Amazon.com lists over 8,000 items under the search term "fertility"
Image: How did I ever get stuck with *two* kids? Can you lower your FSH? Can you improve your egg quality?

Doctors will say you can't.

Tour eggs are as old as you are, and nothing you will do will make any difference.

You will be told, Your eggs are too old and You are a poor responder,

Even 2/3 of women over the age of 35 require medical intervention in order to conceive.

Yes, some women will need help to conceive.

But keep in mind there is a large financial incentive for you to believe these demoralizing prognoses – reproductive medicine is an ever-growing multi-billion dollar per year cash industry, whose financial rewards grow exponentially when you submit to the belief your only chance of becoming a parent is through medical intervention. They make no money when you conceive on your own. They make a maximum profit when multiple women are involved in helping you achieve a pregnancy at all costs.

So what CAN you do to help yourself?

Ovarian health depends upon three factors – nutritional status, blood flow, and the balance of reproductive hormones with stress hormones.

1) Nutritional status – the reproductive system, like the rest of our body, has certain nutritional requirements. Most of my patients are asked to avoid sugar, wheat, and dairy. They take nutritional supplements specific to their Traditional Chinese Medicine pattern of imbalance. Most women with high FSH or poor ovarian reserve take super greens like wheatgrass, royal jelly, and Co-Enzyme Q-10, to name a few.

2) Blood flow – a woman of age 40 typically has five times less blood flow to her ovaries than a woman of age 20. This dramatically impedes the attention the ovary requires during the follicles' all-important growth phase, the 90-day process before ovulation in which the quality of the egg is determined. The follicles insist upon adequate oxygenation and circulation to function efficiently (i.e., with a healthy egg, capable of fertilization and implantation.)

3) Hormonal balance – the endocrine system is a delicate interplay of the reproductive hormones, stress hormones, and emotions, in symphony with each other. This system operates via feedback, which means anytime you introduce an outside hormone into its influence, it shuts that system down. Synthetic hormones can't cure hormonal imbalances, they can only override them. The endocrine system is the most sensitive bodily system which requires the perfect balancing act of multiple factors, inside and out. Like all other mammals, our bodies do not want us pregnant when our endocrine systems are stressed.

Photo credit: How did I ever get stuck with *two* kids?, by Ed Yourdon
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Image: Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 20th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health | Paperback: 560 pages | by Toni Weschler (Author). Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; 20th Anniversary ed. edition (July 7, 2015)
Taking Charge of Your Fertility
Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 20th Anniversary Edition:
by Toni Weschler

-- Clear and comprehensive, yet warm and approachable, Taking Charge of Your Fertility is one of the most universally lauded health books on the market today. It is an essential reference for every woman of reproductive age.

For any woman unhappy with her current method of birth control; demoralized by her quest to have a baby, or experiencing confusing symptoms in her cycle, this book provides answers to all these questions, plus amazing insights into a woman's body.

Weschler thoroughly explains the empowering Fertility Awareness Method which, in only a couple minutes a day, allows a woman to:
• Enjoy highly effective, scientifically proven birth control without chemicals or devices
• Maximize her chances of conception or expedite fertility treatment by identifying impediments to conception
• Increase the likelihood of choosing the gender of her baby
• Gain control of her sexual and gynecological health

📚 Paperback: 512 pages
Click to order/for more info: Taking Charge of Your Fertility
Image: Positive Test, by miss pupik /shira gal, on Flickr

Quote: Around half of all pregnancies in women over 40 end in miscarriage.

Quote: Patients over 40 may have a miscarriage rate as high as 50%.
Miscarriage rates for 40-year-old women are about twice that for 20-year-old women.

Quote: Generally, the rate of infertility in women over 40 is 30% greater than in younger women, while the miscarriage rate in women over 40 is about 50% using ART


WAIT! Here is hope!

I was just looking on the BFP Over 40 [Big Fat Positive on a pregnancy test] post on Fertility Friends website and thought the following numbers might be helpful:

May - 28 BFP - 13 losses
June - 7 BFP - 2 losses
July - 13 BFP - 7 losses
August - 12 BFP - 7 losses
Sept - 15 BFP - 7 losses
October 21 BFP - 6 losses
November 13 BFP - 3 losses

Total: 109 positive pregnancy tests within 7 months, with 45 losses

So the ratio is just over 60% success! 
And these are women who have struggled to get pregnant, so they often have a higher risk. 
The average 40-year-old woman will have a much higher success rate!


TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Fertility Wisdom: How Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Help Overcome In-fertility
-- At Wu's Healing Center in San Francisco, miracles are happening.

Women and their partners come to the clinic--often from across the country -- to fulfill a passionately held yet fragile dream: to conceive and deliver the healthy baby that mainstream doctors have told them they cannot have.

Using traditional Chinese medical techniques, sometimes integrated with Western fertility treatments, Dr. Angela Wu is helping these couples experience the miracle of birth.

At a time when one in five U.S. couples is struggling with fertility problems, this practical and uplifting volume, filled with the inspirational stories of Dr. Wu's grateful patients, will be a godsend.

📚 Paperback: 256 pages
Click to order/for more info: Fertility Wisdom: How Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Help Overcome In-fertility

📚 Start reading Fertility Wisdom on your Kindle in under a minute!

📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Image: Lacy Lianna Tofslie, by Edwin and Kelly Tofslie, on Flickr

There is no stopping the biological clock, as the birth rate shows.

In 1999, there were 622,000 babies born in England and Wales.

The most productive group, surprisingly, was the women aged 30-34: they had 185,300 babies.

By the time women reached 40-44 years old, they produced 13,600 specimens, and at 45-plus, 635 gave birth.

In fact, nearly 300,000 women over 30 had babies, a cheering thought, until you think of the nappies.

But the figures leave much in the dark. How many 40-plus women are still trying, how many are still using contraceptives, how many are already infertile?

Looking back can cast some light. In 1938, the number of women having babies in the 30-34 age group was actually smaller than today, even though the birth rate was roughly the same.

Madonna and Cherie wouldn't have even made a paragraph then when 25,000 women in the 40-44 age group gave birth - almost double current levels - and 2,200 babies were born to women over 45. That's almost four times as many as now.

Clearly, choice, as well as biology, plays an important part - the really sharp decline in the birth rate for 35-plus women came in the 1970s, when it halved, coinciding with easier access to the Pill and abortion.

So, by when should you have your fertility tested? Unfortunately, exactly at what rate fertility declines is impossible to say. Nobody has measured the number of women trying to get pregnant at 40, say, and studied how successful they are.

To state, as one Sunday broadsheet report of the American campaign did, that the rate of conception drops to a mere 2% at 40 is very bleak and misleading.

No one can deny that you may have to wait longer to get pregnant once you are in your mid- to late-thirties, or that you may fail.

As someone who did have a baby at the drop of a hat at 40, and another, albeit after three miscarriages, at 46 years old, my advice is this: next time you see a shock-horror headline about older mothers, just turn the page.


TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Grade A Baby Eggs
Grade A Baby Eggs: An Infertility Memoir
by Victoria Hopewell

-- Victoria Hopewell was a forty-something divorced clinical psychologist when she met and married a longtime bachelor whose ninety-year-old parents were anxiously waiting for a grandchild.

The problem was, even though Victoria had two young daughters from a previous marriage, her intense desire to create a baby with her new husband was thwarted by her own body.

Her eggs were aging faster than her healthy hormones and youthful appearance would suppose.

Desperate to bear a child, willing to undergo every procedure from Lupron shots through egg harvesting and in vitro fertilization (IVF), she is blocked at every corner of medical protocol from achieving her dream of a successful pregnancy.

Finally, she journeys toward acceptance of using a donor egg, much to the dismay of her growing daughters.

But no eggs are available, and she is placed on a lengthy hospital wait-list. Victoria and her husband then embark on a surrealistic egg hunt to find their own donor.

Follow her insider's account of the hidden world of egg donation-where women's eggs are bought and sold over the internet and a beautiful model with high SATs and a prior successful donation commands the highest prices.

📚 Paperback: 214 pages
Click to order/for more info: Grade A Baby Eggs

📚 Start reading Grade A Baby Eggs on your Kindle in under a minute!

📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Image: Grandmother and baby boy looking out the window, by Tookapic on Pixabay

Women who began their families later in life share the rewards - and regrets - of delayed motherhood

Image: Love, Mom and Me: A Mother and Daughter Keepsake Journal | Paperback: 144 pages | by Katie Clemons (Author). Publisher: Sourcebooks Explore (March 1, 2019)
Love, Mom and Me
Dr. Abigail Mahoney of Peoria always knew she wanted children. But professional aspirations - including four years of podiatry school in Chicago and a three-year residency in Washington, D.C. - meant she delayed childbirth until age 36.

Valerie Hammond of Marquette Heights married early in life but chose not to have children. Her nieces and nephews were the kids in her life. But after a second marriage, she and her husband started trying. Her son was born two weeks before her 41st birthday.

Jennifer Hogsett's parents were 43 and 45 when she was born. She has strong feelings about having children later in life, but three years after she married her former husband at 29, they decided to start a family. At 37, she's now a single mother of a 4-year-old and 2-year-old in Dunlap.

Sherri Wright of Pekin had trouble adjusting to life as a parent after having two girls 15 months apart in her late 30s. For me, it's a tougher adjustment because I had so many years of being able to go where I want and do what I want, and I didn't have to answer to anybody, she said.

These four Peoria-area women are among many today who, for a variety of reasons, are having children later in life.

Here are their stories.

Career came first

Image: Between Mom and Me: A Guided Journal for Mother and Son (Easter Basket Stuffers, Gifts for Boys 8-12, Journals for Boys, Unique Mothers Day Gifts) | Paperback: 144 pages | by Katie Clemons (Author). Publisher: Sourcebooks Explore (March 1, 2019)
Between Mom and Me
There was a time in Abigail Mahoney's life when she didn't know if her dream of having a family would ever materialize. She was in her early 30s, preparing for a career as a doctor. Her days were consumed with work and study. And the right man hadn't come along.

She met John Mahoney, a hand surgeon, at age 35. They married a year later and started trying to have children immediately. As doctors, they both knew the potential risks involved with having children past a certain age.

Those eggs weren't getting any younger, she said. We felt like our best chance for (having a family) was right away.
Beyond age 35, pregnant women are considered of advanced maternal age and special precautions are taken, Mahoney said. The older the mother, the greater the chance for chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome. The Mahoneys also knew getting pregnant could be more difficult.

But it happened quickly - with no miscarriages.

Image: The Grandparent Gift Baby Heaven Miscarriage/Infant Loss Memorial Ornament | Brand: The Grandparent Gift Co.
Baby Heaven Memorial Ornament
Mahoney had Jack at age 36 and wasted no time trying for a second, Graham, who arrived 15 months later.

We really didn't think we had the luxury of waiting three years, she said. We're not going to have a third (child). We're thinking about adopting, and that's purely because of my age.
Both pregnancies were normal, although Jack came a month early. The Mahoneys chose not to have an amniocentesis to check for genetic defects. Instead, Abigail had a relatively new procedure called a nuchal ultrasound to check for any irregularities. The results wouldn't have changed the couple's decision to have the baby, Abigail said.

If you're not going to change your course, it's probably not necessary to do any of (the tests). But when it's happening to you, you want to know everything, she said.

We just feel so lucky to have had them right away. Everyone's healthy.

Today Jack is 2 and Graham is 1. Abigail, 39, works as a podiatrist in Peoria three days a week. She said the family's scenario is not unlike those of many of their friends and colleagues who also took time to establish careers before having children.

Sometimes they wonder if they would have had more energy in their 20s, Abigail said.

Their conclusion: Parenting is hard no matter what your age.

Second chance

Image: Rainbow Baby Gifts, 2 Interlocking Circles Necklace with Meaningful Message | Brand: Be Wished
Rainbow Baby Gifts
Valerie Hammond had no children with her first husband. She remarried at age 38. After thinking it through - even writing a list of pros and cons - she and her husband, Dennis, tried for more than two years to conceive.

Hammond had several miscarriages. After one in the spring of 2003, the couple decided to try naturally one more time. She did not want to use fertility drugs.

She became pregnant with Dalton, now 3, about two months later. The pregnancy was considered high-risk.

Being over 40, they panicked me all through my pregnancy, Hammond said. I spent a lot of time there really nervous.
A little more than four months into the pregnancy, a test came back indicating the baby could have spina bifida, or incomplete closure of the spinal column. Hammond had sonograms every two weeks.

But Dalton was born - perfectly healthy - on Valentine's Day in 2004.

On a recent summer evening, the blond-haired, blue-eyed boy dashed from one activity to the next - keeping a balloon afloat, peering through his binoculars, putting on his bike helmet.

One thing about having a child this late in life, I know what a true blessing he is. I have much more patience than I would have had in my 20s, and I also realize that I don't have to kill myself to be super mom, Hammond wrote to the Journal Star. If the floor doesn't get swept today because we are reading a book or finger painting, it will still be there tomorrow.
Between working full time, coaching girls' softball at EastSide Centre and caring for an energetic 3-year-old, the 44-year-old admits life is hectic.

I won't say they don't wear you out, she said.

But Hammond was ready for the challenge. She had freedom in her youth to do what she wanted - unlike classmates who had children right after high school and often leaned on their parents to help raise them. She also says she's more financially stable.

Hammond said she's run into several other mothers in her softball circle who had children later in life with a second husband, whether they had kids before or not.

I do think it's becoming more common, she said.

Is that your grandma?

Image: Baby Loss Gifts, 2 Interlocking Circles Necklace with Meaningful Message, 14K Rose or Yellow Gold Filled or Sterling Silver | Brand: Be Wished
Baby Loss Gifts
Jennifer Hogsett knows what it's like to have older parents. Her father wasn't able to attend her high school graduation because he was 64 with heart problems. He died the following year.

She remembers how her parents wouldn't go on the rides with her at amusement parks - and the inquisitive questions from classmates.

In second or third grade, I can remember my father had come to school and (someone) said, 'Oh, is that your grandpa?' I was devastated. I was just so embarrassed, Hogsett said.

By her late 20s, Hogsett didn't think she'd ever marry and have children herself.

I just thought I was going to work, be independent, do my own thing, she said. Even after marriage, she and her now-ex-husband waited three years before they thought about having kids.

Initially, they planned to have one child. But after her son, now 4, was born when Hogsett was 32, she thought it might be nice for him to have a playmate close in age. Her daughter, now 2, came when Hogsett was just about to turn 35.

Because of her childhood experiences, Hogsett says she has strong feelings about having children later in life. She said she feels she's at the high end of what's ideal.

You have to do obviously what's right for you and your situation, but there has to be a happy medium where you're not young and immature, you have some knowledge of how the world works, but you're not so old that you won't be able to attend your child's graduation, she said. I have (older) friends who don't have kids and I'm, like, 'Oh, I hope you aren't thinking about having them now.'

About a year after Hogsett's daughter was born, her marriage dissolved. Being a single 37-year-old mother comes with certain sacrifices, she says.

Her recent job choices, for example, have been based on the hours and location more than anything else.

It is a daily struggle to make ends meet with one income and two rapidly growing children, she wrote to the Journal Star. There are days I wish I would have had them when I was younger so I would have more energy, but mostly I am grateful that I waited because I feel like I have more wisdom than if I would have had them in my early 20s.

Still, her parents weren't there to share in the lives of her young children. Her mother was 70 with Alzheimer's when she was pregnant. "She didn't go baby shopping with me," Hogsett said.

Tough adjustment

Image: Memorial Jewelry, Stainless Steel Pendant, Necklace,I'll Hold You In My Heart Until I Hold You In Heaven, Child loss, Lose of Loved One | Brand: Hand and Heart Jewelry
Memorial Jewelry
Sherri Wright of Pekin has mixed feelings about the decision to have children later in life.

I had my first child at age 37 and my second 15 months later. Sometimes I am glad I waited until I was older and my marriage was stable. Sometimes I wish I hadn't had them at all, that I was too old, she wrote to the Journal Star. It gets frustrating being called 'grandma' or being older than (my children's) teachers.

Please don't get me wrong. I love my children and wouldn't want anything to happen to them, she said later. But I think I would have been much happier had I not had any children.

I feel so guilty for being selfish, she said. I feel really guilty that I'm not Carol Brady.
But Wright said she doesn't feel like she's the only one out there who might feel the same way.

Society says that once you're married, you're supposed to have kids. I felt like I was a woman, I was supposed to. Everybody said, 'Now you're married; you're supposed to have kids,' she said.

Wright and her husband went through three years of infertility treatments before she became pregnant. Once she started the treatments, she said it was hard to stop without success. The couple tried artificial insemination again for a second child when Wright's husband, who's in the military, learned he'd have to go to Iraq. Two weeks after she became pregnant, her husband found out he wasn't going overseas.

Wright was nearly 300 pounds when she gave birth to her second daughter. She later had gastric bypass surgery and is now able to do many of the things she couldn't earlier in life - but she also has new responsibilities.

At this point in my life, all my other friends, their kids are in high school and they don't have to find the baby sitters, said Wright, 41. The women who have kids my age, they're in their 20s, so we have nothing in common.

But there is hope.

As my older daughter is getting older and we can do things together, it's getting a lot better. So hopefully as they get older we can bond more, she said.


TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir
What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir
by Alice Eve Cohen
--A personal and medical odyssey beyond anything most women would believe possible

At age forty-four, Alice Eve Cohen was happy for the first time in years.

After a difficult divorce, she was engaged to an inspiring man, joyfully raising her adopted daughter, and her career was blossoming. Alice tells her fiancé that she's never been happier. And then the stomach pains begin.

In her unflinchingly honest and ruefully witty voice, Alice nimbly carries us through her metamorphosis from a woman who has come to terms with infertility to one who struggles to love a heartbeat found in her womb - six months into a high-risk pregnancy.

What I Thought I Knew is a page-turner filled with vivid characters, humor, and many surprises and twists of fate.

With the suspense of a thriller and the intimacy of a diary, Cohen describes her unexpected journey through doubt, a broken medical system, and the hotly contested terrain of motherhood and family in today's society.

Timely and compelling, What I Thought I Knew will capture readers of memoirs such as Eat, Pray, Love; The Glass Castle; and A Three Dog Life.

📚 Paperback: 208 pages
Click to order/for more info: What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir

📚 Start reading What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir on your Kindle in under a minute!

📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Image: Walking with Grandma, by Kristýna Matlachová on Pixabay
Why are more and more women today opting to become mothers in their forties, and even as late as fifty?

What are the risks and what are the benefits?

Read on for some questions, some conceived in ignorance and others from semi-intelligent observation.

Psychologically speaking (through the eyes of a non-psychologist), there is always going to be someone who will tell the older mother she is crazy to consider having a baby later in life.

Ultimately, however, it is only the mother-to-be who has to make the choice and answer for it.

The desire to be a mother is no different at forty-five than at twenty-five.

And why shouldn't it be fulfilled, as long as the mother can provide for the child, and give it what it needs to grow up to be a responsible adult?

And so to those who ask why, you should say: Because.

To those who ask how, you should reply: the usual way.

And like the true color of one's hair and size of one's bank account, whose business and life is it anyway?

Source: Change of Life Babies: Do They Really?, by Marjorie Dorfman


TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Inconceivable
Inconceivable: A Woman's Triumph over Despair and Statistics
by Julia Indichova

-- A memoir of hope for the thousands of women struggling with infertility, from one who beat the odds by simply tuning in to her body and tapping her well of sheer determination.

At a time when more and more women are trying to get pregnant at increasingly advanced ages, fertility specialists and homeopathic researchers boast endless treatment options.

But when Julia Indichova made the rounds of medical doctors and nontraditional healers, she was still unable to conceive a child.

It was only when she forsook their financially and emotionally draining advice, turning inward instead, that she finally met with reproductive success. Inconceivable recounts this journey from hopeless diagnoses to elated motherhood.

Anyone who has faced infertility will relate to Julia's desperate measures: acupuncture, unidentifiable black-and-white pellets, herb soup, foul-smelling fruit, even making love on red sheets.

Five reproductive endocrinologists told her that there was no documented case of anyone in her hormonal condition getting pregnant, forcing her to finally embark on her own intuitive regimen.

After eight caffeine-free, nutrient-rich, yoga-laden months, complemented by visualization exercises, Julia received amazing news; incredibly, she was pregnant.

Nine months later she gave birth to a healthy girl.

📚 Paperback: 244 pages
Click to order/for more info: Inconceivable

📚 Start reading Inconceivable on your Kindle in under a minute!

📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Image: Photo credit: Fertility Lizard, by Andrea Wren, on Flickr

Image: Pink Stork and Blue Stork Fertility Supplement Bundle: Fertility Supplements for Women + Men, Support Hormones, Conception, Reproductive Wellness, Fertility Prenatal Vitamins
Fertility Supplement Bundle
Our diet is one of the most important factors when it comes to trying to have a baby. Making sure we watch what we eat then is vital if we want to ensure we maximize our fertility chances.

However, even if you have been the type of person who has always remained fit and health and watched what you ate, you may still have problems trying to conceive. This is because the human body can play tricks with us.

So, making sure that you create the most fertile environment possible is your number 1 aim if you are trying to have a baby.

One way that you can use to maximize the chances you have of having a baby is to make sure you use natural fertility treatment supplements when you are trying to get pregnant. Each type of natural fertility treatment supplement will vary depending on whether it is the man taking the natural fertility treatment supplement or the woman.
Image: Conception Men Fertility Vitamins – Male Optimal Count, Motility Strength, Healthy Volume Production – Zinc, Folate, Ashwagandha Pills – 60 Vegetarian Soft Capsules | Visit the Eu Natural Store
Conception Men Fertility Vitamins

Men

Typically good natural fertility treatment supplements for men include Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Potassium, Zinc, and Selenium. Of particular importance to helping in the male fertility treatment are:

Vitamin B5 and Zinc are needed in order for the testes to be healthy and to encourage a high sperm count. It should also be noted that if you have a zinc deficiency this can lead to low levels of testosterone and chromosomal abnormalities in the sperm.

Vitamin B12 and Potassium are needed to help the male sperm mobility.

Selenium is needed to help produce male sperm. A lack of selenium levels in the body is one of the most common reasons why males have low sperm counts.
Image: Conception Fertility Prenatal Vitamins – Regulate Your Cycle, Balance Hormones, Aid Ovulation – Myo-Inositol, Vitex, Folate Folic Acid Pills – 60 Vegetarian Soft Capsules | Visit the Eu Natural Store
Conception Fertility Vitamins

Women

Unlike males, nearly all natural fertility treatment supplements are of importance and have some form of role to play. Nonetheless, of particular importance are:

Vitamin A as this helps keep the Fallopian tubes healthy.

Vitamin B as a lack of Vitamin B levels may result in a miscarriage following pregnancy.

Calcium as this produces fertile mucus in the vagina

Magnesium as a lack of magnesium levels will result in probable problems with the Fallopian tubes

Zinc which happens to be one of the most important natural fertility health supplements.

The wonderful additional aspect of taking natural fertility supplements is that not only do they help you to achieve your primary aim of conceiving a child, but they also help to give you extra zest and energy. As such, if you continue to take the correct natural supplements after you have conceived you'll find the normal problems associated with being pregnant, such a fatigue and general tiredness, far less worrisome.

Image: Couple's Fertility Combo - Pregnitude Reproductive and Dietary Supplement, Evolution60 Male Fertility and Reproductive Supplement - 15 Day Supply for Couples | Brand: Pregnitude
Couple's Fertility Combo
That said, pregnant women do need to be careful which vitamin supplements they are taking during pregnancy, so make sure you consult with your physician first to ensure you are not going to be causing yourself and your baby any problems.

As far as how you take these natural fertility substances, you can either digest these as vitamin supplement pills or as part of your regular diet. It's not so much the manner of the consumption, provided you know that the body is getting what it needs in order to maximize your chances of conceiving a child.

Author: Melvin Ng


TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:

Eat, Love, Get Pregnant: A Couple's Guide To Boosting Fertility and Having A Healthy Baby
by Karen Daniels

-- A breakthrough revolutionary plan for getting pregnant fast, solving common fertility problems and having a healthy baby – this is NOT your average book on getting pregnant!

Renowned fertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen and women's wellness expert Colette Bouchez help readers take charge of their fertility with a revolutionary new self-help plan designed to show couples how to work together to boost their conception odds, plan for a healthy pregnancy, and get pregnant faster – all without the use of expensive fertility treatments or medications.

Based on scientific research and tested on thousands of couples Eat-Love- GET PREGNANT is a simple yet revolutionary plan that provides the quintessential missing link absent from most other fertility programs – namely, the importance of not only boosting both male and female fertility simultaneously but bold new evidence showing how, when couples work together in certain special and unique ways, they can create a unified fertility power boost strong enough to take them from infertile to fertile in as little as three months

📚 Paperback: 116 pages
Click to order/for more info: Eat, Love, Get Pregnant

📚 Start reading Eat, Love, Get Pregnant on your Kindle in under a minute!

📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Image: Baby holding hands, by Dirk (Beeki®) Schumacher on Pixabay
Image: Institute of Reproductive Health | TwoDay Method | How does TwoDay Method work?

A simple way of establishing on which days in a woman's menstrual cycle she is fertile has been identified by US and Italian fertility experts, according to research published in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal, Human Reproduction,* today.

Analyzing cervical secretion and time to pregnancy data obtained from a large multinational European database – the European Study of Daily Fecund-ability - they were able to demonstrate that intercourse is unlikely to result in a conception if vaginal dampness is not noticeable on that day or the day before.

All a woman has to do is to notice when she has any vaginal dampness, not associated with menstruation, intercourse or disease. Women wishing to avoid pregnancy should avoid unprotected intercourse unless they have not had vaginal dampness for 2 days.

Image: Institute of Reproductive Health | TwoDay Method | TwoDay Method Client Recording Card
This algorithm, which was developed by the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University, is called the TwoDay method. The research teams used their data to analyze the relationship between the presence of noticeable secretions and the daily probabilities of pregnancy in cycles when intercourse was on a given day relative to the identified ovulation day.

The TwoDay method differs from other symptom-based natural family planning methods in that it is not necessary to keep detailed records of cervical mucus characteristics and basal body temperature. This simple algorithm may outperform expensive urinary kits, which can miss the majority of the fertile interval that occurs one or more days prior to ovulation.

Dr David Dunson of the Biostatistics Branch of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina said: This method is effective, both in identifying the fertile days of the cycle and in predicting days within that fertile interval that have a high pregnancy rate. It's the first direct evidence that cervical secretions are associated with higher fecund-ability within the fertile window.

For couples of normal fertility having intercourse two days prior to ovulation on the most fertile day of the cycle, the probability of pregnancy is essentially doubled from 0.18 (18%) if secretions have not been noticed in the last two days to 0.33 (one third) if secretions have been noticed. A normal couple who abstains from intercourse during the days classified as fertile by our system would have around an 8% chance of becoming pregnant within a year of frequent intercourse – compared with a 97% chance for a couple not following our system.

*The relationship between cervical secretions and the daily probabilities of pregnancy: effectiveness of the TwoDay Algorithm. Human Reproduction Vol. 16. No. 11. pp 2278-2282. D.B. Dunson, I.Sinai, B Columbo. Biostatistics Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, North Carolina; Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Department of Statistics, University of Padua.

This story has been adapted from a news release issued by European Society For Human Reproduction And Embryology.

Source: TwoDay Method | Institute of Reproductive Health


Fact Sheet: TwoDay Method®

TwoDay Method: Top 15 Most Frequently Asked Questions

TwoDay Method Provider Screening Checklist: ENGLISH | SPANISH

TwoDay Method Client Brochure: ENGLISH | SPANISH

TwoDay Method Client Recording Card: ENGLISH | SPANISH


TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Image: What Every Woman Should Know About Fertility and Her Biological Clock, by Cara Birrittieri. Publisher: Career Press (May 26, 2009)
What Every Woman Should Know
What Every Woman Should Know About Fertility and Her Biological Clock
by Cara Birrittieri

-- Until now, there has been little practical advice on what women can do about ticking biological clocks.

What Every Woman Should Know About Her Biological Clock is the first book to explore a woman's reproductive lifespan completely, from beginning to end.

Based on Cara Birrittieri's own experience of running up against a slowing biological clock, she shows women for the first time how to tell what time it is with a simple blood test that gives them a peek at the state of their ovaries.

📚 Paperback: 224 pages
Click to order/for more info: What Every Woman Should Know About Fertility and Her Biological Clock
Image: Sperm Count Recipe Ayurvedic, by Kamikaze Gecko on Flickr

This plan can help many over 40 women:

🛏️ If you don't have fertile-quality cervical mucus, the sperm may only last 2 hours.
🛏️ Older men sometimes can't perform as often.
🛏️ Older men sometimes have lower sperm counts.
🛏️ The sperm needs to be there, waiting, before your egg is released. So you need to start trying before your OPK turns positive.
🛏️ Regular sex increases his testosterone, his sperm count, and your cervical mucus and helps ramp up your hormones, especially estrogen - getting everything working well.

The Plan - Short Version:

🛏️ Try every other night starting Day 8
🛏️ Buy 10 ovulation predictor kit sticks
🛏️ Begin ovulation testing on Day 10
🛏️ When test is positive, try that night, plus two additional nights in a row
🛏️ Skip one night, then do one last try
🛏️ Take a home pregnancy test 15 days after your ovulation test was positive, if your period has not begun
🛏️ If your ovulation test never goes positive, continue trying every other night until Day 35, then do a pregnancy test if your period has not begun.

For the Detailed Version, read the full article: The Sperm Meets Egg Plan

How Sexual Frequency Affects a Woman's Sexual Responsiveness, Fertility, and Health

🛏️ The less often a woman has sex, the less she will want sex, the less she will enjoy sex, and the more difficult it will be for her to become aroused and climax.

🛏️ Women who had sex two or more times a week had the most regular cycles, women who had sex once a week was slightly less regular, celibate women were still less regular, and women who had sporadic sex, or sex less than once a week, had the most irregular cycles. A variety of hormonal differences were seen, including higher estrogen levels in the women who had regular sex.

🛏️ The benefits of the hormonal changes in those having intercourse at least twice a week include better fertility, stronger bones, better cardiovascular health, less depression, lower incidence of fibrocystic breast disease and uterine cancer, and a decrease in menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and depression.

Photo credit: Sperm Count Recipe Ayurvedic, by Kamikaze Gecko


TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Sperm Meets Egg Plan: Getting Pregnant Faster
by Deanna Roy
-- The Sperm Meets Egg Plan is a step-by-step guide to achieving pregnancy without taking invasive tests, charting temperatures, or making mistakes in predicting your ovulation that result in mistimed attempts at fertilization.

Designed by Deanna Roy after months of trying made her believe she had a fertility problem, the plan will help you time intercourse whether you have a typical or atypical cycle.

It includes adjustments for common fertility problems, what to do if you are over forty, and considerations for trying again after a pregnancy loss.

This booklet includes 40 pages of instruction plus a 10-page sneak peek of Deanna's book Baby Dust. It should be a free download.

This FREE booklet is a THANK YOU to all the women who have supported Deanna's web site since the loss of her first baby in 1998.

📚 Start reading The Sperm Meets Egg Plan on your Kindle in under a minute!

📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Image: A bowl of salad - a small bowl of salad with lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes. Photo Credit: Naomi Kuwashima, on Freeimages
Image: Pink Stork and Blue Stork Fertility Supplement Bundle: Fertility Supplements for Women + Men, Support Hormones, Conception, Reproductive Wellness, Fertility Prenatal Vitamins
Fertility Supplement Bundle

Vitamin supplements help fertility in women:

Taking multivitamins, particularly folic acid, can improve chances of pregnancy in couples having difficulty conceiving. Women who took multivitamin supplements 6 times a week were 40% less likely to fail to ovulate than women who took none.

In the UK, women are advised to take 400 micrograms of folic acid (one of several different B vitamins) every day while trying to conceive, and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. 1000 micrograms of folic acid daily are the safe upper limit. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has proposed adding folic acid to the nutrients currently used to fortify white flour, as has happened in the US since 1988.

Researchers said the beneficial benefits seem to derive from folic acid, which helps prevent birth defects, 'The beneficial effect on fertility continued to increase as women consumed higher amounts of folic acid'. Folic acid is found in green leafy vegetables and liver.

Read more: Vitamin supplements help fertility in women

Supplements:

There is now a great deal of scientific knowledge about the use of nutritional supplements and their beneficial effects on both male and female fertility. As you will see, these supplements can be very effective in re-balancing your hormones, as well as improving you and your partner's overall health, which is so vital for successful conception.

Supplements are necessary because even the best diet in the world will not contain all the nutrients you need to give you the best chance of conceiving.
Image: Nutricost Folic Acid (Vitamin B9) 1000 mcg, 240 Capsules
Nutricost Folic Acid

Folic Acid

It is now known folic acid can prevent spina bifida in your baby, and it is essential you get plenty both before and during pregnancy. And that's not all: folic acid is undoubtedly important, but it is just part of the very important B-complex family of vitamins necessary to produce the genetic materials DNA and RNA. Together with vitamin B12, folic acid works to ensure your baby's genetic codes are intact.

Remember: it's not enough to take folic acid alone when you are trying to become pregnant. All of the B vitamins are essential during the pre-conceptual period. Research has shown giving B6 to women who have trouble conceiving increases fertility and vitamin B12 has been found to improve low sperm counts.
Image: Nutricost Zinc Picolinate 50mg, 240 Vegetarian Capsules - Gluten Free and Non-GMO (240 Caps)
Nutricost Zinc

Zinc

Zinc is the most widely studied nutrient in terms of fertility for both men and women. It is an essential component of genetic material and a zinc deficiency can cause chromosome changes in either you or our partner, leading to reduced fertility and an increased risk of miscarriage. Zinc is necessary for your body to attract and hold (utilize efficiently) the reproductive hormones, oestrogen, and progesterone.

And it's equally important for your partner: Zinc is found in high concentrations in the sperm. Zinc is needed to make the outer layer and tail of the sperm and is, therefore, essential for the health of your partner's sperm and, subsequently, your baby. Interestingly, several studies have also shown reducing zinc in a man's diet will also reduce his sperm count.
Image: Nutricost Selenium 200mcg, 240 Vegetarian Capsules, Non-GMO, Gluten Free L-Selenomethionine
Nutricost Selenium

Selenium

Selenium is an antioxidant which helps to protect your body from highly reactive chemical fragments called free radicals. For this reason, selenium can prevent chromosome breakage, which is known to be a cause of birth defects and miscarriages. Good levels of selenium are also essential to maximize sperm formation. Blood selenium levels have been found to be lower in men with low sperm counts.
Image: Triple Omega 3-6-9 3600 mg 240 Softgels | from Fish, Flaxseed, Borage Oils | Non-GMO and Gluten Free | by Horbaach
Triple Omega 3-6-9

Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)

These essential fats have a profound effect on every system of the body, including the reproductive system and they are crucial for healthy hormone functioning. For men, essential fatty acid supplementation is crucial because the semen is rich in prostaglandins which are produced from these fats. Men with poor sperm quality, abnormal sperm, poor motility or low count, have inadequate levels of these beneficial prostaglandins.
Image: NATURELO Vitamin E - 180 mg (300 IU) of Natural Mixed Tocopherols from Organic Whole Foods - Supplement for Healthy Skin, Hair, Nails, Immune & Eye Health - Non-GMO, Soy Free - 90 Vegan Capsules
NATURELO Vitamin E

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is another powerful antioxidant and has been shown to increase fertility when given to both men and women. Men going for IVF treatment with their partners have been given vitamin E, and fertilization rates have, as a result, increased from 19 to 29 percent. It has been suggested the antioxidant activity of vitamin E might make the sperm more fertile.
Image: Nutricost Vitamin C with Rose Hips 1025mg, 240 Capsules - Vitamin C 1,000mg, Rose Hips 25mg, Premium, Non-GMO, Gluten Free Supplement
Vitamin C with Rose Hips

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, and studies show vitamin C enhances sperm quality, protecting sperm and the DNA within it from damage. Some research has indicated certain types of DNA damage in the sperm can make it difficult to conceive in the first place, or it can cause an increased risk of miscarriage if conception does take place. If DNA is damaged, there may be a chromosomal problem in the baby, should the pregnancy proceed. Whether or not DNA damage does have these effects has not been conclusively proven, but it's worth taking vitamin C and the other antioxidants as a precautionary measure.

Vitamin C also appears to keep the sperm from clumping together, making them more motile.
One study has shown women taking the drug clomiphene to stimulate ovulation will have a better chance of ovulating if vitamin C is taken alongside the drug. Clomiphene does not always work for every woman, but the chances are often increased when vitamin C is supplemented.
Image: Nutricost L-Arginine 1000mg, Amino Acid Tablets (300 Tablets)
Nutricost L-Arginine

L-Arginine

This is an amino acid found in many foods and the head of the sperm contains an exceptional amount of this nutrient, which is essential for sperm production. Supplementing with L-arginine can help to increase both the sperm count and quality.

Note: People who have herpes attacks (either cold sores or genital herpes) should not supplement with arginine because it stimulates the virus.
Image: Nutricost L-Carnitine Tartrate Powder (100 Grams) - 1 Gram per Serving; 100 Servings
Nutricost L-Carnitine

L-Carnitine

This amino acid is essential for normal functioning of sperm cells. According to research, it appears the higher the levels of L-Carnitine in the sperm cells, the better the sperm count and motility.
Image: Nutricost Vitamin A 10,000 IU, 500 Softgel Capsules
Nutricost Vitamin A

Vitamin A

This vitamin needs to be mentioned because there is a lot of confusion about its use before and after pregnancy. Many health practitioners now advise no vitamin A is taken during pregnancy. This advice is incorrect, and it can be dangerous to assume any vitamin or other nutrients should be avoided during the gestational period. Vitamin A has important antioxidant properties, and the consequences of Vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy can be devastating. For one thing, vitamin A is essential for healthy eyes. Animals studies show vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy has produced new-born animals with no eyes, eye defects, undescended testes, and diaphragmatic hernias.

It is only when the vitamin A is in the form of retinol (in other words, the animal form of vitamin A) there is a problem. It has been found retinol can cause birth defects if taken in excess of 10,000iu a day. Beta-carotene, which is one of the vegetable forms of vitamin A, does not carry any risks.

Read more: How to increase your chances of conceiving and preventing miscarriages


TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:

Eat, Love, Get Pregnant: A Couple's Guide To Boosting Fertility and Having A Healthy Baby
by Karen Daniels

-- A breakthrough revolutionary plan for getting pregnant fast, solving common fertility problems and having a healthy baby – this is NOT your average book on getting pregnant!

Renowned fertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen and women's wellness expert Colette Bouchez help readers take charge of their fertility with a revolutionary new self-help plan designed to show couples how to work together to boost their conception odds, plan for a healthy pregnancy, and get pregnant faster – all without the use of expensive fertility treatments or medications.

Based on scientific research and tested on thousands of couples Eat-Love- GET PREGNANT is a simple yet revolutionary plan that provides the quintessential missing link absent from most other fertility programs – namely, the importance of not only boosting both male and female fertility simultaneously but bold new evidence showing how, when couples work together in certain special and unique ways, they can create a unified fertility power boost strong enough to take them from infertile to fertile in as little as three months

📚 Paperback: 116 pages
Click to order/for more info: Eat, Love, Get Pregnant

📚 Start reading Eat, Love, Get Pregnant on your Kindle in under a minute!

📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Popular Posts