Breaking 7 Fertility Myths

While infertility is getting increasingly common today, we still tend to take issues around it for granted. A common misconception is that infertility gets cured on its own. This is generally why we refrain from breaking inertia and opting for enhanced life-style choices. Listed below are 7 such myths that need to be over-ridden in order to better combat the problem of infertility.

1. Male fertility is independent of age
Fueled by the fact that couples tend to give lesser importance to male infertility, it often goes unnoticed when an age-related issue arises. In addition to deterioration in semen volume itself, post 40 there is progressive decrease in both sperm quality and its ability pass on healthy genes.

2. You are fertile as long as you are getting pregnant.
Secondary infertility is often experienced by couples seeking to have a second child or ppl having infertility after one conception. A history of good fertility rates in one’s family or previous records of one’s own fertility need not necessarily mean that infertility is alien. Progressive degeneration of both eggs and sperm need to be checked for.

3. Weight and fertility are not linked
Women who are over-weight do conceive and therefore couples battling infertility under-mine the implication of those extra-pounds. However, lesser known is the fact that being overweight causes hormonal imbalances in both men and women. Every 5-10% weight gained leads to a recorded drop in fertility. For women battling ovarian cysts, weight reduction is often all it takes to conceive that bundle of joy!

4. A woman’s egg reserve does not diminish till 40
Women only have as many as 400-500 ovulating eggs in a lifetime despite having a reserve of thousands at puberty. The ovarian reserve decreases with age. While the reserve undergoes a loss of about 10% in late 20’s, in 30’s women often have about 15% chances of a healthy pregnancy. By the age of 35, a woman’s chances of having a baby is a meek 10% which is further reduced to 5% at 40.

5. Smoking does not affect fertility
Both active and passive smoking are risk factors for infertility. Researchers have proven that smokers experience infertility issues twice as often as non-smokers do. Besides a drop in sperm count, men who smoke tend to pass on mutated genes more often than men who do not smoke. In women, smoking causes a steep drop in egg reserve and leads to pre-mature menopause.

6. Infertility Runs In Family.
Infertility is not hereditary. However, there are medical conditions that are hereditary which may interfere with your ability to get pregnant. Some types of fertility problems can be hereditary. Endometriosis is one female fertility problem that can be hereditary. Generally speaking, fertility problems tend to have more to do with lifestyle factors than with heredity or genetics. The most severe fertility problems cannot, by definition, be passed on, because there are usually no children to which the problem could be passed.

7. How position affects conception
Whilst semen inevitably comes out of the vagina following an ejaculation, sufficient sperm is deposited in the neck of the womb which then heads towards the egg, regardless of the sexual position.

The silver lining is the fact that it is never too late to make wellness a way of life. The key is to accept the facts about one’s body and embracing realistic solutions for the same. Small changes in your day-to-day lifestyle can go a long way in preventing fertility problems.