Research on Work-Related Stress & Infertility?

Question - Research on Work-Related Stress & Infertility?:

"Is there research or information on work related stress and infertility?"

Answer:

Yes, there is...

First, there are noted relationships between stress in general and fertility issues. This makes common sense because of how susceptible our endocrine (hormonal) system is to stressors of all kinds.

Second, there are some studies that have actually looked at the more specific work-related stress connections, with a variety of results.

A few studies:

"Significant dose-response relationships between level of perceived job stress and percentage of progressive sperm, total motile count, morphology, abnormal heads, and coiled tail defects were found."
(Bigelow PL; Jarrell J; Young MR; Keefe TJ; Love EJ. Association of semen quality and occupational factors: comparison of case-control analysis and analysis of continuous variables. in Fertil Steril 1998 Jan;69(1):11-8)
"Some forms of shift work have also been associated with early fetal loss. Moreover, some results have related noise exposure and shift work to menstrual disturbance and infertility. Although the evidence is not ample, it is prudent to consider exposure to high-level noise and shift work as risks to reproduction."
(Nurminen T. Female noise exposure, shift work, and reproduction. in J Occup Environ Med 1995 Aug;37(8):945-50)
"Both a major cardiovascular vulnerability to stress and working outside home are associated to a poor outcome of IVF-ET treatment."
(Facchinetti F; Matteo ML; Artini GP; Volpe A; Genazzani AR. An increased vulnerability to stress is associated with a poor outcome of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer treatment in Fertil Steril 1997 Feb;67(2):309-14)

In short, I'd venture that since there are fewer studies that are specific to work-related stress than to general stress, no steadfast conclusions of the connection can be drawn. However, if you ask around, you'll hear a lot of tales from folks who have experienced conception success, finally, after reducing the amount of work-related stress in their lives.

Remember -- your body (in general) perceives distress in pretty much the same ways regardless of whether the stress is coming from your occupation or anything else. Our endocrine system still functions much like a basic, primordial creature -- it senses our brain's signals to "fight or flight," even when we may not be facing a saber-toothed tiger. It responds toward modern-day emotional stressors (occupation and otherwise) with much the same reaction as it would to physical life-or-death situations.

So the bottom line is to avoid stress in general, whenever possible, and to manage well the stress we must endure.