Cortisol isn’t just your “stress hormone”. It’s the body’s energy manager. But when it stays elevated too long, everything else starts to unravel.Chronically high cortisol can shut down hormone production, disrupt fertility, tank libido, and leave you feeling anxious and depleted. One reason? Pregnenolone steal. Your adrenals divert raw materials to keep pumping out cortisol, starving other hormones like DHEA and testosterone.It also shuts down the brain’s reproductive signal line, the HPG axis.