Advice for Women
You may be surprised to know the diverse range of issues that affect fertility!
- Steer clear of cigarette smoke, the chemicals in cigarette’s nicotine, cyanide and carbon monoxide are toxic to woman’s eggs and speed up the rate at which those eggs die off. Even avoid being around smoky environments
- Try to maintain a healthy weight, being underweight or overweight can cause problems with a woman’s hormone levels – causing irregular menstrual cycles or problems with ovulation or implantation of a foetus, which can increase the risk of miscarriage once pregnant.
- A healthy diet, such as a Mediterranean-style diet is beneficial. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, potatoes, herbs, spices, fish, seafood, skinless poultry, and extra-virgin olive oil has been proven to increase chances of pregnancy by 44%.
- A high intake of Omega-3 fatty acids reduces the risk of ovulatory problems and improved fertility in women.
- Buy organic foods whenever possible for yourself and your partner.
- Fish – some seafood is high in mercury, King mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, and tilefish so please avoid. Wild salmon, sardines, mussels, rainbow trout and Atlantic mackerel are good.
- Vitamin D3 has been shown to improve sexual function and satisfaction among women. A vitamin D deficiency has been found to be much higher among sub-fertile women, which is why an optimal diet and possible supplements is recommended.
- Staying fit and regular aerobic exercise and strength-training workouts are beneficial to your reproductive function. Regular physical activity improves a woman’s hormonal profile and overall reproductive function, promoting regular menstrual cycles, ovulation and fertility. Even overweight women who experienced a prior pregnancy loss and are attempting another pregnancy benefit from walking for ten or minutes at a time – their fertility improves significantly over six months.
- Try to minimise negative stress, as this can take a toll on reproductive health, which for some can lead to hormonal abnormalities, irregular periods and ovulation problems in women. Social support can counteract the potentially harmful effects of stress on both your mind and body.
- Meditation, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, yoga or hypnosis can really help, as long as done regularly. Research has found that doing diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery twice a day, improves sexual desire and satisfaction, factors that are often diminished by excessive stress.
- Avoid alcohol and drugs whilst trying to conceive.
This is all aimed at being the healthiest you can be for your pregnancy
Advice for Men
Surprisingly different things affect sperm counts!
- Avoid hot tubs, steam rooms or saunas, as intense heat can take its toll on sperm count and quality
- Don’t keep mobile phone in your pocket, or laptop in your lap.
- Cigarettes are toxic to a man’s sperm – so avoid
- Maintain a healthy weight, being overweight or underweight has a negative effect on sperm quality. Obesity has been associated with lower sperm count, concentration and volume, decreased sperm motility and a higher incidence of shape abnormalities.
- A healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet mentioned above, is associated with better sperm quality in men and better fertility in women. A 2019 study from Sweden found that after young, healthy men started following a wholesome diet – with yoghurt, whole grain cereal, fruits, vegetables, nuts, eggs, and the like – their sperm motility increased after just one week. A higher intake of monounsaturated fats – from olive oil, avocados and certain nuts, has also been associated with higher sperm concentration and total sperm count.
- A high intake of omega-3 fatty acids has also been linked with improved semen quality and reproductive hormone levels in men.
- Vitamin D3 has been shown to improve male fertility, it has a positive effect on sperm motility.
- Physical activity is beneficial for the production and virility of sperm, as well as being healthy for the rest of a man’s body. In the Rochester Young Men’s Study, it was found that healthy young men who engaged in regular moderate to vigorous physical activity and watched less TV had higher sperm counts and sperm concentrations than less active men did. Men who performed moderate to vigorous exercise for fifteen or more hours per week had a 73 percent higher sperm concentration than those who got the least amount of exercise. For those with busy work schedules research suggests that men who get more than seven hours per week of moderate to vigorous exercise have 43 percent higher sperm concentrations than those who exercise an hour or less per week. Its not too late to start, it has been proven that men who had been sedentary and overweight who took up exercising at a moderate intensity on a treadmill for thirty-five to fifty minutes, three times a week, meant that their sperm count, motility and morphology improved after sixteen weeks. That’s a relatively short-term investment in fertility potential.
- Negative stress can lead to a reduction of sperm quality in men, especially if stress is excessive. Try to use good time management strategies, so no to nonessential requests, delegate responsibilities whenever possible and develop good coping skills and a strong support network. Research has shown that men who have high levels of work stress and high levels of social support had perfectly normal sperm.
- Avoid alcohol and drugs during this time.
FOR BOTH MEN AND WOMEN
Working together with your partner substantially improves your success rate
- Buy organic foods whenever possible, it will be worth the extra investment in your health so that you can avoid ingesting trace amounts of pesticides and inert ingredients in pesticides, which include some phthalates. In 2019 the most contaminated list of non-organic vegetables were strawberries, spinach, kale, nectaries, apples and grapes. Avocadoes, sweetcorn, pineapples, sweet peas (frozen), onions, and papayas were amongst the least contaminated. If you can’t buy organic food then rince your produce thoroughly with tap water, then dry with a clean towel, this will remove most of the residual chemicals. A study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that eating organically grown food for just one week significantly reduces the levels of thirteen pesticide metabolites in the body.
- Choose fresh unprocessed foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and fish, will be more nutritious than packaged foods, and will help reduce your exposure to chemicals. Packaged foods come in contact with phthalates, such as DEHP and DBP – or BPA in the plastic or lining of cans, because these chemicals aren’t bound to the packaging material, they can leach into the food, even if the label says BPA free or phthalate free, it may contain substitutes such as BPS and BPF for BPA or phthalate substitutes that may be as toxic as the chemicals they are replacing. Its best to avoid canned and packaged foods as much as possible.
- Avoid contaminates in animal products. Commercially raised animals, particularly cattle and sheep, are fed with hormones such as testosterone or estrogen to promote their growth or antibiotics to prevent diseases. Hormones and drugs can affect human health, so organic dairy products are much safer. Look for ‘raised without antibiotics, raised without added hormones or no synthetic hormones.
- Filter your drinking water. Numerous industrial and agricultural chemicals can seep into the water supply, and so can pharmaceuticals, which aren’t monitored by your water supplier. Drinking bottled water isn’t the solution because it comes in plastic! Invest in a water treatment system for your household, whether its an inexpensive glass pitcher that you fill manually, or an under-the-sink activated charcoal or reverse osmosis filtration system, or a whole house carbon filter that will remove contaminants from all the water that comes into your home. The brand AlkaViva can do both. If you want a portable water bottle, get a glass or stainless steel one.
This is all aimed at being the healthiest you can be for your pregnancy
