Chapter 28: Effects of Stress

Hilgers TW

Lifestyle and Environment · Stress and Allostatic Load

Chapter 28: Effects of Stress

Hilgers TW

The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaProTECHNOLOGY, 341-344, 2004

RRM Academy Synopsis

Stress can delay ovulation and lengthen cycles on a chart

Stress can delay ovulation and change the mucus pattern on a charted cycle. A 2004 textbook chapter shows this in four charted cases. The author links a late Peak Day to minor surgery and a 42-day cycle to a death in the family.

Key Findings

The chapter names a "double" Peak as the classic stress pattern: stress delays ovulation, and ovulation occurs with the "second" Peak, which generally comes after the stress is relieved.
After a minor surgical procedure, one woman had a Peak Day on day 20, nine days after surgery, in a 33-day cycle, the longest she had had in several cycles.
After a death in the family, one woman's Peak Day came on day 27 and her cycle lasted 42 days. Her ovulation cycles took about two cycles to recuperate.
Dry cycles began in one woman's fourth cycle, alongside a new 45-minute exercise program and weight-loss diet. Normal mucus cycles returned after she stopped both.
A woman planning her wedding charted a 37-day cycle with two mucus buildups, then a 40-day cycle. Her third cycle, after the stress eased, lasted 30 days.

RRM Context

The Creighton Model FertilityCare System (CrMS) records when ovulation happens, so a delay appears on the chart. The chapter calls monitoring stress with the CrMS a sensitive tool for seeing its end results. The author expects that following patients with the CrMS and NaProTECHNOLOGY will clarify the long-term effects of stress on overall health. Cycle-charting-informed care reads a long or irregular cycle as information to evaluate first.

Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.

Abstract

This chapter describes how physical or emotional stress, whether acute or chronic, can alter the ovulation and menstrual cycles as recorded on the woman's chart. The chapter names the stress-induced "double" Peak as the classic charting aberration and also describes prolonged Peak-type mucus, delayed Peak Days and dry or limited mucus cycles. Four charts illustrate these effects in women whose cycles changed after minor surgery, a death in the family, a strenuous exercise and weight-loss program, and wedding preparations. Hilgers states that the relationship of stress to the reproductive system is not well understood and mentions the theory that beta-endorphins may block the normal pulsatile production of FSH and LH from the pituitary.

Topics

Lifestyle and Environment › Stress and Allostatic Load › Stress and Ovulation · Reproductive Endocrinology › Neuroendocrinology › Hypothalamic Pituitary Axis · Menstrual Cycle › Cycle Disorders › Ovulatory Disturbances

Thomas W Hilgers

Tom Hilgers, T Hilgers

Hilgers et al. 2004, Hilgers 2004

Chapter 28: Effects of Stress

Stress can delay ovulation and lengthen cycles on a chart

Key Findings

RRM Context

Abstract

Topics

By this author

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