Patients often worry how the foods they eat or don’t eat affect their capability to have children. It is crucial to recognize that even the cleanest diets cannot treat the most critical disorders that cause infertility in men and women. If, for example, a woman’s fallopian tubes are obstructed, preventing sperm from fertilizing an egg, dietary adjustments will not relieve the blockage. Fortunately, fertility specialists may help in cases like these by providing treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).
That being said, the impact of nutrition and other lifestyle decisions on fertility should not be underestimated. Whether paired with reproductive treatment or pursued on their own, dietary modifications can have a significant and measurable impact on fertility.
Fertility and Diet: How Nutrition Impacts Your Chances of Conception
Nutrition has a significant impact on your chances of conception, with a balanced diet rich in essential vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats typically enhancing fertility, whereas diets high in processed foods, sugar, and trans fats can harm reproductive health in both men and women. Factors such as weight management, adequate folic acid intake, and maintaining proper levels of vitamins like D and B12 are especially important for optimal fertility.
Nutrition and Fertility:
Folic acid: Essential for healthy cell formation, particularly during early pregnancy, and helps avoid neural tube abnormalities.
Vitamin B12: Promotes sperm production and function in men and aids egg maturation in women.
Omega-3 fatty acids: Found in fish, nuts, and seeds, can promote reproductive health and improve sperm quality in men.
Protein: Adequate protein consumption promotes overall health and reproductive function.
Vitamin D: Crucial for reproductive health and hormone balance, and a shortage can harm fertility.
Zinc: Essential for hormone balance, egg quality in women, and sperm production in males.
A new study of fertility and diet
Several studies have examined the relationship between dietary habits, food preferences, and infertility. These diets often focus on macro (large) and micro (small) nutrient options. In layman’s terms, they provide guidance on what types of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins to have in your diet.
Here’s What You Should Include in Your Fertility Diet.
Plant-based foods, such as whole fruits including apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, raspberries, mangos, guava, and pineapple, are high in fiber and vitamins.
Seasonal vegetables that include tomato, potato, onion, radishes, maize, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, lettuce, beans, peas, and eggplant.
Protein sources like chicken, fish, eggs, and tofu.
Seafood containing omega-3 fatty acids like S Salmon, Sardines, Oysters, and Tuna
Whole grains, which include oatmeal, brown rice, rye, and whole wheat.
Raw nuts such as almonds, Brazil nuts, and cashews that are high in antioxidants and mono-unsaturated fats.
Legumes that include beans, lentils, and chickpeas.
Extra virgin olive oil, which contains monounsaturated fat, and is regarded to be a better dietary staple.
The well-established link between fertility and weight
Being underweight or overweight can have a substantial impact on both men and women’s fertility, resulting in reduced pregnancy rates, an increased risk of miscarriage, and other issues. Maintaining a healthy weight range is critical to reproductive success. Let’s take a more in-depth look at the relationship between weight and fertility:
Also Read: 21 Days Fertility Diet Challenge
Impact on women:
Obesity:
- Obesity might induce irregular menstrual cycles and hinder ovulation.
- Despite having normal cycles, obese women have lower pregnancy rates compared to those with normal weight.
- Obesity Linked to reduced IVF pregnancy rates.
- Increased risk of anovulation, abnormal menstrual cycles, infertility, miscarriage, and stillbirth all result from obesity.
- Obesity can cause pregnancy issues such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes.
- Excess weight can affect reproductive hormones, potentially interrupting the menstrual cycle and ovulation.
- Obesity has been linked to disorders such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), a frequent cause of infertility characterized by irregular periods and inconsistent ovulation.
Being Underweight:
- Underweight women who become pregnant are more likely to experience miscarriage, early birth, and low birth weight.
- Being underweight, like having obesity, can also disrupt hormones and menstrual cycles, reducing fertility.
Impact on men:
- Obesity can severely impact male fertility, resulting in decreased sperm count, poor sperm motility, and possibly erectile dysfunction.
- Obesity in males is associated with an increase in oxidative stress and inflammation, which can impair sperm quality and reproductive hormone levels.
- Insulin resistance and diabetes, which are frequently connected with fats, can also affect male fertility.
Also Read: The Ultimate PCOD Diet Guide: What to Eat & What to Avoid
Conclusion
Women wanting to conceive should start making dietary changes well in advance of conception (preferably before three months of trying). This may include vitamins, such as folic acid or a prenatal vitamin. When a woman gets a fertility test, blood analysis may indicate nutritional inadequacies that may have an adverse effect on her fertility and capacity to carry a pregnancy to full term.
Prenatal nutrition and supplements try to address these concerns by ensuring that essential nutrients such as folic acid, iron, B-vitamins, and vitamin D are at optimal levels. To understand more about your dietary and lifestyle changes for fertility, get in touch with our fertility specialists at Progenesis Fertility Center.
