Fertility help & advice for conception

Understanding fertility and infertility in women

Are you worried about how long it's taking to get pregnant? Are you sick of having sex that's planned to military precision? Here are a few simple things that may be affecting your chances of conception.

The definition of infertility is the failure to conceive after regular unprotected sex for 2 years.

Of 100 couples trying to conceive naturally:
20 will have conceived after 1 month
70 after 6 months
85 after 1 year
90 after 18 months
95 after 2 years

Simple things that can affect your fertility:
• Increasing age: women in early 20s have double the chances of getting pregnant than women in their late 30s, but that’s no reason to stop trying- I’m sure your fella won’t complain!
• Smoking, and even passive smoking, can affect your ability to conceive, so it’s a good opportunity to get your partner to quit too.
• Stress can disrupt your periods, and give you the sex drive of a hibernating tortoise, so relax with some chilled out music, and make sure you get your beauty sleep.
• Being overweight – a Body Mass Index (weight in kg/ height in metres squared) of over 29 reduces your fertility. Doing regular exercise lifts your mood, helps you sleep and relieves stress, but you don’t have to fork out for a gym membership- doing yoga at home or going for walks is just as good. Eating a healthy diet also gives you lots of energy, and will help give your baby what it needs when you get pregnant.
• Being underweight- a BMI of less than 19 can cause irregular periods or stop them altogether, so putting on a few pounds will help you conceive. If you have problems gaining weight see your GP- if there’s no medical reason for it he/she can give you advice or refer you to a dietician.
• Exposure at work to chemicals (e.g. in paints or pesticides) can affect fertility, but the use of some of them is being phased out as the dangers come to light, and on the whole the risk of them affecting fertility is low.

Medical factors affecting fertility in women:
• early menopause
• thyroid disease can affect periods and fertility
• diabetes
• epilepsy and the medication for it
• endometriosis (uterine tissue found outside the uterus- symptoms include severe pain before your period, and deep pain when having sex)
• fibroids (benign growths in the uterus)
• previous ectopic pregnancy (when an embryo implants in a fallopian tube, it requires emergency surgery)
• previous pelvic surgery (e.g. for appendicitis)
• pelvic inflammatory disease (usually cause by Chlamydia, the infection spreads from vagina to uterus)
• chemotherapy
• radiotherapy to reproductive organs
• polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
• adhesions (criss-crossing bands of tissue) in the uterus can stop periods
• some medications can affect fertility, as can marijuana and cocaine, so see your GP if you are worried

If you are having problems conceiving always see your GP, even if it's just for reassurance that everything is OK.