We all know that a healthy lifestyle is the key to a long life, free from disease and chronic conditions, and maintaining that lifestyle helps you feel your best every day. A healthy lifestyle also supports fertility, especially when you and your partner undergo infertility treatment, like IVF. Here, we take a look at fertility-friendly lifestyle tips that you can incorporate into your day-to-day living.
What Makes a Fertility-Friendly Lifestyle?
In the U.S., approximately 10%-15% of couples face infertility. Depending on the diagnosis, you may experience male-factor infertility, female-factor infertility, a combination, or, frustratingly, infertility of unknown origin. Whatever your diagnosis may be, lifestyle factors may play a significant role.
For both partners, weight plays a key role in their ability to conceive. Of course, obesity is rampant in the U.S. According to a study by the March of Dimes, 34% of women of childbearing age (18-44) are obese. Obesity impacts your fertility by halting ovulation and can lead to serious complications during pregnancy. These complications include hypertension (a contributing cause of eclampsia, a very serious threat to you and your unborn child), diabetes, preterm labor, and premature birth.
In men, obesity may lead to lower testosterone along with increased estrogen. That hormone imbalance can cause lower sperm counts, reduced sperm quality, and poor sperm motility (movement). Both men and women should take steps to reduce obesity and get to a healthy weight, according to their doctor.
Fertility-Friendly Diet
The best way to conquer your obesity issue is through diet and exercise. Shortcuts and crash diets simply don’t work long-term and don’t contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Before you adopt a diet and exercise program for weight loss, speak with your doctor.
Beyond controlling your weight, diet plays a crucial role in fertility and the health of your future baby. One of the best diets for fertility centers around the Mediterranean Diet. Plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates and whole grains, healthy fats, fish, eggs, legumes, and lean meats. Here is an article outlining five diet essentials to improve your fertility.
Exercise is Good For the Soul
An integral part of a fertility-friendly lifestyle is exercise. Incorporate some form of fitness a few times per week. A safe, easy, and pleasant way to get your exercise is through walking. Exercise serves many purposes beyond helping maintain a healthy weight. Just 30 minutes of moderate-intensity walking five days per week does wonders. You’ll lower your risk for type 2 diabetes, improve blood pressure numbers, and increase muscle strength and endurance, which is essential for active parenting.
Just remember, before you begin, or continue any exercise program you must first speak with your doctor.
Avoid or Stop Unhealthy Habits
Everyone, at one time or another, picks up some type of unhealthy habit. Whether it’s hitting up the drive-through for high-fat, highly processed fast food, having more than a few alcoholic beverages, smoking cigarettes, or anything else, and many other things you know aren’t good for you. Now is the time to put an end to these unhealthy lifestyle choices and boost your fertility.
You already know smoking is so very bad for your health. If you need help quitting smoking please discuss that with your doctor. There are several methods that help you get off cigarettes once and for all.
The same is true of over-serving yourself alcohol. If you think alcohol may be an issue, talk with your doctor or seek treatment. If you frequently dabble in illicit drugs, please stop. This type of risky behavior is dangerous to much more than your fertility.
Handle Your Stress in A Positive Way
For nearly all of us, stress is just a part of life. Maybe you can’t change things like work deadlines, financial pressures, family obligations, and all those stress-inducing events, but you can change how you react to them.
Finding ways to deal with your stress is essential to your fertility because uncontrolled stress leads to higher levels of cortisone and epinephrine. These hormones signal the body’s fight-or-flight response, which, in turn, throws your other hormones out of balance. And your body depends on hormonal balance for conception and implantation.
Here are some healthy ways you can deal with your stress:
- Breathwork: This is a handy way to deal with a stressful situation in the moment. Excuse yourself and go practice your deep breathing. Slow, deep breaths calm your central nervous system and shut down the fight-or-flight response.
- Meditation: A regular meditation practice fine-tunes mindfulness and helps restore hormone balance.
- Yoga: Gentle yoga combines physical postures with breathwork and meditation. You’ll feel much more centered and relaxed. Please check with your doctor before you begin a yoga practice.
- Journaling: Some people find relief when they journal their stress. There’s something positive about outing your stressors on paper and then simply letting them go.
Sleep Improves Overall Health
It seems as though more and more people are sleep-deprived, and that’s not good. Sleep deprivation, like stress, causes hormonal imbalance and disruptions. Find some way to signal your body that it’s time for restorative sleep. Take a nice, long soak in the bathtub, aided by some Epsom salts and essential oils. Tap into the power of pink noise, Avoid blue light from your devices before sleep, and install red, orange, or yellow lights. These colors mimic the sunset which cues your circadian rhythm it’s bedtime.
Schedule a Consultation with Us
When you and your partner make positive changes to your way of living, good things happen. At LA IVF, we’re here to help make those good things happen. If you’re in and around Pasadena, Burbank, Downtown LA, or the Covina and Arcadia areas, let us be your guide as you embark on the journey of a lifetime. Please contact LA IVF today and schedule your consultation.
