The Fertility Factor: Increasing Your Odds Of Conceiving

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By Mia Bolaris-Forget

You’ve heard me quote the stats before, and well, here I go again. According to experts, the reason that women traditionally got married younger, often right after High School is because that’s when their men were at their sexual prime and they (the ladies) at their reproductive peak. That’s right, a woman is most fertile, at the ages of 15 and 17 and her changes of easily conceiving (without help, purposeful trying, or complications) begins to decline in her late 20s, typically around the age of 27 or so.

Still many of us want to complete our education, travel and get settled out on our own and in our career before settling down and starting a family. And, many of us are or “did”, according to statistics, jus that. But, at some point, many of us ladies begin to hear the sound of the biological clock ticking well over the sound of success, and lucky for us many of us are capable of having healthy pregnancies well into our 30s and 40s. Here are a few suggested strategies for increasing your options of fertility and conception:

Dote on you diet: Eat conscientiously picking foods that are good for you, since they’ll likely be good for your arteries too. Studies show that women who watched what they ate and munched on healthy unsaturated fats (for examples avocado and olive oil) were less prone to fertility problems than those who had a diet higher in unhealthy trans fats.

Develop an attitude of gratitude: Stop stressing out or sweating the small stuff. Stress can interfere with signals in the brain that tell your ovaries to do what they’re suppose to do. Plus, stress is bad for your health all around. Prone to stress? Find productive ways to ease your tensions and your nerves….yoga and exercise are probably two of the best.

Put yourself to the test: Taking a pregnancy test isn’t the only test you should be doing regularly. Knowing whether or not you’ve been exposed to any STDs is often key to fertility and conceiving; many causing scarring in your reproductive organs and blocking your fallopian tubes, or filling them with fluid that can prevent implantation of an embryo.

Kick butt: STOP SMOKING!!!! While this may seem like a “given”, it’s best to quit well before you try to conceive, since lighting up can result in burning out your egg supply. According to experts, smoking constricts blood vessels including those that nourish the ovaries and that results in a faster loss of eggs. And, while many ladies HAVE in fact conceived, even as smokers, the odds decline with increasing age, when the cigarettes have had more time to do “damage” to your body and your eggs.

Keep it in check: Getting an annual gynecological exam is a MUST for all women immediately after puberty, especially once they become sexually active. According to experts many fertility issues are the result of undiagnosed and undetected medical problems including diabetes, thyroid disease, or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which through the body’s hormonal balance, well, off-balance.

Go natural: Even if you’re experiencing endometriosis or ovarian cysts and your doctor recommend surgery, you may want to try a more natural approach first. You see your body stores all its eggs in one basket, so to speak, in the area known as the ovarian cortex, so anything that may go “wrong” during surgery on this thin outer layer may have “serious” consequences. If surgery is MANDATORY, ask your doctor not to cauterize or remove any part of the cortex.

Take a count: Ask for a vaginal ultrasound on your next gynecological visit, and/or during your next Pap, helping determine your antral follicle count, or how many eggs you have left. Remember, we ladies were born with the full supply of eggs we were intended to get, and our supply simply depletes from there through the years and with each ovulation. Some woman are good into their 40s with others may need to consider putting some of their eggs of ice.

Ice, ice baby: freeze your assets for the future. A new technique called vitrification, using a quick freezing process that safely solidify the eggs is available starting at $6K for a single procedure, plus annual storage fees and is said to be most successful when you and your ova are at your peak, in your 20s. Currently however, there is no long-term data on the procedure, but you can talk about it with your doctor or research it and blog about it on The Net.

For the boys: Last but not least, you can take precautions to protect your man’s “boys” and HIS reproductive capability

· Unless prescribed by a doctor for medical reasons, DO NOT try to enhance your sex life using male enhancement drugs, these can actually reduce the sperm’s ability to penetrate the egg.

· Cover his crotch by investing in a laptop pad since frequent position on his lap has proven to lower sperm count and has a similar effect to a hot-tub soak.

· Give him (and his gents) some room by replacing his tidy whities with some sexy boxer and gym shorts. Tight-clothing of any form, even if he and his butt look great in it, are an absolute no-no, especially spandex…..the heat that build under the elasticy fabric can actually lower sperm count.

· Get him career-counseling. Studies show that stress and job dissatisfaction and burnout can contribute to male infertility.

· Read between the labels, especially those on bug sprays. Professionals point out that many insecticides containing the chemical chlorpyrifos (or TCPY) may result in a reduction in male testosterone levels and thus a decrease in his ability to effectively and efficiently produce sperm. Though the substance was banned back in 2000, experts note that many products still contain it.