When to Start & Why (Trying for Baby)

As a teenager, you were probably led to believe that is you have unprotected sex, you WILL get pregnant. The fact is pregnancy can only occur 5, maybe 7 days total, the ENTIRE month. That’s it. And yet, when you’re actually TRYING to get pregnant, so many find themselves struggling month, after month, sometimes year after year. So, how do you prepare for pregnancy? What can you do to improve your chances of conceiving and having a healthy pregnancy and baby?

Regulated Cycle

As discussed in this post, before you begin trying to conceive getting your cycle regulated and normal is key. First, an imbalanced or irregular cycle, in other words, an abnormal cycle suggests hormones are out of balance. These same hormones that help you get pregnant are necessary to help you STAY pregnant (yes, in different proportions, but if your body is having trouble making them pre-conception, chances are good it will still have some trouble once you conceive). Beyond that, a regulated, healthy cycle will also increase your odds of conception. If you don’t ovulated regularly, your opportunities to get pregnant are already drastically reduced! And if your hormones are out of balance, you’re far more likely to be disappointed with a negative pregnancy test month after month. Those hormone imbalances hinted at by an abnormal cycle can also increase the risk of miscarriage, while a normal cycle may increase the likelihood of positive outcomes.

Birth Control Recovery

Remember, birth control depletes multiple vitamins and minerals, nutrients that are absolutely essential for conception and a healthy baby! Preparing for pregnancy with a post-pill reset is a great first step. Recall that birth control depletes B vitamins, especially folate. Folate is required to prevent neural tube defects in the growing embryo. Vitamin C & E and zinc are also lowered with birth control use. All three of these assist in preventing oxidative stress and damage, like the kind of inflammatory damage that can compromise egg (and sperm!) quality! Healthy egg and sperm = much better chance of a healthy baby! Magnesium is also depleted with birth control use. This micronutrient has been linked to increased pre-e risk, so ensuring you’ve got enough on board before trying to conceive is crucial. Finally, gut health is negatively impacted by birth control use. Microbiome health helps with hormone balance, as well as the vaginal microbiome health. And, baby’s microbiome and the placental microbiome (that’s right! The placenta has its own microbiome!!) are both affected negatively when mom’s microbiome is disrupted. Some research has also suggested a microbiome-related influence on pre-eclampsia. And here’s the thing, when you stop taking your birth control, your body doesn’t magically re-balance. In fact, the longer you’re on birth control, the longer it can take for your hormones rebalance, saying nothing about repleting your nutrient stores! In most cases, 6+ months between stopping birth control and trying to conceive is recommended from a recovery and replenishing standpoint.

Lifecycle of the Egg

Each egg you release during ovulation started its process of maturing about 90 days BEFORE it’s released from the follicle. That’s right, nearly THREE MONTHS prior to when it “shows up” for fertilization. This means that if you’re hoping to improve your egg health, you need to start at least 3 months prior to actually trying to conceive. And why would you want to try to improve your egg health? Well, the body is smart. In order to ensure a viable offspring, the body wants to produce a healthy baby. If the egg is damaged (genetically), not only is conception less likely, but miscarriage is MORE likely. In fact, early miscarriage (in the first trimester and chemical miscarriages) are most often related to genetic issues. While a healthy egg doesn’t guarantee a health baby, it certainly increases your chances.

Lifecycle of the Sperm

While we often think in terms of the woman in pregnancy and miscarriage, the truth is, there are two sets of genetic material required to make a baby! And just like the health of the egg can be affected, but takes time, the same applies for the sperm! While the egg takes about 90 days to mature (and therefore improve), sperm requires about 70 days. And sperm are super delicate little buggers! We’ll discuss more in the next post, but suffice to say sperm are an often overlooked piece of the healthy-baby/fertility puzzle, despite their essential nature. Good news? The same tips that apply to improve egg health typically apply to healthy sperm, as well!

So, from the beginning, even prior to conceiving, you can make the journey to a baby a team process, working to improve your health and your partner’s to ultimately increase the chances of a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy.