February 9, 2009

10 fertility rules every woman needs to know

This is one of the sub-tag lines on the front of this week's OK Weekly. Yes occasionally I puruse the trashy gossip mags. Generally speaking I quickly leaf through and look at pictures while waiting for the incredibly slow people in front of me to get finished checking out. But this weekend, that title called to me. Of course the main page is that Angelina Jolie has fertility fears and has a new baby diet so she can have a 7th child... ugh... don't get me started...

So I bought the mag since I had to see if there were any new secrets to fertility that I hadn't yet uncovered. So here it is:

1. Take prenatal vitamins, including folic acid. Check! Been doing this for the last three years (started them before I went off the pill since doc said its possible to get pregnant right away and you want to have folic acid in your system right away). Its not helping me get pregnant, but my nails and hair have been great!

2. Eat iron-rich food, like spinach. Well... I've been a little remiss in this category. Adding spinach to grocery list (and finding out what other iron-rich food is out there so I don't have to eat it).

3. Drink no more than one glass of alcohol per day. Say what??? I am a super overachiever here. I barely have two glasses of alcohol per month at this point. Maybe that's the problem, I'm not getting a daily buzz... this warrants looking into.

4. Limit your caffeine intake to one cup of coffee per day. Again, overachieving in this category too. I've switched to drinking Fresca and Sprite to cut down on my caffeine. I don't drink coffee at all, but do indulge in the occasionally Mountain Dew. I guess I don't have to feel guilty about that anymore.

5. Avoid refined carbs if you're at risk for getting diabetes in pregnancy. I have no idea if I'm at risk so I'm going to avoid even trying to figure out what refined carbs are.

6. Nosh on green, leafy vegetables, rich in folic acid and vitamins. So because I have been taking prenatals for forever - do I have to?

7. Consume full-fat dairy foods. No problem here - I love my milk, cheese and all other dairy products!

8. Don't eat too much seafood because of mercury concerns. Salmon, however, is rich in omega-3s and is known to have lower mercury levels than most fish. Being that the majority of my diet consists of yogurt in AM, frozen meal at lunch, and cereal at night (I'm home alone so I don't like to cook); I don't think I have to really worry about this.

9. Don't follow fad diets. No problemo!

10. Your partner should limit his alcohol intake, as it can lower a man's sperm count. Ahhh, thank you for that final word of wisdom. Unfortunately in my case the sperm count is not the issue - we have some morphology problems - any fixes for that??

So there you have it - OK Weekly's 10 fertility tips... I am a little underwhelmed. I guess it was a little too much to expect something earth shattering from a gossip mag.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

oh man!! Now I have to stop drinking my keg of beer every day! Wish I'd know all of these 18 months ago.

WhatAboutNovember said...

*sigh*

unfortunately, what the gossip mags haven't figured out yet, is that life isn't a fairy tale.