PCOS: Boost Fertility With Vitamin D

Research suggests that for many women, Vitamin D - the sunshine vitamin - may be the answer to getting pregnant faster and easier! Here's an expert opinion on the topic.

By Niels H. Lauersen, M.D., Ph.D.
Editorial Commentary

If you’ve been diagnosed with PCOS –Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome – and you’re having a problem getting pregnant, the solution may be simpler than you think. Indeed, there is good evidence to suggest that you can boost your fertility and increase your chances for conception by a significant margin, if you simply increase your intake of Vitamin D. How can this help you?

As you no doubt already know, PCOS is a condition that, while it affects ovulation, is really related to a condition known as insulin resistance - the body's inability to use insulin effectively enough to clear sugar from the blood. But insulin resistance is also the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes - and therein lies the link to vitamin D.

What’s the connection?

Over the past several years a number of important studies have emerged suggesting that vitamin D can help improve the body’s sensitivity to insulin in those with type 2 diabetes. In one study published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that among those folks who were vitamin D deficient, increasing supplement intake of this nutrient improved the body’s ability to use insulin by a whopping 60%.

This is dramatic, particularly when compared to the effects of Metformin, the drug currently prescribed to increase insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetes as well as PCOS. In studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Metformin was only able to increase insulin sensitivity by about 13 percent - far below what was achieved in the vitamin D study.

Since the similarities between type 2 diabetes and PCOS are so striking, it makes sense that both groups would benefit equally from an increase in vitamin D.

Adding more proof to the theory: A group of Yale researchers found that out of 67 women who had problems getting pregnant, 93% were found to be vitamin D deficient. Not surprisingly, a good portion of the women they were studying also had PCOS.

According to researcher Dr Lubna Pal, “ Of note, not a single patient with either ovulatory disturbance or polycystic ovary syndrome demonstrated normal Vitamin D levels; 39 per cent of those with ovulatory disturbance and 38 per cent of those with PCOS had serum 25OH D levels [vitamin D] consistent with deficiency. “

In another study, women with PCOS who lost their menstrual cycle and were considered infertile, resumed their periods and became pregnant when vitamin D levels were increased!

All of this is particularly important in light of the fact that today most women are considered to be vitamin D deficient. Why?

One of the key ways the body makes vitamin D is via exposure to sunlight. Since we are all more cognizant of the risks of skin cancer, not only are we spending less time in the sun, but we're also more vigilant about applying sunscreen. That's good to reduce the risk of skin cancer, but in the process we also hamper our body's ability to manufacture vitamin D on a cellular level.

Combine this with a diet that is generally low in vitamin-D rich foods and it’s easy to see how a significant deficiency of this nutrient can develop – one that is not only likely to impact women with PCOS, but all women of childbearing age.

This is the reason I have long recommended that increasing levels of vitamin D is one way that all women, and particularly women with PCOS, can immediately improve their fertility profile and get pregnant faster.

How much vitamin D do you need to make a difference in your fertility? I routinely recommend 1,000 units of vitamin D daily in summer months (when there is more sun) and 2,000 units daily in winter months, when there is less sun exposure. Some research now suggests that 2,000 units or more daily is important to take year round - and I believe that for some women this may be the required amount.

If you are trying to get pregnant you should also add vitamin D rich foods to your daily diet, including fortified low fat milk, fortified orange juice, and fatty fish such as salmon or mackerel, tuna, sardines and herring. You can also find cereals fortified with vitamin D and some D-rich eggs. These foods should be eaten in addition to the supplements, in order to ensure you reach your full fertility potential.

Dr. Lauersen is the co-author of the new book "The New Fertility Diet Guide: Delicious Food Secrets To Help You Get Pregnant Faster." To learn more about how diet can help you get pregnant, visit : FertilityDietGuide.com.

For more information on Vitamin D and fertility, check out this video

Copyright by IvyLeaguePress 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Acupuncture and Fertility: What You Should Know

By Colette Bouchez

If headlines are any indication of what's hot and what's not, it's easy to believe that infertility treatment is strictly a modern day science, made possible solely through the courtesy of high-tech medicine.

But as good as modern science is, many couples trying to get pregnant find themselves turning to an age-old treatment for help -- one so steeped in tradition it's about as far from life in the 21st century as one can get.

That treatment is acupuncture, and today, even high-tech reproductive specialists are looking to the somewhat mysterious world of Chinese medicine to help those fertility patients for whom western science alone is not quite enough.

"Most of our patients are referred to us by reproductive medicine specialists -- they are usually women who have failed one or usually more than one attempt at IVF (in vitro fertilization), and their doctor is looking for something to help implement the success of their treatment, over and above what the protocols alone can accomplish," says Raymond Chang, MD, the medical director of Meridian Medical and a classically trained acupuncturist as well as western-trained medical doctor.

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medicine treatment that relies on the painless but strategic placement of tiny needles into a "grid-like" pattern that spans the body, from head to toe. The needles are used to stimulate certain key "energy points" believed to regulate spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical balance. And, for many women, it's often just what the doctor ordered.

"For many women acupuncture will help enhance fertility treatments by helping the body to function more efficiently - it can also work to restore health to many systems in the body with sub-clinical imbalances - meaning, the problem may not necessarily show up on a test, but still it exists and may be interfering with fertility," says Dr. Niels Lauersen, author of The New Fertility Diet Guide: Delicious Food Secrets To Help You Get Pregnant Faster."

Lauersen says it can also be a help to women undergoing IVF treatments. " There is some research to show that it can improve IVF outcomes in some women."

Indeed that is exactly what a group of German researchers found in a study of 160 women, published April 2002 in the reproductive journal Fertility and Sterility. In their research, adding acupuncture to the traditional IVF treatment protocols substantially increased pregnancy success.

In this study one group of 80 patients received two, 25-minute acupuncture treatments -- one prior to having fertilized embryos transferred into their uterus, and one directly afterwards. The second group of 80, who also underwent embryo transfer, received no acupuncture treatments.

The result: While women in both groups got pregnant, the rate was significantly higher in the acupuncture group -- 34 pregnancies, compared with 21 in the women who received IVF alone.

But increasing the odds of IVF is not the only way acupuncture can help. Chang says it can also work to stimulate egg production in women who can't -- or don't want to -- use fertility medications to help them get pregnant.

"When you compare the pregnancy rates for an egg producing drug such as Clomid to acupuncture alone, the rates are equal -- a 50% chance of pregnancy in three months for general patients -- to those not undergoing IVF," says Chang.

Unfortunately, however, Chang says that because acupuncture generally stimulates the growth and release of just one egg, it can't be substituted for fertility drugs used in IVF, since they work to produce the multiple eggs necessary to achieve success with this treatment.

To read more about how acupuncture works to restore fertility click here.

For more helpful tips on how to encourage fertility naturally – and discover delicious foods that can help regulate hormones and help get your ovulation back on track, FertilityDietGuide.com.

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

When Exercise Can Harm Fertility

By GettingPregnantNow.org

Are you trying to get pregnant? If so, you may want to cut down the amount of time you spend at the gym . That’s the conclusion of a new Norwegian study which found that women who workout too hard or too long may be putting a crimp in their fertility – and making it harder to get pregnant.

The research, conducted on some 3,000 women by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), found that the exercise-fertility link existed even in otherwise healthy women.

The women most likely to be affected: “ Those who trained almost every day. And there were those who trained until they were completely exhausted. Those who did both had the highest risk of infertility,” says researcher Sigridur Lara Gundmundsdottir.

The big surprise: The age of the women affected! Uncharacteristically, it was younger women - those under 30 - that seemed to experience the most exercise-related fertility problems, with risks as high as 3.5 times that of women who did not work out.

Moreover, the links persisted even after contributing factors were considered – including body mass index, smoking, marital status or previous pregnancies.

"When we compared those who trained to exhaustion to those who trained more moderately, we found that the first group had a three-fold greater risk of impaired fertility," says Gudmundsdottir.

Why Exericise Harmed Their Fertility

Although doctors aren’t certain exactly why working out too hard and long impacts fertility, many believe it all has to do with energy. Simply put, when the body is over-taxed , your brain switches to a kind of “energy preserving” mode, selectively shutting down whatever activities are perceived as “immediately unnecessary.”

For women, this can include the hormone functions that orchestrate fertility.

And, in fact, this is exactly what we see often see in female athletes and even dancers, many of whom stop menstruating during periods of hard and long training. When menstruation stops, it’s a signal that ovulation is not occurring – which means that the brain chemistry necessary for reproduction has slowed down or even stopped completely.

Restoring Your Fertility – And Getting Pregnant Fast!

While it’s clear that working out too hard can rob your fertility, the good news is that cutting back can restore it!

"The vast majority of the women in the study had children in the end,” says Gudmundsdottir. And often, all it took was working out a little less! .

Now if you’re thinking that the best way to insure your fertility is to drop that gym membership altogether, well not so fast. Indeed, other studies have shown that getting no exercise at all can be as bad for fertility as exercising too much. Gudmundsdottir also believes moderation is the key.

'We believe it is likely that physical activity at a very high or very low level has a negative effect on fertility, while moderate activity is beneficial," she says.

Getting Pregnant: Every Woman Is Different

While it’s clear that working out to the point of exhaustion is one way to know you have really over done it, in reality, what is considered “too much “ exercise for one woman, can be just an “average amount” for others. So, how do you know what’s too much for you?

Studies show that for most women working out 30 minutes a day, 3 to 5 days a week is a healthy parameter , both for your overall health and your fertility.

That said, if you find that your menstrual cycles are becoming irregular, that ovulation seems to have gone off course, and particularly if your period has stopped completely, then it’s possible you may still be working too hard, for you. If so, cut back and do less at each session – and stop activity before – not after – you feel that sense of “exhaustion”.

If after cutting back for 6 weeks your fertility symptoms persist, talk to your doctor about other possible causes.

For more helpful tips on how to encourage fertility naturally – and discover delicious foods that can help regulate hormones and help get your ovulation back on track, FertilityDietGuide.com.

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Want A Boy? ICSI Might Not Be For You!

If you're hoping to conceive a boy, then the infertility treatment known as ICSI (intro cytoplastic sperm injection) may not be for you.

That's the conclusion of one group of researchers who found that the number of boys born via this procedure was proportionally lower than when conceived by Mother Nature.

The study, conducted by Barbara Lake of Michigan State University was just published in the journal Fertility and Sterility. Here she documents that just under 50% of the babies born via ICSI were boys. In nature, there are approximately 105 boys born for every 100 girls.

During the ICSI procedure doctors extract sperm from the father and inject it directly into the eggs of the mother, which are then placed in an incubator with hopes that fertilization occurs. The procedure is used primarily to treat male fertility problems such as low sperm count or slow moving sperm.

Once the eggs are fertilized, the resulting embryos are placed into the mother's uterus, where, if all goes well, they attach and begin growing.

Fewer Boys - Not Such a Mystery
Although it may seem like a bit of a mystery as to why this procedure results in fewer boys, according to at least one fertility expert, it's an easy mystery to solve.
"There are two types of sperm - one that carries the male gene and one that carries the female gene; generally speaking, the sperm that carries the female gene is heartier and lives longer, " says Dr. Niels Lauersen, director of GettingPregnantNow.org

Prior to performing the ICSI procedure, the embryologist looks into the microscope to choose the healthiest and heartiest looking sperm for the injection into the egg.

" Not surprisingly," says Lauersen, " in this study more than 50% of the time, the healthiest and heartiest sperm were apparently the female sperm -which is what accounts for the higher number of girls being born."

Because only a small number of babies are born each year by the ICSI procedure, there is not likely to cause any major shift in the male-female ratio of the general population. Still, Lake cautions that ICSI should only be used when deemed medically necessary.

For more information on the ICSI procedure visit GettingPregnantNow.org. Or read about ICSI along with many other fertility treatments for men and women in Getting Pregnant: What Couples Need To Know Now.

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Can A Bowl Of Oatmeal Help You Get Pregnant?

By GettingPregnantNow.org

If at least one group of researches are right, starting your day with a hearty bowl of oatmeal might be the quickest route to getting pregnant!

That's the suggestion of a new study conducted at the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was here that doctors found that when cholesterol levels were high, it often resulted in eggs that were "dysfunctional" - either they could not be fertilized, or were incapable of leading to a successful pregnancy.

But what was even more intriguing was the researchers also found that when cholesterol levels were lowered, healthy egg production and fertility was fully restored!

According to lead researcher Helena E. Miettinen, " Thus, it seems likely that abnormal lipoprotein metabolism is responsible for the reversible infertility of [ the test subjects]. "

In short, not only does this open the door to the possibility that foods which help lower cholesterol - like oatmeal - might help you get pregnant, it also suggests that in some women, cholesterol lowering medication could actually act somewhat like a fertility drug.

At the same time, you don't want to drop your cholesterol levels too low. According to the study "Adverse Birth Outcomes Among Mothers With Low Serum Cholesterol, " published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, women whose cholesterol was deemed "low" had a 21% increased risk of having a premature birth, compared to just 5% of the mother's whose cholesterol was considered to be "moderate".

Moreover, the researchers found that women with low serum cholesterol levels were also more likely to give birth to infants with smaller heads who weighed 150 grams less than the babies born to women with normal cholesterol.

Doctors say that low serum cholesterol levels is often a reflection of a poor diet - which may in fact, be the real reason behind the findings.

Still, until we know for certain, if you are having problems getting pregnant, be certain that your doctor checks your cholesterol level - before you spend a fortune on expensive fertility tests.
If your cholesterol is high, begin immediately following a fertility diet designed to lower cholesterol and be sure to discuss whether cholesterol lowering medications might be right for you.

Once cholesterol is under control, you should have an easier time getting pregnant!

For more information on foods that can help increase fertility visit FertilityDietGuide.com.
And for non-stop 24-7 fertility and pregnancy advice visit GettingPregnantNow.org - your source for doctor-approved advice for getting pregnant fast!

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Getting Pregnant: New Hope For Women Over 40!

By Colette Bouchez

If you're over 40 and hoping to get pregnant, new hope has arrived! According to New York City fertility expert Dr. John Zhang, a 49 year old patient recently gave birth to a bouncing baby girl –via an IVF procedure that used her own eggs - and not donor eggs!

The birth sets a new record and expands the scientific boundaries of assisted reproductive technology by a considerable margin. Prior to this, the old oldest woman to get pregnant using her own eggs was aged 45.

“For any loving couple, it's one of the greatest gift ….both the doctor and the patient should not give up easily just because of a woman's age,” Zhang recently told The New York Post, who first reported the story.

Now, if you're thinking this new birth might be an exceptional case, and not likely to be repeated, well, guess again! A second patient at Zhang's New Hope Fertility Clinic - also age 48 – is now pregnant with her own eggs as well. They were retrieved and frozen when she was 47.

How The Pregnancy Occurred

Treatment of the 49 year old patient – who right now wishes to remain anonymous – took about two years, with procedures taking place almost every month. Zhang says egg production was not regular, and many of the eggs that were produced were either not viable – meaning they could not be fertilized – or once fertilized were too unhealthy to survive in the womb.

But with doctor and patient refusing to give up, eventually, they stroke “baby gold” ! An embryo that had been fertilized , then frozen, in September of 2008, was placed in the mother's uterus the following March. Nine months later, the fruits of their labors paid off with the birth of a strong, healthy baby girl!

The NY Post reports that following the birth the new mom emailed friends and family with the message : "She's beautiful and healthy....she's definitely the love of our lives!"

Zhang, who specializes in helping older women realize their parenting dreams , says that ironically, the key to his success is not to use more fertility drugs, but actually, to use less.

In fact, he reports that many of his most successful protocols use little to none of the stimulation drugs commonly used by other fertility centers to help women manufacture multiple eggs. This may be particularly important for older women since there has been some evidence that large doses of egg stimulating medications, along with increased estrogen, may be linked to an increased risk of breast cancer – particularly at a time when a woman's risk are naturally rising due to her age.

Although Zhang is definitely a pioneer in this respect, he is clearly not alone by taking the "natural " approach. Indeed, many doctors are now using various nutrition protocols, including special diets, as well as vitamin and other nutrient combinations to naturally increase not only egg production and ovulation, but also increase the success rate of IVF procedures. There are currently a number of key studies showing the positive impact that the right dietary and nutritional protocol can have.

Additionally, Dr. David Barad and Dr. Norbert Gleicher of the Center for Human Reproduction, located in New York and Chicago, have been using the natural supplement DHEA - short for Dehydroepiandrosterone - to help women over 40 get pregnant faster and easier and have reported increased fertility in this group. DHEA is a precursor compound that the body uses to make steroid hormones, including some that are directly involved in egg production.

To date, however, Dr. Zhang appears to have the only fertility expert with IVF success at age 49.

To read more about the various ways in which diet and nutrition has been clinically shown to increase pregnancy rates, as well as improve IFV outcomes, and learn more about DHEA visit FertilityDietGuide.com .

To learn more about minimal stimulation IVF and other new advances in getting pregnant faster at any age, visit www.GettingPregnantNow.org .

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

To Get Pregnant Fast ...Try a Little Romance!

By GettingPregnantNow.org

It seems kind of obvious ....romance leads to pregnancy! But the truth is, when trying to conceive many couples seem to put
"romance" on the back burner and instead put all of their energies into the "mechanics" of getting pregnant! But research shows that doing so may actually be counter productive! Why?

Because romance reduces stress - and without it, stress levels can build to a point where conception may be adversely affected. How?

Doctors aren't exactly sure, but research continues to point to the destructive effect that stress hormones like cortisol can have on reproductive hormones, particularly those involved with regulating egg production and ovulation. In fact, when stress levels rise high enough, ovulation may stop completely.

But the good news is, the opposite is also true - reducing stress levels may help protect hormone function and get your ovulation back on track! In one encouraging study conducted by Alice Domar, PhD, at Harvard's Mind-Body Institute, women who underwent stress reduction therapy saw dramatic increases in their ability to get pregnant. In fact, even women who were already undergoing fertility treatments had more successful outcomes when stress was kept under control.

Even more encouraging: Research published in the journal Psychological Science found that putting a little romance in your life - such as the simple act of holding hands with your spouse or dancing slow to romantic music - can be a super stress-buster!

So, if you want to get pregnant faster and easier, don't forget to keep a little romance in your baby-making life! This can be especially important if you are undergoing fertility treatments and working towards an IVF pregnancy. While it's important to concentrate on the medical aspects of these procedures, it's also important that you and partner continue to connect to each other in an intimate, close, and yes, romantic way.

For more tips on how to get pregnant faster visit GettingPregnantNow.org - your source for fertility and pregnancy news and advice.

And to help encourage a natural conception don't miss FertilityDietGuide.com - for fun easy ways to get pregnant fast!

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Do You Need A Fertility Specialist? How To Tell!

For some couples, getting pregnant is quick and easy. For others, things may not go exactly as planned.

Sometimes, problems are linked to specific physiological issues such as blocked fallopian tubes in the woman or low or no sperm count in the man -- problems that can be helped by fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) or insemination.
For many others, however, reasons are much harder to define.

"Often, problems are subclinical -- meaning we know something is wrong, it's just not showing up on the radar," says Staci Pollack, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Montefiore Medical Center's Institute of Reproductive Medicine and Health.

Many times experts say these couples are diagnosed as having "Unexplained Infertility " - meaning, there likely is a constellation of small factors that come together to create big barriers to conception.

Pollack says standard fertility treatments can usually help, but that in some cases, so can a host of natural ways of getting pregnant -- which couples can try on their own.

The key to success: Knowing when to it's okay to keep trying on your own to get pregnant - and when it's time for more serious medical treatment.

So, how do you know? The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says if you don't get pregnant after 12 months of regular unprotected intercourse -- or six months if you are a woman over 35 -- it's time to seek help from a fertility specialist

Do keep in mind, however, that very often the same tips that can help you get pregnant naturally can also help increase the success the any fertility treatments you may ultimately need, so it's never too early or too late to try them.

For a complete list of the top rated fertility centers in all 50 states - including their success rates and specialties - visit the Fertility Experts Directory at GettingPregnantNow.org

To discover a variety of tips and tricks to help you get pregnant faster visit www.GettingPregnantNow.org - Your Source for Fertility and Pregnancy Advice and Information.

For information how diet can help increase your fertility and help safeguard your health during flu season visit FertilityDietGuide.com

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Can the H1N1 Vaccine Cause Infertility?

Rumors are spreading fast that the H1N1 virus may cause infertility. Before you panic, here are the facts you need to know...

While undergoing fertility treatments may not increase your risk for getting the flu, there is a growing amount of electronic chatter concerning whether or not the flu vaccine can increase your risk of infertility now or in the future.

That chatter recently grew quite loud when a Middle Eastern television network aired a stunning interview with Harvard-trained medical investigator and best selling American author Dr. Leonard Horowitz. Here, Horowitz asserted that vaccines in general, but specifically H1N1 is not only dangerous but , in fact, part of a global conspiracy involving drug companies, governments and even top business moguls, to reduce world population - in part by causing infertility.

As compelling as the interview was, so far, Horowitz has failed to back up his claims with any solid medical research – and that's a fact that Saudi health officials are desperately trying to make known as the vaccine becomes available to its citizens. Dr. Salman, Assistant, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and supervisor of the university hospitals in King Saud University, said recently in an interview with Arab television networks that the vaccine is “not new and dates back to many years been tested a lot of people for years”

Indicating confidence in the vaccine to protect rather than harm, he added that health officials have become accustomed to this kind of doubt whenever a new drug hits the market. He is reported to have stressed that studies show the vaccine is safe – an opinion that is echoed by world health leaders, including those in the United States.

To read more about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine in pregnancy, click here.

For more information visit the Pregnancy Swine Flu Resource Center at GettingPregnantNow.org.

For information how diet can help increase your fertility and help safeguard your health during flu season visit FertilityDietGuide.com

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Pregnancy, Fertility & H1N1: Vaccine Safety ?

As the H1N1 -Swine Flu Virus continues to spread, and questions about vaccine safety arise, women who are pregnant or seeking to become pregnant are among the most concerned. Here's what you need to know ...

When you're struggling to get pregnant, every headline with the word “infertility” raises a red flag you just can't ignore. The same is true when you're already pregnant and hoping for that healthy baby.Which is why experts say the recent headlines linking both an increased rate of infertility and pregnancy complications to the new H1N1 “swine flu” vaccine can be so devastating to so many.

“Myths and rumors can be harmful – and when they are aimed at a particularly vulnerable group they can be exceptionally harmful ; in this situation, it is vital that we stop, take a breath and look at the facts before we make any decisions, ,” says Niels Lauersen, MD, medical director of GettingPregnantNow.org

In doing so, says Lauersen, we find there is little evidence to link the vaccine to specific problems in either group. That said, he also cautions that “ A lack of evidence is not necessarily evidence of safety” and that more testing is probably needed to feel totally secure.

To this end, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the US Centers for Disease Control says that more extensive testing of the vaccine on pregnant women is underway. That's the good news. The bad news: Results are not expected anytime soon.

Still, Schuchat says she's confidant that what we know thus far satisfies her safety concerns.

"The trials are being done to provide additional information on dose and so forth, but I think that if I were pregnant I would not wait for the results of those trials, if there was an injectable vaccine available to me,” she recently a press briefing on the H1N1 vaccine.

One reason for the concern, say experts is that pregnant women who do contract the flu – any type of flu – are six times more likely to develop complications and their death rate is greater as well. Still when making your decision whether or not to vaccine, Lauersen says it's important to note that the risk of getting the flu is no higher during pregnancy.

“If you get it, you are more likely to develop complications such as pneumonia – but being pregnant does not, in and of itself, put you in a high risk group,” he says. The same rule, he says, applies to those currently using fertility treatments or trying to get pregnant naturally.

" There is currently no evidence that fertility medications or treatments can reduce your immunity or make you more susceptible to the flu – so I don't think this is something fertility patients have to be concerned about,” he says.

For more information visit the Pregnancy Swine Flu Resource Center at GettingPregnantNow.org.

For information how diet can help increase your fertility and help safeguard your health during flu season visit FertilityDietGuide.com

Copyright by Colette Bouchez 2009 - All Rights Reserved.
In addition to US Copyright, the text of this FERTILITY BLOG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Men, Canned Ravioli and Infertility

 Ladies: If a group of Chinese researchers are right, you may want to keep your partner from snacking on canned ravioli and beer. The reason: You just might see the after-effects in the bedroom - and not in a good way.

Indeed, new research published this week in the journal Human Reproduction found that bisphenol A or BPA - a chemical found in thousands of consumer products including the linings of food and beverage cans – may, in fact, be responsible for a wide range of sexual dysfunction problems in men, including erectile dysfunction and possibly infertility.

Head researcher De-Kun Li recently told the Washington Post “ Critics dismissed all the animal studies saying 'Show us the human studies'; now we have a human study and this just can't be dismissed,” he said.

The five year study followed 634 male works from four Chinese factories where exposure to BPA was significant. Researchers then compared the incidence of sexual dysfunction among these men with a control group who did not have workplace exposure to BPA.

The result: The men who were exposed to the BPA were four times more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction and seven times as likely to have difficulty with ejaculation.

Moreover, it didn't take long periods of exposure for the sexual problems to kick in. Indeed, men who worked in the factories only a matter of months appeared to be as affected as those who spent years being exposed to the chemical.

In other research it has been shown that men who have either erectile dysfunction or ejaculation problems also experience a higher rate of infertility – and now some researchers are wondering if the two problems aren't “chemically” connected.

"At this point we don't know if the infertility is simply a result of not being able to transport sperm into their partner's body, or if the BPA is playing an additional role in the infertility as well, because certainly we have animal studies showing that BPA can cause infertility,” says Dr. Niels Lauersen, a fertility expert and director of GettingPregnantNow.org.

To learn more about this study - and how BPA can affect female fertility click here.
T0 discover 12 easy ways every couple can reduce their exposure to BPA - and help safeguard their fertility - click here..