Four Steps to Maximize Fertility

By: Mickey Coffler, MD

When you are not trying to get pregnant, the most you think about your fertility is how to suppress it. But once you are thinking about getting pregnant, your fertility becomes a top-of-mind issue.

When you are ready to start your family, you have some steps to take that will prepare your body for pregnancy. Even more important, however, the steps you take now can also maximize your fertility and your chances of success when it’s time to take a pregnancy test.

Step One: Exercise

Exercise is critical to maintaining a healthy weight and reproductive system. Overweight women often have problems with regular ovulation. Without an egg for sperm to fertilize, there will certainly be no pregnancy. But it is equally important not to overdo it, as being underweight will also disrupt ovulation cycles. Another benefit of exercise is that it is critical to reducing stress levels, which in turn is helpful to maintaining hormone balances vital to reproduction.

Step Two: Give Up Drinks That Hurt More Than Help

Alcohol is detrimental to your reproductive health in many ways. Women who drink more than the equivalent of two glasses of wine per week were less likely to get pregnant within six months than women who consumed less than that amount. For men, it can reduce the sperm count as well as harm their movement and shape. For both men and women, alcohol consumption reduces the body’s ability to absorb nutrients like zinc, which is critical to both sexes’ reproductive health.

Step Three: Make Sure You Have Three Months of Good Meals

Good nutrition is a very important step to take for your overall health as well as your reproductive health. An immature egg takes three months to mature and be released for ovulation. Likewise, sperm also form over three months. So if you start a nutritious diet full of leafy green vegetables, lean proteins and fruits, you will see the benefit in three months. Also, make sure that your diet gets you plenty of food sources of the important nutrients like zinc, omega 3 fatty acids, selenium, and vitamins A and C. All of these help you maintain your best reproductive health and aid a successful and healthy pregnancy.

Step Four: Stop Smoking

Smoking has ill effects for both men and women as it pertains to their fertility. For women, it can be linked to many infertility issues, including early on-set menopause. For men, smoking has detrimental effects on his sperm counts, his sperm’s movement and overall chromosomal makeup.

Instead of considering your fertility only when you and your partner decide to try getting pregnant, take proactive steps now. That way, you can ensure that your fertility is the best it can be when the time is right.

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Waterman and Ursell. “Are You Fit To Have Kids?” thesun.co.uk. 27 November 2012. Web. 13 December 2012.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/4665029/pregnancy-fertility-conceive-diet-exercise.html