If you fall into either of these categories, talk to your doctor about how to get to a healthy weight. You will want to eat right, get plenty of nutrients, exercise, and drink plenty of water. Often, even a small weight gain or loss is enough to get your body ready to make a baby, as long as it is done healthily
Skipping the veggies
The jury’s out on whether certain foods make you more fertile, but there’s one thing the experts agree on: If your body’s in a healthy state, you’re more likely to conceive, so eating right is essential. Another important reason to say no to the fries and yes to the spinach salad is the presence of folic acid. This B vitamin is found in leafy greens and is essential for maintaining a healthy presence in the body before and after conception to prevent birth defects. Doctors recommend you also take a vitamin with at least 400 micrograms of folic acid while you’re trying to conceive.
Neglecting your teeth
If you have been lax about dental hygiene, now’s the time to get back on track with your dentist appointments and make sure you’re flossing. You and your partner should both get your pearly whites super-healthy before you get pregnant. Poor oral hygiene can affect a man’s sperm count, and if you have gum disease, it could increase your risk of a premature delivery and a low-birth-weight baby. Yikes!
The reason poor dental hygiene can negatively affect fertility is due to the increased risk of periodontal disease (gum disease) and tooth decay.
Being a couch potato
Keep making excuses not to exercise? Stop! One study found that doing regular, moderate physical activity – like brisk walking, leisurely cycling, golfing, and gardening – cut down the amount of time it took women to get pregnant.
Extreme exercise
You want to stay fit, but you do not want to overdo it. In the same study we mentioned above, vigorous exercise increased the amount of time it took women to get pregnant. We are not saying to skip your morning run if that’s what you have always done, but working out to the point of interfering with your menstrual cycle, as some marathon runners and gymnasts experience, can mess with your fertility.
BPA
You may want to take a hard look at what your water bottle is made of. BPA, aka bisphenol A, is a chemical found in some plastic items, such as water bottles, food containers, and even in the lining of aluminum cans. Some studies have led scientists to believe that high BPA exposure could mess with men’s and women’s fertility, potentially lowering sperm count or reducing the number of viable eggs. Limit your BPA exposure by avoiding canned foods and consuming anything from a plastic container with the recycling number three or seven on it (usually on the bottom of the container).
Stressing out
We have all got a little bit of stress in our lives, and experts disagree on whether stress can cause infertility. But there’s evidence that chronic or intense stress can do a number on your reproductive system – one study found that women with higher levels of the stress biomarker had a two-fold increased risk of infertility. And of course, having trouble getting pregnant can cause quite a bit of stress! So if you feel that your stress levels might be affecting your health and your ability to conceive, talk to your doctor about ways to cope. Several studies have found that alternative medicines, such as yoga and acupuncture, have shortened the time it took for infertility patients to get pregnant.
High-mercury fish
Some fish are higher in mercury than others, most notably marlin, orange roughy, tilefish, swordfish, shark, king mackerel, and bigeye tuna. High levels of mercury in the blood have been linked to fertility issues in both men and women.
Also, mercury can stay in your system for a year or more and can harm a fetus’s developing brain and nervous system, so avoiding it will increase your chances of a healthy pregnancy.
Love seafood? There’s plenty that’s considered low-mercury, including anchovies, catfish, clams, cod, crab, crawfish, flounder, haddock, herring, oysters, salmon, sardines, scallops, shrimp, sole, squid, tilapia, trout, whitefish, and more.
You can have two to three four-ounce servings of low-mercury seafood per week while pregnant.