Does Stress Affect Fertility? What the Research Says and How Acupuncture Can Help

One of the most useful studies in this area was published in Human Reproduction in 2014. Researchers followed couples who were trying to conceive and measured two biological markers of stress in the women: cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase.

Women whose alpha-amylase levels were in the highest third had a 29% reduction in fecundability — essentially a lower probability of conceiving in a given cycle — compared with women in the lowest third. They also had more than twice the risk of meeting the clinical definition of infertility.