In these days of planned pregnancies, contraception and pre-marital sex, marriage is not necessarily followed by the first flush of sexual discovery. Stress is not just mental tension. It is also associated with physiological responses in the body. Sex is probably the first casualty in a stressful situation. Stress kills sexual desire leading to infrequent intercourse in the case of both men and women.
Stress affects men in different ways.
Stressed-out men may have lower testosterone levels, reduced sperm count and less volume of sperm. Stress can disrupt a woman s menstrual cycle leading to scanty, irregular periods that may even stop totally. She may even stop ovulating. Her estrogen levels may drop which in turn can affect the cervical mucus and the transportation of the sperm from the vagina to the Fallopian tubes. Severe stress in women may make it more likely that she will conceive a son.