Getting to Know your Women Fertile Period – Avoid Unplanned Pregnancy

“But we were being careful!” “I was on the pill.” “How could this happen?”
If you find yourself or girlfriend pregnant unexpectedly, you’re likely anxious about the future. Couples who use birth control and still conceive face a situation that calls for thoughtful consideration. Perhaps you’re secretly thrilled about the pregnancy but your spouse hates the idea; maybe you’re alone and not ready to be a single mom; maybe you didn’t want any more kids — whatever the scenario, this new life is depending on you to make wise decisions. The next few months can be full of regret and remorse or they can be full of excitement and anticipation. Which will you choose?

Ovulation means the release of the egg from the woman’s ovary. This keeps good for 12 hours, after which it degenerates. The sperm on the other hand stays good and can survive in the woman’s reproductive tract for 72 hours. So, if the sperm of a healthy bodied male is present in the ova when a healthy bodied woman ovulates, then fertilization occurs and she will become pregnant. This means that, the ideal time to make love is a few days before ovulation or during ovulation. Remember that, since the egg does not survive beyond 12 hours, timing yourselves can be quite challenging and so is to calculate fertile period.

A woman should keep a track of her most fertile period to increase her chances of becoming pregnant. The fertility cycle differs in every woman and even in one woman from cycle to cycle. Therefore, this can be difficult. However, there are ways to determine the fertile time periods in women. Some of these are:

Basal Body Temperature (BBT)

During the ovulation period, a woman’s body temperature increases up to 1.6 degrees. This minute difference can only be measured with a special thermometer, the Basal Body Thermometer. The temperature is taken first thing in the morning when a woman awakes, before she starts any activity.

Calendar

A woman can chart her menstrual cycle on a calendar to know the mostly likely time she will ovulate.

Cervical Mucus

The job of the cervical mucus is to protect the vagina from sperm, bacteria and other organisms. However, during the most fertile period or for some days each month, the texture of the mucus changes to allow the sperm to enter into the fallopian tubes. This can be tracked every month during pregnancy period planning, to indicate your most fertile period.

The above methods only record secondary signs of fertility and are not completely error free, because of infections that you may have, or medication that you may be taking.

Ovulation Predictor Kit And The Fertility Monitor

The fertility monitor records daily fertility levels, based on outcome from urine tests that detect increases in levels of the hormone estrogen and Lutenizing Hormone (LH). These products measure to tell when it may be the best time to conceive.

It is best that if you are planning a pregnancy, you start using one of the above methods to help you calculate your most fertile period. Pregnancy planning can be crucial in bringing a new life into this world.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio, Omega-3s, and ADD

The University of Pittsburgh and University of California @ Santa Barbara published a study suggesting that fat stored in the hips and butt are a privileged source of nuerodevelopmental resources. The study asserts that upper body fat particularly abdominal fat has negative effects and lower body fat (hips, butt) have positive effects on long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) that are essential for brain development. They used waist to hip ratio(WHR) as a marker for how much fat is located around a woman’s waist compared to how much is around a her hips, thighs and butt. They used the WHR to predict cognitive ability in women and their children. They used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey which included data on body fat, body mass index (BMI), waist & hip circumference, results of cognitive tests of adults & children, demographics such as education levels, income, age, race and etc.
They analyzed the data controlling for factors that correlate with higher intelligence and found that women with lower WHR and their kids have significantly higher cognitive test scores and teenage mothers with lower WHR and their kids are protected from cognitive decrements associated with teen births.
mega-3 fatty acids are the main LCPUSFA involved in brain development. Omega-3’s contain DHA and ALA and are essential fatty acids because they can not be made from the body. They have to come from food or supplements. ALA can be converted to DHA by the body. ALA mainly comes from flax seed, walnuts, olive oils etc, while DHA is primarily found in fatty fish. LCPUSFA’s make up 20% of the dry weight of the human brain. DHA is critical for fetal and infant brain development which is one of the reasons they add it to infant formula while it is found naturally in breast milk. A recent meta-analysis report estimates that a child’s IQ increases by 0.13 point for every 100mg increase in daily maternal prenatal intake of DHA. A study in England showed a positive relationship between a mother’s prenatal consumption of seafood (high in DHA) and her child’s verbal IQ.

Gluteofemoral(hips/butt) fat has higher amounts of LCPUFA’s than abdominal and visceral fat. In comparison, abdominal fat decreases the amount of a desaturase enzyme that is involved in the synthesis of important LCPUFA’s from dietary precursers. Other studies showed that 60-80% of LCPUFA’s in human breast milk come from maternal fat stores, rather than from the mother’s current dietary intake, presumably because of the rapid rate of infant brain development relative to limited dietary supplies of LCPUFA’s.
The most important points of this study is that Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial for the brain development of fetuses, infants and in adults as well and also that having excessive abdominal fat reduces the availability of those fatty acids and raise health risks in general. Low levels of Omega-3 fatty acids have been implicated in contributing to ADD, depression, anxiety disorders, aggression, hypertension and etc. So make sure that you are taking in enough omega-3’s especially if you are pregnant. Mommies, some children’s vitamins now contain DHA.