Healthy lifestyle and fertility

It goes without saying that a healthy life is the key to happy life. Any aspect of life is influenced by the lifestyle we follow. It’s the same with fertility too.

Let’s break up healthy lifestyle based on the aspect.

• Diet: Follow a healthy diet. Crash diets, use of supplements, powders to achieve faster results is not recommended. Sustainable diet is the answer. Our ancestors were healthy. They had never heard of the various diets. Follow them and go back to the basics.
  Avoid junk, fried and artificially sweetened food – the secret mantra. Incorporate a good amount of Protein, Carbohydrates, healthy fats and micronutrients in your diet. Eat wholesome foods. Include raw fruits and vegetables in your diet.
• Exercise:
  
  Ask your doctor before exercising during a treatment cycle. Otherwise it is recommended to exercise at least 5 times a week, 30 minutes a day. The exercises may vary on your fitness level and preferences. Choose an exercise which makes you happy, stress free and enjoyable. Challenge yourself to see the better version of yourself. If there are no results, seek help.
• Habits: Smoking is injurious to every cell of the body right from tip of the hair strand till the tip of toe. Quit smoking. Smoking decreases fertility for both male and females. It decreases the quality and quantity of sperms. It affects oocyte quality and decreases implantation rates. It increases the risk of miscarriage by 2 times and pregnancy complications such as ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy in tubes), preterm birth, low birth weight baby and chances of a stillbirth. It also increases the risk of fetal malformations.
  Alcohol consumption is to be avoided by both partners.
  Limit caffeine intake.
• Prenatal vitamins:
  
  It is safer to be well prepared for a pregnancy. Get a preconceptional consult, if possible. Any chronic illness like diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, kidney diseases, thyroid disorders ,anemia should be tested. Correction of the condition must be done before attempts to conceive. You will be assessed for the risk of genetic conditions in your family.
  Prenantal vitamins will be prescribed accordingly.
• Avoid stress: Infertility is associated with high levels of stress. This leads to an imbalance in the hormones which negatively affects fertility. Though evidence is mixed, there is adequate research to prove that stress decreases the chances of conception and increases the time to pregnancy.
  Yes, following a healthy lifestyle increases the chances of natural conception at the earliest.