Hormones & Infertility - Is There A Link?

Ever wondered how your body releases an egg each month or how the uterus wall thins and thickens at different times of the month? It is the job of your body’s chemical messengers – hormones, which manage the various processes involved in preparing your body for fertilization.

Hormones and Fertility
A subtle balance of different hormones, involved in managing the reproductive organs, enables and maintains fertility. These hormones regulation changes like the discharge of an egg from the ovary and thickening of the uterine wall lining (endometrium). Infertility results if this balance is disrupted.

Roles of hormones in making a woman infertile

Knowing the role of a hormone in making a woman infertile will be easier if you know its role in making the same woman fertile. Here is the role of the five most important hormones that encourage fertility in women-

1. FSH or Follicle-stimulating hormone - The pituitary gland in the brain releases the Follicle-stimulating hormone. The major role of this hormone is to allow a woman to have better control over her menstrual cycle and production of an egg in her ovary. The levels of this hormone designate the proper functioning of the ovary as well as the quality of the produced egg. When there is an imbalance in this hormone, the ovary of the woman will not function properly to produce eggs, thus creating infertility in women.
2. LH or Luteinizing hormone - The pituitary gland releases this hormone. It plays a vital role in stimulating the ovary of a woman to discharge eggs. It instigates the manufacturing of progesterone to prepare the uterus of a woman to accept a fertilized egg. When the level of this hormone is disturbed, it will not stimulate the ovary to release eggs.
3. Estradiol Hormone - This is a vital form of the oestrogen hormone. When the levels of this hormone become irregular, it will reduce the chances of making a woman conceive.
4. Thyroid hormones - This hormone assists greatly in making the ovulation as well as the ovary of a woman to function normally by interacting with the progesterone and oestrogen hormones.
5. Progesterone hormone - This hormone plays an important role in making a fertilized egg to continue as well as to develop in the uterus of a woman. Any imbalance in the level of this hormone will not allow the egg in the uterus to grow.