Trying to conceive

Trying to conceive

Trying to conceive?  Before being pregnant, you can book an appointment with us for a preconception consult. 

A healthy lifestyle contributes to a healthy start for your baby. To increase the chance of conceiving a health lifestyle is recommended. Modern lifestyle choices such as alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine use, sugar, fruit, vegetable and water consumption, stress, and overall health and wellbeing can greatly influence the fertility potential of men and women.

Personalised consultation

 

At our practice we provide personalised consultations to talk about getting pregnant as healthy as possible. During this consultation we will discuss with you various aspects of your health and life-style so that we can offer you and your partner the best possible advice to help you to achieve optimum psychological and physical well-being in order to promote a healthy conception. Knowing how health conditions and risk factors could affect you or your unborn baby if you become pregnant are essential in this matter. For example, some foods, habits and medicines can harm your baby — even before he or she is conceived. After conception, embryonic growth is extremely rapid. Unless all building blocks are present and all toxins absent, vital stages of development can be compromised. If you have any specific questions, please let us know beforehand.

Stopping your birth control

 

Birth control pil and NuvaRing – You can continue with the pill or NuvaRing until you want to become pregnant. It is not harmful to the health of the future baby or yourself. But if you have the time, it’s wise to wait one or two menstruations first. Just because it’s easier to determine when your ovulation will be and if pregnant, how far along you are. Most women regain their natural cycle within six to ten weeks after stopping with the pill (or Nuvaring). For some it takes longer. If it takes longer than three months, we advise you to go do a pregnancy test, as it may be you became pregnant before you would have had your first period. And otherwise see your general practitioner for further research.

Implanon – After removal of the Implanon®, a contraceptive implant placed directly under the skin, it’s also advised to wait one or two natural menstruations before getting pregnant for the same reason as the birth control pill and Nuvaring.

Spiraaltje – After removal of the IUD or Mirena®, you don’t have to wait to start trying to conceive as an IUD does not influence your natural cycle

Don’t forget to start taking folic acid from of the moment you are trying to conceive.

Ovulating

 

When a mature egg is released from the ovary, pushed down the fallopian tube, and is made available to be fertilized it’s called ovulation. Approximately every month an egg will mature within one of your ovaries. As it reaches maturity, the egg is released by the ovary where it enters the fallopian tube to make its way towards waiting for sperm and the uterus. The lining of the uterus has thickened to prepare for the fertilized egg. If no conception occurs, the uterine lining, as well as blood, will be shed. The shedding of an unfertilized egg and the uterine wall is the time of menstruation.

Ovulation usually occurs halfway through your menstrual cycle, which lasts an average of 28 days counting from the first day of one period to the first day of the next. But as with everything pregnancy-related, there’s a wide range of normal here (cycles can last anywhere from 23 to 35 days), and even your own may vary slightly from month to month. Some women experience some discomfort in their lower abdomen which can be a sign of ovulating. Ovulation predictor kits are able to pinpoint your date of ovulation 12 to 24 hours in advance by looking at levels of luteinizing hormone, or LH, which is the last of the hormones to hit its peak before ovulation. Available at drugstores and pharmacies.

Difficulty getting pregnant

 

Some women, it seems, to get pregnant with another child as soon as they give birth. However, some women have to deal with the uncertainty of when they’re going to get pregnant. Difficulty getting pregnant can be a source of anxiety for healthy couples, and when the reason for the delay is unknown, such feelings of anxiety can become even more aggravated. When you haven’t fallen pregnant after a year of trying, it’s is possible to get a referral from us or your general practitioner to see a fertility doctor at the hospital of your choice.

 

Fertility treatments 

 

Some fertility problems are more easily treated than others. Which technique you may need will depend largely on the cause of your infertility. Your gynecologist will discuss with you (and your partner) which treatment will be most suitable in your situation.