If you have been trying to get pregnant but have been unsuccessful, there are a number of things that can be done to increase your chances if conception. While it takes most women an average of 6 months to 1 year to become pregnant, female fertility may be enhanced by simply living a healthier lifestyle.
- No more caffeine. Studies have shown that women who drink excessive amounts of caffeine have delayed conception. In one study, women who drank more than one cup of coffee per day had a 50% reduction in fertility compared to those who did not consume coffee.
- Stop smoking. It is common knowledge that smoking is bad for your health, but studies have also shown that women who smoke are less fertile than those who do not. Also, women whose mothers smoked during their pregnancies are less likely to conceive.
- Reduce alcohol intake. Drinking alcohol, even in moderation, can decrease fertility. The results of once study show a greater than 50% reduction in the probability of conception when the participants consumed alcohol.
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Tags : Conception, fertility
Women wanting to get pregnant should find themselves an ugly man, new research suggests.
Scientists have found attractive males produce less sperm during sex.
Researchers think good-looking males are biologically geared to hold back their sperm in each encounter to increase their chance of impregnating more females.
But unattractive males know they are not going to bed so many females — so when they do get lucky they give it all they’ve got.
The findings from the University of Oxford and University College London are backed up by studies of chickens and fish, but researchers think they could well apply to humans too.
“Human attractiveness is complicated and influenced by a number of factors including cultural preferences,” said UCL researcher Sam Tazzyman. “Nonetheless, ejaculate size and sperm quality are likely to have been molded by similar forces, like attractiveness and the number of sexual partners, that are important in other species.”
Reporting the findings on the university’s Web site, Tazzyman said, “The more attractive a male is, the more females will be willing to mate with him, reducing the value of each mating to him. This means it is optimal for him to contribute fewer sperm per mating.”
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Tags : fertility, sperm
You have been happy together for a couple of years and you both feel it is time to add a child to your family. Feng Shui an ancient Chinese art/science for balancing energies to bring upon well being for everything in nature. How much more natural can you get than having a baby? Here are some simple tips from Feng Shui that can help you bring balance to your life and help with conception.
Descendant’s luck: this is an important part that the man plays in helping with conception. To increase his descendents luck he should sleep facing North West which opens his receptiveness to positive energy that can create luck and enhance fertility. If sleeping facing Northwest does not work try placing a fan in that corner and have it on throughout the day; this will blow positive chi into the room and the man will be able to absorb this while he sleeps. Caution: do not have sleep facing North West if that is facing the door.
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Tags : Conception, feng shui, fertility
Women with cystic fibrosis can have fertility treatment to help them have babies without any long-term adverse effects on either themselves or their children, according to new research presented at the 25th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam today.
Until relatively recently, cystic fibrosis (CF) was a death sentence and most people with the disease died by the time they reached their teenage years. Now, this is no longer the case, and, thanks to better treatment of the condition, people live far longer and want to start their own families. But women with CF face a problem in addition to the effects of pregnancy on their health: CF itself can make them infertile.
In the first, long-running study to investigate and evaluate systematically the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in a group of infertile women with CF, researchers based at the Hôpital Cochin Saint Vincent de Paul in Paris (France) looked at 24 women between 1998 and 2008. After assessing their health, three women were discouraged from undergoing fertility treatment for medical reasons and six are still being assessed. However, the remaining 15 women all received fertility treatment.
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Tags : Cystic Fibrosis, fertility, ivf
You have probably heard that wearing boxer shorts can improve semen quality. This may help in a way as elevated body temperature can affect sperm count, but relying on the use of boxers to enhance sperm health is not really a very promising idea. Improving male fertility is actually a bit more complex, and it definitely needs more than just a change in undergarments.
Eat fruits and vegetables regularly. Studies have shown that men who ate more fruits and vegetables have better sperm quality compared to men who don’t. This has been attributed to the high antioxidant content of fruits and vegetables, which can reduce oxidative stress and consequently improve sperm count and motility.
Get regular exercise. Adopt a moderate-intensity fitness regimen to keep your body in healthy shape. While it is good to push yourself to exercise daily, it is not also advisable to go all the way with too intense workouts.
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Tags : fertility, male, sperm
EMD Serono is partnering with Men’s Health Network on a patient education campaign aimed at raising awareness of male infertility.
The effort, dubbed “In The Know: What No One Tells You About Male Fertility,” is launching this week, which is Men’s Health Week. The campaign features a 20-page booklet written in conjunction with the Society for the Study of Male Reproduction, a website (www.FertilityLifeLines.com/intheknow) and a PR campaign by Baer Consulting. It’s being supported by a satellite media tour, and aimed at reaching couples through health titles and local news outlets.
FertilityLifeLines.com is EMD Serono’s fertility awareness site, and includes branding for Gonal-f, a hormone treatment indicated for both male and female infertility. Patients can get the booklet by registering at the site or by calling a toll-free number. EMD Serono reps are advising physicians of the booklet’s availability.
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Tags : education, fertility, male
Have you ever found yourself talking to a friend about your fertility struggle, when a blank, horrified look begins to crawl across her face? She’s probably blissfully ignorant about all a person can go through to conceive. Except for those of us who’ve been forced to learn firsthand about things like stimming, egg retrieval, male factor infertility, and reproductive endocrinology, these terms may as well be Greek to most people. For a “fertile”, the concept of getting pregnant is usually something to the effect of get frisky;sperm meets egg; buy home pregnancy test; have baby.
But a new study out of the UK suggests that this ignorance may not be all that blissful, after all. According to Medical News Today, two out of three British women between the ages of 25-40 “don’t know there is only a small window of opportunity (two ‘peak’ fertile days) in which they can conceive each month…which could be costing some women months or in worst cases years of unnecessary frustration, because they could be trying to conceive at the wrong time.”
Okay, stop laughing. I know that for most of you reading this article, pinpointing the exact moment your egg drops each month is as intuitive as getting dressed each morning, but let’s think about this for a minute.
There is a lot of poor information out there - before you discovered your infertility, did you have any inkling of just how hard it might be to get pregnant? I don’t know about you, but I spent many years trying NOT to see that little blue plus sign. All my knowledge was focused on NOT getting pregnant. Maybe if we were made more aware of our fertility earlier on, some of us would’ve been spared some pain and frustration?
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Tags : fertility, infertility
You’re thinking about having a baby. You’ve just started “trying.” You’ve been trying to get pregnant for awhile. Do any of these describe you?
If so, maybe … just maybe … you need to see a fertility specialist. How do you know?
Take a look at this list:
• I’m under the age of 35, and have been trying to conceive for a year.
• I’m 35 or older and have been trying to conceive for six months.
• I have a history of pelvic infection, such as pelvic inflammatory disease, or pelvic pain.
• I have damage to my fallopian tubes.
• I currently have, or have had painful periods or endometriosis.
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Tags : Conception, fertility, miscarriage
Washington, June 16: Researchers from University of California, Berkeley claim to have found a missing piece of puzzle about how stress causes sexual dysfunction and infertility.
The study showed that stress delivers a double whammy on reproductive system and fertility.
It is already known that stress boosts levels of stress hormones - glucocorticoids such as cortisol - that inhibit the body’s main sex hormone, gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH), and subsequently suppresses sperm count, ovulation and sexual activity.
However, the new study showed that stress also increases brain levels of a reproductive hormone named gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone, or GnIH, discovered nine years ago in birds and known to be present in humans and other mammals.
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Tags : fertility, research, stress
By NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
Jun 11, 2009 - 4:42:03 PM
NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Study Shows Abnormal Sperm DNA Fragmentation in Half of Men Taking an SSRI
(HealthNewsDigest.com) - NEW YORK — As many as half of all men taking the antidepressant medication paroxetine (trade names Seroxat, Paxil) may have increased sperm DNA fragmentation — a predictor of compromised fertility. Research led by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center also found that the changes are reversible with normal levels of sperm returning after discontinuation of the drug.
The study is currently published in the online edition of the journal Fertility & Sterility, and represents one of the first scientific investigations into the effect of antidepressants on sperm quality.
“It’s fairly well known that SSRI antidepressants negatively impact erectile function and ejaculation. This study goes one step further, demonstrating that they can cause a major increase in genetic damage to sperm,” says Dr. Peter Schlegel, the study’s senior author. “Although this study doesn’t look directly at fertility, we can infer that as many as half of men taking SSRIs have a reduced ability to conceive. These men should talk with their physician about their treatment options, including non-SSRI depression medications.”
Dr. Schlegel is chairman of the Department of Urology and professor of reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, and urologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
The study followed 35 healthy male volunteers who were given paroxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), for five weeks. The drug was used because of its relatively short half-life and because it has previously shown to exert the strongest effect in delaying ejaculation. DNA fragmentation, defined as missing pieces of genetic code in the sperm DNA, was measured using an assay called deoxyuride-50-triphosphate biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL).
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Tags : depression, fertility, male
