Why Is Hard For Me To Get Pregnant

Benefits Of Having A Baby After 40

While having a child when you’re older comes with challenges, there are also some unique benefits to being a parent later in life.

Some possible benefits of having a baby after 40 include:

• You might be more emotionally prepared. Being older does not always equate with maturity, but many people feel more emotionally settled by this point in their life. If you’re in a supported, strong, emotional place, you’ll be better prepared for the ups and downs of pregnancy, birth, and child-rearing.
• You might have more financial stability.After several decades of working, saving, and investing, the cost of raising kids might not feel as overwhelming as it did when you were younger.
• You might be more ready to focus on family. By midlife, you’ve probably checked off a lot of goals, from education and career to travel and forming lasting relationships with others. You may feel free to be more focused on building a family. You might have a home of your own or at least be settled into a community that you care about. If you have a partner, you’re hopefully feeling secure and stable in your relationship and are excited about parenting with them.

Q Whats The Best Way To Lose Weight To Increase Fertility

A. I encourage my patients to focus on balancing their dietbefore trying to conceive. But try not to focus too much on the end goalbecause that can be overwhelming.

Instead, focus on doing somethinghealthy every day:

• Eat complex carbohydrates, which you can find in whole grains, beans and vegetables.
• Eat more protein to sustain you throughout the day.
• Be more conscious of food labels.
• Focus on whole and natural foods.
• Avoid raw sugars and processed foods.

Try to balance those healthy habits with rigorous exercise most days of the week the kind that gets your heart rate and pulse up. And you dont have to do it alone. Talk to your doctor or a nutritionist who can help you plan a healthy diet and create a doable exercise plan. Get your partner on board as well by planning menus or signing up for an exercise class together.

Im also a firm believer inprevention and developing good lifestyle habits at a young age. Women in their20s who may not be thinking about pregnancy can work on developing healthy dietand exercise habits.

I have been an Ob/Gyn provider for more than 20 years, and there is nothing harder than the yo-yo dieting I see women attempt year after year. A diet will never be as effective as healthy habits. Its never too early to make smart, sustainable lifestyle choices ones that will keep you healthy and strong.

Take A Prenatal Vitamin

Pavone recommends that women who are attempting to conceive start taking a prenatal vitamin even before becoming pregnant. This way, a woman can find one that’s more agreeable to her system and stay on it during pregnancy, she said.

Another possibility is to take a daily multivitamin, as long as it contains at least 400 micrograms per day offolic acid, a B vitamin that’s important for preventing birth defects in a baby’s brain and spine, Pavone said.

TheCenters for Disease Control and Prevention urges women to take 400 mcg of folic acid every day for at least one month before getting pregnant, to help prevent birth defects.

Getting a head start on folic acid supplementation is a good idea because the neural tube develops into the brain and spine three tofour weeks after conception occurs, before many women may realize they’re expecting.

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You’re Not Relaxing After Sex

No one knows why, but there’s some anecdotal and scientific evidence to support the fact that after intercourse, it helps to remain lying flat in bed, with your hips elevated, for about 20 to 30 minutes. In other words, after getting busy, Dr. Curtis advises, “don’t jump up and certainly don’t run to the bathroom or douche!” That one change alone, he says, could solve up to 80 percent of fertility problems. So, as much as you might want to do a happy dance after you think you just made a baby, refrainfor a little bit, at least.

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Q What Is A Healthy Body Mass Index For Pregnancy

A. We use body mass index, or BMI, to determine if a person is overweight. BMI uses height and weight to calculate body fat. Its a numbers game: A BMI between 25 and 30 is overweight. A BMI thats over 30 is considered obese.

To optimize your health before and during pregnancy, aim for a BMI below 25. But the healthiest BMI for pregnancy is different for everyone.

One woman in the ideal BMI range may have a hormonal imbalance that causes irregular ovulation. Another woman may be technically obese but ovulates every month and has regular periods, giving her more chances to get pregnant.

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Q Will Being Overweight Affect My Ability To Get Pregnant

A. Being obese or significantly overweight may make it harder to get pregnant. Why? Its a complex dance between the hormones that trigger ovulation and your progesterone and estrogen levels. Fat cells often produce higher estrogen levels, which can work against your body when its trying to ovulate.

While out-of-balance hormonelevels dont always mean youll have trouble getting pregnant, you mayexperience less regular ovulation and menstrual cycles which makes it harderto conceive.

Age Is A Major Factor For Women

Youve probably heard the phrase your biological clock is ticking. This phrase refers to your fertile window. Women cant conceive after their menstrual cycles stop, usually sometime in your 40s or 50s. Men produce sperm throughout their lives, but women are born with a set number of eggs that decreases as you age.

At birth you have about two million eggs but naturally lose hundreds of thousands of them by the time you reach puberty, says Cross. Your body continues to lose eggs no matter what you do. And the rate at which women lose eggs accelerates around the age of 37.

The quality of eggs stored in the ovaries also declines over time. The eggs youre born with are naturally paused in the process of dividing their DNA, Cross explains. They complete that process, or ripen, when you ovulate them 20 to 40 years later. The longer eggs are stuck in the mid-division stage, the more likely that process will go wrong creating eggs with the wrong number of chromosomes. That results in not becoming pregnant, experiencing miscarriages or having babies with genetic syndromes due to chromosomal abnormalities.

The bottom line: The quality and number of eggs a woman has decreases throughout her lifetime and egg loss accelerates around the age of 37, which makes it more difficult to become pregnant.

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Conditions That Affect Fertility

Certain health conditions can play a large role in fertility.

For example,

• low sperm count

While it may require beating greater odds if you hope to become pregnant with certain medical conditions, its not impossible. You should speak to your doctorabout a plan of action to improve your chances of getting pregnant and delivering safely.

Patience Is Good But Dont Wait Too Long To Get Help

If you are trying to get pregnant again, try to relax and not worry too much at least at first.

However, if you have been trying for a year and still havent conceived, talk to your Ob/Gyn or fertility specialist. And if youre over age 36, consider talking with your doctor sooner once you have tried for three or four menstrual cycles without success, Dr. Detti says.

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What Causes Infertility

There are lots of possible causes of infertility. Seeing a doctor that specializes in infertility can help you figure out whats causing your fertility problems and find the best treatments for you. Sometimes theres no known reason for infertility this is called unexplained infertility. Unexplained infertility can be really frustrating, but there are still usually treatment options that you can try.

Causes of infertility in cis women

Some common reasons for infertility in cis women include:

• untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea

• not ovulating

• your fallopian tubes are blocked so sperm cant get to your egg

• poor egg quality

Causes of infertility in cis men

The most common causes of infertility in cis men include:

• untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea

• low sperm count

• poor sperm motility

• sperm that arent formed correctly

• semen thats too thick for sperm to easily move around in it

• no sperm in your semen

Having too much or too little of some of the hormones that help your body make sperm can also lead to sperm-related problems that cause infertility.

Infertility can also be caused by a problem with ejaculation. If the tubes inside your penis or testicles are blocked, you may have a hard time ejaculating, or nothing comes out when you have an orgasm. Sometimes, ejaculation can send semen backward from your prostate into your bladder, instead of out of your penis.

If youre trans and using hormones

Not Having Enough Sex

Having sexual intercourse every other day in the fertile window, which is 6 days before ovulation, will increase chances of conception, Dr Nandi says.

According to one study, ovulation lasts for between 12 to 48 hours but someone can be fertile for up to seven to ten days. This is because sperm can survive for up to five days in the female reproductive system.

Once released from the ovary, an egg can survive for up to 48 hours without fertilisation. This is considered to be the period of ovulation but the fertile window is the total amount of time the egg is fertile and how long sperm can wait for the egg in the reproductive system.

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Can You Get Pregnant With A Retroverted Uterus

Absolutely! The position of your uterus is not related to your fertility, and a retroverted uterus alone will not affect your ability to get pregnant.

The goal of the sperm reaching the uterus and the fallopian tubes is dependent on sperm quality and cervical and tubal integrity, not the tilt of the uterus. In other words, if your partners motile sperm count is good , your cervix is normal and producing the right type of mucus, and you are ovulating, the position of your uterus wont be the reason you dont get pregnant.

Stomach Hardening During Pregnancy

While you are in the second trimester of your pregnancy, your uterus has already traveled half-way and is now between your pubic bone and belly buttono Also, your “little one” is growing inside your uterus causing it to swell to make more space for your baby to growo As your uterus grows in size, it starts pressing against the walls of your stomach thereby giving a “hard feeling’9 Besides the growing size of your uterus, there are more factors that contribute to this conditiono Till the end of your 21st week, the skeleton of your baby is still rubberyr But after the 21st week, the skeleton hardens and this gives your belly a hard feeling with the development of your baby’s bonese

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What Can You To Do Increase Your Chances

If youd like to become pregnant, there are many things you can do to optimize your chances:

• Track your menstrual cycles and ovulation windows. For most people, the first step to becoming pregnant is having sex when youre ovulating. It makes sense to have an understanding of your menstrual cycle and ovulation windows to make sure youll fertilize an egg. This information can also be useful if youre trying to avoid becoming pregnant without using physical forms of birth control.
• Use ovulation strips. While ovulation strips cant guarantee your pregnancy, they can help to determine your peak fertility periods. If you decide to use ovulation strips, youll probably want to do this in combination with tracking your menstrual cycle, so that you dont need to use as many testing strips.
• Adjust your diet. Believe it or not, just changing your diet has been tied to increasing your chances of conceiving. While it may not be fun to consider giving up some of your favorite foods, the joy of a baby might just make it worth it.
• Maintain a healthy weight. This can be especially important if youre dealing with PCOS. A

What Raises The Risk

The trouble with secondary infertility diagnoses is that their causes are hard to pin down. For some couples, such as those over 40, it might simply be run-of-the-mill infertility issues because of age. But for others, it could be tied to previous health conditions or surgeries, such as scarring on the fallopian tubes or a previous cesarean.

Here are some common risk factors for secondary infertility.

Advanced age. While American women today are more likely to have children than they were more than a decade ago, according to the Pew Research Center, theyre also waiting longer to have them. That means that women trying to conceive for the second, third or fourth times are naturally older than first-time moms, and therefore more likely to bump against age-related issues.

But we cant defy nature. Healthy couples have about a 25 percent chance of getting pregnant in any given cycle up until their early 30s, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. By 40, that chance dips to 10 percent for women, according to ACOG while the American Society for Reproductive Medicine puts that likelihood even lower, at fewer than 5 percent for women.

We think that age 46 is the natural end of a womans reproductive life span, Dr. Ho said.

Anytime the abdomen is open, including with a C-section, there is a potential for scar tissue formation, Dr. Grazi said.

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When To Get Help

To reiterate, its always a good idea to see a fertility specialist if you have been TTC for more than one year with no success. You can start by scheduling an appointment with your PCP or OB/GYN, who can refer you to a fertility specialist they trust. A fertility specialist will talk to you and your partner about your health and potentially run more tests to evaluate your fertility and help pinpoint why you have not been able to conceive.

Reasons For Not Getting Pregnant The Second Time

Your fertility can reduce from your first pregnancy and women may find it difficult to become pregnant for the second time. This is known as secondary infertility. Here are some common reasons for not getting pregnant:

• If you are a woman over 35 years, then the egg count will fall, leading to no or lesser eggs

• Men over 50 have a decreased fertility and abnormal sperm

• Changes in ovulation and menstrual cycles due to hormonal dysfunction, weight issues, stress, medications , and substance abuse

• Complication in your first pregnancy or labor

• Damage to fallopian tubes due to abdominal surgery, endometriosis, sexually transmitted infections

There are certainly ways to fix infertility and conceive easily. But, first you must recognize the problem and then work towards the solution.

If you have more suggestions on how infertility can be dealt with, then tell us in the comments section.

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Why Cant I Get Pregnant

When youre ready to start a family and youre not getting pregnant, it can be frustrating and overwhelming. Especially if youve tried the conventional methods to maximize your chances: having frequent intercourse during your fertile window, tracking your temperature every morning and using tools like ovulation tracker apps and predictor kits.

You may start to wonder is this a medical problem or do I simply need to be more patient? Youre not alone. One in 8 couples struggles to conceive. Chantel Cross, M.D., a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist with the Johns Hopkins Fertility Center at the Johns Hopkins Health Care & Surgery Center Green Spring Station in Lutherville, Maryland, explains what factors might be affecting your ability to get pregnant and when you might consider infertility treatment.

How Long Is Too Long To Get Pregnant

Just because youve been trying to get pregnant for longer than a year doesnt mean youre infertile. Remember, even for people with average fertility, seven percent of couples wont get pregnant within a year. And if you do discover a condition impacting your fertility, it doesnt necessarily mean you need medical intervention to conceive, Mukherjee says.

When youre trying to get pregnant, the components that matter are quality eggs, regular ovulation, healthy sperm, and a healthy uterus and fallopian tubes, Mukherjee says. If theres a problem with two or more components, the odds are higher that a couple will need medical intervention to make a baby. But if theres a problem with only one of those components, the chances are good that a couple will be able to get pregnant without assistance. Itll just take more time.

For example, polycystic ovarian syndrome is a major cause of irregular periods, impacting 6 to 12 percent of women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People with PCOS often take longer to get pregnant because they tend to ovulate less often. Instead of 13 opportunities per year to conceive, you might be down to six or seven, Mukherjee says. But in the long-term, women with PCOS conceive at the same rate as women without PCOS.

The problem is, not all couples have time. If you start trying to get pregnant at 35, you cant afford to wait, Mukherjee says. But if youre in your 20s or early 30s? It might just take patience.

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