Infertility has been on the increase in the last 20 years and although infertility can be caused by many things, including a poor diet, environmental toxins, stress, nutritional deficiencies, hormone imbalances and general poor health, a growing number of experts, myself included, are beginning to suspect that everyday bodycare products may also play a role.

Many of us are unaware that the products we use everyday on our bodies or in our homes could be adversely affecting our fertility. This is because many of the toiletries we use on our bodies are made from the same chemicals used in industrial processes and many of those have been shown to be hormone disruptors in both men and women. Take propylene glycol, for example, a solvent used in hair care products, deodorant and make up. Did you know that it is also the main ingredient in antifreeze?

 

Studies show that many of the chemicals found in beauty products may be linked to health problems, including hormone disruption and even birth defects and what makes these even more alarming is that your exposure to these everyday products can build up unnoticed over the years because it is only when these synthetic substances are used frequently that they start to accumulate in the body.

 

The main culprits include parabens, phthalates, talc, triclosan and surfactants. Parabens are found in most body care products and have been shown to affect natural levels of oestrogen, making them a hormone disrupting chemical. Phthalates are one of many ingredients found in fragrances, hair spray, make up nail polish and shampoo and they have also been shown to be hormone disruptors in both men and women. Talc is found in body and face powders and is a known carcinogen. Triclosan is found in toothpaste, soap and body wash and is another hormone disruptor and surfactants, which are found in personal care products that foam can pose serious health risks including adversely affecting reproductive health.

 

To reduce the toxic load on your body I suggest that you and your partner look at the products you normally use on your body every day and check the labels to see how many synthetic ingredients they contain. Throw out products that you are suspicious of and look for healthy alternatives.  Also have a look through other household products, such as air fresheners, bathroom cleaners and bleach etc. Think about how toxic they are and look for natural alternatives in health shops and supermarkets. Finally, you may also want to consider a gentle detox programme to rid yourself and your partner of any accumulated toxic load. This is especially important when you are planning for pregnancy and in my latest book Getting Pregnant Faster you’ll find plenty of advice on how to detox your diet and lifestyle in the preconception period.

Q: I’m planning to get pregnant in the next year and want to do all I can to boost my fertility. I’m a coffee lover and drink endless cups of coffee a day. I know that I need to cut down on the amount of coffee I drink but is it still okay to drink one or two cups?

A: Researchers have found that caffeine can have a negative affect on female fertility. Some studies have shown that women who drink coffee find it three times as difficult to conceive as those who don’t. Others found that more than 300 mg a day (2 to 3 cups) may be associated with miscarriage and increase the risk of stillbirth around 80%.  Even drinking as little as one cup of coffee a day can also decrease your fertility and halve your chances of conceiving according to another study. In another, drinking three cups of decaffeinated coffee per day was associated with an increased risk of miscarriage and additional research suggests that caffeine consumption compounded the negative affects of alcohol consumption on female fertility.  Men aren’t immune to the effects of caffeine on fertility either and studies indicate that problems with sperm health seem to increase the more cups of coffee men drink a day. This may be because caffeine has a diuretic effect (makes you want to go the toilet more) and this can deplete the body of vital fertility boosting nutrients such as zinc and calcium.

 

Caffeine is found in regular coffee, black tea, green tea, some soft drinks, chocolate and many over-the-counter drugs e.g. those for headaches. Tea contains tannin as well as caffeine and tannin limits the absorption of important minerals so if you drink tea with your meals you are preventing vital nutrients from being absorbed in your digestive tract. I would suggest that a couple avoids caffeine completely if they are struggling to get pregnant.

 

Caffeine is a stimulant and it is also quite addictive so if you start to cut back from four or five cups a day to one or even none you may find that you experience withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, nausea, muscle cramps and tiredness. That’s why I suggest that you cut back slowly over a few weeks by doing the following:

 

• Make one cup at a time instead of a whole pot.
• Buy a dainty cup and get rid of your jumbo size mug
• If you’re at a coffee shop order a small one.
• To ease withdrawal symptoms cup back gradually over a two to three week period. Lower your intake by drinking grain coffee or diluted or week period with smaller amounts of regular coffee.
• Consider trying grain coffee available at health food stores or the health food section at your supermarket.
• Start cutting back during the weekend or on holiday when it is less busy and you are less stressed.
• Brew some chamomile tea – often used to ease stress – and take lots of warm baths, walks and naps to get you through the withdrawal symptoms if you are cutting back
• Drink good-for-you beverages such as water, fruit juice, vegetables juices and herbal teas.
• Decaffeinated options for tea and coffee aren’t really a good choice as we have no idea how many chemicals are involved in the decaffeination process but you can use them just in the weaning process to get you off the caffeinated drinks.  Begin by substituting decaffeinated coffee for half of your total intake per day and then gradually change over to all decaffeinated.  Then, slowly substitute other drinks, such as herbal teas and grain coffees.  You should, ideally, eventually eliminate decaffeinated coffee as well because coffee contains other stimulants (theobromine and theophylline) which are not removed when the coffee is decaffeinated.
• And finally, experiment with herbal teas. I recommend roasted herbal roots such as barley, chicory and dandelion and lemon grass, peppermint, ginger root, rosehip, apple, hibiscus, clover flower, nettles and chamomile can be nourishing and satisfying without the depleting effects of caffeine.

We hear so much these days about the increased risk of miscarriage in older women but now it seems that men who leave it until their mid 30s to start a family are also more likely to lose their unborn child to miscarriage. With statistics showing that more men are leaving it later and later to have children this new research is a stark warning that some of them may be leaving it too late.

A French study of thousands of couples has shown that miscarriage rates increase once a man hits 35 and by the age of 45 this risk has doubled with one in three pregnancies ending in miscarriage regardless of the age of the woman. The large scale study is the first to reveal the true impact of a man’s age on his chances of fatherhood and warns that it is not just women who need to keep an eye on their biological clocks if they want to start a family.

 

Although it is possible for a man to father a child at the age of 90, the truth is that the older a man is the more semen abnormalities there are and to give himself the best possible chance of becoming a father a man should try to have children before the age of 40 to 45. Others studies have shown a father’s age can have a lasting consequence on his child’s health. Older fathers are, for example, five times more likely to have children with Down’s syndrome and up to twice as likely to have a child with a cleft lip. Children with older dads also have an increased risk of heart defects, autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy.