GETTING
PREGNANT
naturally
Healthy Choices to
Boost Your Chances
of Conceiving without
Fertility Drugs
WINIFRED CONKLING
For Hannah and Ella
Contents
Introduction
By llene Stargot, Founder and Executive Director, National Infertility Network Exchange (NINE)
1 Infertile or Subfertile? An Overview
2 Sex and Sexuality:
The Birds and the Bees for Grown-ups
3 Nutrition and Nutrition Supplements:
Eat, Drink—and Get Pregnant
4 Herbs: Mother Nature’s Medicines for Maternity
5 Homeopathy: Baby Doses for Big Results
6 Acupressure: Hands-on Healing
7 Mind-Body Connection:
Fertile Ideas to Boost Your Fertility
8 Lifestyle: Keys to Conception
Resources
Organizations of Interest
Recommended Reading
Index
About the Author
Note to the Reader
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
I don’t like the word “infertility;” it leaves no room for hope, even though many couples who have trouble conceiving go on to have children. I have known women with ovulation disorders and damaged tubes who became pregnant; I have known men with one-sided varicoceles and low sperm counts who have impregnated their wives. Instead of using the word “infertile,” I prefer to use the term “impaired fertility.” I have worked with hundreds of couples with impaired fertility, and I know that there are many things couples can do to enhance their chances of conceiving a child.
Human reproduction is an inexact science; most people shift back and forth between periods of fertility and infertility as their bodies pass through various hormonal stages and respond to physical and emotional stresses. Our hormones—and our fertility—change in response to age, diet, and nutrition, and exercise and lifestyle, among other factors. Some of these factors we can control, others we cannot.
When it comes to getting pregnant, it’s up to you to make the most of each month. It’s up to you to eat right, to rest, and to make healthy choices in your life. It’s up to you to listen to your body; nobody knows your body better than you do. You must learn to recognize when something feels “off” so that you can follow up with a doctor.
If you are a man, it’s up to you to protect your sperm. Most men don’t realize that it takes almost three months to produce sperm, so that what you do today will affect your sperm months later. If you are a woman, it’s up to you to learn how to chart your fertility so that you can’ better time intercourse to coincide with ovulation. A simple temperature chart can also help you detect common fertility problems, such as a luteal phase defect. In many cases, no single thing you do or don’t do determines your fertility. It is the cumulative effect of a number of little things that can either enhance or impair your fertility. This is why you should do what you can to get pregnant naturally before you rush off to consult a reproductive endocrinologist.
The advice offered in this book can help you increase your chances of conceiving a child. If you remain childless after a year, you may need to work with a fertility specialist. Of course, you may do everything right and still end up without a biological child.
I spent nine years trying to get pregnant, and I tried everything you can imagine. That’s why I never ask anyone I meet, “How many children do you have?” I remember what a difficult question that was to answer when my husband and I were trying desperately to conceive.
I am now the mother of two adopted children. Once I accepted that my body was not going to reproduce and that my husband and I were not going to build a family the way that we had hoped, dreamed, and planned, I realized that adoption offered another option. While adoption was my second choice, it was not second-best. I have been blessed with two wonderful children. I am a mother. My husband and I have built our family. I have everything but a pregnancy story. Best of luck to those of you entering this journey.
ILENE STARGOT
Founder and Executive Director
National Infertility Network Exchange (NINE)
1
Infertile or Subfertile?
An Overview
It’s ironic: When couples don’t want to have a baby, they assume that they are fertile and put a lot of energy into preventing pregnancy. Then, when they decide it’s time to start a family, they suddenly appreciate how difficult it actually is to conceive a child.
Getting pregnant requires exquisite timing, a balanced hormonal system, good general health—and a measure of good fortune. A woman’s endocrine system must release precise levels of hormones at specific times during her menstrual cycle. Her ovaries must produce and release at least one mature and healthy egg follicle, and that egg must be able to make its way through the Fallopian tubes toward a welcoming uterus. A man’s reproductive system must produce semen containing an abundant supply of healthy sperm ready to swim eagerly toward the intended target. The woman’s cervix must produce enough mucus to protect the sperm and hurry them into the uterus and Fallopian tubes. Once the egg and sperm have been united, the thickened uterine lining must be responsive and ready to nourish the fertilized egg after it has implanted.
A single missed cue or minor glitch, and the system doesn’t work. Considering the complexities, it’s no wonder that a healthy and fertile couple stands only a 20 percent chance of conceiving a child in any given month. It also explains why more than 5 million Americans of childbearing age are considered technically infertile, meaning they have tried to conceive a child for one year or more without success.
But there is hope. As many as half of all infertile couples do go on to get pregnant and have healthy babies. These couples could more accurately be defined as subfertile. They may not suffer from a physical problem that prevents conception, but it may take them longer than one year to become pregnant. For these couples, the stork may arrive sooner if Mother Nature is offered a little extra help.
UNDERSTANDING INFERTILITY
Most couples who want to have children are successful—some sooner, some later. Typically, half of the couples who decide to stop using contraception will conceive within three to five months, and about 85 percent of the couples will conceive within a year. However, that leaves 15 percent—or roughly one out of every six couples—who will experience fertility problems.
Impaired fertility has many causes. For about 35 to 40 percent of couples, the problem lies within the woman; for another 35 to 40 percent, the problem lies within the man; and in the rest, both partners have a problem or the cause is unknown.
Among women, hormonal imbalance is the most common cause of infertility. Other possible causes include scarring or obstruction of the Fallopian tubes, an allergic reaction to sperm, endometriosis, hostile cervical mucus, chromosomal abnormalities, a prolapsed uterus, fibroids, or physical injury to reproductive organs, among other causes. And, of course, age plays a significant role: A woman’s fertility peaks in her mid-twenties; her fertility declines gradually until age thirty, and then begins to fall off more rapidly. Many women remain fertile into their forties, but conception becomes more difficult with each passing year.
Among men, abnormal sperm—either low sperm count or inferior sperm quality—is to blame for most fertility problems. It may take only one sperm to fertilize an egg, but the average ejaculation contains between 40 million and 150 million sperm. Most of these sperm don’t stand a fighting chance of getting within striking distance of the awaiting egg; some 80 to 90 p
ercent of them are killed off by vaginal fluids. Due to this intense screening process, men who ejaculate fewer than 60 million sperm may have difficulty impregnating their partners. In medical terminology, oligospermia means low sperm count and azoospermia means the absence of living sperm in the semen.
Not surprisingly, the number of sperm in an ejaculate and the degree of fertility are strongly correlated. But even men with low sperm counts can impregnate their partners. In fact, studies at fertility clinics have found that 52 percent of men whose sperm counts were below 10 million per milliliter of ejaculate achieved pregnancy, as did 40 percent of those with sperm counts as low as 5 million per milliliter of ejaculate.
Numbers count, but when it comes to fertility, sperm quality is even more important than quantity. A man can have a high number of sperm, but if a majority of them are abnormally shaped or poor swimmers, he can have a harder time becoming a father than a man with fewer sperm of a higher quality. Sperm quality is based on several factors, including motility (how fast and straight the sperm swims) and morphology (sperm size and shape). At least 60 percent of the sperm should be normal in appearance and motility. The quality of the seminal fluid—its volume and viscosity or stickiness—also plays an important role. Problems with sperm can stem from a number of causes, including a varicocele (a varicose vein in the scrotum), prostate infections, ductal obstructions, ejaculatory dysfunction, mumps, alcohol use, nicotine, illness, or excessive fatigue.
Many couples experience periods of infertility that come and go for no apparent reason. Approximately 25 percent of women have reported episodes of infertility at some point during their reproductive lives. In many cases, a couple may not know they are experiencing impaired fertility because they are not trying to get pregnant at that time. This ongoing fluctuation between periods of fertility and infertility may help to explain why each month approximately 3 percent of couples with unexplained infertility suddenly conceive on their own.
Subfertile couples may benefit from experimenting with the fertility-enhancing natural remedies and practices suggested in this book. Of course, fertility drugs and assisted reproductive technologies can offer hope to couples with serious reproductive problems, but most subfertile couples would do well to begin with simple, natural methods of enhancing their fertility. In many cases, these low-tech treatments will work and a couple can avoid turning to expensive, invasive, and stressful high-tech fertility treatments.
WHEN TO GET HELP
If you and your partner have had intercourse without using contraception twice a week for a year without becoming pregnant, it’s time to consider consulting a reproductive endocrinologist for counseling, as well as a urologist specializing in malefactor infertility. In addition, you should see a physician before the one-year mark if one of the following circumstances exist:
If a woman is over age forty.
If a woman is over age thirty-five and has not conceived after six months of regular unprotected intercourse.
If either partner may have scarring or damage to reproductive organs because of infections or sexually transmitted diseases.
If a woman has irregular periods or no periods at all.
If a woman has used or is using an intrauterine device (IUD).
If a woman has a history of endometriosis, pelvic infections, abdominal or urinary tract surgery, polycystic ovarian syndrome, or exposure to toxic chemicals or radiation.
If a man has a history of mumps, measles, very high fevers, or exposure to toxic chemicals or radiation.
If either partner is the child of a mother who took the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) during pregnancy to prevent miscarriage. DES daughters often suffer from a range of reproductive problems; DES sons may have low sperm counts and other sperm anomalies.
MILESTONES TO REMEMBER
1978: The world’s first “test-tube baby,” Louise Brown of Great Britain, was born.
1981: The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, was born in Norfolk, Virginia.
Mid-1980s: Surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead fought to maintain custody of the infant “Baby M,” to whom she gave birth under contract with another couple.
1992: A sixty-two-year-old Sicilian widow became pregnant through artificial insemination with sperm that had been collected from her husband and frozen before he died.
1992: A fifty-three-year-old California grand-mother gave birth to twin girls for her daughter. The babies were conceived in a petri dish using sperm from her son-in-law and eggs donated by a twenty-year-old woman.
1993: Several grandmothers gave birth to their own grandchildren, using eggs provided by their daughters and sperm from their sons-in-law.
2
Sex and Sexuality:
The Birds and the Bees for Grown-ups
Timing is everything—at least when it comes to getting pregnant. To conceive a child, you and your partner must have intercourse within a very narrow window of time. An egg is fertile for only six to twenty-four hours after ovulation; after that time it begins to disintegrate. Understanding your reproductive system and how it works can help you time intercourse to maximize your chances of conceiving each month.
While the mechanics of intercourse may seem self-evident, certain practical issues can affect your fertility. Your creativity in the bedroom (or wherever) can increase—or decrease—your odds of conception. In other words, it’s not just what you do, but how you do it. The following tips can help you get the timing down to a science—and help with some of the practical issues, too.
HERS
Get to Know Your Menstrual Cycle
As you know, to become pregnant you must have intercourse near the time of ovulation. The tough part, of course, is determining exactly when you ovulate. If you have been blessed with a consistent, predictable menstrual cycle, you can use the “calendar method.” This method involves keeping track of the length of your menstrual cycle, then calculating when you are most likely to release an egg. If all your hormones are in balance, you probably ovulate approximately fourteen days before the first day of your next menstrual period. That makes it relatively easy to make an educated guess of the approximate date of ovulation.
To estimate your date of ovulation, take the length of your cycle and subtract fourteen days. For example, if you have a twenty-eight-day cycle, you ovulate on day fourteen (twenty-eight minus fourteen). If you have a thirty-five-day cycle, you ovulate on day twenty-one (thirty-five minus fourteen), and if you have a twenty-one-day cycle, you ovulate on day seven (twenty-one minus fourteen).
Chart your menstrual cycle for three months to form a baseline or average length of your cycle. The typical cycle ranges from twenty-four to thirty-six days, so don’t get hung up on the “average” twenty-eight-day cycle.
Once you determine your approximate ovulation date, have intercourse every other day for five days before the target date and three days after. If you have intercourse every other day during this time, you will probably include your fertile time.
Monitor Your Cervical Mucus
Your cervical mucus doesn’t lie: Once you become acquainted with its changes in texture and volume throughout your menstrual cycle, you may become adept at reading this crucial fertility marker.
Your cervical mucus changes in response to fluctuations in the level of estrogen in your body. During the first half of your cycle, the egg matures within the ovarian follicle and the body releases increasing amounts of estrogen. This estrogen helps thicken the lining of the uterus, preparing it for implantation of the fertilized egg. The hormonal changes also create the fertile cervical mucus, which helps the sperm reach the uterus and Fallopian tubes. The fertile mucus provides a protective alkaline medium for the sperm to travel through the vagina. You want to have intercourse during the time the fertile mucus is present.
After the estrogen has peaked (at ovulation), the progesterone levels surge, prompting a change in the cervical mucus, often in as little as a couple of hours. At this point, y
our chances of conception have passed.
Fertile mucus is noticeably different from mucus at other phases of your menstrual cycle: It is slick, transparent, gelatinous, and stringy. It is stretchy; in fact, you can rub it between two fingers and stretch it for an inch or more (nonfertile mucus does not stretch). When fertile mucus dries in the crotch of your panties, it may feel stiff and appear white or yellowish. (Some women mistakenly believe that they have a vaginal yeast infection or they have been remiss in their personal hygiene during this phase of their cycle, but this discharge is perfectly normal.)
Please note that you may not be able to use the cervical mucus test if you are taking birth control pills (or for at least two months after you stop taking them). Also be aware that bathing, showering, swimming, and unprotected intercourse can temporarily alter your mucus, so check your mucus before these activities or several hours after you’re finished.
As a woman ages, she produces less fertile mucus. Twenty-something women often have two to four days of fertile mucus, while thirty-something women may have one day or less. The older you get, the more important it is for you to learn to recognize your fertile days so that you can take maximum advantage of them.
MEET YOUR MUCUS
Early in your cycle: Your vagina will be dry with little or no cervical mucus.
As ovulation approaches: A few days before ovulation your mucus flow will increase and become creamy, white, and wet. Begin having intercourse every forty-eight hours during this phase.
Fertile mucus at ovulation: Your mucus will become thin, slippery, stretchy, and clear; it will resemble the appearance and consistency of egg white. You want to strive to have intercourse during the time you have fertile mucus.
Getting Pregnant Naturally Page 1
