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HEALTH<br />
6. Get plenty of sleep<br />
Being sleep deprived impacts our health in lots of ways, and<br />
one way can be to reduce our fertility. During sleep our body<br />
reboots and repairs itself and this is an essential process. Our busy<br />
lifestyles and constant access to the internet, mean that a large<br />
proportion of the UK population is permanently sleep deprived,<br />
which impacts our general health negatively. Sleep deprived<br />
people produce larger amounts of the stress hormone cortisol<br />
and this hormone can reduce fertility. Go to bed earlier, remove<br />
the TV from the bedroom, and stay off your phone and laptop<br />
(leave them downstairs). The bedroom is for two things, and those<br />
are sex and sleep.<br />
7. Make time for relaxation and fun-plan trips out together<br />
as a couple and have date nights and holidays<br />
Keep the romance and fun alive in your relationship and try to stay<br />
relaxed about the whole trying to conceive business. Do things<br />
that make you laugh and feel connected.<br />
8. Reduce the stress in your life as much as you can<br />
Chronic stress has many negative effects on us and it can play<br />
havoc with our sex hormones. Find ways of managing stress.<br />
Exercise, as long as you don’t overdo it, is a great stress reliever.<br />
Listening to music, gardening, painting, reading, pets, spending<br />
time with friends are also great stress relievers. Maybe take up a<br />
new mindful hobby like yoga or pottery. Whatever you fancy really,<br />
as long as you enjoy it and find it absorbing.<br />
9. Make sure that you keep your laptops off your laps<br />
If this is impossible use a laptop guard. Laptops get hot and this<br />
heat can cause overheating of the testicles in men, which can<br />
greatly reduce male fertility, by damaging the sperm. The reason<br />
that testicles are outside the body, and not inside the abdomen,<br />
is that they need to be kept cool, so anything that causes them<br />
to overheat is bad news for fertility. Also take care with mobile<br />
phones overheating in men’s pockets next to groin, and men<br />
should avoid saunas and very hot baths.<br />
10. It might seem obvious but have sex regularly, and<br />
particularly around the fertile time in women<br />
There is no need to save the sperm up for the fertile window. This<br />
can do more harm than good as old sperm are less fertile. Have<br />
sex about every two to three days throughout the month. When it<br />
comes to male fertility, fresh is best.<br />
When to ask for help<br />
Approximately 84 per cent of couples will conceive within 12<br />
months of starting to try. If the woman is under 35 and you have<br />
been trying for longer than 12 months without success, you<br />
should see your GP who will take a clinical history and usually<br />
refer you for investigations. If the woman is over 35 years, seek<br />
help sooner after six months of trying, as fertility declines rapidly in<br />
women after 35.<br />
Kate Garside is an ex-GP and now director for medical supply<br />
company Access Diagnostics: www.accessdiagnostics.co.uk<br />
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