Risks

What are the risks of you not getting pregnant when compared to the general population?  In some cases the answers may support long standing beliefs that have been passed down from previous generations.  But in many instances, the risks factors are changing for many age groups, not because they are different from other groups, but because the environment in which we live is changing faster than the biology that makes up our bodies.

In the past, many people believed that the older you get the less likely you will become pregnant.  A few hundred years ago, women who reached their twenties were considered far too old to nurture a child for a dozen years or so.  The population needed young people to work in support of the older generations.  If a women was going to be taking care of a child into their 30’s and 40’s then those prime work years would be wasted.  Of course, the lifespan was about 85% of what it is today – a man could expect to live into his sixties if he made it to 21 years of age.

Many young people died off from early childhood diseases.  So it was to society’s advantage to impregnate young girls since their life-expectancy was not that great.  With modern medicine and improvements in diagnostic and treatment methods, we worry much less about the children dying off at a young age due to childhood diseases.  With smallpox, rubella, polio, chicken pox and other disease under control, young girls no longer need to become pregnant.  In fact, the opposite is true.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, older women now have an advantage over previous generations when it comes to fertility treatments.  It has been documented that women in their sixties have become pregnant through artificial insemination.  Not necessarily the most desirable method, but quite effective for couples having problems with infertility.

The risks associated with infertility can be narrowed down to the following areas:

Age: the older a women is at the time of conception, the more difficult pregnancy becomes.  For men, the older a man is at the time of conception, the more difficult the fetus will survive and there is also the possibility of long-term problems for the child.

Weight: Too little or too much is not good.  Ideal weights for a women to become pregnant go hand-in-hand with the guidelines for good health in general.

SAD:  Smoking, Alcohol and Drugs are a very big risk factor for women who are trying to bring a fetus to full term.  Many miscarriages have been associated with smoking, while down syndrome has been associated with alcohol use during pregnancy.  Drug abuse, well, that’s obvious.  The last thing anyone wants is a crack baby.

Exercise: Too much exercise is a problem for some women when it comes to ovulation.  Athletes who train more than 7 hours a week have irregularities that make it difficult to become pregnant.

Caffeine: Although it has not been proven definitively, caffeine may be a fertility risk factor for women.  Too much caffeine may make it difficult to conceive.

All of these and many other risk factors related to infertility can be eliminated if couples wanted to conceive using time honored, proven natural methods of conception.