5 Reasons that stop women from getting pregnant
- Soft drinks: This year, one U.S. research study reported that consuming soft drinks in a regular basis can reduce live birth rate. This study was conducted on over 300 IVF couples, the live birth rate is 28% if they did not consume soft drinks. However, if they consumed one can of soft drink everyday, the live birth rate dropped to 16% and 12% if they consumed more than one can of soft drinks everyday. The same study has shown that drinking diet soda (i.e. soft drinks with less sugar) has no impact on live birth rate, suggested that pregnancy rate may be affected by the high sugar content in soft drinks.
- Smoking: Smoking can damage the blood vessels in ovaries, causing the eggs to die earlier. This can cause infertility and early menopause.
- Prolonged use of birth control: Latest study has suggested that taking contraceptive pills for over 2 years can reduce the chance of natural conception by 50%.
- Induced abortion: The procedure of induced abortion can cause uterine scarring or blockage of Fallopian tube due to infections, reducing the chance of conceiving naturally.
- Overweight: Women that are overweight or obese have a higher chance of conceiving after losing weight. There are two ways of losing weight, by diet and exercise or having weight loss surgery. Women who lost weight through weight loss surgery have a better chance in achieving pregnancy than women who lost weight by diet and exercise. Research suggested that the risk of getting cancer reduces 30-40% after receiving weight loss surgery.
Ovarian cyst and fertility
Ovarian cyst can cause irregular ovulation and have an impact on fertility. If patient that suffered from ovarian cyst conceived successfully, there is a higher chance of miscarriage, premature birth and other complications. The surgery of removing ovarian cyst can easily damage the remaining ovarian tissue and the number of eggs will decrease dramatically. Studies have shown that patients’ AMH (which is a hormone indicating ovarian reserve) at least dropped by half after ovarian cyst removal surgery. Therefore, for patients that are suffering from ovarian cyst and would like to have children in the future, they should consider a special surgery to remove the cyst but at the same time minimize damage to the remaining ovary and preserve eggs.
Uterine fibroids and fertility
Uterine fibroids are very common benign leiomyomas. Whether uterine fibroids will reduce the chances of getting pregnant or increase the risks of miscarriage depends largely on their location. While many people think that the size of uterine fibroids will affect fertility, it is in fact only related to their location. If it is located outside the uterus and does not affect the smoothness of the uterine cavity, it will not affect pregnancy or cause miscarriage no matter what size it is. However, if it is located inside the uterine cavity which changes the shape of the cavity, it will affect pregnancy chances and increase the risks of miscarriage.
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