In our day-to-day life, stress is a common condition.
But people who experience stress repeatedly over a long period may develop health problems.
The busy schedule of life or some unusual events like trauma and illness of an individual or family member of can generate stress.
Psychological stress generates under mental, physical, or emotional pressure. Stress impacts mental health that directly and indirectly affects the female reproductive system.
Family planning success depends upon many physiological aspects of both partners.
But we cannot deny, the role of the female partner is much more than male. A strong reproductive system of a woman is of utmost need to pursue gestation.
But egg quality is the foremost important requirement to precede fertilization and the generation of a healthy embryo.
During stress, cortisol hormonal release enhances and consequently estradiol biosynthesis from follicular cells inhibits.
These consequences lead to reduce quality and number of retrieved oocytes.
Psychological stress causes a build-up of oxidative stress that induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in immature as well as mature oocytes.
Immature oocytes are more susceptible and quickly undergo oxidative stress-mediated morphological apoptotic changes including membrane leaking, cytoplasmic granulation, shrinkage, and degeneration.
The repeated ovarian stimulation by exogenous gonadotropin can also induce oxidative stress in the ovary and ovulation of poor quality of eggs.
Both death-receptor, as well as mitochondria-mediated pathways, involve in inducing oocyte apoptosis.
Oxidative stress-induced mitochondria-caspase mediated pathway plays a main role in the abolition of germ cells from the ovary and declines oocyte quality even after ovulation.
The underlying role of mental ill-health in the development of infertility is a debatable matter.
A clinical trial involving 58 women reported the risk of infertility among women with a history of depressive symptoms was double than the mentally healthy women.
The proposed involved pathophysiology associated with depression could cause prolactin level elevation, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis disruption, and thyroid dysfunction.
All these physiological changes directly affect infertility.
A human trial result also reported that women with depression had abnormal luteinizing hormone regulation that disturbed ovulation compared with normal women.
Stress and depression-induced compromised immune function also adversely affect egg quality and reproductive health.
Some evidential data also reported that psychological symptoms interfere with fertility, infertility treatment success rate, toleration of ongoing treatment.
The impact of treatment benefits of mitigation of psychological symptoms in infertile women and men is also accessed through multiple studies.
Research studies have provided the support that cognitive-behavioral and psychotherapy not only provided symptomatic relief in mental health ailments but also increased fertility rates.
The quality of the egg is one of the primary factors responsible for the reproductive outcome.
The genetic and epigenetic programming of an egg is effective to measure conceiving a child and delivering a healthy baby.
Mitochondrial functionality and cytoskeleton integrity in the egg is essential for spindle formation, modulation of chromosomal segregation, and maintaining the stability of the genome during cell division.
Spindle formation is an important step in cell division made up of microtubule bundles, which divide chromosomal material equally to form two daughter cells from the parent cell.
Diminishing egg quality with increasing age is related to disorganization and shrinkage of the spindle.
The resultant of this leads to maturation arrest.
Impaired functioning of mitochondria restricts the oocyte activation by disrupting calcium-mediated intracellular signaling and restricting the transition from metaphase I to anaphase I.
Lifestyle factors, including the age when starting a family, nutrition, weight management, exercise, psychological stress, cigarette smoking, recreational and prescription drug use, alcohol and caffeine consumption, environmental and occupational exposures, preventative care, and other behaviors are modifiable and may impact egg quality.