Last month I attended a fertility conference to stay abreast of clinical updates and best practices. I would like to share one of the key concepts that I feel patients fail to realize when they are thinking about planning their families.
The most important takeaway is that for both men and women, lifestyle factors affect both egg and sperm development up to 6 months in advance of conception. For women, six months, for men, 3 months. This is a critical piece of information for patients trying to conceive in a narrow window of time. Factors such as smoking, alcohol intake, and a healthy diet should optimally be modified as soon as you think you would like to start trying to conceive. This does include both men and women as sperm production can be equally affected, and is unfortunately not discussed enough.
If you are thinking about trying to conceive and would like some guidance please come in (with your partner) and I can get you started on those critical lifestyle and dietary changes.