Interplay between women's stress and reproductive axes: The dynamic transition from post-postpartum infertility to ovarian cyclicity

Occupational And Environmental Health

The effects of stress on health are well recognized, yet most research in this area does not adequately account for the biological differences in those effects between men and women. In both sexes there is a relationship between stress and reproductive biology. However, in women this interaction is more dynamic due to their continuous transition between different reproductive phases, from menstrual cycles to pregnancy to post-partum infertility and back to menstrual cycles. Little is known about the effects that daily life challenges have on women's reproductive biology and how those effects change as women transition between said reproductive phases. Most research in this area has been narrowly focused on subgroups of women. This study will provide new knowledge about the interactions between stress and reproductive biology in a population of healthy women from rural Guatemala. Our preliminary research on these women suggests that daily challenges may reduce the chance of conception and increase the risk of miscarriage. In this study, we will use data previously collected from these women to study another critically important and understudied transition: the period between birth and the resumption of menstrual cycles. We will evaluate hormonal levels in urine specimens collected from these women as they recovered their fertility after giving birth and use that information to develop a model of the interactions between stress and reproductive biology during this transition. This study will shed new light on how stress responses change as women transition across different reproductive phases. The result will also help explain how those changes in stress response affect women's health and reproductive outcomes. This will provide the foundation for future research into the prevention and treatment of a broad range of women's reproductive health issues such as unplanned pregnancies and problems conceiving a new pregnancy.