How Does Chronic Illness Affect Fertility?
Key Takeaways:
Chronic illnesses can have an impact on fertility.
Hormonal imbalances, medications, inflammation, stress, and certain lifestyle factors can affect your chances of fertility.
If you plan to conceive, collaborate with your healthcare team to develop an effective treatment plan to boost your fertility.
If fertility is a challenge for you, treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intrauterine insemination may increase your chances of conceiving.
People with chronic illnesses should know that their condition may cause fertility challenges when planning to conceive. Fertility is your ability to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term. Unfortunately, the side effects of living with a chronic illness can impact your journey to conceiving and delivering a child.
Here’s how your chronic illness may cause fertility challenges.
Hormonal imbalances
Some chronic diseases, like cystic fibrosis, Hashimoto’s disease, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and Graves’ disease, are caused by hormonal imbalances. Hormonal balances arise when your hormone levels are too high or too low in your endocrine system. Hormones, like estrogen and progesterone are essential for ovulation and pregnancy, so if they’re unbalanced, they may cause fertility difficulties.
If you have a chronic illness that affects your hormones, it can affect how your body regulates the reproductive system.
Medications
If you have a chronic illness, you’re likely on a treatment plan that can require you to take many medications. As many know, most, if not all, medications can have unpleasant side effects. However, while prescription medications' most common side effects are typically nausea, headache, or fatigue, they can also affect infertility.
For example, chemotherapy drugs cause fertility challenges by stopping the ovaries from releasing eggs and estrogen. Also, chemotherapy and other cancer treatments, like radiation therapy applied to the abdomen, increase the risk of infertility. In addition, certain medications used to treat chronic conditions, like prescription NSAIDs, steroids, and thyroid medications, can suppress ovulation and affect sperm quality in men.
In addition, if you take antidepressants as part of your mental health care, a 2016 study revealed that these popular medications could negatively impact fertility.
Inflammation
Inflammation is common among chronic illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, cancers, and endometriosis. Symptoms of inflammation are ongoing pain in the joints and muscles, constant fatigue, allergies or asthma, and others. People with chronic illnesses are more susceptible to complications that arise from inflammation.
Inflammation that spreads to other body areas may harm reproductive organs like the uterus, cervix, and placenta, thus impacting fertility. Also, inflammation can affect men by creating anti-sperm antibodies, epididymal obstruction, or testicular damage from orchitis.
Stress
Managing one or more chronic illnesses can take a toll on your mental health. And unfortunately, stress can impact fertility. For example, women with a history of depression are twice more likely to experience infertility, while anxiety could prolong the journey to conception. According to a 2018 study, women dealing with infertility were reported to have heightened levels of anxiety and depression.
Lifestyle factors
Certain lifestyle factors can impact your fertility as a chronic illness warrior. For example, if you experience chronic pain or fatigue it can make it more challenging to stick to an exercise routine or maintain a healthy, balanced diet. These factors can ultimately impact your fertility. Also, certain chronic conditions can affect your overall health and potentially increase the risk of pregnancy complications.
If you plan to conceive, please collaborate with your healthcare team to manage your condition and enhance your fertility. In most cases, once your healthcare team knows you want to conceive, they can adjust your treatment plan and offer advice on managing stress and leading a healthy lifestyle to boost your health.
Fortunately, fertility treatments, like in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intrauterine insemination (IUI), may be recommended by your OB GYN or fertility specialist to increase your chances of conceiving. However, it’s important to note that while these treatments are effective, they can pose risks and challenges.
Living with a chronic illness may create fertility challenges, making the journey to conception difficult for you and your partner. However, with the support of your healthcare team and loved ones, many chronic illness warriors can successfully conceive and expand their families.
How Chronius Can Help
If living with chronic illness feels like a full time job, you aren’t alone.
That’s why at Chronius, we make it easy to navigate the healthcare system as a patient. Our online care management platform brings together all of your health records and offers a 1-click appointment prep tool that easily synthesizes your health story for your care team. You also can track all of your symptoms, identify trends, learn from vetted medical information, and follow a custom patient journey map. Plus, if you needs hands on support, our Care Advocates are available to help you with any issues you may hit up against. Personalized support as you navigate your care journey is what we are all about.
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