Me & My Kids « Previous postFriday fun: The one you never got to use Next post »12 Months Apart: My son, the pre-school dropout The fertility detective: Can evening primrose oil get you pregnant? posted: April 23, 2010, 8:28 am in: Mom Stories What even is evening primrose oil? What is a primrose, for that matter? And can it really help with fertility, or is it all just an old wives’ tale? And speaking of which, don’t you just love that phrase, “old wives’ tale?” It’s so complimentary, isn’t it. Well, I’ll tell you one thing. This old wife is getting ready to do some detective work. I’m starting a new thing here on Momformation. Come along with me as we get to the bottom of these fertility factoids / mythoids.Sunlight on your eyeballs? Let’s root out the truth.Evening primrose is a plant with yellow flowers that bloom in the evening. And my scientific guess is that you somehow squeeze the seeds…and, uh, oil comes out. Luckily, we don’t have to worry about that part, because we can just pick up a bottle at our local drugstore.
What’s so special about it? According to the National Center For Complementary and Alternative Medicine, it contains gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an essential fatty acid. Can it get you pregnant? Only a good egg and sperm can get you pregnant. Ha, ha—wait, wait, stop with the hook, no, don’t yank me off the stage yet. My OB-GYN, who is brilliant, suggested I try it, so there must be something there. I haven’t been able to find any. On the other hand, lots of people out there say it could work. Don’t take it after ovulation, though, says this article. This one says it too.I have five months left to get pregnant before we throw in the towel, so I may give this a try, leery as I am of herbal mumbo-jumbo. Disclaimer: I am as far from being a doctor as it is possible to get. I am the antithesis of doctor! Don’t take my advice! It’s not even advice! I’m just a humble detective, and a pretty sorry one at that. In fact, maybe you should be the detective. What do you know about EPO for fertility?
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Sperm survive for two to four days inside a woman's body and are most numerous if the man only makes love every second day, so sex every other day from day 11 to 16 of the cycle will maximise the chance of conceiving.Excess alcohol can cause impotence and reduced sperm counts in men, while increasing the risk of infertility and miscarriage in women. Giving up alcohol at least four months prior to conception is recommended.Cigarette smoke is toxic to both eggs and sperm as well as to the developing embryo in pregnancy. So much so that smokers take about 30 per cent longer to conceive than non-smokers and have less successful IVF treatments should they become necessary – so quit now rather than later!Recreational drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin, can all decrease sex hormone levels and make miscarriage, malformation and stillbirth more likely. A healthy diet begun at least four months before you want to conceive will spring-clean your body and correct any nutritional deficiencies.
Eat plenty of unsaturated fats, oily fish, high-fibre foods, complex carbohydrates and non-GM organic soya. Eliminate all drinks containing caffeine, all stimulants and refined sugars. Herbal teas, spring water and diluted pure fruit juices are better. As well as taking folic acid, add zinc (30mg a day), selenium (100mcg per day), essential fatty acids in the form of linseed oil (1000mg per day) and vitamin B complex to your diet. Vitamin E, C, A and iron are useful too. It sounds a lot, but taking a single multivitamin and mineral supplement designed especially for pregnancy is all that is needed. Regular moderate exercise confers many health benefits. However, remember that excessive and vigorous exercise and skin-tight nylon shorts can reduce male fertility, while marathon cycling sessions on hard racing saddles can occasionally cause temporary impotence.The exact link between stress and infertility is not clear but there is no doubt that it exists, and may be contributing factors in as many as 1 in 3 couples who are struggling to conceive.
Too much stress can undoubtedly upset sex hormone levels and the normal menstrual cycle.Other theories are based on the disruptive effects of high levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, or the effects of stress reduction on improving blood flow to the placenta and improving implantation.Meanwhile, failure to conceive can in turn lead to tension and further stress.Stress-reduction techniques do seem to help some women to get pregnant so try to identify and avoid any obvious sources of stress and talk to your doctor if your infertility worries are taking over your life. Being overweight or underweight can seriously handicap your fertility. Also, changing the quality or quantity of your diet when already pregnant could potentially be harmful to mother and baby, so try to make sure your weight is in the ideal range for your height before you become pregnant.Ovulation is fairly predictable with a regular menstrual cycle, but knowing that it happens 14 days before the next period is useless if the cycle is not regular.
You can fine-tune the timing of your lovemaking by employing one of the following three methods of discovering when you are ovulating. A slight temperature rise around mid-cycle can confirm that ovulation has occurred, although it cannot predict it in advance. Electronic digital thermometers allow you to monitor temperatures taken first thing in the morning over a period of time so that lovemaking can be planned at the right time in future cycles. When a woman is most fertile she will feel wetter vaginally and can test her discharge with her fingers as it changes from dry, lumpy or sticky to watery, clear and very stretchy. This situation lasts for just two or three days each month and this is the time to plan your lovemaking. These kits can be bought over the counter at chemists and measure a hormone surge in an early morning urine sample. A change in colour of the dipstick indicates a hormone surge and predicts ovulation in the next 24 to 36 hours, during which time intercourse should take place.
For most couples the chance of conceiving in each monthly cycle is about 1 in 5 or 6 – the same odds as throwing a six with a dice. If you keep throwing a dice, or your keep trying for a baby every month, your chances of conception increase accordingly.Your GP can also offer advice on any regular medicines you might be taking as some may reduce fertility or have a potentially harmful effect on an embryo, and all are best avoided if at all possible when planning to start a family.Couples who are in their 30s, when fertility may naturally be starting to decline, should seek advice from their GP sooner rather than later. Most NHS clinics provide a comprehensive range of basic tests to discover why you cannot conceive.GPs can themselves initiate the simplest tests and then refer if and when appropriate to the specialist hospital clinics.It's often suggested that a couple should keep trying for a pregnancy for at least 18 months before its worth thinking about testing fertility. But in older couples, it may be worth getting checked out after a year with no success, or even sooner, as time is not on their side and the likely success of either natural conception or fertility treatments steadily falls.