and they suggest that identifying ways to reduce or manage stress may be a low-tech solution for some couples diagnosed with infertility.