Women's Issues

For many people, the greatest goal in their life is to become a mother or father. Creating and raising a child with someone you love is probably the most amazing experience a human being can have. In some circumstances, however, it can be difficult for a couple to get pregnant. How do you know when it is time to make an appointment at an infertility clinic? The following information may help you decide if the help of a professional is needed to conceive a baby of your own.

A mistake many couples make is thinking getting pregnant is as easy as having sex. Some couples do have the blessing of conceiving quickly. If you do not, this does not mean you are infertile. There could be a genuine medical reason you have not got pregnant yet. Were you on birth control recently? If so, this could be the reason you have not had the baby you so desire. Despite commonly held beliefs, stopping your regular birth control regiment does not mean your body is automatically ready to hold a child. For some women, it takes It takes the average woman’s system two to three months to completely flush all the hormones and start the ovulation cycle on its own.

Another common reason behind not getting pregnant as quickly as a couple wants is irregular periods. This medical obstacle is not uncommon. In fact, it affects an estimated 30 percent of all women during their reproductive years. While a woman is supposed to ovulate once a month, universally thought to occur around the middle of the month, some women may not go through this cycle for two of three months at a time, sometimes longer. After stopping birth control, most women go back to their normal menstrual cycles so if you have irregular periods in the past, your trouble getting pregnant may lie in the fact that your ovulation is difficult to track.

Some couples experience conception difficulties because of the potential mother’s weight. Many people fail to recognize that falling above the recommended weight class for someone of your height and age greatly affects your body. It can cause irregular periods and reduces your libido, as well as increases your risk of developing a wide assortment of health issues such as heart disease and diabetes. Studies have shown women with a body mass index, or BMI, of over 29 have a four percent lower chance of conceiving; those with a BMI of 35 to 40 experience a 23 to 43 percent reduction in their odds.

If you and your partner believe one of the above issues is affecting your ability to get pregnant or if you have been trying for over six months, you may benefit from visiting a fertility clinic. The physicians there can create a detailed plan to help you conceive. With their help, many women get pregnant within a year. Every couple is different, however, and the only way you can know what adjustments you need to make is by visiting a professional yourself.

The famous Harvard Nurses Health study observed women over a 16-year span and noted that lack of sleep lead to weight gain. Women who reported sleeping fewer than 5 hours per night were 32% more likely to gain more than 15 kilograms or 2 stone 3 pounds over that span of years. That’s on average 1 kilogram or 2 pounds per year more than those who slept longer each night.

These results surprised researchers and their initial thoughts were that women who slept less eat more but when the results were analyzed the opposite was found to be true and the women sleeping less were actually eating less.

Research appears to suggest that this sleep less weight gain phenomenon may in part be due to the hormone melatonin or rather lack of it. Melatonin is the hormone of sleep, which is produced when daylight starts to fade.

Melatonin is not only responsible for helping us to sleep but is also a powerful anti-oxidant. It also regulates the release of another hormone leptin, which is an important regulator of appetite and therefore weight gain.

As we age so does the production of our hormones and melatonin is no exception. Blood levels of melatonin in the elderly are about half those of a younger person. As our daylight starts to fade around dusk our brains begin to produce melatonin and its levels continue to rise until it peaks at about 2am or 3am for older people and then starts to decline as the sun rises.

Light of any type but especially blue wavelengths will stop the production of melatonin and lack of it will stimulate fat storage. It is therefore important for us to maximize the production of melatonin.

1. Aim to get at least 7 hours of quality sleep each night.
2. Block out all light and sleep in a dark room. If you are unable to block all the light from your room with black out blinds a sleep mask is a good quick cheap alternative.
3. Have a bath before bedtime, ideally your body should start the night slightly warmer and cool down as you fall sleep. Your cooling body triggers the production of melatonin.
4. You may need to supplement your body’s production of melatonin. Melatonin supplements are widely available for sale on the Internet and health food stores. There are no studies or research available to date to suggest that supplementing with melatonin, in the short-term, poses any risks to health. Never take more than 3 mg of melatonin per evening.
5. Research has found that lavender oil can help you unwind and send you off to sleep. Invest in some quality organic lavender essential oil. Sprinkle a couple of drops over your pillow at night before bedtime.
6. Avoid alcohol, as it is a big sleep disruptor. As little as one glass of wine is enough to disrupt your REM sleep, which is your most restorative sleep phase.
7. A cup of Valerian tea an hour before bedtime I find really helps you unwind. Try Clipper teas ‘Sleep Easy’ which contains Valerian. Valerian is believed to have a sedative and anxiolytic or anti-anxiety effect on the body.
8. Here’s a fun way to wind down of an evening. Half an hour before bedtime or earlier if you wish turn all your electric lights out and replace with candles as candles do not emit blue light. Play some relaxing, soothing classical music and let your mind drift away.

The idea is to wind down not to fall asleep with your candles burning so be mindful of this fact. If you don’t trust yourself to stay awake please don’t burn candles.

If you don’t like the idea of taking melatonin as a supplement then cherries are a natural way of supplementing your melatonin supply. Research into tart or sour cherry juice as a bedtime drink showed that it improved sleep for those who took it, compared with those who were given a substitute drink.

The ready to drink cherry juice Cherrygood contains Montmorency cherries which research has shown are packed with health benefits which may help consumers achieve a good nights sleep. Tart cherries are one of the few known food sources of melatonin, a hormone produced in the brain and released in the body by pineal gland.

US studies conducted at the University of Texas Health Science Center found Montmorency cherries contained 13.5 Nano grams of melatonin per gram, much higher than the amount normally found in our bodies. Research also shows that drinking cherry juice can reduce known markers of inflammation, as the drink is a powerful anti-oxidant, helping to repair heart damage poor sleeping patterns may have caused.