Natural Guide to Conception
Become pregnant fast - An evidence-based toolkit for conceiving naturally in the shortest possible time
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DISCLAIMER: This information has not been compiled by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read.
Contents
Chapter 1 Factors that affect your fertility Page 06
Chapter 2 Fertility Treatment Page 29
Chapter 3 Alternative Therapies Page 44
Chapter 4 What’s Causing Your Miscarriages? Page 71
Chapter 5 The Four Month Preconception Plan Page 95
Chapter 6 Kick-Start Your Metabolism Page 105
Chapter 7 Sample 7-Day Meal Plan & Recipes Page 121
Chapter 1 Factors That Affect Your Fertility
Chapter 1
Conception is a complex process that depends on everything working properly at a number of stages.
Firstly, your hormone balance must be correct so that the egg develops normally. Secondly, you must be ovulating so that the egg is released. Thirdly, you must have sex at the right time in your cycle (there may be only two or three days a month when you are fertile).
In addition, your partner must have a good sperm count and possess healthy sperm, which are capable of penetrating your cervical mucus to reach the egg. Then the egg has to be captured by the fallopian tube and be fertilised. Finally, once the egg has been fertilised, the embryo has to implant securely in the lining of the womb, which needs the right levels of the hormone progesterone to maintain the pregnancy. No wonder they talk about the miracle of life!
It’s daunting to think about the number of things that can go wrong. But, as you will see throughout this book, there are many simple ways in which you can dramatically improve your chances of getting pregnant.
This section of the book outlines all the different factors that can undermine your fertility. The list may seem long but it is important to identify the particular combination of factors that may be undermining your and your partner’s health and wellbeing.
You may have been given the impression that there is no medical reason – and therefore no solution – for your problem. But when you read this section you will realise that nothing could be further from the truth.
Nutrition
You are what you eat. Or, to put it another way, if you put poor-quality petrol in a high-performance car, like a Rolls-Royce or a Porsche, it may run for a while but eventually it will become less productive and less efficient. It is exactly the same with the human body. You need top-grade ‘fuel’ to function properly, and to produce healthy eggs or sperm. To a very large extent, your fertility depends on what you eat.
Food Isn’t What it Used to Be
One of the problems is that nowadays we eat a lot of convenience and refined foods that have been stripped of essential nutrients during manufacturing. For example, 80% of zinc is removed from wheat during the milling process to ensure that a loaf of bread has a longer shelf life.
The soil our food is grown on is so lacking in nutrients due to overuse and commercial farming methods, that even what we regard as ‘healthy’ foods – vegetables, for instance – may not contain the amounts of minerals we require – as you sit there, you could well be deficient in a number of vitamins and minerals.
The well-balanced diet is a myth. We simply do not get all the nutrients we need from our food. This was confirmed by a National Food Survey conducted in 1995 which found that the average person in Britain was grossly deficient in six out of the eight vitamins and minerals surveyed. Fewer than one in ten people received the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) for zinc, which is the most important mineral for both male and female fertility.
Put this lack of nutrients together with all the additives, preservatives and pesticides in your food and you can see that your fertility may well be compromised on a daily basis. Chemicals like pesticides are known to affect fertility, others will affect your general health, and this in turn can reduce your ability to conceive. Scientists may know the toxic effects of one particular chemical but what they don’t and can’t know for certain is the effect of being exposed to a cocktail of these substances.
Balancing the Scales
Your weight is crucial for your fertility. Being very underweight or very overweight can make conception difficult or impossible. So it’s important that your weight is within a certain range in order to give you the best chance of conceiving.
Nature gave women proportionately more body fat for a specific purpose, in order to reproduce and then feed our young. That is why fat accounts for 27% of an average woman’s body weight, while it is only 15% for a man.
Fat is essential to fertility and it is necessary in order to ovulate. Young girls do not begin to menstruate until their bodies are composed of at least 17% fat.
Underweight
If a woman’s body fat drops too low, then her periods can stop. This low level of body fat may be caused by excessive exercise, as sometimes happens with ballet dancers or athletes who have very tough physical regimes.
Infertility can also be caused by excessive dieting. When a woman is anorexic, for instance, her periods stop. With so much publicity about anorexia and an increasing number of young women falling victim to the ‘summer’s disease’, the long-term damage to fertility caused by drastic weight loss is well-known. But not so many people realise that being overweight can also affect fertility.
Overweight
If a woman is overweight it can stop her ovulating. Studies have shown that just losing a small amount of weight, 10%, for instance, can be enough to increase fertility by stimulating ovulation, improving hormone balance and making periods more regular.
In another study, on women who previously did not ovulate, 11 out of 12 conceived naturally after exercising and dieting over a period of six months to get their weight down.
Fortunately your dietary intake is fully within your control, and eating the right food may be the single most important thing you can do to achieve a successful pregnancy. Later we will explain how the right nutrition can give you and your partner optimum health and fertility.
Alcohol, Smoking and Drugs
Most of us know that smoking and drinking alcohol when pregnant can be very harmful to the baby. But what most couples don’t realise is that smoking and alcohol could actually be stopping them conceiving a baby because it reduces their fertility. The good news is that the negative effects are not permanent and simply stopping will dramatically improve your chances.
Alcohol
Research has shown that drinking alcohol causes a decrease in sperm count, an increase in abnormal sperm and a lower proportion of motile sperm.
Alcohol also affects a man’s fertility by changing his hormone levels because it can alter the way testosterone is produced and then released. Because alcohol affects the liver (the organ which normally clears out any excess hormones), a man who drinks alcohol may accumulate small amounts of female hormones (men produce ‘female’ hormones, just as women produce testosterone). These female hormones can lower sperm production and potency.
In addition, alcohol stops absorption of nutrients like zinc which is one of the most important minerals for male fertility. Zinc is found in high concentrations in the sperm. Adequate levels of zinc are needed to make the outer layer and tail and are therefore essential for healthy sperm. If you reduce the amount of zinc in a man’s diet, his sperm count goes down.
Finally, alcohol reduces fertility in mammals, and studies show that women who drink heavily may stop ovulating and menstruating, and take longer to conceive.
How Much is Too Much?
A study of 430 women demonstrated that drinking more than 5 units of alcohol (equal to five glasses of wine) a week could stop women conceiving. Researchers discovered that the women in the survey who drank less were more likely to conceive compared with those who drank more. A study published in the British Medical Journal concluded that women should be ‘warned to avoid alcohol when trying to conceive’.
The fact is that drinking any alcohol can reduce your fertility by half- and the more you drink, the worse the impact on your chances of conception.
Studies have also shown a strong relationship between alcohol and miscarriages. Women who have a drink every day have a much higher risk of miscarriage (2.5 times more) than non-drinkers. The same study found that if the woman was a drinker and a smoker her chance of a miscarriage was four times higher.
Smoking
There is so much information available nowadays about the risks of lung cancer, emphysema and other life-threatening conditions and most people are aware of the detrimental effects of smoking when pregnant. We know how shocked many of us feel when we see a heavily pregnant woman standing with a cigarette in her hand. Yet most people are not aware of the impact smoking can have on a couple’s fertility. It’s not surprising that tobacco has such an effect – it contains more than 4,000 compounds, including carbon monoxide, oxide of nitrogen, ammonia, aromatic hydrocarbons, hydrogen cyanide, vinylchloride, nicotine, lead and cadmium.
Although many women smokers resolve to give up when they get pregnant, they don’t realise that by smoking they are reducing their chances of getting pregnant in the first place. Not only that but you don’t usually know that you are pregnant for the first couple of weeks and the baby will be taking in all that tobacco smoke in the meantime.
The man’s fertility is also affected by smoking – it decreases his sperm count, makes his sperm more sluggish, increases the number of abnormal sperm and reduces his testosterone levels.
In addition, smoking reduces the level of vitamin C in the bloodstream. Lack of vitamin C encourages sperm to clump together (a process known as agglutination) instead of moving forward to fertilise the egg. One study showed how male fertility was improved by giving men 500mg of vitamin C twice a day.
Smoking has definitely been linked with infertility in women. It can even bring on an early menopause, which is an especially important consideration for older women trying to conceive who may be racing against time. If you are a smoker, you should ask yourself why you are taking something into your body that is bringing you nearer to the menopause – and infertility?
Recreational Drugs
The use of cannabis and cocaine has increased steadily over the years to the point where, for some people, it is part of everyday life. Although still illegal, recreational drug use is increasingly socially acceptable. That does not mean it is healthy or safe. The fact is that these drugs can compromise both your and your partner’s fertility. But, as with alcohol and tobacco, you can stop using recreational drugs and negate the damage to your fertility in a relatively short space of time.
If you continue to use them during a pregnancy, of course, it can have disastrous effects on your developing baby.
The Effects of Some Common Recreational Drugs
Cannabis can lower a man’s levels of FSH and LH, two hormones needed to produce sperm. It can also lower his libido. For the woman, cannabis can lead to irregular periods, reducing fertility and sometimes even stopping ovulation.
Cocaine users will have a lower sperm count, poorly moving sperm and a high rate of abnormal sperm.
Heroin can cause a decrease in testosterone levels.
Cocaine and heroin, taken together, will make it harder for a woman to conceive and she is more likely to have a miscarriage, a stillbirth or a baby born with a malformation.
Medicines
If you or your partner is taking medication while you are trying to conceive you should speak to your doctor about which drugs are medically essential and which are not. Some drugs have a direct effect on fertility and you do need to discuss this with your GP.
Many drugs can affect not only the man’s sperm but also his ejaculatory function and libido. Some medicines may even cause impotence. These drugs can include sulphasalazine (used to treat irritable bowel), nitrofurantoin, tetracyclines, cimetidine, ketoconazole, tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors and propanol.
In addition, medication given for conditions like gout or high blood id pressure can interfere with fertility. And non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (often used for arthritis) can stop ovulation.
Age and Medical Problems
Age
The bad news is that the older we get, the less fertile we become – for a woman particularly, fertility declines after the age of 35. It can take longer to get pregnant and the risk of miscarriage is higher. Biologically, it is more efficient for women to have their families when they are young. But, in recent years, the average age of women having their first baby has been going up because many of us now want to establish ourselves in a career before starting families.
Women going through fertility investigations are often told that they are not conceiving because they have ‘old eggs’. The use of this term has a devastating psychological effect on any woman. And it causes a lot of unnecessary heartache because, although you cannot increase the number of eggs you have left, it is very possible to improve their quality by improving your general health.
So, if you are over the age of 35, rest assured that there is a great deal you can do to increase your fertility.
Medical Problems
There are a number of medical conditions that can affect fertility. Some are directly linked to the reproductive process, such as blocked fallopian tubes. Some, like celiac disease are not obviously linked. However, many of these conditions can be treated. And, by improving your general health and fitness, you can do a great deal to help overcome these problems and regain your fertility.
Conditions Affecting Female Fertility
Blocked Fallopian Tubes
The fallopian tubes are the route between the ovaries and the womb. The sperm swim along these tubes in order to reach the egg. The fallopian tube also provides a home for the fertilised egg for the first seven days of life, before it gets to the womb where it will implant itself. If the tubes are blocked then this is a major problem and medical intervention is needed.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is the main reason why some women stop ovulating. In its most extreme form, it can be a very distressing condition. Women affected by PCOS will tend to be overweight, prone to acne, menstruate seldom or not at all, grow unsightly body hair (often on the face, breasts and inside of the legs), and be susceptible to mood swings.
Fibroids
Fibroids are non-cancerous growths which grow in or on the wall of the womb. They are very common and many women never realise they have them, as they may not cause any symptoms. If they grow in a way that doesn’t exert pressure on neighbouring organs, a woman can live with large fibroids for many years without needing medical help.
They can, however, cause infertility and some fibroids can cause miscarriages. Fibroids can vary in number and size. If the fibroids grow significantly they can cause the uterus to enlarge and/or distort which makes it difficult for the embryo to implant properly. So you might conceive easily but miscarry unawares, at a very early stage, because the fertilised egg could not ‘hold on’ with the fibroid there. The size of a fibroid is usually compared to a foetus of that size (e.g. a 12-week fibroid) but some can be as small as a pea.
Endometriosis
Endometriosis is a condition where the lining of the womb (the endometrium) grows in places other than the womb. Sections of womb lining may grow in the fallopian tubes, ovaries, bowel and bladder. More uncommon places include the lung, heart, eye or knee. The womb lining, no matter where it is situated, then responds to the natural hormone cycle and will bleed when the period occurs. This can be extremely painful, especially in those sites where there is no natural escape route for the blood, and inflammation may occur. For instance there are cases where a woman has had a nose bleed during her period because the womb lining has migrated to the nasal passages and bleeds when they menstruate.
Endometriosis can affect female fertility because it can cause scarring and blockages inside the pelvic cavity and it is thought that 50% of women with endometriosis may have problems getting pregnant. It is more common in women over 30 who have not had children. So, as more women delay having children, the possibility of infertility being caused by endometriosis rises.
In some cases the endometriosis scars and obstructs the fallopian tubes so severely that the tubes cannot pick up the egg. And if the ovaries are scarred badly then ovulation may not occur. When the endometrial tissue implants on the ovary then cysts may form which are so-called ‘chocolate cysts’ because they are filled with dark, brown, old blood.
Coeliac Disease
This is a medical condition caused by intolerance to gluten which prevents food being absorbed properly. Symptoms can include foul-smelling, greasy stools, weight loss, anaemia, bloating, fatigue, and signs of multiple vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Unfortunately coeliac disease can also cause fertility problems. A study in 1996 confirmed that women with coeliac disease were sub fertile and had an increased risk of stillbirths and prenatal deaths.
Gluten is a major component of wheat, and other cereals, such as rye, barley and oats, can also be a problem. Rice and corn are fine. The gluten damages the villi, which are minute, hair-like projections lining the intestine, and this can stop the absorption of vital nutrients. The disorder is diagnosed by having a biopsy in which a sample of the small intestine is removed for examination.
Conditions Affecting Male Fertility
Up to 40% of couples’ infertility problems can turn out to be on the man’s side but the focus is still, generally, on the woman. From the very beginning your partner should be involved in finding out what is preventing both of you from getting pregnant and tackling the problem – it could well be a combination of factors.
There are some common conditions that make men less fertile:
Low Sperm Count
If his sperm count is low (less than 20 million per millilitre) then this could definitely be reducing your chances of conceiving. Levels of 40 million would be much better.
Poor Sperm Movement
Even if there is a good sperm count, fertility will be affected if the sperm’s capacity to move itself along (its ‘motility’) is poor. The way the sperm move is important because if they are going round and round in circles they won’t be able to travel up through the cervix and into the uterus to reach the egg. Good motility is also needed to help the sperm penetrate the egg.
Agglutination
This is when sperm clump together in a circle, going nowhere. This can be caused by an infection or by antibodies.
Abnormal Sperm
All men have a percentage of abnormal sperm and up to 70% is considered acceptable. The abnormal sperm can have two heads or no tails, for example. But only if there is a very high percentage of abnormal sperm will a man’s fertility be affected.
Many specialists believe that these abnormal sperm would find it difficult to get to the fallopian tube and, once there, would not be able to penetrate an egg. But some studies have shown that abnormal sperm are actually capable of reaching the fallopian tube.
Others claim that a high concentration of abnormal sperm could be connected with a high rate of miscarriages.
Research has shown that, while the possibility of conception increases with higher sperm counts, it is also vital that the sperm are normal.
Varicoceles
These are enlarged veins around the testes. They need not cause any discomfort and do not affect the man’s health in any way However, it is thought that they can overheat the testes and damage sperm production, though there are men who have varicoceles and do not have any fertility problems. For some men with infertility, tying off these veins has helped them conceive. For other men, it has made no difference at all. Unfortunately doctors cannot predict which men with varicoceles will benefit from having them treated.
Obstructions
Blockages in certain parts of the male reproductive system can affect fertility by stopping sperm getting through to be ejaculated. These blockages can occur because of scarring caused by an infection such as mycoplasma or ureaplasma or because of previous surgery, or due to an injury e.g. a kick in the groin while playing sport). A severe sports injury could also stop the testes producing sperm.
Undescended Testes
If the testes did not descend properly after birth, then they may not be producing sperm. The incidence of this problem is increasing and many scientists now feel that (like the drop in sperm count) it is related to environmental factors. Surgery is often used to bring down a young boy’s testes (which, earlier in childhood, have got stuck inside the body) into the scrotum. If undescended testes were not diagnosed early enough and surgery was delayed then the man’s fertility may have been affected.
Diseases
Glandular diseases, such as thyroid or diabetes mellitus, can interfere with hormonal control of sperm production. Infections of the prostate and epididymis (tubular structure on top of each of the testes, into which secretions drain) can interfere with sperm production or block the exit of sperm from the body. Other infections such as mumps orchitis (an inflammation of the testicles following the mumps) can result in permanent infertility.
Infections Affecting both Male and Female Fertility
Many people don’t realise there are a number of infections that can damage fertility. Some can cause infertility in both men and women, some can stop the embryo implanting once fertilisation has taken place, and some can cause miscarriages.
In men, infections in the seminal vesicles or the prostate gland can affect the sperm in several ways. Pus cells will reduce the sperm’s swimming ability and certain infections may kill off the sperm. Some infections can cause blockages in the male reproductive system, stopping the effective transport of the sperm. Cytomegalovirus (CMV), which is caused by a herpes virus, has been linked with low sperm count and inflammation of the testes.
Chlamydia
Chlamydia may sound like an exotic flower but it is actually a sexually transmitted bacterium which can lead to infertility in women without causing any symptoms. It is effectively an infertility time bomb, which is claiming growing numbers of victims (particularly teenage girls). The Royal College of Physicians’ Committee on Genito-urinary Medicine estimates that it is the most common sexually transmitted disease in our society.
A number of countries, such as Sweden, routinely screen for Chlamydia trachomatis and the fall in the number of Chlamydia cases there has been dramatic. But there is no routine screening in the UK. It is known as the silent illness because only a small number of women experience actual symptoms such as a discharge. Men can also get Chlamydia. They feel a burning sensation on passing urine. If men do not get the symptoms investigated then they will infect their partners, and possibly damage their own fertility.
In a woman the Chlamydia bacteria can be dormant for many months before passing through the cervix, and from there unnoticed into the womb and up the fallopian tubes where it causes the majority of pelvic inflammatory diseases (PID). If untreated, it can damage the fallopian tubes, resulting in blocked or scarred tubes which can mean infertility or increased risk of an ectopic pregnancy (where the fertilised egg implants into the fallopian tube instead of in the womb). In men it can cause inflammation of the testes and the tubes surrounding the testes.
Women can be screened for Chlamydia with a cervical swab and/or a urine test and men can have a urine test. If caught early it can be treated successfully with antibiotics.
Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma
Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum are very common organisms that can infect the genito-urinary tracts of men and women. These organisms don’t always cause infertility, but:
According to a study in the 1970s, there seems to be a higher frequency of these organisms in the ejaculates and cervical secretions of couples with unexplained infertility problems. And when the couples were treated, pregnancy rates increased.
In men, this type of infection can decrease the sperm count, reduce motility and increase the number of abnormal sperm.
These organisms have also been linked with an increased risk of miscarriage.
Environmental Hazards
We live in a society where we are bombarded with chemicals and toxins. All the time we are exposed to chemicals m our food, in the packaging around it, in pesticides, additives and preservatives. In our houses, we can be in contact with chemicals through household cleaners, aerosols, new carpets treated with moth-proofing, and anti-woodworm and wood preservation treatments.
Outside, the environment is equally laden with toxins – traffic fumes, factory pollution, pesticides sprayed on parks and railways. Dangerous chemicals seep out from landfill sites. The list goes on…
All this affects your fertility. Logic tells us that toxins must be one of the main reasons why an increasing number of couples face difficulties conceiving. The fact is that we are living in a ‘sea’ of hormones.
Of course it’s difficult to link a specific chemical to a particular medical problem or illness. So much else in our lives may affect our health that it’s often impossible to isolate the real culprits.
But we can learn a lot from the animal world. Infertility in wildlife is known to be linked to substances called xenoestrogens, oestrogen-like chemicals in the environment caused by pollution from pesticides and the manufacturing of plastics.
The power of these xenoestrogens was demonstrated when a group of scientists discovered that alligators which had hatched in Lake Apopka, Florida, had abnormally small penises and altered hormonal levels. In 1980 there had been a massive spill of Kelthane pesticide into the lake – the xenoestrogens from the pesticide were feminising the alligators and stopping reproduction.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the Department for the Environment found hermaphrodite fish in one river. The fish were part male and part female. In view of all this it seems very likely that chemicals in regular use are having a damaging impact on our fertility.
Genetically Modified Foods
Fortunately the issue of genetically modified foods has provoked a groundswell of opposition amongst the British public. We were just recovering from the BSE crisis when suddenly our food faced another threat. If the commercial production of GM foods goes ahead in Britain, we could find ourselves sitting on yet another health time bomb – possibly the most devastating of all.
GM foods are already affecting the fertility of insects that feed on them. For example, ladybirds that ate greenfly fed on genetically modified potatoes had a drastic reduction in fertility, with fewer eggs being produced.
Likewise, when a gene to produce redness was put into a petunia, it produced plants with more roots, hairier leaves and a reduction in fertility. Scientists should know by now that they cannot manipulate nature without consequences.
Household Chemicals
Think about the number of chemicals we have in our houses – all those cleaners and aerosols. There is plenty of evidence that the chemicals they contain can be harmful.
In an American study, published in 1991, women with a history of unexplained infertility and recurrent miscarriages were found to have high levels of two chemicals commonly found in carpets, leather upholstery and wood preservatives.
Leading UK fertility expert Lord Professor Robert Winston believes that chemicals in emulsion paint being used in a closed laboratory over 100 metres away from his clinic affected embryo growth at a vital stage of treatment. No one is allowed to wear perfume or aftershave in Lord Winston’s clinic because he believes it is important to avoid chemicals when trying to maximise fertility. Some chemicals can stop women conceiving, or the egg may fertilise naturally but not be able to grow or develop.
Ionising Radiation
This type of radiation – which gives off charged particles called ions – is produced from X-rays. It has the power to change cells and can cause infertility and miscarriages.
The male testis is one of the most radio-sensitive tissues and must be carefully protected during routine X-rays. Studies have shown that even low doses of X-ray delivered directly to the testes can reduce the sperm count temporarily to zero. If the same dose is split up over time, instead of being given in one go, recovery of the sperm can take up to ten years. Clearly, men exposed to X-rays through their work are likely to have reduced sperm counts.