Want a Baby Now? Advice for Getting Pregnant

Common questions answered on how to get pregnant faster

Lee Powers
Are there any symptoms that could indicate getting pregnant will be tough?
Unfortunately, no. "Most of the time, there are no symptoms, and fertility-sapping conditions like ovarian cysts, fibroids, chlamydia, and polycystic ovary syndrome often go undiagnosed until a woman tries to become pregnant," says Louis Weckstein, M.D., medical director of the Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area. "The exception is endometriosis, which can result in significant pain during intercourse or menstruation." If you haven't yet had a checkup with your general physician or ob-gyn to make sure you're healthy and free of STDs, do it now.

Why is a woman's age so freakin' important?
It's the number-one determining factor for fertility. Sure, we hear about 50-year-olds miraculously giving birth after having fertility treatments, but the truth is, even with in vitro fertilization (IVF), the chances of having a child at age 45 are a mere 1 to 2 percent. The reasons: As women get older, their number of healthy eggs dwindles. And around age 35, the system inside the body that causes eggs to be released starts to break down, making ovulation more difficult and less frequent. (Home ovulation tests can tell you if you're rolling out an egg every month.) So while you may have hundreds of thousands of eggs-in-waiting, only a select few will ever mature enough to be pushed out by your ovaries.

Still, today's baby-making technology means that significant numbers of women are conceiving well into their forties. (That 1 to 2 percent figure cited above translates into a decent number of rug rats.) According to the National Center for Health Statistics, between 1990 and 2005, the number of infants born to women ages 35 to 39 rose 52 percent, and the number born to women ages 40 to 44 has doubled since 1981.

Do guys have eternal fertility?
"Women's fertility starts to decline in their early thirties and then drops even faster in their late thirties and forties. Men's fertility does the same thing, but less rapidly," says Harry Fisch, M.D., director of the male reproductive center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Testosterone levels decline about 1 percent per year in men after age 30, and as a result of that, their sperm counts can start falling.

There are a few signs that a guy's sperm may need a tune-up, says Fisch. "Is he overweight? Testosterone is broken down in the fat cells, especially those in the belly, so the more fat the man has, the lower his testosterone levels tend to be. Does he have small (less than one and a half inches in diameter) or low-hanging testicles? That can be a sign of varicose veins in the area, which can cause low sperm counts and low testosterone." Early interventions can treat these problems, and fertility treatments can boost your partner's chances as well as your own. For men who have defective sperm or a low sperm count, "we have basically solved male infertility in 99 percent of cases, thanks to procedures that can isolate the best sperm from the rest," says John Jain, M.D., a reproductive endocrinologist in Santa Monica, California.

Could taking antidepressants (or any other meds) get in the way of making a baby?
Antidepressants are one of the most common drugs American women take long-term, and in general, these meds don't affect the menstrual cycle or fertility (unlike certain drugs for bipolar disorder, which can have an impact on fertility). Doctors discourage patients from quitting cold turkey because the risk of relapse of depression would be very high, and the idea is that a happy, healthy woman is more likely to have a healthy pregnancy. No antidepressants are "approved" for use in pregnancy or breast-feeding, but they may still be taken if the benefits outweigh the possible risks. While there have been concerns that drugs such as Prozac (fluoxetine), Celexa (citalopram), and Zoloft (sertraline) might increase the risk of birth defects, the majority of studies have not found this to be the case.

But other drugs can interfere with your fertility. For instance, some (not all) experts say that antibiotics can change your cervical mucus patterns, making it difficult to tell when you're ovulating, and cold medicine with antihistamines can thicken or dry up cervical mucus, so it's harder for his sperm to connect with your egg. If you're taking any medication regularly—including herbal ones—run your pregnancy plans by your pharmacist or prescribing doctor to discuss whether the risks of quitting outweigh the benefits. Same goes for your partner.

Can fretting about getting pregnant prevent it from happening?
Try to chill, but mainly for your peace of mind. According to a survey for Resolve, the National Infertility Association, 64 percent of women mistakenly think stress, which isn't a medical condition, is what makes conception difficult. In fact, many doctors also believe there's a link between stress and fertility, but no scientific study proves that being frazzled hurts your chances of getting pregnant. "Clearly, women all over the world are under severe life-threatening stress and they still get pregnant," says Shari Lusskin, M.D., director of reproductive psychiatry at New York University Langone Medical Center. "So why can't some highly stressed career women? We really don't know if stress is a cause." One theory: "Too much emotional or physical stress—think constant worrying or training for a marathon—can lower your progesterone levels, which could interfere with ovulation," says Sami David, M.D., assistant clinical professor of ob-gyn at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and coauthor of Making Babies: A Proven 3-Month Program for Maximum Fertility. "But we don't know enough to draw easy conclusions about a link."

So for now, the best advice is to relax and try not to let the ticking of your biological clock drown out everything else in your life. And remember: The odds of getting pregnant are in your favor.


Issue date: December 2009

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