More Articles

• Statistics, Science and Research


• How to "Stop trying and just relax!"
• Just for Fun: Infertility Sniglets
• It is Conceivable That Your Mind is Preventing You From Conceiving
• 3 Ways Stress Can Harm Your Baby
• The Benefits of Hypnosis for People Undergoing IVF
• Pre-Conception Preparation
• Alcohol and Fertility
• Smoking and Fertility
• Marijuana and Fertility
• Caffeine and Fertility
• How Lady Moon Can Help You Get Pregnant: An Introduction to Lunar Fertility
• How to Track Your Fertility at Home

Science and Research

Growing acceptance of hypnotherapy as a valid form of treatment for infertilty has resulted in an increase of large-scale studies and research into the phenomenon.

We hope the following statistics and results will give you comfort and encouragement:

• Research shows that stress can interfere with and undermine the body's reproductive function, and that relieving stress greatly enhances fertility.
• The Journal of the American Medical Women's Association and Fertility and Sterility studies have indicated that "infertile" women participating in mind/body therapy experienced a 42% - 55% conception rate as compared to a 20% rate in the control group who used no mind/body techniques.
• Self-hypnosis can strengthen the immune system by 48% in six weeks, according to a study by John Gruzelier, Professor of Psychology at Imperial College School of Medicine.
• A Study undertaken in 1992 found that women who utilised mind/body techniques experienced decreased levels of depression, anxiety and anger.
• Women with a history of depressive symptoms were twice as likely to suffer subsequent infertility (Psychosomatic Medicine, 1995 vol. 57). Within 6 months of receiving hypnotherapy treatment, women with depression showed a 60% viable pregnancy rate as compared to just 24% in women who underwent no mind/body treatment. (Journal of American Medical Women's Association, 199 vol. 54)
• Professor Eliahu Levitas found that hypnosis can double the success rate of IVF. His findings were presented to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology Conference in 2004.
• In 1999, Alice Dormar PhD conducted a study to show how efffective mind/body techniques were in removing unresolved issues surrounding pregnancy. In 1999, 42% of 132 infertile women participating in the mind/body program conceived within 6 months of completing it.
• In his book, 'The Psychobiology of Gene Expressions', Dr. Ernest L. Rossi suggests that hypnotic-type suggestions can activate specific genes involved with fertility and conception, including the IL-1, c-fos, and the CYP17 in a specific order.
• Dr. Alfred A. Barrios found hypnotherapy produced a 93% success rate in curing psychoneurotic patients (those with emotional or mental disorders) after only 6 sessions. Meanwhile, psychoanalysis achieved an average of 55% success rate (across 4 independant large-scale studies), and behavioural therapy recorded a 72% recovery rate. (Hypnotherapy: A Reappraisal, Theory Research and Practice).

Dr. Christine Northrup, Obstetrics & Gynecology specialist, University of Vermont, talks about the importance of a healthy mind as well as a healthy body, and how it can impact fertility, in her book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom. Northrup wrote: “Regardless of what you’ve been told about your fertility, you need to know that your ability to conceive is profoundly influenced by the complex interaction among psychosocial, psychological, and emotional factors, and that you can consciously work with this to enhance your ability to have a baby.”

Dr. Elizabeth Muir, a clinical psychologist specialising in treating infertility, has researched how hypnotherapy affects the hypothalamus gland (a tiny region of the brain that controls the flow of hormones in the body). Dr. Muir found this gland was sensitive to stress, thus created a bridge between the emotional and the biological. She discovered that hypnotherapy could help reduce stress, which in turn allowed the hypothalamus gland to trigger the hormone production that was conducive to successful reproduction.

The results of Muir’s study showed that 45% of the women with unexplained infertility were able to conceive when hypnotherapy was added to their fertility program.

Muir says, “Hypnotherapy works on the premise that the conscious and subconscious minds may be at odds with each other. I believe that while a woman might consciously want a baby, her subconscious may be stopping her from getting pregnant. Most women I see have psychosomatic infertility related to conflicts or unresolved issues about having a baby.”