Trying to conceive should be one of the happiest times of a couple’s life together, but unfortunately, fertility issues often make it stressful and difficult instead. In fact, a study conducted on couples struggling to conceive found that they were three times as likely as couples without fertility issues to divorce. Since having children is such an important life goal for most couples, many hopeful couples spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on fertility and go through painful and potentially dangerous treatments to achieve their goals. The natural approach to pre-natal preparations is what we recommend here at Prime Wellness, and that approach begins with assessing your lifestyle for known factors that lower fertility. Start by learning about these five common exposure and lifestyle choices that may be interfering with your ability to conceive.
Frequency of Intercourse
This is the first fertility factor covered because it’s the easiest to change yourself without the help of a doctor. Timing intercourse can become somewhat of an obsession with the couple struggling to conceive, but there’s good news that it’s actually less important than you think. Yet a common misconception does lead to intervals that actually lower the chances of conceiving. Many couples assume that having intercourse too often lowers the sperm count and quality, but the opposite is actually true. It’s common for couples to space out intercourse to five days or more, but studies found that sperm counts were lower in men who waited that long. The highest sperm counts and motility ratings were found in men having intercourse daily or every 2 days, and the chances of conception were also higher at those intervals as well.
Smoking
One of the most impactful single factors lowering a couple’s fertility is smoking. The effect is relatively limited on sperm, but it has a big effect on a woman’s ability to conceive. Smoking has been linked to earlier start of menopause, greater risk of miscarriage, and complete infertility as well. Even if you conceive using IVF or another intensive treatment, continuing to smoke during pregnancy is just as likely to lead to miscarriage. Quitting smoking is absolutely necessary if you want to conceive.
Caffeine Consumption
That morning cup of coffee might get you going, but it could also be part of why you’re struggling to conceive. While a single cup of coffee isn’t a problem, many people who do rely on caffeine eventually amp up their daily consumption to quite a high level. Studies have found that women drinking more than five cups of coffee a day, or the equivalent of 500 mg of caffeine from other sources, experienced decreased fertility levels. Lower consumption levels of two to three cups or less had no effect, even during pregnancy, and men with even the highest caffeine consumption levels had no effect on their fertility.
Exposure to Toxins and Other Environmental Factors
Many women and men trying to have children assume that toxins and environmental risk factors are affecting their chances, but struggle to determine what’s really dangerous and what’s more benign. Exposure to agricultural chemicals, the chemicals used in printing and dry cleaning businesses, heavy metals in general, lead in particular, and microwave rays are all linked to measurable drops in fertility in both men and women. Other common toxins are less conclusively linked, but lowering your environmental exposure to all toxins by changing jobs or avoiding certain places is certainly a good idea for higher natural fertility.
Vitamin Deficiencies
Finally, don’t start your journey to conception until you’ve have a full blood panel to check for nutritional imbalances and deficiencies. It only takes a moderate Vitamin D deficiency for your entire fertility to be affected as a woman since the vitamin is widely used by the uterus, Fallopian tubes, and other reproductive structures. Tracking Vitamin D levels in women undergoing IVF found that high levels of the vitamin made women four times as likely to become pregnant. If it’s that valuable during IVF and other treatments, then it’s obviously even more important during natural conception practices. We recommend Metagenics products like Fem Prenatal and Wellness Essentials Pregnancy, two complete multivitamin supplements designed for use both before and during pregnancy. Adding HerSynergy to your routine can also help you and your partner achieve a daily or every other day intercourse routine that’s recommended for higher fertility levels because it helps support a woman’s libido. You can’t get pregnant if you’re struggling to enjoy having intercourse as much as is necessary for the best chance at conception, so don’t just think about nutritional imbalances when planning the supplements you need to help you get pregnant.
There’s much more than we can cover here in this article, so schedule a consultation today with Dr. Austin to find out how we here at Prime Wellness can increase your chances of conceiving naturally and safely.