Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Hello, and welcome to the wonder Beba podcast. My name is Sheena Mitchell. I'm a pharmacist and mom of three. I'm here to chat all about child and family health. I really hope you enjoy the show. This podcast is proudly sponsored by Medicare fem sense. Ireland's newest and most innovative ovulation tracking solution. The Medicare fem sense smart temperature patch is comfortable and discreet and is worn under your arm during your fertile window to measure and confirm ovulation women have reported a 93% success rate in detecting ovulation with over 10,000 pregnancies already recorded visit Fleming medical.ie/fem sense for more details for man and woman trying to conceive the biggest challenge can feel like making the decision. It's a huge leap. And once we make that decision, it's a big deal. We feel like it should be instant. We haven't before explored the world of what it means to be trying to conceive.
Speaker 1 00:01:12 And what barriers actually might be there today. I'm gonna focus on the first 12 months. The reason I'm speaking about the first 12 months is that actually in reality, only 25% of healthy 25 year olds conceive within one month. By the time a woman is 35, her chances have decreased by half. And this continues to whereby at 45 years of age, she only has a 1% chance of natural conception. These are some really, really daunting figures, but it's really important to know that 80% of couples will conceive within the first year of trying and of the 20% that don't conceive that year, half will conceive within the second year. I just think it's important to talk about those figures, because I know even from my own journey, I am a very impatient person and I expect things to happen immediately. So it is the most frustrating thing that I think any potential parents can face.
Speaker 1 00:02:15 And even if you've had a previous pregnancy and had a child, that doesn't mean that it's gonna be easy the second time around. So in this episode, I'll be chatting all about when to seek, help, how to boost your chances when to go to the GP and what they can do, and about this cool new product that I mentioned there in the intro. Okay. The first piece of information is the piece that no one wants to hear. The best thing. When you start off on you're trying to conceive journey is to have patience. It's so frustrating. It's so frustrating if you're a planner or an organized person, and it's taken you long enough to make the decision to have a baby in the first place, you kind of like what I've made, the decision you can't possibly mean. I have to wait for a few months or even a year.
Speaker 1 00:03:02 I just can't cope. So stress management is really important because did you know, and this is the ironic thing about trying to conceive stress can actually decrease rates of ovulation and it can also have a negative impact on sperm production. So yeah, not great. Is it the one thing <laugh> that is inevitable as the months go by and you keep getting negative pregnancy tests? The one thing that always happens is you get more stressed and actually that's the worst thing that you can do. So clearly I'm not telling you not to have feelings or not to be upset by it, but managing your stress and finding ways to enjoy life and to try and not put life on hold. Once you make that decision to try to conceive is really, really important. When I spoke about female fertility rates dropping with age, it's important to note that with men, there isn't enough evidence to say whether it decreases with age, but that's not to say that it's always the female partner that has the fertility issue.
Speaker 1 00:04:08 In fact, 20% of a couple's cause of infertility will remain unknown. 40% will be down to the women in the relationship and 40% will be down to the males. So it really is something that is best approached as a couple. And I know from experience, it tends to be the woman that feels like she has to take on responsibility for this and wonders. Why am I not getting pregnant? But just remember it takes two people to make a baby. And so it's important to take an approach as a couple and not just as one person. So when to seek help, a lot of people get frustrated and go to the GP after maybe two cycles. And they're like, I'm not getting pregnant. There must be something wrong. Do every test you can. But as I said earlier, 80% of couples will conceive within one year.
Speaker 1 00:05:03 So really, if you're under 35, you probably don't need to actually go to the GP for about a year. If you're over 35 or you have a history of any problems, you should go to the GP after six months, it's worth reemphasizing there that both couples should go to the GP. So the GPS can do a range of things from blood tests, sperm analysis, physical exams, and STI tests. It's also important to go to the GP. If you are a woman and you are aware that you have some form of ovulation disorder, so a lack of regular ovulation, you can be kind of aware of this if you have irregular period. So if your periods are kind of more than 35 days apart, or could be 35 days to even six months, you might only get a few a year that makes spontaneous conception less likely another time.
Speaker 1 00:05:57 It's good to seek medical advice before you start trying to conceive is if the woman's periods are extremely painful, right? So down to business, how do we boost a couple's chances of conception? So the first thing is to track your cycle. So if you have, and it's really important to understand when in your cycle you get pregnant. So obviously in a cycle day, one is the first day of your period. So if you have a 28 day cycle, you will ovulate approximately on day 14. If you have say a 32 day cycle, you might ovulate on around day 18. So whatever your cycle length is, if it's 26, 29, whatever you subtract 14 from that. And that is the most likely time that you'll ovulate trying to conceive really is defined by having regular unprotected sex. So it might seem obvious, but having sex at the right time is also really important.
Speaker 1 00:07:00 So once you've worked out your date of ovulation, you need to then have sex every couple of days for five or six days before that it's important to have sex before ovulation, because eggs actually only live for 12 to 24 hours. So it's a very narrow window. However, sperm can actually live for three to five days. So by having regular sex before ovulation, you're ensuring that there's a possibility for sperm to meet egg. Some people might think I'm being silly by saying unprotected sex, but actually a lot of people when they are deciding, if they're going to try to conceive are currently taking contraception. So if you're taking, or if you were taking a combined oral contraceptive pill, or you're using a vaginal ring, such as the new ring or a contraceptive patch, such as ever, these can actually take a few months to get outta your system.
Speaker 1 00:07:56 Even up to a year, be warned <laugh> for some women, they stop working pretty quickly after you stop using them. But it is something to be aware of because that can inhibit your ability to conceive as well. And that can be so frustrating if you're using the progesterone only pill, or you have had a hormonal coil in place, such as the Ky or marina, once you stop taking the progesterone pill or the coil, your fertility returns pretty quickly. So it's just worth saying if yourself and your partner are considering trying to conceive, but you feel it's not really the right time yet, and you might leave it a few months. It might be no harm to have a conversation about stopping your hormonal contraception and to perhaps use barrier methods such as condoms. Instead, it is a good way to give your body time to clear the contraception from your system so that when you do finally make that decision, you can just stop using the condoms.
Speaker 1 00:08:58 Some doctors will recommend to have one regular period after stopping your contraception. Mostly this is down to being able to calculate the dates of pregnancy easily, but it's not actually essential. Other things both partners can do to help boost your chances of conceiving are to eat a healthy, balanced diet. I know all the advice that I'm about to give you now is general lifestyle advice, but I'm gonna give some specific information on fertility. It's amazing what changes you can put in place to improve your fertility, eating iron. So maybe red meat, two to three times a week, or if you don't eat meat, maybe eggs, pulses, spinach, and broccoli regularly having calcium three times a day. So a portion of cheese, yogurt, or milk, making sure to take vitamin C don't take vitamin C at the same time or within kind of an hour or so of having tea coffee, because caffeine can affect its absorption.
Speaker 1 00:09:54 You should be taking a folic acid supplement. So this is a 400 microgram supplement that's available in your community, pharmacy or online from me at wonder Baba dot I E. So generally you start taking that three to four months before you start your trying to conceive journey. Obviously, if you're pregnant and it's a surprise and you weren't taking it, that's fine. Just start taking it. Now. Some people actually have to take a higher dose of folic acid. There is a five milligram tablet of folic acid, but it is only available on prescription. The people who would be advised to take the higher dose, and that should talk to their GP are people who have a history of neural tube defects. Also patients who suffer from epilepsy or have diabetes. Another thing which just might catch you out is the use of lubricants. Many people don't realize that a lot of the lubricants that are available on the market have spermicidal effects.
Speaker 1 00:10:52 That's not to say that they're going to prevent a pregnancy, and I certainly wouldn't be using them as contraception, but they can inhibit your chances of concept. So I'd strongly recommend using a lubricant, such as conceive. Plus the use of a lubricant is actually not a bad idea in any case. So by using something like conceive, plus you're actually making it easier for the sperm, basically to swim through and reach the egg chat to your GP. If you have any medical conditions as well, such as thyroid disease or diabetes, because it's a good idea to try and have these medical issues under control before you become pregnant. It's also important to notice that some prescription medicines or even over the counter medicines can affect your ability to conceive. You can chat with your GP and talk about potentially changing medications or finding out if your medicine is suitable for pregnancy.
Speaker 1 00:11:48 Okay, this might sound obvious, but recreational drugs like cocaine and marijuana, they can actually really, really affect your egg, quality and sperm quality, and even your ability to ovulate. So definitely none of those herbal medicines, such as St John's whar and globa, there are two common ones, but actually there's a range of herbal meds that can inhibit your chances of conception. The good news is that if you change your lifestyle, and if you cut down on alcohol, it's ensuring you have your kind of two to three alcohol free days a week. And if you don't smoke, cuz actually for men and women, smoking is a serious no-no in terms of fertility. So if you do all those changes and you control your diet and everything, it's actually remarkable how quickly your health will recover. A male sperm quality can actually bounce back to a much higher quality with even two months of lifestyle changes.
Speaker 1 00:12:50 That's why I say this. Isn't just a female problem. This is a couple problem. One other thing just to be aware of is your weight. So if your BMI is over 29, whether you're the male or the female in the relationship, this can negatively affect your fertility while people will always think, okay, I need to lose a bit of weight. It's important to remember as well that having a low BMI is just as likely to cause a problem. So if your BMI is under 19, you need to be aware that that may intervene with your ability to have a child, a healthy, balanced diet, making sure you're filling your body with lots of nutrition is a really good idea. Some people use ovulation tests, and these are basically like you pee on them. Like you would a pregnancy test and they detect a rise in luteinizing hormone.
Speaker 1 00:13:42 So luteinizing hormone rises after you release an egg. So it can be a good indication of ovulation. If you are like me and want to do everything you can to contribute to positive journey. I know I used to use ovulation sticks and everything. I just, I wanted to feel proactive and I wanted to have some form of control over something that was clearly outside of my control altogether. There is a new product on the market that I know I would've loved. It's only just launched and it is the product that I've mentioned in my intro. It's the Medicare fem sense ovulation tracker. This is genius. Basically. It's a little patch that you stick under your arm. It relates the info back to an app on your phone. So it actually monitors your temperature. The reason it monitors your temperature is that you get a little bit of a temperature dip and then an increase after ovulation due to progesterone levels.
Speaker 1 00:14:43 I like this product because previously there was a lot of talk about temperature monitoring, but people were just using basal thermometers for these. And these aren't really recommended because they're actually not very accurate. You're only getting a single measurement in a day. And as I said, your ovulation, you know, eggs only live 12 hours. It's not ideal because you may miss ovulation and you need a good bit of time and a bit of knowledge to kind of manage temperature monitoring in that way. Whereas with the fem sense, ovulation tracker, you just apply it when the app tells you, which is generally, you know, in that run up to ovulation, it's really easy to use and it's noninvasive. You don't even feel it once it's on and it's highly accurate. So for ovulation, the temperature change is usually a rise of about 0.5 degree Celsius. And the Medicare fem sense can detect and is accurate to 0.1 degree Celsius.
Speaker 1 00:15:44 All you need to do is scan the little patch and you get loads of information. Another thing which is often used to monitor fertil fertility is cervical mucus. So until you start trying to conceive, you don't learn these kind of things. <laugh> but basically a woman's cervical mucus changes during the month when you're at your most fertile, it's thin and clear and quite slippery. And again, I know that's gross, but really we're doing everything we can to get those sperm up to the egg. And that's why the use of a lubricant can be useful as well. But your body does actually naturally make changes to facilitate it. You can even monitor your sleep and your stress levels and energy and mood and all that kind of thing on it. Anyway, that's the product that I'm talking about today. And the reason is I just know that I would've loved it when I was trying for my three children.
Speaker 1 00:16:38 It took me quite a while to conceive my first child. And it certainly caused me an awful lot of stress. So I like the thoughts of this because you can pop it on and know that you're doing everything that you can, but you don't have to be so mindful of it, which is good. So when is the best time to do a pregnancy test? What is commonly known as the two week weight can be absolute torture. And you just want to know if you've had a successful cycle or not. But what I would say is if you can, in any way, shape or form, distract yourself until you have missed your period, then you're much more likely to get an accurate result. However, if like me, you can't wait <laugh>, you can do a first response pregnancy test and it is possible, but definitely not inevitable.
Speaker 1 00:17:31 It's possible that it might detect your pregnancy as much as kind of five days before your period is due. The one thing I'd say is when doing a pregnancy test, it's really important to do it with your first trip to the toilet and the day, this is because you haven't been drinking overnight. And so the urine that you're peeing is more concentrated and more likely to show the HCG hormone. If you get a negative result, don't stress, wait a few days, maybe around five days, if you can, and retest, sometimes it can take the levels of HG to build up and they can be non-detectable until a few days after your missed period. So it is possible to get a false negative, whereas it's extremely unlikely to get a false positive. If you get a positive test book in with your GP, usually you go to see your doctor at around six weeks, six weeks is actually just two weeks past your missed period because you start counting from day one of your cycle.
Speaker 1 00:18:30 I will be doing a further episode on what to do if it's after 12 months and what's likely to happen, what options are available for you out there and what help and support you can get. Because with the advance of medicine and with an aging population who to be honest, have extremely busy lives because a lot of families have two working parents, and it's just not always possible to consider starting your family as early as it was, you know, a few decades ago. So things have moved on and there is support out there. We can talk a lot more about that on the next, trying to conceive an episode which should be released within the next month. Please do subscribe and follow the podcast to be kept up to date on all new episode releases. If you could review the podcast as well, that would be really great and absolutely get in touch. If there's anything you'd like me to cover in the future. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 0 00:19:27 Bye.
