National fertility awareness week

It's national fertility awareness week between 30th October and Sunday 5th November 2017. Did you know that hypnotherapy can be a very useful treatment to help?

It is thought that around 3.5 million people have problems conceiving in the UK, that's around 15% of couples trying for a baby taking longer than 1 year to conceive. Of these couples having difficulties about one quarter are said to have whats called 'unexplained infertility'. It is these couples that hypnotherapy may be able to help.

Research shows that some of the major contributors to fertility problems include weight issues (overweight or underweight), stress and smoking. In fact, one research study showed that females with infertility showed stress levels that were equivalent to people with cancer, aids, and heart disease!

A hypnotherapist can help you to relax, to work through any anxieties and worries that you have. They can teach you self-help strategies to help you stay calm through treatment like IVF. Hypnotherapy activates the parasympathetic nervous systems relaxation response. Research has also shown that after a course of hypnotherapy the sympathetic nervous system was less easily stimulated.

A hypnotherapist will also work with any negative thought patterns you may have developed about getting pregnant for example worries about your 'biological clock' as you get older.

Hypnotherapy can also help with weight issues, research has shown that using hypnosis for weight loss doubles your chance of losing weight than some other methods and that in the subjects who received hypnosis weight loss continued after treatment finished.

It's a good idea to stop smoking too if you are having fertility problems. The effectiveness of IVF has been shown to be reduced by 50% amongst smokers and men that smoke have been found to have lower quality sperm. Hypnotherapy is a great aid to help you stop smoking, research has shown that hypnotherapy is more effective than other stop smoking methods and is 15 times more effective than willpower alone.

It is also useful to work with a nutritionist if you are having difficulties. Acupuncture and Reflexology can be really useful too.

References and useful links:

http://www.fertilityauthority.com/articles/stress-and-fertility-treatment

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Infertility/Pages/Causes.aspx.

http://hypnosishealthinfo.com/weight-loss/efficacy-research-hypnosis-for-weight-loss/ 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/when-youre-not-expecting/201008/new-research-stress-and-infertility 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21452563

http://womensmentalhealth.org/posts/depression-and-anxiety-do-they-impact-infertility-treatment/

http://www.rmhypnotherapy.com/Infertility_Articles.php