When talking about reproductive health, a lot of the conversation is focused on women, and in the planning of pregnancy, often forgetting how men’s healthcare plays a role in conceiving, and how lifestyle choices can contribute greatly to your ability to have kids.
At Cool Springs Internal Medicine & Pediatrics, we know how important it is to approach reproductive health from a wider perspective, including the emotional toll that it can take, and the clinical tools we can offer to help along the way. Here we share 5 easy tips that have been proven to preserve and even increase fertility.
How Is Reproductive Health Connected to Lifestyle Choices?
All healthcare begins with your daily habits. The small things you choose can build up your wellbeing as time goes on, and help protect yourself from all sorts of disease. Reproductive health is tightly tied to things as delicate as your mental health, and if you want to increase your chances of becoming a parent there are many things you can do!
Most of these are useful for your overall preventive care, and will improve how you feel and your quality of life. However, some specific changes are aimed specifically at higher fertility.
If having children is something you want in your life, here we have our top 5 tips that we, as a family clinic, believe are the easiest and most effective ways to care for your reproductive health, both for women and for men.
Table of Contents
1. Dietary Recommendations: Foods That Boost Your Reproductive Health
In broad strokes, staying away from excessive consumption of fats and protein helps increase fertility in both women and men, but what to add to your diet is related to the way each sex functions.
For men, fruits and vegetables increase the quality of semen overall, but antioxidants are where the real secret is at. The excess of oxidative agents in the body starts to eat away at the cellular structures, including the ones in sperm, leading to reduced mobility and even DNA damage. Consuming extra antioxidant foods like blueberries, nuts, spinach, kale and dark chocolate can aid your reproductive health, and are also related to a higher probability of pregnancy.
In women, choosing foods with monounsaturated fats over ones with trans fats has shown to reduce the risk of ovulatory disorders. In practice, this means choosing avocados, nuts, olive oil over fried or processed foods when possible. Adding a multivitamin to your diet also protects against ovulatory infertility quite significantly.
2. Maintaining a Healthy Weight: Avoid Extremes
In both women and men, keeping within the healthy weight parameters is ideal to aid your reproductive health.
You may have heard people say that they are trying to lose weight to have a baby, as it is true that obesity can impact the ovulation cycle and the overall quality of sperm cells.
However, going in the opposite direction is also detrimental. Being underweight can have severe consequences for your reproductive health, and particularly for women, it’s recommended to have a body fat percentage around 20%-30%. Dieting too much, engaging in extreme exercising and eating disorders are all risk factors that you shouldn’t ignore.
In general, the best advice is to look for moderation when it comes to worrying about your weight. If you are experiencing stress due to food and your dietary habits, the help of a therapist is ideal to navigate getting to your ideal weight safely.
☝Read More: Reproductive Health Screenings: When to Schedule Your Next Appointment in Brentwood, TN
3. Mind and Body Are One: Mental Health’s Impact
Each day the awareness of how important mental health is and the impact it has on physical health increases. Medicine finds undeniable connections constantly, which can clue us into a more integral healthcare plan.
Reproductive health is no exception. Studies have shown that stress increases the probability of infertility for both men and women. Even if it’s not possible to reduce the stress factors in your life, finding coping mechanisms and support networks can reduce the impact that it has on your health, so it’s recommended to invest time in taking care of your emotions.
Furthermore, the process of trying for a baby can be stressful itself. At Cool Springs Internal Medicine & Pediatrics, we offer counseling services as well, aimed at relieving pressure and helping navigate this process.
4. Beware of Substances: The Lasting Effects
Indulging in a drink here and there in the company of good friends or after a long day is one of the small pleasures of life for most. In the same way, participating in recreational use of substances—alcohol, cigarettes, illicit drugs— can be an occasional thing.
However, studies have shown a direct correlation between the consumption of psychoactives and infertility. Even too much caffeine can be detrimental to reproductive health.
Being mindful about the amount and frequency of substances that you engage with, especially if you are actively trying to have children, can raise your chances by preserving the structure and functionality of both sperm and eggs.
Some prescribed medications are also incompatible with having children, even things like accutane which is for acne treatments can have severe effects on fetal development. Because of this, it’s necessary to go to a medical professional if you want to begin planning pregnancy, or if you find out you are already pregnant.
5. Exercising: Keep Yourself Active!
Physical activity helps revitalize all the systems in your body, and keeps them from deteriorating, which is why so many medical professionals will recommend it to all patients. Encouraging the habit from childhood is a great way to integrate it into a person’s life.
The theme of reproductive health is balance, and with exercise it’s no different. Moderate physical activity in both men and women show excellent results, but going overboard will also have negative effects on the reproductive system. For men, more than an hour 3 times a week is unadvised, and for women, doing more than 4 hours a week can create problems, especially if the amount of energy burned surpasses dietary intake.
If you want to come up with a workout plan that suits your goals, it might be best to consult with medical professionals about what can help you the most with your reproductive health.
Where to Get Reproductive Health Care in Tennessee?
If you are looking for reproductive health care providers in Brentwood Tennessee, Cool Springs Internal Medicine & Pediatrics can help you find the right things for you. Our team is committed to putting patients’ concerns and goals first, and we have highly qualified and board-certified professionals. If you are having issues with conceiving, or simply want to start planning, you can schedule an appointment, and our doctors will go through everything you want to know with you.