Fertility Tips From A Doctor
I spent yesterday doing an interview for the Plan Yourself Pregnant Membership. I spoke to a GP medical doctor about fertility and it was fascinating to hear her tips and see how many things we share in common. I want to share some of these with you.
She talked about fertility tests and infertility conditions, but her number one tip to improve your fertility was:
Think about what your cavewoman self would do
Your body still works as it did back in cavewoman times. Our hormones still operate as they did back then because our DNA hasn't changed. The type of sleep, exercise and rest that you need to be healthy and fertile are the same as back then.
Our bodies haven’t caught up with changes in the way we live, stress or technology.
Now it wasn't all perfect for our cavewoman sister. She would have been lucky if she got to her 30th birthday, she didn't have a dentist and she couldn't choose which berries she liked best for breakfast. Cavewoman fertility tips are about thinking in terms of how to optimise your hormones and work with your body.
Cavewoman tips to boost your fertility
1. Cavewoman eats in the light and goes to bed when it gets dark.
Most of us have busy lives. We have a long to-do list each day that never gets completed. We work late, eat late and go to bed late. The problem is that at the end of the day, we often feel stressed, tired and wired. Eating late puts a strain on the digestive system.
2. Cavewoman doesn’t have a problem with blue light because she doesn’t have a phone.
We like to be connected, catch up on the news and check messages. The problem is that if we do this before we go to sleep, blue light from our phone floods our brain and disrupts the release of melatonin (the sleep hormone). Without the right levels of melatonin at the right time, we can end up not being able to fall asleep or having a disrupted night’s sleep. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that can help to reduce cell damage and produce better-quality eggs. So, if your phone has one, make use of your it's Night Shift setting to reduce the amount of blue light it gives off, or turn off technology at 9pm.
3. Cavewoman wakes up with the sun and gets a boost of serotonin.
If we go to bed late and have poor-quality sleep, then it’s easy to hit the snooze button. Getting poor-quality sleep makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning. Melatonin and serotonin work together. When one is high, the other is low. If we don't flood our eyes with sunlight in the morning, then the problem is that we can stay sleepy and feel down because we haven't made that switch from melatonin to serotonin.
4. Cavewoman runs about all day. She moves, stretches and does short bursts of activity.
If you have an office job, then chances are you’re stuck at a desk most of the day. If we sit still all day and don’t move much apart from our fingers, then our health and fertility can suffer. Find ways of incorporating short bursts of activity, movement and stretching to keep your blood circulating, organs working and hormones balanced. It could be walking at lunchtime or stretching every 30 minutes at your desk.
5. Cavewoman eats organic, natural, seasonal food (when it's available).
When we’re busy, it’s easy to reach for time-saving meals in packets and food with sugar, salt and trans-fats. The problem is that processed food damages your fertility, egg quality and hormones. Cook as much of your food from scratch and read labels carefully. If there's an ingredient on a label that you don't know what it is, then don't buy it.