studies on ocd and infertility? - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

ladyvno · 05-29-2005, 11:07 AM

Hello everyone this is my first post here.

I have searched high and low for this information short of calling my old college professors.

I was thinking the other day. OCD is an anxiety disorder (of course) and it causes everyday stressors. Well, stress can mess up a woman's menstrual cycle....so my question is has there been any research on this before?

I love doing research and if not, I hope to do this one day.

This is also a personal question since I am actively trying to concieve.

I would appreciate any help, if only a point in the right direction.

amy12345 · 05-30-2005, 12:52 PM

Hello! I'm not sure if I can point you in the right direction but I did want to let you know that I've spoken with several of my doctors about this. I have an almost 3 year old son after infertility treatments. My doctor (a reproductive endocrinologist) said that yes, stress and anxiety (either chronic or acute) can really throw off your period and ovulation but didn't really give me much more info than that. I didn't pursue it because I became pregnant soon after that talk so it didn't matter to me much anymore. Well, I'd love to have a second baby and am having the same old trouble only now I've been taking Lexapro for the past six months so my anxiety is much, much less than it used to be.

This of course doesn't give you much to work with, but I wanted to let you know my story briefly and tell you that yes, you are right, anxiety will throw things off but I really don't know to what degree.

Please post back if you'd like and we can talk about it more! Good luck in the meantime.

ladyvno · 05-30-2005, 03:12 PM

Thanks for sharing your experience Amy

What started me thinking about this was I read an article on Chronic Fatigue syndrome and how stress affects and may even cause it. That made me wonder about OCD, the stress it causes, and what effects it has on the body.

I go to the Dr. next week after having bloodwork done, so there may be another cause for my problems, but if it comes back normal I'm going to suggest that.

It probably hasn't been studied yet because most Obgyn's won't see the correlation.