How to increase fertility – 7 tips

Lifestyle plays an important role when it comes to female fertility. By taking care of yourself, you can increase your fertility and thereby, your chances of getting pregnant. When trying to become pregnant, many questions and thoughts on what you yourself can do to help the pregnancy process might arise. So, here we provide you with 7 tips to increase your fertility.

1. Consider getting pregnant during your twenties or early thirties

Age plays an important role in female fertility. Not surprisingly, a woman’s fertility decreases with age. Women in their twenties and early thirties have the best chances of becoming pregnant. Therefore, if possible, you should consider trying to get pregnant in your twenties or early thirties.

2. Avoid smoking

Smoking harms your fertility and women who smoke reach menopause earlier than the average woman. Additionally, smoking increases the risk of miscarriage. Therefore, quitting smoking can have a positive impact on your fertility and thereby your ability to have children. Also, try to avoid passive smoking.

3. Maintain a healthy weight and diet to increase fertility

Being either overweight or underweight can have negative impacts on your fertility. Therefore, maintaining a normal, healthy weight can help increase the chances of pregnancy. Also, moderate exercise and a healthy lifestyle can help to improve your menstrual cycle and thereby increasing your chances of getting pregnant. But remember, too much exercise is not healthy either since it can cause irregularities in your period. So, the best you can do for yourself and your fertility is to try to have a balanced diet, maintain a healthy, normal weight and exercise moderately.

4. Practice safe sex

Surely, when trying to conceive you should have unprotected sex. But until you have a partner you want to have children with, you should remember to protect yourself during sex. Sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea are considered to be leading causes of infertility. So, protecting yourself during sex by using a condom will help you to prevent infertility problems later in life.

5. Avoid alcohol and reduce caffeine intake

Too much alcohol and coffee, more specifically, caffeine, can harm your ability to get pregnant. Therefore, a piece of good advice is to stop drinking alcohol when you decide to try to get pregnant. Additionally, research has shown that caffeine can reduce fertility, but the amount of caffeine has to be fairly high (5 cups of coffee or more a day) before it has a direct impact on your ability to get pregnant. Remember that there is also caffeine in tea and soft drinks.

6. Monitor your ovulation to increase chances of pregnancy

Today, there are plenty of apps available to register periods and time of ovulation. It is always a good idea to get to know your own body and your menstrual cycle, and when you reach the point where you want to get pregnant it can be a useful tool in the process. Monitoring your ovulation can help to guide you to the best times to have intercourse with your partner to increase your chances of conceiving.

7. Try not to stress

Some studies suggest that stress can affect your menstrual cycle and thereby your fertility. Therefore, engaging in stress reduction activities can help increase fertility. It can be different from woman to woman but try to find out what works for you whether it is meditation, exercise or therapy. Also, don’t forget to enjoy yourself and your amazing body in all aspects of your life – both before getting pregnant, in the process of trying and when you get pregnant.

To sum up: 

• Consider getting pregnant during your twenties or early thirties
• Avoid smoking
• Maintain a healthy weight and diet
• Practice safe sex
• Avoid alcohol and reduce caffeine intake
• Monitor your ovulation
• Try not to stress

If you found these tips useful, you may also be interested in reading about the most common causes of fertility problems.