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A study shedding light on the way key hormones affect the brain could pave the way for new fertility treatments, researchers say. The Imperial College London team studied five women with hypothalamic amenorrhea - a condition common in athletes, which makes periods stop. Stimulating the brain to make more of the hormone, kisspeptin, could boost fertility, they said. While the study is small, they said it proved an interesting concept. The scientists looked at kisspeptin and another reproductive hormone which is depleted in women with HA, disrupting the menstruation cycle, and potentially leading to infertility. Stress or anorexia About one in 100 women in Britain, and one in 10 professional female athletes, have HA. Alongside athletes, it is common in women under severe stress, or who have anorexia. In those women, the hypothalamus - a part of the brain which regulates the menstrual cycle - stops producing hormones correctly. The exact reason why is unknown. The team studied two hormones made by the hypothalamus - kisspeptin and luteinising hormone (LH). Kisspeptin sparks the release of LH in the brain, scientists said. LH regulates women's reproductive cycles. It is one of the hormones which helps prepare the womb for a fertilised egg. If the amount of LH, along with other hormones, in the body drops, women can stop producing eggs, having periods. As HA is associated with low levels of LH, the study said, it can cause infertility. But HA is not as common a cause of infertility as polycystic ovaries, for example, said researchers.