I find out most of my facts during sleepless nights of fertility angst, and it's all opinion in the end. That's my disclaimer for this post.
Fact and fiction is all over the Internet, so my only real advice to anyone trying to conceive right now is to take what you will from what you find, and be realistic and logical in your decision making.
Following every rule in the book will ultimately hinder your chances and also make you a fairly intolerable person to live with. I should know, since I'm pretty impossible myself.
1. Drink lots of water. Water thins cervical mucus and makes it more sperm-friendly. However, if you're using ovulation testers, like I am, you will find this is frustrating since the instructions tell you to avoid drinking anything two hours before testing.
Guaifenisen also thins cervical mucus, and can be found (as the only ingredient) in Mucinex as a pill, and in nasty, disgusting Robitussin as a liquid.
2. Take your vitamins. Prenatal One is a good horse pill. It has more of the vitamins you need than a regular Nature-Made pill, I find. Find a good fish oil pill that contains DHA and EPA. A good pill will not taste like fish oil when you burp. If it does, the oil was made from rancid fish...grossss.
3. Eat healthy. Low-fat, low-calorie, and lots of greens and yams. Yams have B-6 and estrogen, but certain kinds of wild yams are best.
4. Take a low-dosage aspirin. This reduces the chances of clotting. It also supposedly helps reduce the risk of certain types of miscarriage by thickening the uterine lining. This claim is disputed in some medical circles.
5. Check your cervix. SHOW=soft, high, open, and wet is what indicates an approaching ovulation. It should feel like your lips. If it feels like the tip of your nose, ovulation has most likely happened already. Oh, and make sure your hands are clean, natch.
6. Have some good sex...a LOT. Good sex means you both orgasm. A man, obviously. A woman, because an orgasm spasm often helps the sperm on their way.
Sex every day is often not suggested, as many sites tell you to allow the man to "reload" for one day. But my husband's doc told him that sperm travels a month before landing in the launch pad, and it's constantly arriving. So logically, when one load releases, another is on it's way already, fresh and new.
By having sex every day for a week, you'll hit every conceivable lucky moment. If you want to bet on the best three days of the fertile week and have a ton of sperm released at once, however, have sex every other day.
Men should not abstain for too long...old, waiting sperm will not be good for conceiving. So "refresh" yourselves every now and again, men.
7. After sex, elevate your hips for 15-30 minutes. Now, if you're an acrobat, this is easy to do and painless. However, if you're me, you need something to prop you up. For hilarity's sake, use your husband as a prop, or spend money on a silly fertility pillow.
Relax and lie down after sex. Don't move around a lot and give the sperm a better chance of reaching the fallopian tubes. That's why many doctors suggest evening sex, so most likely you will go to sleep afterward and stay vertical.
Don't worry so much about what is leaking out. That is most likely abnormal sperm that couldn't swim, and you wouldn't want to be impregnated by those guys anyway.
8. Do not have a bowel movement or urinate immediately after sex. Both tend to expel whatever is inside you, although once the sperm is in, it's in for the long haul.
However, make sure you wipe yourself clean and dry after sex, especially if you're prone to urinary tract infections. If you don't understand how painful UTI's are, just TYPING THE WORDS made my vagina pucker.
9. Take it easy and try not to stress out. Stressing about fertility will drive you crazy...and your baby will want a fully sane mother.
10. Make fertility a part of your life, but not your entire life. Try not to think about it 24-7.
Find distractions that will keep you from Googling and scouring the web for a reason why you aren't conceiving right here and now. The fact of the matter is, there is no absolute for anyone or any situation. Every woman is different, and ovulates differently. There is no single list of symptoms, and we are all just playing a guessing game.
Black and white does not exist in this game...it's all various shades of grey.
In conclusion, they can put a man on moon, but they can't figure out how to let us know for sure if the ovulation test line is "darker or similar." Ridiculous.
2 comments:
wild yams, you say?
WILD yams. Not tamed yams.
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