By Elena Donovan Maue, The Bump
Smoking
You’re probably already planning on quitting smoking once you get pregnant (and you definitely should),
but avoiding cigarettes now will be a huge benefit too. According to
the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, it takes longer for
smokers to conceive, and smoking makes a woman's eggs more prone to
genetic abnormalities. Smoking increases the risk of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy.
In fact, the habit wreaks so much havoc on fertility that female
smokers who have in vitro fertilization have to attempt it almost twice
as many times as nonsmoking women do in order to conceive. Oh, and your
partner should quit smoking too. Men who smoke cigarettes have lower sperm count and motility (swimming speed), and more sperm abnormalities.
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Too much caffeine
Relax: You don't have to cut out your morning cup of joe. But if you
consume more than 200 milligrams of caffeine — that's about one to two
eight-ounce cups — per day, you should ease up. Heavy caffeine
consumption has been associated with fertility problems. Plus, you won't
want to overdo it during pregnancy (caffeine interferes with your ability to absorb iron, can dehydrate you and, in high doses, can increase miscarriage and preterm birth risk), so it's worth cutting back now.
Binge drinking
Sorry to break the news, but you should skip your friends' bar crawl while you're trying to conceive,
or at least stick to sparkling water while you're there. That's because
drinking to excess (more than two drinks each day) is linked to
irregular periods, lack of ovulation, and abnormal estrogen and progesterone levels, which can make it harder to conceive. Plus, if you're charting, it can make it challenging to temp accurately.
The other reason why you might want to nix the alcohol is because,
well, you'll have to anyhow once you get pregnant, to eliminate the
possibility of fetal alcohol syndrome,
and it will take about two weeks (or more) after you conceive to know
that you're actually pregnant. Tell your partner to limit his alcohol
intake too. There's evidence that drinking can affect his fertility as well.
Extremes in weight
Do you think you might be extremely overweight or underweight? Calculate your body mass index (BMI) using this tool
now. Having a low BMI (18.5 or less) or a very high BMI (over 30) could
cause you to have irregular or missed periods. And being extremely
underweight could make you stop ovulating altogether. Obesity can increase the risk of pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, birth defects and the need for a c-section. So it's important to be at a healthy weight when you're trying to conceive.
If you fall into either of these categories, talk to your doctor
about how to get to a healthy weight. You'll want to eat right, getting
plenty of nutrients; exercise; and drink plenty of water. Often, even a
small weight gain or loss is enough to get your body ready to make a
baby, as long as it's done healthily.
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Passing on the veggies
The jury's out on whether certain foods actually make you more
fertile, but there's one thing the experts agree on: If your body's in a
healthy state, you're more likely to conceive, so eating right is
essential. The other important reason to say no to the fries and yes to
the spinach salad is folic acid. This B vitamin is found in leafy greens
and is important to have present in your body before and after
conception to prevent birth defects. Doctors recommend you also take a vitamin with at least 400 micrograms of folic acid while you're trying to conceive.
Neglecting your teeth
If you've been lax, now's the time to get back on track with your
dentist appointments — and make sure you're flossing. You and your
partner should both get your pearly whites super-healthy before you get
pregnant. Poor oral hygiene can affect a man's sperm, and if you have
gum disease, it could increase your risk of having a premature delivery
and low-birth-weight baby. Yikes!
Being a couch potato
Keep making excuses not to exercise? Stop! One study found that doing
regular, moderate physical activity—brisk walking, leisurely cycling,
golfing and gardening—cut the amount of time it took women to get
pregnant.
Extreme exercise
You want to stay fit, but you don't want to overdo it. In the same study we mentioned above, vigorous
exercise increased the amount of time it took women to get pregnant.
We're not saying to skip your morning run if that's what you've always
done, but working out to the point of interfering with your menstrual
cycle, as some marathon runners and gymnasts experience, can mess with
your fertility.
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BPA
Time to invest in a metal water bottle—BPA, aka bisphenol A, is a
chemical found in plastic items, such as water bottles, food containers
and even in the lining of aluminum cans. Some studies have led
scientists to believe that high BPA exposure could mess with men's and
women's fertility, potentially lowering sperm count or reducing the
number of viable eggs. There's virtually no way to prevent BPA exposure
altogether, but you can limit yours by avoiding canned foods and
avoiding consuming anything from a plastic container with the recycling
number 3 or 7 on it (usually on the bottom of the container).
Stressing out
We've all got a little bit of stress in our lives, and experts
disagree on whether stress can _cause _infertility. But there's evidence
that chronic or intense stress
can do a number on your reproductive system, and, well, having trouble
getting pregnant can cause quite a bit of stress! So if you feel that
your stress levels might be affecting your health and your ability to
conceive, talk to your doctor about ways to cope. Several studies have
found that alternative medicines, such as yoga and acupuncture, have actually shortened the time it took for infertility patients to get pregnant.
High-mercury fish
Some fish are higher in mercury than others—most notably marlin,
orange roughy, tilefish, swordfish, shark, king mackerel, and ahi and
bigeye tuna. High levels of mercury in the blood have been linked to
fertility issues in both men and women. Plus, mercury can stay in your
system for a year or more, and can harm a fetus's developing brain and
nervous system, so avoiding it will increase your chances of a healthy
pregnancy. Love seafood? There's plenty that's considered low-mercury,
including anchovies, catfish, clams, crab, crawfish, flounder, haddock,
herring, mackerel, oysters, salmon, sardines, scallops, shrimp, sole,
squid, tilapia, trout and whitefish. You can have two six-ounce servings
of low-mercury seafood per week while pregnant.
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