As a Woman30 Dec 2025

How Stress Affects Your Hormones and Fertility

Dr. Natalie Crawford, board-certified OBGYN and REI, unpacks how stress communicates with your brain and ovaries—and how that relationship can shape your cycles, egg quality, and fertility over time. This episode connects physiology with realistic strategies so you can better support your hormones in a chronically stressed world. Key Topics: 1. Stress & Your Brain–Ovary Connection - How your brain integrates stress and reproductive signals - Why the same “control center” influences both hormones and stress - How modern life blurs acute and chronic stress 2. Cycles, Ovulation & Stress Load - Ways stress can alter normal ovulatory patterns - Early warning signs that your cycle is under strain - How stress-related changes can progress over time 3. Metabolism, Inflammation & Egg Health - How stress affects glucose, insulin, and inflammation - Why metabolic health matters for hormone balance - Links between stress biology and fertility outcomes 4. Building Stress-Resilient Hormones - Daily practices to lower your physiological stress burden - Movement, sleep, and muscle as hormone-supportive tools - Rethinking coping mechanisms and everyday stressors Pre-order Dr. Crawford's debut book, The Fertility Formula, now! ⁠https://www.nataliecrawfordmd.com/book⁠ Want to receive my weekly newsletter? Sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠nataliecrawfordmd.com/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ to receive updates, Q&A, special content, and freebies If you haven’t already, please rate, review, and follow the podcast to be notified of new episodes every Tuesday. Plus, be sure to follow along on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠@nataliecrawfordmd,⁠⁠⁠⁠ check out Natalie’s YouTube channel Natalie Crawford MD⁠⁠⁠⁠, and if you're interested in becoming a patient, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠Fora Fertility. Join the Learn at Pinnacle app ⁠to earn FREE CE Credit for listening to this episode! This episode is brought to you by The Pinnacle Podcast Network! Learn more about Pinnacle at http://learnatpinnacle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Perimenopause Symptoms: The Early Signs You May Not Recognize with Dr. Alicia Robbins

Your periods are still regular and your labs may even look “normal.” So why aren’t you sleeping? Why has your mood changed? And why do you suddenly feel like a different version of yourself? In this ...

18 Aug 38min

Egg Quality: Can You Improve It Naturally in 90 Days? What Actually Helps?

Your eggs begin developing months before ovulation. So what can you actually do during that window to improve your egg quality? In this episode of the As a Woman podcast, reproductive endocrinologist...

11 Aug 26min

Will You Ever Want Sex Again? Low Libido, Hormones & Desire with Dr. Kelly Casperson

Low libido in women is often blamed on stress, aging, or relationship problems, but changes in desire may begin years before menopause and can involve hormones, medications, pain, sleep, blood flow, a...

4 Aug 52min

FERTILITY Q&A: Ovulation, Recurrent Loss, IUI, PMOS, and More

When your cycles are regular, your ultrasound looks normal, or you have been pregnant before, how do you know when it is time to look deeper? Fertility testing does not always give you the whole pict...

28 Juli 26min

The Biggest Birth Control Myths (and What's Actually True) with Dr. Fran Haydanek

For decades, women were handed a birth control prescription and sent home. Side effects were minimized. Questions were met with reassurance instead of real information. That left a vacuum, and into th...

21 Juli 52min

The Biggest Fertility Myths That Could Delay Pregnancy

Host Dr. Natalie Crawford dives straight into the heavy cloud of misinformation surrounding reproductive health to uncover the real science behind your body. In this episode of the As a Woman podcast,...

14 Juli 26min

What Pregnancy Reveals About Your Hormonal Future with Dr. Amanda Horton

Host Dr. Natalie Crawford sits down with Double Board certified maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. Amanda Horton to unpack the hidden biological reality behind pregnancy complications. This episod...

7 Juli 44min

Sperm Health and Male Fertility

If you have ever assumed that navigating fertility is a journey meant solely for the female body, this conversation is here to completely change your perspective. Host Dr. Natalie Crawford breaks down...

30 Juni 32min