What is the impact of Alcohol on your fertility

By Dr. Anubha Singh

All of us know that drinking alcohol is injurious to our health in many ways. As infertility rates in India are increasing at a rapid pace; sedentary lifestyle, age factor, hereditary diseases etc are the main causes behind it. We have to wonder if regular alcohol consumption may have a role in you being infertile. Alcoholic beverages contain a lot of sugar and excessive sugar consumption decreases fertility by contributing to hormonal imbalance, insulin resistance, yeast infection, vitamin and mineral deficiency and lowered immunity. All of which may impair fertility for both men and women.

Now let’s see how alcohol consumption affects the fertility in both sexes:

Female infertility & alcohol:

For women, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can have a negative impact on ovulation and menstrual cycles, which is essential for conception. Alcohol also depletes the body of vital vitamins and minerals and we know, we need good levels of nutrition to make a healthy embryo and baby.

You just cannot limit the consumption to 1 or 2 glasses, if you're planning to try for a baby, then I would rather suggest to quitting alcohol completely.

Male fertility & alcohol:

Studies have shown that consuming excessive amounts of alcohol lowers testosterone levels

How to prepare your body for IVF

By Dr. Anubha Singh  

IVF, a technique which has seen more than five million babies born worldwide since its

introduction. IVF is very common today and people are aware to the word itself. It is typically performed on women aged between 30-40, there are many myths surrounding various techniques that will help to aid your conception.

If you're trying to conceive through IVF, you'll most likely hear a range of facts and myths about what you can do to boost your chances. It's important that you know what will and won't help you so that you can increase your chances, as well as enjoy the time as much as possible.  

How to increase your chances of having successful IVF:  

• The most common question I get asked is about diet. Being both underweight and overweight can affect a woman's chance of conceiving and delivering a healthy, normal weight baby.  

• Also, exercise plays an important role in fertility, specifically, over-exercise and studies show that women who reported regular exercise had a similar live birth rate compared to women who did not exercise. However, women who exercised four or
  
  more hours per week for 1-9 years were 40% less likely to have a live birth, three times more likely to experience cycle cancellation, twice as likely to have an implantation failure or pregnancy loss compared to women who did not report exercise. However, compared to women who did not exercise, women who exercised regularly for 1-5 years were at greater risk for failure of cycle stimulation, implantation failure, and failure to develop a live birth after a chemical