You could be in the best of health, have a perfect sex life, and a more than willing and supporting partner to share the joys of parenting. But do you know there could be things you are doing unwittingly that are affecting your chances of getting pregnant. While a healthy lifestyle is an indicator of good health and fertility, you should pay more attention to the little details of your life that are seriously cutting down your chances of being a mother ever. These are the factors affecting fertility in women.
Today we look at some plausible reasons you may not be able to conceive a child. You need to immediately get rid of these bad habits if you want to increase the chances of getting pregnant.
1. Bingeing on junk food
You can’t live without your share of pizza, burger and other junk food. They are your mood- booster, and at the end of a hectic day, you want to sink your teeth into that succulent burger. So what you workout the next day, junk food is loaded with fats, and that does nothing other than give you high cholesterol, disrupting your body’s production of pregnancy and sex hormone progesterone and testosterone including insulin, all of which are essential for you to conceive a child. Throw away the junk food, eat healthy foods that are rich in vitamins, minerals, iron, zinc, calcium etc.
2. You are always stressed
Now stress can give you a hard time if you are planning to be a mother anytime soon. Do some yoga, meditate for half an hour daily in the morning to get rid of stress. Take a holiday if need be. Experts have found a direct correlation between high stress and the heightened risk of infertility. It is in fact one of the major factors affecting fertility and the chances of getting pregnant in women. Women with high stress produce great amounts of stress hormone called alpha-amylase that reduces your chances of pregnancy by 29 per cent, and the risk of infertility is twice more. So, take no stress, please.
3. You are a smoker
Of course, it is common knowledge that smoking is bad for your lungs and can ever trigger breast cancer, but did you also know that smoking has been associated with about 13 per cent of cases of infertility. Not just this, even if you have been a passive smoker, that is you are exposed to at least six hours of secondhand smoke daily, you are then 36 per cent less likely to be able to conceive. If you are planning to be a mother in the future, go off cigarettes and ask your friends to not smoke in your company.
4. You check your phone before going to sleep
The last thing you do before going to sleep is go through all your messages, and reply to the ones you didn’t earlier in the day. It is that time of the day to catch up with friends on social media or simply browse. But do you know the light from your tablet or smartphone radiating into your eyes affects your sleep pattern and even the quality of sleep.
This is one of the most important, but highly ignored, factors affecting fertility in women. The nighttime light exposure not only hurts your chances of conceiving but affects the foetal development if you are pregnant already. This is because nighttime light exposure diminishes the production of sleep hormone called melatonin disrupting the development of the foetus, also affecting your ovulation.
5. Your cholesterol levels are high
High cholesterol is not just bad for your heart, but also affects your ability to get pregnant. Your cholesterol levels and your partner’s too need to be normal if you are planning to be parents. So eat a diet that is heart healthy, workout everyday so that you lose the excess weight, and keep a tab on your cholesterol on a monthly basis. Once you do that, nothing can get in your way to pregnancy.
Would you?
6. Your oral hygiene is questionable
A perfect set of pearly whites are not just selfie-friendly, but also goes a long way in boosting your fertility. Statistics have found that women with poor oral health such as gum inflammation or bleeding, or those who have been constantly battling bad breath have had fertility issues. Among one of the major factors affecting chances of getting pregnant in women, oral hygiene is paramount. Brush your teeth twice daily, rinse your mouth after every meal, floss, visit your dentist quarterly to check for plaques or other issues, and keep your mouth and pearlies clean and fresh.
7. You are overweight
Yes, you need to lose weight not just to fit into your fancy clothes but also if you wish to be pregnant. Being overweight can get in the way of your pregnancy because excess weight can disrupt your monthly ovulation cycle. And you need to ovulate every month to get pregnant easily. A lot of infertility cases reported are weight related. On the other hand being underweight is just as bad in trying to conceive. You need to maintain a healthy weight by eating healthy and working out regularly.
8. The quality of your cervical mucus
Cervical mucus is the thick, white-coloured discharge from the cervix, and this fluid secreted actually protects the sperm when it makes its way to the Fallopian tube. Any anomaly in the cervical mucus is among the major factors affecting fertility in women. Often cigarette smoking can lead to abnormalities in the cervical mucus, making it difficult for the sperm to make its journey to the egg for the purpose of fertilisation.
These are but some of the important factors affecting the chances of getting pregnant in women. Make sure you are doing things right if you want to be a mommy soon.
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