WHILE MEDICAL PROBLEMS ARE TO BLAME, RESEARCH* HAS SHOWN THAT COUPLES WITH A PREVIOUS HISTORY OF INFERTILITY WHO MADE REAL CHANGES IN THEIR LIFESTYLE HAD A HIGHER SUCCESS RATE IN FERTILITY. HEALTH EXAMINES THE IMPACT OF THESE THINGS ON FUTURE FERTILITY.
*(Conducted by the University of Surrey)
CHEMICALS AROUND YOU
Avoid renovating your home in pregnancy as you may be exposed to toxic chemicals. According to Francesca Naish, founder of The Jocelyn Centre for Natural Fertility Management and Holistic Medicine in Sydney, this includes not only industrial chemicals, but also cleaning chemicals in your home.
OFFEE CONSUMPTION
Few of us would pass up a cappuccino, but caffeine consumption equivalent to more than two cups of coffee per day has been linked to tubal disease and endometriosis—both which can cause female infertility. A study of 1,909 women by Drs.Larry Dulgosz and Michael B. Brachs in the Yale University School of Medicine, found the risk of not conceiving for 12 months (the usual definition of infertility), was 55 percent higher for women drinking one cup of coffee per day and 100 percent higher for women drinking one and one-half to three cups of coffee per day.
LIMIT FISH INTAKE
While fish is chock-full of omega fatty acids, the Food and Drug Administration and The Environmental Protection Agency issued joint guidelines in March 2004 advising women who are pregnant, nursing, or even considering having children to eat no more than two servings of fish each week in order to protect developing babies from high levels of potentially brain-damaging mercury.
TOO THIN
Rose E. Frisch, author of “Female Fertility and the Body Fat Connection” describes how body fat links together food intake, diet, levels of exercise, and reproduction. For more than 30 years, Frisch has researched her finding that a critical body fat level in women is necessary for successful reproduction.
