5 Things You Need to Do Now to Boost Your Future Fertility
Thinking about trying to conceive in the next week, month or even few years? Listen up! Even if becoming pregnant isn’t your top priority at the moment, what you do now directly effects your fertility in the future.
As much as we like to think that becoming pregnant is based on luck, fate or chance, it is actually a lot more dependant on timing, science and preparation. Females are born with a finite amount of eggs, meaning that you don't make any new eggs after you are born. This is why what you do every single day has a a major impact on your fertility over your lifetime.
This goes for men too. Sperm takes 3 months to mature. If you're looking to conceive within the next few months, your partner should also be focusing on what he is doing now to optimize your chance of conceiving in the future.
Here is rundown of steps you should be taking to prioritize healthy hormones and your future fertility.
1// Get to know your cycle - and know it really well
Putting it simply: to become pregnant you must ovulate. Ovulation is the release of an egg from the ovaries into the uterus, where it waits to become fertilized by a single sperm. Your ovaries take turns releasing an egg each month, usually on Day 14 of your cycle. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen for every women, every month.
Even if you’ve never thought about ovulation before, now is the time to start keeping track. By keeping track of the signs of ovulation (stay tuned for an upcoming post!), you can determine if you need to take further steps to determine either why you’re not, or when you are ovulating to optimize your fertility. A great place to start is to use a period tracking app - Flo and Clue are both awesome!
You should know:
The length of your cycle
What day you’re ovulating
IF you’re even ovulating every month
How many active bleeding days you have
Clots, colour and volume
Your PMS symptoms
One caveat to this is if you’re using hormonal birth control (The Pill, hormonal IUD or injections), you won’t be able to truly know your natural cycle as it blocks ovulation from occurring. It can take up to 2 years for your cycle to regulate after coming off of hormonal birth control and Post-Pill Amenorrhea (lack of period) is extremely common. Check out my blog post on The Pill here.
2// Focus on what you’re eating + the quality
Although eating a well-balanced healthy diet is always important, focusing on you eating becomes even more important when you’re thinking of trying to conceive.
Caffeine (even decaf coffee) and alcohol have been linked to decreased fertility. Alcohol consumption in both partners (not just females) increases the risk of miscarriage and decreases conception rates.
Now is the right time to start to think about the quality of food you eat: Men who ate fruits and vegetables that contain higher levels of pesticides had a lower sperm count.
Choose organic fruits, vegetables and meat, when possible. Here is the list of Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 (foods with the most and least amount of pesticide residues) to decide where it is worth spending the extra $$ on organic produce.
A diet high in seafood, poultry, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables is related to improved fertility in women and better semen quality in men. Increasing fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, fatty fish and healthy fats are especially important to ensure you are getting enough B12, folic acid, iron and omega 3 - all nutrients recommended by Health Canada for a healthy pregnancy.
A note for vegans/vegetarians: getting optimal levels from B12, folic acid, omega-3 and iron from the diet can be extra tricky if you are not eating meat.
Check in with your Naturopathic Doctor to find out how to supplement and maximize your dietary nutrients prior to conception
Maintaining a healthy weight and exercise regimen is very important. Both overweight and underweight woman are more likely to experience miscarriages and have issues with ovulation. Sperm count can also be affected if a man is overweight.
3// Make a healthy environment a priority
If you smoke, even casually, read this: female smokers have been linked to lower ovarian reserves (less eggs available) and required more medical and drug intervention to ovulate than nonsmokers. Female smokers were also over 3x more likely to take over 1 year to conceive than nonsmokers.
Endocrine disruptors are synthetic substances that alter hormone levels and balances. They have been shown to have a negative impact on fertility (along with other hormonal conditions) by interfering with natural hormonal cycles. Simple ways to avoid them are: choose glass over plastic containers, avoid using plastic containers in the microwave, avoid plastic wrap, and avoid non-natural cosmetics and personal care items. Exposure to high temperatures including saunas, hot tubs and keeping a laptop on their lap has been connected to lower sperm production and motility in men.
4// Do some digging + run lab testing
You need to have optimal levels of all hormones to be able to ovulate, conceive and maintain a pregnancy. As mentioned above, knowing your cycle and PMS symptoms allows us to have a general idea of where your hormones are at, but lab testing is required to confirm.
For example: if you experience a lot of breast tenderness and bloating, it may lead us into digging deeper into your estrogen levels. Excess estrogen has been linked to heavier cycles, breast tenderness, increased bloating, acne, PCOS and worsening endometriosis - factors that may impact your fertility. If you have a tough time losing weight, hold weight in your abdomen or have poor blood sugar control, it may lead us into looking at your LH:FSH ratio and HbA1C levels - all associated with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.
Many systems in the body work together to regulate hormones, so checking in on the whole body is important to understanding your overall fertility.
Examples of Lab Work:
Estrogen (Estradiol)
LH: FSH ratio
Progesterone
Insulin and/or HbA1C
TSH (and T3, T4, anti-TPO)
Anti-Mullerian Hormone
Check in with your Naturopathic Doctor to run lab testing that can help optimize your fertility.
5// Know how other healthy conditions can impact your fertility
If you have a history of:
Hypothyroid
Autoimmune conditions (Hashimoto's, Graves, Lupus, psoriasis etc)
PCOS
Endometriosis
Fibroids
Obesity
STDs or Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
...it is important to check in with your Naturopathic Doctor to learn how these conditions may impact on your fertility, and how to enhance your health to optimize your chances of conceiving.
If you are interested in optimizing your hormonal health and fertility, I am a Naturopathic Doctor virtually, and in person in Toronto and Vaughan. I have additional training in Integrative Fertility Methods and would love to help you reach your health goals.
In health,
Dr. Courtney Ranieri, ND
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