Is it true that "relaxing" about my fertility will improve my chances?
Relaxing is always a good idea. It's always a good idea to be relaxed and to not be stressed because the stress is bad for you. It's bad for your heart, it's bad for your heartburn and it's not clear whether it is bad for your infertility, but it may very well be. The trouble is, how do you get rid of your stress? The patients worry about being stressed, and they're stressing about being stressed. So it seems like a vicious cycle. The best information that we have is some indication from the mind-body institutes and the mind-body kinds of programs that have been set up which seem to suggest that the patients who go through a mind-body program have an increased probability of being able to get pregnant. But these have never been shown in a controlled way, in a scientific study. So I would say this is a perfectly good alternative for young couples who have time, for whom the biological clock is not as much of an issue, and who are motivated to try to avoid regular fertility medications. By all means, I think this is a very good way to go. Another holistic therapy, if you will, is acupuncture. And acupuncture also seems to help people relax and helps them be in tune with their own body and in tune with their own infertility. So it's very hard to say anything bad about that, other than to say don't count on it as the only method of treating your infertility, particularly then if biological clock is starting to play a role—meaning for women over the age of 35. I worry so much that someone will do mind-body and will do acupuncture for five years and go from the age of 37 all the way to 42 before they finally come back to the traditional fertility type therapy. But reducing stress—always good. Does it make a difference in fertility? We're not so sure.
