Why Lifestyle Choices Matter When It Comes to Conceiving

A healthy lifestyle improves the chances of conceiving a healthy baby. These choices help you increase your fertility.

The decision to try to conceive a baby is often met with excitement. Those happy moments can easily lead to frustration if you find that getting pregnant is harder than you thought. Conception relies upon both your and your partner’s bodies to be primed for reproduction. In fact, it doesn’t take much to throw off hormones that help with sperm production and egg release. These lifestyle choices make a huge difference in how things go when you are looking forward to conceiving a baby as soon as possible.

Lifestyle Choices to Improve Chances of Conceiving

Find Ways to Relieve Stress

Your body releases hormones in response to stress. Cortisol and epinephrine are two stress hormones that have an impact upon fertility. Women may notice that their menstrual cycle changes during times of increased stress, and these hormones are likely to be the culprit. Carve out time to relax during your day. You can journal, strike a yoga pose or vent to a friend to keep stress-related hormone levels lower.

Keep Your Weight Under Control

Pregnancy might cause some temporary weight gain, but it is important to practice weight management even before conceiving. Being overweight is linked to higher estrogen levels. If estrogen levels get too high in comparison to other hormones, then you might experience lower fertility. Try to eat a balanced diet and get the recommended amount of exercise for your body type each day.

Avoid Over-Exercising

While you need to exercise, you also need to avoid going overboard. Excessive exercise places stress on your body that affects fertility. In men, this could lead to issues of high temperatures in the testicles that hinder the body’s ability to produce sperm. For women, pushing the body too hard can lead to the body shutting down the reproductive processes to focus energy elsewhere. This is most commonly seen in female athletes who train hard for professional endeavors and marathons. For the moment, you may need to take a break from intense workouts and switch to gentler methods of staying in shape.

Understand the Role That Age Plays in Conceiving

Many people delay having a baby until they reach certain personal goals. Waiting until you pay off loans or obtain a stable career are smart choices for your family, but taking too long to work on conceiving does mean that your age could impact your chances of success. Fertility begins to decline in the 30s for women, and trying to conceive after the mid-40s can involve some challenges. Men might also notice a difference in their sperm quality with each new decade of their life. Waiting is understandable, but you might need to factor in the increased difficulty you may face at a certain point.

Use Caution with Medications

Women should always check with their doctor about medications that they take to make sure that they don’t limit the chances of conceiving or cause birth defects. Certain medications can also affect men. For instance, a class of antibiotics that people use to treat urinary tract infections is potentially toxic to sperm. Psychiatric and blood pressure medications may also impact sperm production and mobility.

Limit Your Use of Alcohol and Recreational Drugs

An occasional drink might help you to relax and enjoy a romantic moment, but too much alcohol or drug misuse can lead to lowered fertility. Alcohol and drugs influence hormone production. Even one night of overdrinking can cause a spike in estrogen levels at the wrong time in a woman’s cycle. Recreational drugs, including marijuana, are proven to lower sperm counts.

Watch Out for Environmental Toxins

Depending upon your career and hobbies, you might be exposed to environmental chemicals that influence the chances of you conceiving a baby. Men and women who work in fields such as construction, manufacturing and farming are at the greatest risk of encountering chemicals that affect the reproductive system. Taking precautions to minimize exposure, such as wearing the appropriate protective gear, can improve your odds of getting pregnant.

Conceiving a baby sometimes takes a little more work than you might have thought, but it is possible with the right combination of self-care and persistence. Remember that you may need to seek a professional opinion if you find it hard to conceive within a couple of months. Getting your mind and body ready for parenthood is the best way to achieve your goal of a positive pregnancy test.