Improve Your Fertility with Fish Oil

Fish oil is a great supplement for improving your fertility, especially if you suffer from inflammatory conditions such as PCOS. And as an added benefit you’ll improve your cervical mucus which is necessary for the sperm to reach the egg when you ovulate.

But fish oil isn’t just good for women, it’s also good for men too as it can improve sperm motility. Many male infertility issues that relate to sperm can be corrected by taking an omega 3 supplement.

So why is fish oil so good?

Our bodies need essential fatty acids (EFA’s) for optimum health. EFA’s are made up of Omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids. These help many conditions including inflammatory conditions, they lower cholesterol and improve mood disorders. If you have a hormone imbalance, they can correct this too – which is why they are considered a super food.

In fact fish oil can help with many different fertility issues. Women who take a fish oil supplement have reported things like clearer charts (for those who are charting), decreased menstrual cramps, improved egg white cervical mucus and less PMS symptoms.

By improving their menstrual cycles, some women who had previously had trouble conceiving , were able to get pregnant within a few months of taking a fish oil supplement.

Helping women with PCOS get pregnant with fish oil

One of the main causes of infertility in women is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Fish oil has been shown to help regulate PCOS conditions by decreasing inflammation in the ovaries and also balancing the hormones associated with ovulation. By doing this, as well as helping to make their menstrual cycles more regular, it can help enough to be able to conceive.

If you choose to try fish oil to improve your fertility, then make sure you take a high dose supplement (around the same dosage that arthritis sufferers take) for the best results.

Can Iron Help Increase Your Fertility?

Does Iron Help with Fertility?

In a nutshell, yes.
In a recent study, a group of women who had no history of infertility were given iron supplements to determine the effect on their fertility.

The results were that those women who took around 41 milligrams of iron, significantly lowered their risk of ovulatory infertility (the condition where women cannot product healthy eggs or ovulate infrequently).

Most good multivitamins do contain iron so check with your doctor to make sure you are getting the correct dosage.
Symptoms of low iron include tiredness, headaches, shortness of breath and weak brittle nails.

You might have already heard that iron can help improve your fertility, and it’s true that it can. Studies have shown that women who take an iron supplement have 40% less chance of having ovulatory infertility compared to women who didn’t take a supplement. And by increasing the dosage to over 40 mg they have lowered their risk even further by 62%.

That’s good news for women trying to conceive! Most good prenatal vitamins usually have around 40 mg included anyway, but you can increase your iron levels through food as well.

Foods that are high in iron include fortified breakfast cereals, beans and pulses, and of course meat (particularly red meat) and eggs.

It’s also a good idea to take a Vitamin C supplement or take your iron vitamin with a glass of orange juice because vitamin C helps the iron to be absorbed more readily into your body.
As an added benefit, iron will help improve your energy levels but don’t take too much, because too much iron can make you constipated.

What the study found:
The study found that a low iron intake in women led to ovulatory infertility which is where the body can’t product healthy eggs. If your eggs are unhealthy they are unlikely to result in a pregnancy no matter how good your timing is.

The women in the study had no previous history of infertility and ranged in age, weight and other lifestyle factors. Each woman was prescribed either a different dosage of iron supplement or asked to increase their iron levels through food in order to test how it affected their fertility.

The women in the study that took 41 mg or more iron per day showed the best results as it decreased their risk of ovulatory infertility by 62%. Those getting their iron from food (non-heme iron) had the best results.

Good sources of non-heme iron are:
• bread (both white and whole wheat)
• broccoli
• prune juice
• spinach
• beans
• lentils
• apricots

Can Caffeine Affect Fertility?

So can caffeine affect your fertility? Yes it can. Studies have shown that a high caffeine consumption (that’s around 5 cups per day of coffee) can contribute to decreased fertility in women. While the findings are not exactly clear on why this is the case, it’s worthwhile to lower your intake of coffee, tea, cola drinks and even chocolate while trying to conceive.

One particular study found that women who had more than 300 mg of caffeine per day had lowered their chances of getting pregnant by 27% compared to women who didn’t have any at all. However some other studies have shown no correlation at all between caffeine and fertility so it can be confusing to know who to believe.

You are going to have to decrease your caffeine levels anyway when you do get pregnant as it can affect the baby (and in some cases has been linked to miscarriage), so starting now is worthwhile for your health anyway.

So how much is too much when it comes to how much caffeine you can have when trying to conceive?

You should aim to consume no more than 200 mg per day. That’s the level that is linked to raising the chances of miscarriage.

To put that into perspective, a regular cup of coffee contains 100 mg, a soda drink has 50 mg and energy drinks usually have around 80 mg per can. That means that even if you can’t live without your morning coffee, as long as you limit yourself to no more than two cups per day then you’ll be fine.

If you do currently have more than that, don’t go cold turkey as this can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as headaches. Instead wean yourself off gradually by lowering your intake by a small amount every few days. You can alternate with decaffeinated drinks or add more milk to your coffee.
Below are some tables of the caffeine levels of certain regular drinks and foods:

Caffeine Charts

Coffee
coffee, generic brewed 8 oz 102-200 mg
coffee, Starbucks brewed 16 oz (grande) 330 mg
coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts brewed 16 oz 206 mg
caffÉ latte or cappuccino, Starbucks 16 oz (grande) 150 mg
caffÉ latte or cappuccino, Starbucks 12 oz (tall) 75 mg
espresso, Starbucks 1 oz (1 shot ) 75 mg
espresso, generic 1 oz (1 shot) 30-90 mg
coffee, generic instant 8 oz 27-173 mg
coffee, generic decaffeinated 8 oz 3-26 mg

Tea
black tea, brewed 8 oz 40-120 mg
green tea, brewed 8 oz 30-50 mg
decaffeinated black tea 8 oz 2 mg
Starbucks Tazo Chai Tea latte 16 oz (grande) 100 mg
Nestea 12 oz 26 mg
Snapple 16 oz 42 mg
Lipton Brisk iced tea 12 oz 10 mg

Soft drinks
Coke 12 oz 35 mg
Pepsi 12 oz 38 mg
Jolt Cola 12 oz 72 mg
Mountain Dew 12 oz 54 mg
7-Up 12 oz 0 mg
Sierra Mist 12 oz 0 mg
Sprite 12 oz 0 mg

Energy drinks
Red Bull 8.3 oz 80 mg
SoBe Essential Energy, berry or orange 8 oz 48 mg
SoBe No Fear 8 oz 83 mg

Desserts
dark chocolate 1.45-oz bar 31 mg
milk chocolate 1.45-oz bar 11 mg
coffee ice cream or frozen yogurt 8 oz 50-60 mg
hot cocoa 8 oz 3-13 mg

What are the Best Prenatal Vitamins to Take Before You Get Pregnant?

If you are thinking about having a baby, then one of the first things that you can do, before you even conceive is start taking a good prenatal vitamin.


Not only will it help give you and your baby the best start in life, but it can also improve your fertility! So what should you look for when choosing a prenatal vitamin supplement?

What to look for in a good prenatal vitamin supplement

Folic Acid (Folate)
While including folic acid is usually standard in prenatal vitamins (and even some regular multi vitamins) you need to make sure that they include the correct dosage so that you are getting enough of this important nutrient. Make sure that your supplement includes at least 400 mcg of folic acid. This will help protect your baby against neural tube defects like spina bifida. For the best way to lower your risk of your baby getting it, then you should be taking folate BEFORE you get pregnant.

Calcium
You’ll need extra calcium to help you grow a healthy baby when you are pregnant, so look for a supplement that has 1,000 mg per day. You can also get your daily calcium needs by eating foods that are high in it such as milk, yoghurt and cheese.

Iron
Iron is especially important when you are pregnant because it will help to combat fatigue and prevent anaemia. A good prenatal vitamin will have around 30 to 40 mg per day.

Vitamins that help improve fertility
If you are taking a prenatal vitamin to help improve your fertility you should also make sure it contains vitamin B6, manganese and zinc.

Other factors to consider when choosing a prenatal vitamin

You also need to take into account other factors such as the size of the supplement (smaller vitamins are easier to swallow than large ones – especially if you do get pregnant and are suffering from morning sickness).

If you can’t stomach swallowing your supplement you might even prefer one that you can chew or dissolve in water as an alternative.

Price might also be a contributing factor to which brand you purchase. Don’t always assume that the most expensive brand is going to be the best – most supplements are quite similar in composition, so read the labels carefully to decide.

There are many great prenatal vitamins that are available at your health food or grocery store that will not only help improve your fertility but also put you in your best shape when you do conceive.

Eating for Fertility – How Diet & Food Can Help Get You Pregnant

Yes, it’s true – food can help improve your fertility so much so, that previously infertile couples are making babies just by changing their diets.


The reason being that food and diet play an important role in the balance of hormones for both men and women and works as a sort of internal medicine for improving your health. Using food for health is nothing new, we have been told for years that eating right will improve certain conditions, help us lose weight and even cure diseases, so it makes sense that fertility diets can also help us get pregnant.

The food pH levels itself will not affect you getting pregnant or not, but it can influence the gender of your child.

So what sort of foods should you be eating to make sure that you conceive a healthy baby?
First let’s cover what you shouldn’t be eating – and that’s junk food (refined sugars and saturated fats), caffeine and artificial substances (preservatives, colours & flavours).

These foods not only make you unhealthy, they are widely known for their effect on the hormones of your body, particularly ones like oestrogen which are needed for a healthy menstrual cycle. Have too much oestrogen and not enough progesterone and it will be difficult for you to conceive (you’ll likely have a short luteal phase if this is your problem).

People with PCOS are particularly sensitive to foods that cause hormonal imbalances.
Instead you should be eating a variety of healthy foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
Good sources of whole grain’s include brown rice, oatmeal and whole wheat breads. The best vegetables are the green leafy vegies and also fruits and vegetables that have lots of colour such as carrots, mango, berries, peppers and more. The more colour it has, the higher in nutrients it is.

You’ll probably also hear that you should or shouldn’t eat dairy or meat. The reason being that these foods can affect your hormone levels either for the positive or negative depending on your condition.
If you suffer from any sort of ovulatory infertility such as PCOS, then full fat dairy is your friend, and can actually help you get pregnant. If that isn’t your problem then you should decrease the amount of dairy you eat and stick to low fat.

Meat can affect some people’s fertility but not all. That’s why some fertility diet books recommend going vegan or vegetarian when trying to get pregnant. It’s definitely worth a try if you’ve ruled out everything else – you can always start eating meat again once you know there is a baby on the way.

It usually takes around two to three months to see any real changes in your body and menstrual cycle when starting a diet aimed at improving your fertility so stick with it because you just never know if that apple is going to help you finally get that baby you want.

How Long Does it Take to Get Pregnant?

One of the questions that most people ask when they first start trying for a baby is how long does it take to get pregnant? If I believed my biology teacher, it would have happened the very first time that I had unprotected sex. Alas he has a lot to answer for because for me it took quite a lot longer than that.


Even for perfectly healthy couples, unprotected intercourse does not always result in a positive pregnancy test the first month that they try. For the average couple, the statistics seem to indicate that:

50% will get pregnant within 4 months
75% will take up to 8 months
90% will conceive with 1 year

That means the odds are in your favour that you will fall pregnant within twelve months of trying. Of course that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore fertility options before that time. In fact many doctors recommend that the older you are when you are trying to conceive the earlier you should seek to rule out any other possibilities that could be causing your infertility.

Which Factors Influence How Long Should it Take to Get Pregnant?

There are certain factors that can determine whether it will be faster or slower for you to get pregnant. These include:

Age: It’s much easier to get pregnant under the age of 35 than over. It takes the average older mom around double the time to conceive than it does a women in her 20′s.

Medications: Certain medications that you are taking will affect your fertility and chances of getting pregnant. If you are uncertain whether yours might be one of them, discuss your options with your doctor about a safe alternative.

General Health: The healthier and fitter that you are, the easier it is to get pregnant. Many studies have shown that couples with a more active lifestyle increase their chances of conception over couples that don’t. That includes giving up harmful substances such as cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.

Stress: I know it’s annoying when people tell you to ‘just relax’ when you are trying to conceive, but there is some basis of truth to it. By treating your stress in a positive manner such as taking a yoga class or indulging in a warm bubble bath each night, you can boost your odds of getting pregnant.

Enjoy Sex: It’s true that couples that have a healthy and enjoyable sex life usually have an easier time of getting pregnant. Once sex becomes a chore then it can decrease your fertility, so try and spice things up again and enjoy sex.

How Long Will it Take to Get Pregnant After Stopping Birth Control

If you’ve been taking birth control pills or other hormone control methods including Depo Provera then it might take you a little longer to get pregnant than someone who was using barrier methods such as condoms to avoid pregnancy.

The reason for this is that it might take at least three to four months for your body to return to normal and your fertility to be restored. Usually a good indicator that you are back to peak fertility is when your menstrual cycles return to a regular schedule again.

But of course every woman is different and some women are able to get pregnant almost immediately after stopping birth control.

How Long Did it Take You to Get Pregnant?

For me it was a struggle to conceive and for my first child it took 18 months and my second just over 2 years. Of course I had issues with a short luteal phase and unbalanced hormones and both times I needed a little boost to help things along.

For my first pregnancy what worked for me was taking a Chinese herbal medicine that included herbs such as Dong Quai and False Unicorn Root. It tasted disgusting, but I took it everyday and in the second month of taking it found out I was finally pregnant.

My second pregnancy wasn’t quite as easy (and yes I did try the Chinese herbs) and in the end it was the fertility drug Clomid that helped me conceive. I was only my third cycle of Clomid when I found out that it had worked and I was finally pregnant again. Funny thing was, because it had taken so long to get pregnant, I didn’t believe the pregnancy test at first and thought the Clomid had caused a false positive! LOL.

Trying to Get Pregnant Tips – What You Need To Do Right Now to Increase Your Odds of Conceiving

If you have been trying to get pregnant for some time (or even if you only just started) then you probably want to know what you can do to sway the odds in your favour. It’s not just a matter of making love and nine months later a baby will appear (ahh I wish it were that simple).


Instead the road to having a baby can be a long one, but never fear because you can increase the chances with some of these top three trying to get pregnant tips.

Tip #1: Have More Sex
Most often, if everything else is working fine, the biggest factor is that couples don’t have sex around the right time that the women ovulates. Most people assume that every women ovulates on day 14, but that actually isn’t the case at all (that’s just the average day). You might ovulate before or after that day and if you are timing intercourse for day 14 you could be missing out on your peak fertility day.

Therefore by having more sex, around every second day from day 10 through day 20 (or even every day if you like) then you’ll increase the likelihood of the sperm reaching the egg and conceiving.

Tip #2: Know When you Ovulate
If all of that sex seems too much and you want to know exactly when you are most fertile then you need to know when you ovulate. The best way to determine this is either by charting your temperature, using ovulation predictor kits or other prediction methods including the new Ov-Watch which tells you precisely when you are about to ovulate and therefore when you should be trying for that baby.

Tip #3: Use Gravity to your Advantage
Why not give the sperm a little helping hand in getting to the egg by using gravity to your advantage! Place a cushion or pillow under your bottom to allow the angle of your vagina to hold the sperm in better. And after sex you can use the bicycle method by ‘cycling’ your legs in the air for at least 5 minutes afterwards to help things along.

Bonus Tip: Yes you Should Orgasm!
And while you are there, it also helps if you can orgasm after your partner has as the uterine contractions will help draw the sperm up into the uterus so they don’t have to travel as far.

Trying to Get Pregnant After the Pill

If you’ve been on birth control pills and are now trying to get pregnant you might wonder how long it will take. The truth is that it can vary from woman to woman. Some women seem to get pregnant the first month after stopping while other’s can take up to twelve months to conceive.

It will depend on a number of factors including how long you have been taking the pill for, your age, which strength or hormone combination of pill you took and your general health.

You can usually help things along by trying to lead a more health lifestyle, avoiding alcohol and cigarettes and exercising.

Generally though it usually takes most women around 3 to 4 months for your hormone balance to restore to its original fertility so that you are able to have a healthy pregnancy.

Trying to Get Pregnant After a Miscarriage

If you’ve recently suffered a miscarriage then you are probably quite nervous to try and get pregnant again in case you have another miscarriage.

Whether you want to try straight away or wait awhile is up to you and how you felt about the miscarriage in the first place. Obviously the further along being pregnant that you were when you lost the baby, usually the harder it is to cope with and the longer you will probably want to wait.

When you are ready to start trying again you should take things slow. If you do find out that you are pregnant then try some things to help lower your stress about whether this baby will be ok or not. Don’t hesitate to call your doctor at any time if you are feeling anxious.

The good news however is that the majority of women who have miscarried go on to have perfectly healthy babies the next time.

Tips on Trying to Get Pregnant

Of course I could keep writing and provide you some more tips on trying to get pregnant, but then this post would be very long indeed. Instead I invite you to have a look at some of the other posts on this blog that go into more depth on getting pregnant.