We seem to blame hormones for all kinds of things – pimples, bad moods, bloating – but what is the real job of hormones? So, with regards to fertility, hormones play a vital role. If your hormones are out of whack then you might end up having problems with hormone infertility.

Generally speaking you could describe hormones as the body’s very own built in thermostat. Hormones keep the concentrations of the various substances in your circulatory system in check to make sure that your different systems work most effectively. Timing is essential when it comes to hormones.

Conditions like hyperandrogenism (if you have too much male hormones), hypothyroidism (if your thyroid gland doesn’t function well), or luteal phase defect (caused by low progesterone concentrations) are all risk factors for hormone infertility. Now that’s a lot of big words that probably don’t make too much sense to you for now, but give me a minute or two and we may have this cleared up. You’ll see from the following descriptions that the hormones are all interlinked.

For the ladies:

• Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) – This one is produced by the hypothalamus (part of the brain) and its purpose is to direct the pituitary gland to produce LH and FSH – before you ask me what those are, keep reading.
• Luteinizing hormone (LH) stimulates the production of other hormones, estrogen and progesterone, by the ovaries. LH directs the ovary to release a mature egg and tells the remaining cells to form a group of yellow cells known as a corpus luteum which produces progesterone.
• Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) gets the eggs ready to go. FSH also instructs the ovaries to make additional estrogen which will result in additional LH.
• Estrogen – This hormone works together with progesterone to get the uterus ready for a fertilized egg to implant. It also makes the cervical mucus thinner and more watery just prior to ovulation so the spermies can move more easily.
• Progesterone – Helps estrogen in preparing the uterus.
• Prolactin – Prolactin tells your system to produce milk and not eggs. Clearly, not having eggs isn’t helpful for conceiving, but producing milk can be useful if you’ve just had a baby. You might have extra prolactin if your thyroid gland isn’t doing its job.

So if you experience PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) your ovaries make large amounts of male hormones, like testosterone and your LH levels stay elevated while FSH levels stay low, so it’s as though your body is telling your ovaries to release the egg even though it isn’t mature yet, like opening the over door before the bread is cooked. While flopped bread could still be fit for consumption, eggs released before they are mature are no good for getting pregnant. Evidently, PCOS may be a result of the body producing an excess of insulin (another hormone) which in turn impacts how the ovaries work.

For the guys:

• Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) – Also made by the hypothalamus, which, as it does in the woman, instructs the pituitary gland to make FSH and LH.
• Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) & Luteinizing hormone (LH) – These two work jointly to regulate sperm production and testosterone.
• Testosterone – We all know what that one does!

You should now understand that hormone infertility is always a possibility if the hormones aren’t working together correctly.

A bit of good news: it’s quite straightforward to test for hormone imbalances. If the doctor believes that you have hormonal infertility then he (or she) will check your blood or your urine to verify hormone levels. Now that you have a better picture of all the things that may go awry, aren’t you surprised that so much goes right? Hormone infertility is not a train smash, because if the doc detects some hormonal problem it is generally easily treated with drugs, or surgery where necessary.

Here is more information on PCOS and Infertility. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Infertility.