Women who are trying to get pregnant are adviced to avoid stressful situations.

This is because, stress is thought to affect a woman’s ability to become  pregnant. A study of 401 women who were trying to conceive revealed that those women whose alpha-amylase levels were highest, a sign of longstanding stress, had more than double the risk of infertility.

The couples were followed for up to 12 months – or if pregnancy occurred, they were followed up throughout pregnancy. The main outcome the researchers were interested in was the time it took to conceive, as defined by a positive home pregnancy test.

For this study, the scientists defined infertility as a failure to become pregnant after 12 months of unprotected intercourse.

The lead author of this study, Courtney D. Lynch, director of reproductive epidemiology at Ohio State University, suggests that if a woman was having difficulty becoming pregnant, it would be harmless, and might be helpful, to consider stress-reduction techniques.

“Yoga, meditation, mindfulness have been successful in other health outcomes,” she said, “and might be helpful for fertility as well.”

Some fertlity doctors have always thought that stress affects fertility, for example one infertility clinic in the UK found that pregnancy rates soared when patients were visited after treatment by a comedian who cracked jokes and performed magic tricks.

The doctor behind the approach said it showed humour can cut stress levels and boost the chances of success.

If you do find yourself struggling with stress, visit the NHS Choices Moodzone, which contains a range of useful articles about how to combat feelings of stress and anxiety.