Healthy Choices and Other Options For Conceiving

Staying healthy can help your chances of conceiving, but if that doesn’t help there are other options.

Getting pregnant isn’t easy for everyone. It may be surprising to learn that many women struggle with it Staying healthy and making good choices will help your chances of conceiving. If all else fails, there are other options like IVF or frozen embryos. These options have been successful with other women and they might help you, too. Here are 13 healthy tips to keep in mind when trying to conceive. 

1. Maintain A Healthy Weight

yoga

Believe it or not, your body weight can impact fertility. Being over or underweight can decrease your chances of becoming pregnant. To maintain a healthy diet, including lots of folic acids, calcium, iron, and protein. Regular exercises like yoga, walking, and swimming can help you conceive and develop healthy habits!  Moderate exercise is best when trying to conceive as the daily activity will increase your blood flow in a supportive way. Just don’t overdo it!

2. Caffeine Intake

cup of coffee

Got a morning coffee addiction? Don’t worry, as long as you are keeping it under one to two cups a day, it shouldn’t impact your fertility. WebMD recommends avoiding more than three cups in a day. It's good to watch your caffeine intake. Next time you’re at the local coffee shop ask for the caffeine content. Try to stay below 200 milligrams or less a day.

3. Water Is Life

glass of water

Drinking enough water is extremely helpful both before and during pregnancy. This healthy habit helps put your hormones in all the right places, as well as support egg growth. Water helps in the process of fertilization by facilitating cell division, metabolism, and reproduction.

4. Superfoods

greens

Leafy greens, salmon, and beans are just a handful of the foods that help support your fertility. Spinach has a high amount of zinc, protein, niacin, fiber, vitamins A, C, E, and K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, iron, magnesium, and manganese.  Avocados have tons of potassium and monounsaturated fats (the good kind!). And there are so many more that you can stock up on in your own refrigerator!

5. Supplements

supplements

Taking multivitamins that help boost fertility actually work! Zinc is a well-known vitamin supplement that increases ovulation. It's important to look at your vitamin intake. If you're low on your intake, increase it! More specifically look to increase your zinc, folic acid, and omega free fatty acid, and iron.

6. Stress Level

stressed out girl

Stress can cause you to ovulate less or irregularly, and it is proven that women with elevated stress levels are less likely to conceive. Try incorporating practices like meditation or yoga into your daily routine, or even just take a minute out of your day to set yourself at ease.

IVF

In Vitro Fertilization

IVF

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) has become a popular topic in the United States, as roughly 12% of women experience difficulty when trying to get pregnant according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Vitro Fertilization is a process of fertilization in which the egg and sperm are extracted and then manually combined in a laboratory dish.  The embryo(s) are then inserted into the woman’s uterus.

While this treatment has a higher success rate than IUI, it is much more expensive. According to The American Urological Association, couples reportedly spent on average $15,435 more on IVF treatments than those who underwent IUI.  Because many patients who undergo IVF struggle with infertility due to cancer, endometriosis, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, health care bills can vary greatly from person to person.

Thinking about IVF for yourself? Here are important facts to keep in mind:

7. This won’t be your first option.

Before doctors will approve IVF treatment, the couple will be subjected to multiple tests to see if conceiving a baby naturally is possible.

8. It’s a Team Effort

Everyone must work together toward the same goal. Doing so will result in a smooth and painless process.

9. Cost

piggy bank

IVF is not cheap, with prices steadily increasing especially at more successful clinics.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like prices are going down. It’s important for couples who are considering IVF to remember that the treatment does not guarantee you a baby—it only guarantees you the chance of a baby. If the cost of fertility treatments is not economically feasible for your family, you might consider these other options.

  • Start a GoFundMe page: GoFundMe is an online fundraising website where individuals can create personal fundraising pages and easily share them with their friends and family. If you are looking to cover the cost of fertility treatments, GoFundMe can be the perfect way to share your story and get financial help from the people who care about you and are moved by your story.
  • Look into nonprofit aid: a number of foundations and organizations help people who are dealing with infertility and are unable to cover the cost of treatments themselves. Research the grants that might be available to you. You might just find a guardian angel.

10. Youth Counts

People tend to think that IVF is only an option for older women, when in fact the younger you are, the better your chance of success.

11. Lifestyle

guy on grass

Everything from your BMI to your food choices will be important when considering IVF.

12. Side Effects are Rare

All hormonal procedures involve some risk, but less 1 percent of patient experience any complications.

13. It’s not guarantee

Roughly 65% of women find success through IVF.

Frozen Embryos

Another option to combat Infertility with

frozen embryos

Nowadays, some companies health insurance plans include coverage for egg freezing or oocyte preservation. This form of fertility insurance for women who want to delay childbearing has grown in popularity since its “experimental” label was removed in 2012. But as it moves into the mainstream, is it really producing healthy kids?

Health officials say absolutely yes! The data on the matter is quite reassuring, particularly for women for whom the alternative might be not to have a child from their own eggs.

Oocyte preservation has been around since the 1980s and has gained popularity in recent years as many millennials, especially working women, delay parenthood.

In the procedure, a woman’s ovaries are stimulated using hormones, then eggs are harvested from the ovaries. (If that sounds similar to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, which is used when a couple has had trouble conceiving, it is.) The extracted eggs are then preserved in specialized vials either through a slow-freeze or a flash-freeze process. The eggs are then stored in a cryopreservation facility or egg bank. Once it’s time to use them, they are thawed and fertilized as in the IVF process, and then inserted into the woman’s womb.

Unfortunately, success is not guaranteed: The American Society for Reproductive Medicine estimates that only between 2 and 12 percent of frozen eggs yield a baby later.

The good news, though, is this: oocyte preservation allows women to use eggs from a younger version of themselves — versions who, perhaps, haven’t yet had cancer treatment, found a long-term partner or been ready for pregnancy.  For this procedure, it’s best for a woman to freeze her eggs by the time she’s 35 years old to ensure the highest rate of success.

But what about the babies born with the help of frozen eggs? Since the technology is so new, there isn’t a lot of data. There’s no registry of births achieved using frozen eggs, and very few studies have focused on outcomes beyond pregnancy.

baby

One 2009 study that tracked 900 babies born using frozen eggs found no difference in the rate of birth abnormalities compared with the rate for babies born with fresh eggs. Most other studies have been much smaller, tracking just a handful of babies; they show outcomes similar to babies born using traditional IVF.

Tracking usually ends in infancy. Tens of thousands of babies have been born using the procedure, but there’s no way of knowing how they’re doing as they grow up.

While looking for ways to finance fertility treatments, Wellness Mama has decided to come up with a plan to reverse infertility naturally without draining your bank account. Although you should check with your doctor to address any potentially threatening health issues. Then you can work towards addressing nutrition, supplements and lifestyle changes that can really help in the long run. Check out what she has to say about the rise in infertility, what causes it and of course, how to reverse infertility.

Struggling with infertility can be an emotionally draining and physically demanding process. On top of that, fertility treatments are an extremely costly expenditure that does not guarantee results. If you are having trouble conceiving, you might be considering undergoing fertility treatments. Depending on your financial situation, you might be wondering if this is the right path for you.  Once and for all, how much do fertility treatments cost?

Intrauterine Insemination

Not as scary as it may sound

insemination chart

Intrauterine insemination is a common fertility treatment in which sperm is placed inside the woman’s uterus to increase the chance of fertilization. The success rate depends on the reason behind the woman’s infertility.  As reported by Today’s Parent, the success rate is between 10 to 20 percent.

Many insurance companies will dictate that a woman must undergo at least six IUI procedures before the insurance company will cover the cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.  

In the United States, IUI treatments can cost you anywhere between $300 to $1000. The costs can be higher depending on which state you are in, what medications you are taking, and what fertility clinic you are going to.

Don’t Worry…

It takes time

smiley

Conceiving is never an easy process. Even without any fertility problems pregnancy can take a long time before it actually happens works. But try not to stress out and don’t give up! With a few of these tips, we hope that we’ve shown you some other options that you can look into.

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