Posts Tagged ‘cervical mucus’

Nine Naturals + Preg Prep Make That Baby Series: Can Stress Negatively Impact Fertility?

Stress & Fertility

Article & Photo is courtesy of PregPrep.

Before even becoming pregnant, many women start taking steps to prepare their bodies for pregnancy. That is why Nine Naturals is excited to partner with PregPrep in the Make That Baby Series to help bring you helpful tips and information for preparing for pregnancy.

The anecdotal evidence is vast. Most of us have heard at least one story about a couple that struggled to conceive until they went on an island vacation. Or we know someone who couldn’t get pregnant until graduate school was over and they had feathered the nest. But in order to provide a more scientific answer to this question, we first need to lay out the basic science about the human response to stress.

It has been long understood that our bodies are hardwired to protect us from mortal danger. Most of us have heard of the “flight or fight” response triggered in extreme life or death situations, in which our bodies receive a surge of heightened energy and focus needed to survive a lion attack or outrun a tsunami.

In modern life, we are not as vulnerable to constant threats to our very survival, but the wiring is still in place. For many of us, this reaction is still set off by external pressures such as a looming work deadline or problems on the home front related to marriage and family.

When the stress response is set off, three different hormones come into play:

The first is adrenaline, also known as the “fight or flight” hormone. When that shark fin on the water is spotted, the brain sends an urgent telegram to the adrenal glands, which then flood the body with adrenaline (and norepinephrine, discussed below). Adrenaline helps the body respond immediately to the situation at hand by giving a surge of energy and heightened focus.

The second hormone, also released by the adrenal glands, is norepinephrine, which acts as a back-up system to adrenaline, giving the brain the hyper focus needed for a quick response time. It also directs blood away from less important areas, like the skin, to the muscles that may need support for a quick get-away.

Finally there’s cortisol, commonly known as the “stress hormone”. Cortisol does not kick in immediately like adrenaline, because it is only activated after the message is received by the amygdala and hypothalamus — two areas of the brain directly related to the regulation of many autonomic functions, including reproduction. It’s a key player in the stress-circuit trifecta, because it regulates fluid balance and blood pressure. It also offers a clue to the possible negative effects of stress on reproduction, as it can suppress reproductive drive in times of extreme stress as a protective measure. Cortisol inhibits the production of gonadotropin, the body’s primary sex hormone (GnRH) and, in turn, can suppress ovulation and sex drive. Mammals have been observed to shut down reproductive functioning completely in times of acute distress.

In 2009, researchers at UC Berkeley discovered that stress also increases levels of the recently discovered (2000) hormone gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone GnIH. This hormone, like cortisol, suppresses GnRH. This fascinating finding implies that the reproductive system is impacted from more than one angle in times of stress.

This primal protective measure, so crucial in times of true physical crisis, can work against the body when a chronic-stress response is triggered in everyday life.

A study by NIH and the University of Oxford discovered another new stress hormone that may hamper successful implantation of a fertilized egg. They tracked normal, healthy women with no known underlying fertility issues and made an incredible discovery: an enzyme that was previously known to help the body process starch, now turns out to be another key indicator of stress. The enzyme, alpha-amylase, may reduce blood flow and in turn slow the passage of the fertilized egg to the uterus. The study also showed that women with higher levels of alpha-amylase were less likely to conceive in their fertile window. This compelling study has now spurred other scientists to conduct further, long-term research.

So does any of this prove that the body’s response to stress negatively impacts fertility? The growing body of research seems to suggest that the hormones released in stress response do hinder the reproductive functions as part of the body’s primal “fight or flight” defense. The older belief that ovulation was only hampered by acute stress is now being chipped away. Daily and chronic low-level stress can also have an impact on fertility and reproductive health. It may be more subtle but still is a problem.

The old “just relax and it’ll happen” advice is just as useless and irritating to those on the road to conception as ever. But there is certainly enough scientific evidence to inspire healthy couples who hope to conceive easily and find effective ways to manage their everyday stress. In the process, they may also overcome some of the other scourges of chronic stress: stubborn belly fat, lowered immunity, and plain old unhappiness.

As you prepare yourself for pregnancy, Nine Naturals knows that you are thinking about everything that you put in and on your body. Nine Naturals is excited to offer the Nine Naturals + PregPrep Bundles, featuring Nine Naturals products of your choosing with the PregPrep Make that Baby Kit! Detoxify your beauty routine with luxurious all natural & sulfate-free products and get key nutritional support to bolster fertility and promote ideal reproductive health with physician-formulated natural supplements in the PregPrep Make That Baby Kit.

Nine Naturals + Preg Prep Make That Baby Series: Top Ten Tips to Get Pregnant Faster

Top Ten Tips For Getting Pregnant

Article is courtesy of PregPrep.

Before even becoming pregnant, many women start taking steps to prepare their bodies for pregnancy. That is why Nine Naturals is excited to partner with PregPrep in the Make That Baby Series to help bring you helpful tips and information for preparing for pregnancy.

There is nothing more exciting then the moment when you decide you are truly ready to become pregnant. Many of us have dreamt of having a child since we were children ourselves; from playacting with our baby dolls to daydreaming years in advance of the perfect names for our future children. So when many of us finally reach the time when making a family is our first priority, we may feel an overwhelming sense of urgency, an intense aching desire to achieve pregnancy as quickly as possible. But unfortunately, simply wanting to have a child is not always enough to make it happen quickly. There are many factors that need to come together for successful conception to occur. Here are the top 10 things you can do right off the bat to ensure the path is smooth for your journey to a timely pregnancy:

1. Enlist a Pro. See your OB/GYN and make sure you are in good health. Get your doc’s professional take on pregnancy and you. Rule out any fertility roadblocks in your personal health history, and find out about good prenatal options.

2. Get Time On Your Side. Track your ovulation to figure out the best time of the month to really hone in on baby making. Without a good understanding of timing, your chances of hitting the conception jackpot diminish significantly.

3. Toss The Pills. Seems obvious, but if you are on birth control you may need a few cycles to get back to regular ovulation. The sooner you ditch them, the sooner you can conceive.

4. Raise a Glass (of Water) to Your Health. Commit to a healthy diet and regular exercise. Get to a healthy weight and use your future baby as inspiration to let go of any bad habits, like smoking or overindulging in alcohol. Even too much coffee can be an impediment to fertility and healthy fetal development, so caffeine fiends should try to limit their daily intake.

5. Have Too Much of a Good Thing. Make sex fun and do it frequently, another seemingly obvious tip. But with the busy lives of many couples, keeping the ball rolling in the bedroom can often be tricky due to schedules and general exhaustion. If you need to pace yourself, target the 5-7 days leading up to ovulation for your best odds.

6. Tool Around. Women now have the opportunity to use some handy gadgets and over-the-counter tools to help pinpoint their ovulation. Ovulation predictor kits, widely sold in drugstores and online, can help you hone in on the window of opportunity for successful conception. Women with irregular cycles may find these kits especially helpful.

7. Man Up. Help your partner get informed about the things he can do to get things going, like adding zinc to his diet and keeping things cool and loose to keep his swimmers (that’s sperm, girls) strong and plentiful.

8. Hold steady. Some experts advise not getting up for 20 minutes after having sex and tilting your hips up to ensure all the sperm stays in and has a good chance of getting to the egg. While the jury’s still out on whether this really helps, many specialists in the fertility field are convinced it can offer an advantage.

9. Keep the Peace. Finding ways to reduce stress can do wonders for your overall health, and in turn help you maintain regular cycles and optimal fertility functioning. And one great side effect of diminished stress: increased happiness.

10. Team Up with Mother Nature. Take advantage of advances in nutritional health. New research has shown that by adding key nutrients to your diet, you can fine tune your body’s functions (for a variety of health purposes). PregPrep has joined this movement toward proactive health with a new kit to promote conception and a healthy pregnancy: Make That Baby (MTB).

As you prepare yourself for pregnancy, Nine Naturals knows that you are thinking about everything that you put in and on your body. Nine Naturals is excited to offer the Nine Naturals + PregPrep Bundles, featuring Nine Naturals products of your choosing with the PregPrep Make that Baby Kit! Detoxify your beauty routine with luxurious all natural & sulfate-free products and get key nutritional support to bolster fertility and promote ideal reproductive health with physician-formulated natural supplements in the PregPrep Make That Baby Kit.

Nine Naturals + Preg Prep Make That Baby Series: Cervical Mucus Can Help Conception

PregPrep Chart

Article & Photo is courtesy of PregPrep.

Before even becoming pregnant, many women start taking steps to prepare their bodies for pregnancy. That is why Nine Naturals is excited to partner with PregPrep in the Make That Baby Series to help bring you helpful tips and information for preparing for pregnancy.

Cervical mucus: it’s a sticky subject. Some women might find the idea of analyzing their bodily secretions unappealing. But when it comes to achieving pregnancy, understanding the slippery substance all women confront — in different forms — throughout their cycle can make all the difference. Cervical Mucus, or CM, was once thought of only as nature’s lubrication for intercourse. Now, we know it’s responsible for several important jobs that help facilitate conception.

Cervical mucus changes consistency to provide different assistance at different times. Depending on the stage in a woman’s cycle, the mucus can both serve as a barrier or a transporting medium for the sperm. It can protect sperm on its journey and help keep it alive prior to ovulation for up to 5 days. This constantly changing mucus, which is secreted from the cervix, is made up of 90% water. The percentage of water content fluctuates throughout the month to support the role it needs to play at various times.

Because the texture and volume of cervical mucus changes throughout a woman’s menstrual cycle, CM is often used as a good physical barometer of increased fertility and impending ovulation. Here is a brief overview of the CM changes that can help a woman determine where she is in her cycle and when she is most fertile.

Stage 1: Immediately following the bleeding experienced in menstruation, discharge is sticky and scant. This type of CM is neither abundant enough nor thin enough to allow conception. Most women cannot become pregnant during this stage of their cycle. It is also interesting to note that the vaginal environment, without the protective layer of cervical mucus, is actually hostile to sperm because of its high level of acidity.

Stage 2: Several days after menstruation, some women will notice the presence of a creamy mucus that has the consistency and look of lotion. This type of cervical mucus is actually quite useful to sperm as it protects the sperm that arrive before ovulation. Sperm can live up to five days in this warm, protective environment. This kind of mucus can be a sign that ovulation is less than 5 days away.

Stage 3: In the one or two days prior to ovulation, and throughout ovulation itself, cervical mucus thins itself further and become more slippery. During this stage, the CM will have the clear appearance and texture of raw egg white. This “egg white quality mucus” is considered to be the most ideal “fertile” substance for promoting conception. This type of cervical mucus allows the sperm to move easily to the egg and protects it on its journey. A recent study looked at the architecture of cervical mucus under a high powered microscope and showed perfectly sized openings built to allow sperm that is of a healthier “shape”, and block or impede sperm that is less ideal.

The role of cervical mucus in reproduction is still being studied, and new discoveries about its incredible conception enhancing properties continue to be revealed.

Sometimes cervical mucus may not be in an optimal state leading up to conception. This possible impediment to pregnancy can affect any woman and can be hard to pinpoint. The Make That Baby kit by PregPrep offers a proactive solution to this issue. It contains a bolstered mucolytic designed just for conception. FertilPrep is doctor-formulated and natural. It works to thin viscous cervical mucus and helps promote ideal CM to facilitate transport of sperm to egg.

As you prepare yourself for pregnancy, Nine Naturals knows that you are thinking about everything that you put in and on your body. Nine Naturals is excited to offer the Nine Naturals + PregPrep Bundles, featuring Nine Naturals products of your choosing with the PregPrep Make that Baby Kit! Detoxify your beauty routine with luxurious all natural & sulfate-free products and get key nutritional support to bolster fertility and promote ideal reproductive health with physician-formulated natural supplements in the PregPrep Make That Baby Kit.