Is It Easier to Get Pregnant After Having Your First Baby
How much exercise you really know about conception and staying fertile? If yous're like virtually of the states, information technology'south far less than you think. In fact, when it comes to enhancing our fertility, many people take a lot to learn, says Pamela Madsen, executive manager of the American Infertility Clan (AIA). Her organization sponsored a recent Spider web-based survey on the field of study. The results were startling: Only 1 in more than than 12,000 women could respond fifteen questions about their reproductive life bike! Here are viii surprising fertility facts that every couple should know.
Credit: Thayer Allyson Gowdy
Fact #1
Overall good health isn't necessarily a sign that you (or your partner, for that matter) are fertile.
You exercise regularly, eat a nutritious diet, and accept enviable cholesterol and claret pressure levels. That's great, but it doesn't mean you're fertile. 1 in 10 salubrious couples of reproductive historic period will feel fertility problems. The causes are variable and equally attributed i-third of the time to the female person, 1-third of the time to the male person, and one-tertiary to unidentifiable reasons or to both partners. Unfortunately, the biggest factor that impacts fertility is something none of us can control: age, says Sam Thatcher, Doctor, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Center for Practical Reproductive Science in Johnson Urban center, Tennessee, and author of Making a Baby: Everything You Need to Know to Get Pregnant (Ballantine, 2000).
For healthy women, fertility peaks in their mid 20s, begins declining at age 27, so nosedives effectually age 37. If y'all are in your mid 30s or older and trying to excogitate, you need to be very pointed in your efforts, Dr. Thatcher advises. That means figuring out when you're ovulating and having sex activity at those optimal times. And if you're over 35 and concerned nigh your fertility, don't settle for a gynecologist maxim "Just requite information technology time," cautions Dr. Thatcher. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine advises women age 35 or older to consult a fertility specialist if they fail to get significant after half-dozen months of unprotected intercourse. Women ages 37 to xl should await no longer than three months.
Fact #2
Your weight affects your power to conceive.
Surprise! Twelve percent of all infertility cases are rooted in weight issues. If your trunk is chronically malnourished or overexercised, you can't menstruate, since a minimum of 22 pct body fatty is necessary for normal ovulation and reproductive competence. On the other side of the scale, being overweight can alter hormone chemical science and assist prevent ovulation. The skilful news is that shedding or gaining pounds tin hands remedy weight-related infertility; more than 70 percent of women excogitate spontaneously once they reach good for you weight parameters. Doctors consider a body mass index (BMI) betwixt 19 and 25 ideal. (BMI = weight in pounds divided by height in inches, divided by peak in inches again, multiplied by 703. Case: 135 pounds, divided by 66 inches, divided by 66 inches, multiplied by 703 = BMI 22.)
Weight non simply potentially impacts fertility only pregnancy too. Co-ordinate to the March of Dimes, overweight women who become pregnant are at greater risk for pregnancy-related high blood pressure and diabetes, and underweight women are more likely to deliver a depression birth weight baby. If y'all are at a reasonable weight and trying to conceive, now is not the time to begin training for a marathon or become on a crash diet.
Fact #3
Sexual positions -- coital or postcoital -- don't affect your chances of conception.
No written report has confirmed that one position is more than effective than any other in achieving pregnancy. In fact, sperm tin be institute in the cervical canal mere seconds subsequently ejaculation, regardless of position. Of form, aiming for the deepest penetration and maximum cervical contact makes sense, simply the optimal position varies because every adult female'south body is different.
And since sperm commencement swimming immediately after ejaculation, it isn't necessary for a woman to go a gymnast or a yoga principal to brand a baby. There may be a trivial advantage to lying effectually after intercourse to continue the sperm within yous, but there's absolutely no value in standing on your head, says Dr. Thatcher. So savor the mood however you lot please.
Fact #4
The biological clock ticks for men too.
The notion that historic period-related fertility turn down is just a female factor has been debunked by a recent British report. Researchers at Bristol and Brunel Universities evaluated 8,500 couples to determine the affect of age on the length of time information technology took to conceive. They discovered that while simply viii percent of men younger than 25 fail to impregnate their partner after a twelvemonth of trying, that number grows to 15 percent after historic period 35. Despite other factors, such as the fact that frequency of intercourse drops off with age, the study suggests that paternal age, as well, may be a consideration for couples struggling with infertility.
Fact #5
Ovulation mean solar day is not necessarily the best twenty-four hours to endeavour to conceive a child.
Sperm tin live in the female reproductive tract for up to iii days after intercourse, and so having sexual practice every day, or fifty-fifty on ovulation 24-hour interval, is not necessary. What is critical is knowing when yous are fertile. According to data from the AIA, twenty percentage of couples seeking infertility treatment are not timing intercourse correctly.
A woman is fertile for a period of six days, the v days leading upwardly to ovulation (when the egg is released from the ovary) and the day of ovulation. A written report by the National Constitute of Ecology Sciences institute, much to the researchers' surprise, that a woman 's capacity to conceive seems to end on ovulation mean solar day. Then if women charting their basal body temperature are waiting for their temperature to get up to have intercourse, they're too belatedly, warns Melissa Holmes, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She recommends using ovulation kits because they let yous know when you're about to ovulate. Having sexual activity on the ii days prior to ovulation offers the greatest adventure of formulation.
Fact #6
However cursory your partner's particular choice of underwear, information technology's unlikely that information technology volition impact his fertility.
Up until several years ago, futurity dads were discouraged from wearing briefs because their tight fit held the testicles close to the body, raising scrotal temperature and causing a decrease in sperm count or concentration. And while information technology is true that very high temperatures tin be harmful to sperm, choice of underwear does not heat things upward enough to make an impact, according to two recent studies. So if briefs (or bikinis, for that thing) are more than likely to heat things up between you and your partner, stock up on those Jockeys!
Fact #7
Birth control choices have fertility implications.
Information technology sounds like a cruel joke, but it'southward true, says Dr. Holmes. The method of contraception that a adult female has used may also impact conception. Women who used progesterone injections of Depo-Provera may have to wait for normal fertility to resume afterwards they've stopped using the drug for six to nine months or fifty-fifty a yr. Information technology may take women who use Lunelle, another injectable class of birth control, half dozen months to a year to have a normal menstrual and ovulation cycle.
And while many women believe that the effects of the pill linger long after they cease using it, that's yet another myth. Furthermore, it'south not necessary to wait several cycles to "wash out" oral contraceptives before getting started. In fact, immediately after the pill is stopped, there can be an ovulatory rebound upshot, resulting in a super-fertile period. Despite the increased chances of conceiving right after stopping the pill, Dr. Holmes nevertheless recommends most of her patients get off it two or iii months prior to trying to conceive. That way, you can more predictably determine the length of your bicycle, identify your fertile days, and be able to meliorate date when you conceived in one case yous really do get pregnant.
Oral contraceptives besides help to preserve fertility -- pill users have a decreased hazard of illnesses that damage fertility, such equally endometriosis, PID, and ectopic pregnancy. The bottom line? Take stock of your birth command choices before you lot decide you want to become pregnant.
Fact #8
Specific foods or diets do not accept a large bear upon on fertility.
In that location is no magic diet that will increase the chances of sperm meeting egg; the best thing yous tin can do is eat a diet high in nutrients and cobweb and cutting down on your consumption of highly processed foods. Information technology's also important for couples trying to conceive to become plenty of folic acrid, which helps prevent nascence defects and can better sperm count.
And while y'all may have heard that caffeine tin hamper conception, don't toss out your favorite mug just yet. Though there have been reports that women who drank more than than i cup of coffee daily were one-half as likely to excogitate per cycle every bit those who drank less, researchers acknowledge that delayed conception could have been attributed to other factors, and subsequent studies accept failed to find a pregnant link between moderate amounts of caffeine and fertility.
Some enquiry has shown that zinc may improve sperm count, but don't go overboard on whatsoever one nutrient. Like then many things in life, fertility thrives on rest.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Stein, CNM
The information on this Web site is designed for educational purposes only. It is non intended to be a substitute for informed medical communication or care. Yous should not use this data to diagnose or care for whatsoever wellness problems or illnesses without consulting your pediatrician or family doctor. Delight consult a doctor with any questions or concerns you might have regarding your or your child's condition.
Source: https://www.parents.com/getting-pregnant/fertility/boost/8-surprising-facts-about-fertility/