Fertility Tips
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If you are thinking about starting or expanding your family and are coming off birth control there are a few things you can do to naturally enhance your fertility.
Food. Eating healthy nutritious food is a great start. Meals cooked from scratch contain loads of nutrients and very little preservatives and are best if you are trying to improve your fertility. You can include herbs and spices and ingredients with the extra vitamins and minerals you might need. You also need to eat regularly, skipping meals isn’t great. And snacking to keep blood sugar levels even throughout the day really help.
Sitting down to eat also ensures that you are digesting and absorbing all the nutrients. If you have spent your Sunday doing meal prep for the week, and eat it standing over the sink before you rush off and do stuff you are losing out on all your hard work.Exercise. Being active is really important, but not to excess if you are trying to get pregnant. 30 minutes of cardio work daily, (i.e. something that makes you sweat) and some strength building exercise 3 times a week (yoga, pilates, etc).
Stress. This is the challenging one. Our bodies are designed so that in moments of stress that blood flow is diverted from non-essential areas to our muscles so we can run away from the scary things. Non-essential was deemed to be digestive and reproductive systems back when the scary things could eat us and we needed to run.
Modern life has changed faster than our bodies have evolved. So this is still the case. The big scary thing is probably now your boss and he doesn’t go away as much. So we need to adapt and find more ways to switch off our stress hormones.
There is no quick fix to this, you need to make time to do this every day. You will notice it working when your tummy starts to gurgle, this is the digestive process restarting because you have relaxed.Stop looking at the calendar. Your fertile window is important, but obsessing about it, well it takes all the fun out of the process and elevates stress levels. So many babies were conceived when couples were drunk and having fun. Your hormone levels should be keeping your more in the mood the week you are fertile so just go with the flow and enjoy every minute.
Sleep. Sleep is the time when our bodies repair themselves and a good night’s sleep fixes many things. So start to get a good sleep routine going. Try to keep all electronics out of your bedroom, the blue light emitted by the screens keeps our brains awake long after they should have gone to bed. Ideally start your wind down routine around 9 pm so you are aiming for sleep about 10:30.
If you are still experiencing issues you can go to your GP and request some tests; they generally will be reluctant to step in if you haven’t been trying for at least a year. Acupuncture can help to balance hormones and get your cycle regulated. Acupuncturists who work with couples trying to conceive usually treat both of you for at least 3 months to get you back on track.