Career women putting fertility at risk?
Tuesday 14 April 2009
Are you successful? Determined? A high-achiever?
Well apparently, we women can’t have it all – a new study has suggested that the stress of high-powered jobs could impact on our fertility.
According to this new research, women who are thriving in the workplace may ultimately be damaging their chances of having children.
Researchers found that career women tend to have androgynous figures which indicate higher levels of androgens, as opposed to oestrogen, which is vital for conceiving successfully.
On the flip-side, women with more shapely figures have higher levels of oestrogen.
Professor Elizabeth Cashdan of the University of Utah found that the stress of high-powered jobs causes a hormonal shift in women, resulting in the female hormone oestrogen to be replaced by androgens - which is a group of hormones that include the male hormone testosterone.
Her study found that a woman’s waist-to-hip ratio was related to the balance of hormones, thus affecting their fertility.
The presence of androgens resulted in a smaller waist-to-hip ratio, which is less conducive to childbearing according to Professor Cashdan.
And this isn’t the first study to link a woman’s body shape with her fertility.
Five years ago, a study in the journal Proceedings of The Royal Society claimed that another reproductive hormone estradiol was 30 per cent higher in women with an hourglass shape.
As a result, the researchers said they were approximately three times more likely to get pregnant.
And Dr Martin Tovee of the University of Newcastle believes the Utah study totally compliments earlier findings.
“We know that if women over-exercise or diet obsessively, then their oestrogen levels drop and they become less fertile.
“So potentially, working hard could affect fertility too.”
Well there you have it ladies – if you want to be hearing the tiny pitter-patter of feet soon then you best slow the heck down!
By Tasha Usefnia