Rest and Relaxation, by Lillian Nelson

Correction: Sleep-deprivation linked to infertility.

(I had a feeling that would get your attention.)

Did you ever consider that? How could you with all the other things to worry about:

You've cut down on alcohol, caffeine, and even processed food.

You've scheduled more time to relax and tried to reduce the stress in your life

You've started a consistent exercise routine and detoxified your house.

You've charted your monthly cycle, bought ovulation kits, and still...nothing.

But you've overlooked one very important element: sleep, which you don't get enough of.

Read more: Sleep Linked to Infertility

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Empty Womb, Aching Heart: Hope and Help for Those Struggling With Infertility
by Marlo Schalesky

-- Contains frank and emotionally resonate stories from both men and women facing the struggle of infertility.

Mother's Day is not a joyful occasion for all women, particularly those who would like to have children but cannot.

Marlo Schalesky's Empty Womb, Aching Heart: Hope and Help for Those Struggling with Infertility does for Christian women what Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's Tears of Sorrow, Seeds of Hope: A Jewish Spiritual Companion for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss did for Jewish women: provide comfort and camaraderie in the face of infertility and pregnancy loss.

Paperback: 188 pages
Click to order/for more info: Empty Womb, Aching Heart

Start reading on your Kindle in under a minute!

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

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Sleep helps restore and rejuvenate the brain and organ systems -- including the reproductive system.

When sleep suffers over the long run, so does our relationship with our spouse, our mood, our immunity, and even our hormone balance.

Sleep loss can also lead to fertility-disrupting lifestyle factors like caffeine overuse and weight gain.

Lack of sleep may even lead to menstrual irregularity -- a factor that can delay the time it takes to conceive.

When researchers polled women in notoriously sleep-deprived professions -- flight attendants and nurses working the late shift -- half of the women reported irregular menstrual cycles (compared to about 20 percent of the general population). Some stopped ovulating altogether.

Even the light we are exposed to on a day-to-day basis has an influence on ovulation and reproductive hormones -- one that has fascinated (and perplexed) researchers for years.

"There is some evidence that before the age of artificial lighting, birth control pills, and working indoors, women all ovulated in sync with the phases of the moon," says Joyce Stahmann, M.P.H., a fertility educator and professional herbalist in Portland, Oregon, who teaches the Natural Fertility Management Program.

Full article: Make the Most of Sleep and Sunlight

Photo credit: Three Princesses,
by Shira Gal, on Flickr
Some rights reserved

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Test Tubes and Testosterone (Male Infertility)
by Michael Saunders

-- What do you need to make a baby? A willing partner? A good sense of timing?

Some wine maybe? A nice meal and some amorous music? Not always.

There are times when all the romance (and luck) just simply will not do.

In those times, what you need is a specimen pot, a heap of drugs, so many ultra-sound scans that your wife or partner begins to glow in the dark and an unfeasibly large amount of tea.

Providing a rare yet enlightening male perspective on the world of IVF, Test tubes and testosterone is one man's experience of infertility and the IVF journey he embarked on with his wife in order to start a family.

Told with humour, wit and insight, this book sheds light on issues that can be hard to discuss even with the closest of friends or relatives, making it a valuable book for anyone contemplating or going through IVF.

Paperback: 162 pages
Click to order/for more info: Test Tubes and Testosterone

Start reading Test Tubes and Testosterone on your Kindle in under a minute!

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

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