Health Issues That Can Affect Your Chances of Conceiving

The decision to have a baby should be a happy occasion that couples treat with excitement and anticipation. Unfortunately, more than five million Americans (both male and female), have issues with infertility.

Regardless of whether you’re trying to get pregnant now, or you’re hoping to improve your chances of pregnancy in the future, it’s important to identify any possible risk factors that your partner or you might have, so you can begin taking steps to improve your chances. After all, the sooner you detect, address, and treat potential problems, the better your chances of a successful pregnancy.

Here, we’re going to look at a few of the most common issues that affect your chances of conceiving, and what you can do about them.

  1. Age

One of the most important factors in fertility is age. Women are born with a finite number of eggs, and as we age, the number and quality of those eggs begin to fall. While menopause might not take place until your fifties, most women find that their fertility begins to suffer around age 35. By age 40, your chance of pregnancy can be less than 5%.

If you’re thinking of waiting until you’re a little older to have kids, the best solution may be to prepare. Freeze your eggs with cryopreservation to stop them from aging as they would inside of your body. This way, if you struggle to get pregnant later, you can be your own egg donor.

  1. Genetics

Just like many other features of our health, genes can powerfully influence our fertility. Recently, researchers discovered a link between some hormone levels and genetic markers that might suggest our reproductive lifespan is fixed by our genetics.

Perhaps one of the best things you can do to improve your chances of a successful pregnancy is learn as much as you can about your family history of fertility. Knowing if the women before you struggled with pregnancy can help you to manage your fertility health throughout your life, and make informed decisions.

  1. Hormones

Hormones are crucial when it comes to becoming, and staying pregnant. As the key chemical messengers inside your body, hormones tell everything in your body what to do, and when to do it. Any change in hormones can have a huge impact on the way your body functions, and there are many hormones at work in the process of conception and ovulation. Additionally, knowing an exact date of ovulation is immensely important when you are attempting to get pregnant. You can be able to track your most fertile days and exact date of ovulation with the assist of this advanced ovulation calculator.

One of the best things you can do is check on your hormones with an online pregnancy test, or hormone test packages. Here, you’ll get all the information you need to know about your hormones as they relate to pregnancy and conceiving.

  1. Gynecological and Anatomical Issues

Infertility can often occur because of damage to the reproductive organs caused by disease or injury. For instance, pelvic inflammatory disease is an infection in the upper reproductive system that can prevent ovulation and pregnancy.

In many instances of issues caused by anatomy, you’ll find that a doctor will be able to perform surgery to remove the blockage in your system or reduce the abnormality. However, there are always risks with every kind of surgery, so it’s important to consider your options carefully before you take that step.

  1. Lifestyle

Finally, while genetics, biology, and age can all have a huge impact on your fertility, a lot can be attributed to your lifestyle. According to experts, about 13% of all infertility might be attributed to cigarette smoking. Other lifestyle factors can play a part, such as being significantly overweight or having a poor sleep cycle.

The good news about issues caused by lifestyle factors is that the effects are often temporary and reversible. If you quit smoking, and get rid of other dangerous factors in your life, then you should notice your hormone levels begin to regulate themselves.

Improving your chances of conceiving

Ultimately, while becoming pregnant might seem easy for some women, it’s not always a simple process for all of us. Everything from small health problems that seem to mean nothing, to tiny changes in your diet can lead to problems with infertility, and difficulty conceiving. Tracking your cycles with Natural Cycles will help you learn when you ovulate which help improve your chances of getting pregnant.

For additional help, make sure that you take the time to speak to a doctor about your unique circumstances. Often, a medical professional can provide you with a personalized plan for fertility enhancement.