Today I want to talk with you about infertility. In my living room today I’ve got a sleeping one month old in the room, just to my right and a sleeping toddler upstairs. It’s a rare moment of bliss for a mom of two to have but alas, it also really limits where I’m allowed to be in my house. That’s okay. Claim Your 20 Free Pregnancy Tests – Click Here
Today I want to talk with you about infertility, and I want to share a couple of causes of infertility for both men and women. Maybe some things that you weren’t aware of and that you might want to ask your doctor about. And also a very important thing to keep in mind about infertility which I’ll get to at the end.
So, first I want to talk about infertility in men.
There are a handful of reasons why men could have trouble with low sperm count and that can have to do with genetic defects that are present that are maybe known or even unknown.
As well as if there’s been repeated injuries to the groin area, that’s not really a myth. That can really harm your child-making abilities, it is true.
Additionally for men, something you may not be aware of is exposure to certain chemicals or pesticides that actually can have a negative impact.
As well as repeated exposure to high heat temperatures such as a hot tub. I’ve talked about that on one of my other videos. Again, that is not a myth-basically those high heat temperature kill the sperm count. They kill the sperm, and they can have an impact in the sperm count for a couple of months.
So, those are things to keep in mind. Additionally for men, overall fertility does tend to decrease after about age forty. Women on the other hand, our fertility starts to decrease around age thirty. Aren’t we lucky? I remember feeling like, “Oh my gosh! I’m going to hurry up and have kids!” I had my first when I was 29. And I just had this one at 31. Please don’t freak out. If you are older than that and are just not ready to start trying to have kids, above 30 and above 35, all the time, it is simply just a reality that you’re not as fertile as you possibly were at you know, 21, for example.
Other things that can impact fertility for women include:
You may have something called endometriosis, that’s where uterine tissue implants itself outside the uterus. It can just impact your overall reproductive abilities.
You can also have uterine fibroids. These are just the benign fibroids that grow. On rare occasions, they could actually completely block the fallopian tube which is going to prevent the egg from coming through all together to the uterus. What’s more common though is that they’re just growing on the lining on the uterus and keeping the eggs from implanting themselves from the uterine wall. So, that could be a possibility.
You could have the early onset of menopause. That’s just when you start to experience symptoms of menopause before the age of 40 or so, that’s something to ask your doctor about.
Additionally, for both men and women: smoking, drinking, and actually, being overweight, as well as being underweight can impact your fertility. So, if you’re trying to get pregnant, now is not the time to go on a super strict diet and be very strict over your calories. That can really mess with your odds of conceiving.
There have also been studies that showed that if you’re doing intense levels of exercise like more than 7 hours of rigorous exercise a week that also has a negative impact on your ability to conceive.
Now here’s the final thing that’s really important for people to keep in mind. When a couple is having trouble having a baby, it’s not uncommon to wonder, “Who’s got the problem? Who’s the one who is having issues? Whose body is having issues?” Well, it turns out that in about one-third of cases, the men are having the issues and about one-third of cases, the women are having issues, and about one-third of the cases, both partners have some sort of issue that is impeding their ability to conceive. I bring that up because that is so important if you’re having trouble. Please, don’t just get one of you tested for problems. You both need to the test because even if you test one person and it’s discovered, “Okay, there’s a problem over here.” That doesn’t mean there’s not a problem over here as well. Again, a third of the cases, both parties have issues that need to be dealt with. So, that’s something important to keep in mind.
Good luck everybody, until next time.
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