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How Mental Health Influences Fertility

The Super Fertility Summit

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ybzIcX0qMO_ji1sH_bgjQx7n-EYsUVZ5/view?usp=drive_link

Let me start with the mental health part of it first, and then I'll talk about the personality part and the mental health part. It's not as prickly as the personality part, but they're equally important. We know from the scientific data that people who experience fertility challenges, people who have experienced pregnancy loss, people who are going through IVF, and especially those who've experienced failed IVF, which is a large majority of the people who go through IVF experience IVF failures because success rates are very low, and people who have had pregnancy complications and who have had children with health problems are much more likely to be anxious, anxious, depressed, and to experience PTSD. That doesn't come as a surprise. I don't think it makes sense for someone who goes through these challenges to have an increased risk of emotional unrest, specifically in the form of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Now the question is whether the reverse is also true. People who have a history of or a tendency toward mental and emotional health challenges such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, disordered eating, body dysmorphia, and other things have a greater likelihood of having fertility challenges, pregnancy complications, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. We don't know the answer to this definitively, but a lot of the observational data that we have at the Fertility and Pregnancy Institute now, over my three-decade-long career and some studies that we have started to do, and some empirical studies suggest that that is true. It makes a lot of sense because these emotional and mental health challenges have a very strong impact on the central nervous system and on the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal cortical axis, which is the body's stress response system, which directly affects thyroid function, the ovarian function is the same as, by the way, the male testicular function. It's not surprising that people with a tendency toward and history of mental and emotional health challenges would be more likely to have fertility and pregnancy challenges because they have a dysregulated stress response system, which is intimately tied to sex hormones and other aspects of the fertility and pregnancy systems. We believe that that is the case and that people with a tendency toward these mental and physical health challenges also have a tendency toward difficulty getting pregnant, being pregnant, and having a healthy baby. We have seen this time and time again, so that's the mental health part. If you've struggled with anxiety or depression or you have symptoms of PTSD from any number of points in your life span for any number of reasons, then it's, it's, I work a lot with academic women. There are a lot of academic women, lawyers, and doctors who have PTSD from their careers and their training, and it could be something like that, or it could be from childhood abuse—so many things. If you are someone who has that tendency or that history, that's an important thing to address before even starting to try to get pregnant. Or if you've been trying and it's not happening, let's pause and address those things. By the way, we address these things in tremendous detail in the Primemester protocol. Also, let's talk about our super baby nutraceuticals, because your nutrient status and your microbiome, which is your second genome and your second epigenome, have such a critical impact on your emotional and mental health and balance. 

Now let's talk about personality. This is, like I said, the more prickly part of the topic. It's controversial. However there is scientific data, and we have lots of observational data as well, showing that women with specific personality characteristics seem to be at greater risk for having fertility challenges and pregnancy complications. A few examples of these personality characteristics include elements of type A personalities, especially anger, hostility, negativity, and the tendency to see very clearly all that is wrong in the world. These parts of type A personality specifically seem to be even more correlated, but also the time pressure aspect of type A personality, because the body's in overdrive, the body's in a state of chronic stress, but anger and hostility also keep the body in an incredible amount of chronic stress. Related to that, it's very difficult to live in a state of gratitude or forgiveness. These two aspects of personality or characteristics tend to be nurturing and supportive of fertility. I already talked to you about type A personality and specific elements of type A personality that seem to increase the risk for fertility challenges, as well as things like diminished ovarian reserve and a low AMH level before it would be expected. 

Another aspect of personality seems to be linked to a greater likelihood of fertility challenges and pregnancy complications, as well as adverse pregnancy and intergenerational health outcomes. operates through accelerated biological aging, which is the opposite of optimism. someone who's optimistic, or even someone who might consider themselves just a very realistic person. The scientific data show us that optimistic people are in some ways less realistic than people who are thought of as being pessimistic and even people who are depressed in some cases,  Here's a feature of the optimistic personality. The optimistic person they view wins as part of their endurance characteristics. The things that are attributable to them and attributable to aspects of them that are enduring. By contrast, they view losses as attributable to things outside of them and to things that are short-term in nature. The reason why this is important is that it allows the optimistic person to remain optimistic that the next time will go well, that the next time will be different, or that if things went well this time, they can expect the next time to be the same or even better. I know because I'm an optimistic person. This is how an optimistic person sees the world. 

A pessimistic or realistic person oppositely sees the world: wins are short-term and outside of them, and losses are enduring and because of who they are stable. Therefore can be expected again. We know that people who are optimistic and who experience joy and positive emotion and accept a lot of positive emotion, age biologically at a much slower level, and still live much longer than their realistic or pessimistic counterparts. We think that this slower biological aging is likely to contribute to improve fertility. It's shown to be directly related to the likelihood of being married and having a happy marriage. But more than likely, it's related to fertility and pregnancy outcomes as well. Let me give you an example of how this biological aging common denominator impacts both lifespan and fertility. A study of centenarians showed that women who lived to 100 or older were four times as likely to have had children in their 40s as women who did not live that long. That just shows you that there is an underlying common denominator of slower biological aging that contributes to both lifespan and reproductive span or how long someone can reproduce naturally. 

Just to recap here, if you have a history of mental and/or emotional health challenges, have an aspect of a type A personality, or have a hard time being optimistic, you tend to be more pessimistic and realistic. You don't experience as much positive emotion or express as much positive emotion, whether it's in your writing daily, in your speaking, etc.; that may be a signal that you have a personality style that is more stressful in the body and more chronically stressful in the body, thereby contributing to faster biological aging, which may increase the risk of fertility challenges and pregnancy complications. Here's what I want you to know. If that's you and you don't want that to be you, you can change that. You can cultivate optimism. You can cultivate positive emotion, tranquility, and joy. You can do that on a moment-to-moment basis. Those moments add up over a day, a week, and a life. To make your life, to make your biological age, and to make your family. We can help you with that if that's something you want. Again, I know that this topic may have shocked you. Number 1 may have rubbed you the wrong way, but I want you to know if you saw yourself in this talk and you want to see yourself differently, you want to be different in the world for yourself and your family. That's possible too. Just take stock of what's there and decide what you want your next step to be and who you want to be. Because I bet that you have a woman of your dreams in your mind, and you can still be her. I'll see you in the next mini-talk, where we are going to talk about how I know if I need help getting pregnant. That's a big question. Nobody tells us how to answer that question or when to answer it. Or maybe some people are telling us when, but it's not the right answer. Come in; I'll teach you what it is.

<h6>Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD</h6>
This mini-talk is unlike anything that you've ever heard before. At first, a surface may rub you the wrong way. But if it is rubbing you the wrong way, instead of getting angry, which I don't blame you for, I want you to just stay centered and try to get curious because, I think, if you feel any activation or alertness with what I'm about to share, then this may be an important thing for you to hear as opposed to something to run away from or to block off from because you are used to being angry. I know that's easier said than done, and yet I'm here to help you find the fastest path to your super baby and the fastest path to the solutions you crave. You need to live the life of your dreams. I'm going to give you the answers, even when it's uncomfortable and even when you might like me less. It's not important that you like me. I must help you. Let's talk about this. Let's talk about whether your mental health, present and past, or aspects of your personality could be impacting your ability to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and have your healthiest baby.

https://drtalks-media.b-cdn.net/Summit%20Audio%20Files/2024%20Summits/2024%20-%20The%20Super%20Fertility%20Summit/Transcript%20Files/2024_Fertility_Mini%20Talk%20Day%202%20Transcript%20File.pdf

Dr. Cleopatra is The Fertility Strategist and Executive Director of The Fertility &amp; Pregnancy Institute. She is a scientist and university professor who pioneered the field of fertility biohacking and creating superbabies. To date, Dr. Cleopatra has scientifically studied tens of thousands of women and families and has helped women in 18 countries on 6 continents have their superbabies. She has received nearly $3 million in grant funding from multiple arms of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Standards Technology, and private foundations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

How Mental Health Influences Fertility

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

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Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD