There are a lot of things that could make getting pregnant a little harder than it should be. Sometimes those things are fairly simple lifestyle changes that are the only obstacles in the way of trying to conceive. If you’re looking for advice on how to boost your chances of getting pregnant, you’ve come to the right place! 

Here are a few tips proven to make a difference:

Tips for improving your chances of getting pregnant

Stress management

Preparing for conception can make life a little more stressful on top of everyday stressors. Stress is a problem for a lot of reasons, not just pregnancy. It affects everything from our hormones to our sleep in addition to pregnancy. Usually, the first place stress starts to rear its ugly head is in a woman’s menstrual cycle. 

Being stressed is just as detrimental for men as it is for women. It affects the production of sperm and maturation in addition to lowering total libido. Eliminating stress is impossible. Controlling how we deal with it is the key. Find time to meditate, do exercise like yoga, or get a massage. These tools have been proven to be effective in managing stress, not just for pregnancy, but for the long term.

Body weight

A few pounds can make a difference. If you’re looking to lose weight, now is the time to really commit! Being overweight can decrease your chances of getting pregnant and being underweight can disrupt your normal menstrual cycle. These directly affect ovulation and estrogen production and greatly impact conception.

Our fat cells are connected to estrogen production and too much or too little can send your hormones into an imbalance that affects ovulation.

For women, being overweight can also increase the risk of insulin resistance. For men, being overweight has been connected to low testosterone, which means worse quality and impaired sperm. 

The positive side is if you’re overweight, losing 10 to 20 pounds can help improve your chances of conception and increase overall health!

Quit and avoid smoking to increase chances of getting pregnant

To suggest to anyone that they should quit smoking is probably a given. However, when it comes to smoking and pregnancy, it cannot be stressed enough. Studies have shown that women who smoke have an increased chance of infertility and take much longer to get pregnant. It also puts women at risk for an ectopic pregnancy, complications, and miscarriages. 

This also includes men. Cigarettes, even more so, have been known to dwindle sperm count and quality. Even second-hand smoke is considered to be just as risky for a woman’s fertility.

Stay Away From Alcohol

Although alcohol like wine can be consumed in moderation and have no effect on a woman’s fertility, it’s good to curb the habit. Drinking during pregnancy can lead to complications and put your baby at risk for birth defects and learning disabilities. 

The same goes for the dads! Too much alcohol can send the body into maximum effort to break down alcohol, and can lead to higher estrogen levels. This also lowers sperm count.

Vitamins and Supplements

Taking a multivitamin regularly can be extremely helpful in the long term, even when not trying to get pregnant. However, it’s exceptionally important when trying. Certain vitamins and minerals are necessary for development:

• Folic Acid: Helps with neural tube prevention, and to prevent limb and heart defects.
• Iron: Most women are deficient and may have poor egg quality or no ovulation at all.
• Vitamin B12: Deficiency causes hormone imbalances and irregular ovulation. 
• Vitamin C: Helps to improve hormones as well as selenium. This helps protect the sperm and the egg.

When trying to conceive, researchers have found that supplementing with 1,000IUs of Vitamin C, 1mg of folic acid, a prenatal vitamin, plus additional vitamin D should be enough to help you stay at optimal levels during conception and implantation through development.

Track your Menstrual Cycles

Every woman has a unique cycle pattern and length. Collecting as much data as possible and logging your cycle will help get a complete picture of yours. Cycles throughout a woman’s life are not all the same,  as some will vary. Some women experience 28 day cycles and others 32. It’s all normal, and knowing where you land on the spectrum can help planning!

Log or download an app to help track your menstrual cycle and utilize their pregnancy tools.

Know What Days You Are Fertile

When you track your cycle, it helps plan for ovulation and fertilization. In addition to tracking, a woman’s body will naturally give signs an egg is ready to release for fertilization. Vaginal discharge is a great way to track for optimal fertilization.

Types of discharge:

• Raw egg white type discharge that looks creamy or slippery and stretchy indicates ovulation is coming. 
• Watery or wet discharge indicates ovulation is close.
• A good indication that there is no ovulation is a sticky discharge, or dry altogether.

If you’re looking for more accuracy, your basal body temperature can show signs of ovulation. This is the temperature taken in a complete state of rest at the same time every day. If your temperature rises, it might be because progesterone (a hormone tied to ovulation) causes your temperatures to rise.

There are also ovulation strips or predictor kits. These kits detect ovulation by measuring the luteinizing hormone in your urine. If there’s a sign that this hormone has increased, it may indicate that ovulation could happen in the next 12 to 36 hours. 

Kind of like pregnancy tests, the ovulation predictor kit is used by holding the strip under your urine for a sample and the results are available on that strip within a few minutes. 

None of these methods are 100% accurate, but can help give you an idea of how to plan.

Timing is key to increase chances of getting pregnant

Once in ovulation, an egg is released and the fertile window continues for about five days. The uterus and fallopian tubes can hold active sperm for up to 3 days. Take advantage by having sex a couple of days before ovulation. The chances of conceiving increase and start to rise seven days after your last period. The highest chance is 15 days after your period. 

Even though there are a ton of myths on ways to improve chances of conception like women laying flat on her back after sex or elevate her hips, any sperm able to fertilize an egg are in position immediately. So, don’t worry!

Once you conceive, your body will develop HCG in a couple of weeks. This is the hormone produced by cells that surround the new embryo. Once it’s developed, one of the places you’ll find it is in your urine. 

In addition to higher levels of HCG, other signs of pregnancy may be a missed period, light bleeding, or spotting. If you do start to spot, don’t worry! It’s normal. This happens when the egg starts to take to the uterine lining. As the egg implants, you may also feel cramps and have tender breasts. 

However, if there is more significant bleeding after a positive test, then contact your doctor.

Don’t let negative results worry you

Don’t let a negative result stress you out. Enjoy life and if it’s meant to be it will be. Pregnancy isn’t always easy so don’t let disappointment take over. 

If you do start to experience months of negative tests, make sure to set an appointment with your OB/GYN. Considering a fertility specialist for you and your partner could be helpful. Especially if you find it’s been over a year.

When You Decide You Want To Get Pregnant…

All of these habits can be beneficial without pregnancy in mind. However, the plan should be set in motion when you decide you’re ready to have children. This is a new beginning and a new chapter in life!

Planning starts immediately!

Talk to your doctor about your concerns and pregnancy plans. They will check for conditions and family histories that may include depression, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and anything else that may complicate a pregnancy. 

This is where your doctor will suggest many lifestyle changes and prenatal vitamins to help prevent some birth defects. 

Your doctor may also suggest genetic counseling or prenatal genetic diagnostic testing to help provide the best information to help you plan.

Health Over Everything

Make sure to eat right, move around and exercise. Try not to let the stress get to you. Keep in touch with a good support system and stay busy. Your physical and mental health not only depends on it, but so does your pregnancy. If you’re healthy, have a great support system, and healthcare provider, all will fall into place as it should.

Are you trying to get pregnant? Contact Rosh MFM For All Your Questions and Concerns

From questions about nutrition to concerns about what practices are safe, expecting moms have a lot of questions.

The team at Rosh Maternal & Fetal Medicine is prepared to give you answers and provide top-notch medical care for a healthy pregnancy. If you’d like to schedule prenatal care or have questions about pregnancy, send us a message, or request an appointment online.