Man Up: When Environmental Infertility is About Him

This entry is the concluding one to the Woman Up Series about environmental factors for infertility. Sometimes all of the environmental changes mentioned in this series, being overweight or underweight, being inactive, being over-stressed, smoking/drinking, inadequate nutrition, lack of intimacy, are ones that your husband needs to change. Although they might seem less directly related to infertility, things that can make your body hesitant to accept and build a baby, can also affect the building and formation of sperm in the male’s body. It doesn’t matter how healthy you manage to Woman Up and be in order to get the best baby-making bod possible, if your husband doesn’t have sperm capable of fertilizing your egg.

For Those Not Feeling it Tonight: Woman Up

One of the most challenging elements of infertility is the necessity of putting marital intimacy on a schedule. Once doctors start giving you shots and drugs to open up windows of ovulation, ‘not feeling it’ is just ‘not an option.’ Unless you are into wasting even more time and money.  Still, it is important to understand that even if lovemaking is happening on a schedule, it should still be making love, not just making a baby. Remember to express love and appreciation for each other, even if the timing of the requisite intimacy is not optimal, or must be brief.

8 Snickers are Less than 2000 Calories: For the Nutrient Deficient: Woman Up

Maybe you manage to exercise, manage your weight, manage your stress, avoid poisonous substances, but you subsist on a diet of soda and candy bars with the occasional pizza thrown in.  Unlikely- but possible. For you, this section alone is applicable.  For most of us, inadequate nutrition is a problem that piles into the car along with some or all of the other environmental factors in this fun ride along the infertility highway.

Smoking, Drinking and Buzzing: Woman Up

And quit. It has been proven more than adequately in a host of medical studies that drinking and smoking are far, far more bad for your body than they are good. So quit. Alcohol and tobacco are socially acceptable methods of altering your mental state by essentially poisoning your body. Your smart body might just be avoiding further trauma by adding a baby into the mix. I added ‘buzzing’ to this list of substances to be avoided, because the proliferation of energy drinks on the market is a relatively new phenomenon, one that the medical community has not quite caught up to yet.  However, it is my personal opinion that once they do, and the ‘energy drink generation’ ages another 20 years or so, a lot of people are going to be shocked at how very, very bad ‘buzzing’ is for you.  If you need more energy - nap or eat an apple. Do NOT artificially force your body to perform beyond its capacity.  Especially not if you want it to perform a little pregnancy miracle for you on the side as well.  

For the Stress-Heads: Woman Up

Life is stressful. Sometimes I feel like it’s a matter of “I breathe, therefore, I stress.” Some of us handle it better than others, some of us even thrive on it as a way to spur ourselves to greater action. But our bodies DO react to high stress levels in ways that the medical community is just barely beginning to understand.  If you are experiencing infertility, reducing stress is something to think about very seriously. It’s an unfortunate catch-22 that infertility can dramatically increase your stress levels (hello!) but understand that, accept that, and cut out something else you ARE willing to give up on, assuming you are still interested in trying to get pregnant.

When 'Plan A' Bites The Dust

So, if you are reading this blog as someone who has experienced infertility, chances are that your Plan A has failed. Crashed and burned. Bit the dust. Exploded in your face spectacularly. Because Plan A was...start trying to get pregnant and 3-6 months later (at the most!) have two little lines on that pregnancy test.

For the Couch Potatoes: Woman Up

Maybe you spend most days sitting at a desk or on the couch, don’t even think about cardio, and still maintain an absolutely normal weight.  If so, congratulations! You have either won the genetic lottery or have really, really great self-control when it comes to diet and nutrition. However, in order to feel healthy and ready to proliferate the human race, our bodies need some base levels of cardio happening. Add 30-45 minutes of cardio into your daily schedule just to make sure your hormones can fire happily on all levels.

*Remember- this series of entries is about environmental factors for infertility. Your level of activity may not have anything to do with your infertility, and exercising regularly could still not affect it. But you will feel happier!

Next Meeting Thursday August 23rd 7 PM!

The next meeting will be Thursday August 23rd at 7 PM! We are slowly growing our Infertility Support Group and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone in person! Speaking of which, the term 'infertility support group' is quite a mouthful! Eight syllables! Nicknames or other ideas anyone? My default reference is turning into 'ISG' - which is kinda boring, but gets the job done.

Footsteps for Fertility 5K and Grants for IVF at PayItForwardFertility

A wonderful foundation Footsteps for Fertility is sponsoring a 5K on September 15th, 2012 in Draper, Utah.  Registration is $35 dollars and all proceeds go to benefit local couples who need IVF. So if you or family are in the area, it is definitely something to put on your calendar! Also very cool, an award winning fertility specialist, Dr. Foulk, from the Utah Fertility Clinic, has donated a free IVF cycle to be raffled at the end of the race. Every race entrant gets one ticket into the raffle (friends and family can enter your name on their raffle ticket).  Pretty nifty, eh? Even for those of us who are not local, it is still very exciting to see communities getting activated to help families on this heart-wrenching issue.