Planning a pregnancy often begins with a health overhaul. You clean up your diet, start taking vitamins and make lifestyle improvements like exercising regularly and getting the right amount of sleep. These are all smart steps that will not only contribute to your well-being but your baby’s, too! If it’s baby-making time for you, consider these additional healthy changes that you and your partner can make to naturally support fertility:
1. Take action to reduce stress.Whether it’s deep breathing, frequent walks, writing in a journal or connecting with friends more often, find a healthy way to decompress from daily stress. Excessive stress can impair fertility through many mechanisms, but most notably through its negative effect on ovulation.
2. Reduce exposure to chemicals.Hormone-mimicking chemicals like parabens – often found in personal-care products – and bisphenol-A (BPA), in plastic products, may have a negative impact on fertility. Instead, choose natural or organic body-care essentials that are safer for you and the environment.
3. Give up drugs like nicotine and marijuana. Smoking has been linked with lower fertility rates for both women and men. It can cause men to have lower sperm counts, and women can have changes in ovarian function that is not conducive to pregnancy.
4. Choose sexual lubricant wisely or don’t use one at all.Many lubricants on the market contain ingredients that could impair sperm movement through the vagina up into the cervix and uterus. If you use a lubricant, use one that contains only organic, all-natural ingredients.
5. Have your thyroid hormone levels checked.When levels or too low or too high, ovulation and fertility may be affected.
6. Drink whole milk. A Harvard University study found that women who consumed whole milk products instead of non-fat dairy products had improved ovulation.
7. Monitor your prescription medications.If you’re taking prescription medications, be sure to discuss their potential effects on fertility with your doctor. For instance, some antibiotics can impair sperm production and movement. Other medications like allopurinol, used for treating gout, can have a potentially negative impact on egg fertilization.
8. Treat vaginal infections right away.Chronic inflammation from an infection can impair fertility by blocking sperm from entering the uterus.
9. Men: avoid excessively hot water and wearing tight pants. Testicles are happiest at a temperature slightly below normal body temperature. This is why they hang outside the body instead of being safely tucked away into the pelvic floor. If a man’s testicles are chronically hot from excessive hot water, or from pushing them up too closely to the body, it may result in impaired sperm production.
10. Consider taking a supplement for extra support. While it’s always a good idea to aim for a well-rounded, nutritious and clean diet, you might also try adding a supplement, such as Daily Wellness Company Fertility Blend, to your daily regimen. This multi-nutrient blend of natural ingredients, including folic acid, B vitamins and other vitamins, herbs and antioxidants that support fertility health, was clinically studied at the Stanford University School of Medicine.*