Understand Hormone Infertility
We find it blame hormones for all sorts of problems – water retention, crankiness, zits – but what is the actual role of hormones? Hormones have an important role to play in the reproductive cycle. If your hormones are out of whack then you could wind up experiencing problems with hormone infertility.
Generally speaking you could describe hormones as the body’s own built in thermostat. They regulate the amounts of various substances and hormones in your body so that it all works how it should, and more specifically, when it should. If you have hormones acting at the wrong time then you mayhave difficulties.
Conditions like hyperandrogenism (if you have too much male hormones), hypothyroidism (if your thyroid gland doesn’t work well), or luteal phase defect (caused by low progesterone levels) are all causes of hormone infertility. Now that’s a whole lot of long words that possibly don’t make mucha great deal of sense to you for now, but give me a minute and we might have this sorted out. You’ll notice from the following descriptions that the hormones are all interlinked.
For the ladies:
- Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) (produced by the hypothalamus) is believed to direct the pituitary gland to make LH and FSH. Keep reading if that doesn’t make sense!
- Luteinizing hormone (LH) stimulates the production of more hormones, estrogen and progesterone, by the ovaries. LH instructs the ovary to release a mature egg and instructs the remaining cells to form a bunch of yellow cells called a corpus luteum which produces progesterone.
- Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) gets the eggs ready to go. FSH instructsthe ovaries to make more estrogen so that more LH will be made.
- Estrogen – This hormone works jointly with progesterone to prepare the uterine lining to receive a fertilized egg to implant. It also makes the cervical mucus thinner and more watery at ovulation time so the sperm can move more easily.
- Progesterone – Assists estrogen to prepare the uterus.
- Prolactin – Prolactin tells your system to make milk and not eggs. This is helpful when you actually have a baby who is breastfeeding, but not so handy if you want to get pregnant. You might have additional prolactin if your thyroid gland isn’t functioning well.
So if you have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) your ovaries make excessive amounts of male hormones, like testosterone and your LH levels stay elevated while FSH levels are low, so it’s as though your system is telling your ovaries to release the egg even though it isn’t mature yet, like opening the oven before the cake is done. Obviously, that’s not good news. If your body produces too much insulin you might be at risk for PCOS.
If you have luteal phase defect then that means that the corpus luteum isn’t making enough progesterone so the lining of the uterus isn’t properly prepared so the fertilized egg has nowhere to go.
For the men:
- Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) – Also made by the hypothalamus, which, as it does in the woman, directs the pituitary gland to make FSH and LH.
- Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) & Luteinizing hormone (LH) tell the body when to make sperm and testosterone.
- Testosterone – Everyone knows what that one does!
So you can imagine that if one gland isn’t operating correctly, or if there is an excess or a lack of a hormone, infertility can be a consequence.
Some good news: it’s quite simple to test for hormone imbalances. Generally hormone problems are diagnosed through blood or urine testing. Aren’t you surprised that with all the thingsthat can go wrong the human race is still growing? If you are diagnosed with hormone infertility it is not a complete disaster as it can usually be simply treated with medication or possibly even surgery.
Here is more information on PCOS and Infertility. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Infertility.