Skip to main content

Stress and Reproduction

Meaning

Stress and Reproduction describes the clinically significant, inverse relationship between chronic psychological or physiological stress and the optimal functioning of the reproductive axis in both men and women. The body’s inherent, evolutionarily conserved survival mechanism dictates that persistent activation of the stress response will directly suppress the hormonal cascades essential for successful gamete production and gestation. This dynamic highlights a fundamental physiological trade-off where procreation is temporarily deferred in favor of immediate survival.