Lunar Fertility

Lunar Fertility

Author: Sheryl Lyon

Everyone is aware of cycles of the sun and moon. They give structure to our days, months, and seasons. But did you know that the sun and moon can influence your fertility?

When you are in sync with the earth's natural rhythms and cycles you can boost your fertility. If you work against nature's rhythms as many of us do, then you may be harming your delicate fertility balance.

Your biological clock is intimately linked to your reproductive system by utilizing the same hormones that trigger ovulation and sperm maturation. Therefore both women and men are affected by respecting or ignoring their natural rhythms.

Importance of Bright Light

Getting adequate sunlight or other full spectrum light during the day is key to optimum fertility for many reasons. Vitamin D is created in our bodies when we are exposed to sunlight and Vitamin D deficiencies have been linked to infertility.

Adequate sunlight also helps regulate circadian rhythms which allow you to sleep better at night. Regular exposure to the sun also helps you maintain a strong immune system which is necessary to maintain a healthy pregnancy. Women who get more sunlight also have consistent and stronger menstrual cycles.

Finally, bright light prevents your body from overproducing melatonin which suppresses fertility. This might explain why it is easier for women to conceive in southern regions and during the summer months.

Importance of Darkness and Full-moon Light

Many researchers believe that prior to the introduction of electricity into our homes, all women menstruated during the new moon and ovulated during the full moon. This has been proven by studying cultures today that do not use electricity. Women in these cultures sleep in close to total darkness except for the days surrounding the full moon.

The small amount of light from the full moon is enough to halt melatonin production long enough for ovulation to occur. Most women can synchronize with the cycles of the moon in about three to four months by altering the light level while they sleep. Coordinating menstruation not only strengthens your cycle in many ways but it also makes it much easier to pinpoint the optimal timing for intercourse.

Darkness also plays an important role in optimal fertility by triggering melatonin, on most dark nights, which leads to a good nights sleep. Just make sure to prevent overproduction with bright light in the morning.

Deep sleep helps restore and rejuvenate the reproductive system. Lack of sleep can increase cortisol levels, lead to an increased use of caffeine and other fertility reducing substances, disrupt your hormone balance, cause depression which in itself can affect fertility, or it can lead to relationship problems with your partner. In extreme cases sleep deprivation can stop ovulation altogether.


How to synchronize with nature

• Get at least one hour of bright sunlight a day
• Try to get bright light soon after waking
• Use full spectrum indoor bulbs during the winter months
• Use a light simulation device 15-30 min morning and night(particularly in winter)
• Aim for total darkness at night. Use room darkening shades. Avoid the use of any lights whatsoever.
• On the three days of the full moon, try to bathe yourself in soft light while you sleep. A light from a closet, a 75-100 watt nightlight or even opening your blinds to the street light should do the trick.
• Try to go to sleep with sun and get up with the sun. You might be surprised if you do not use lights or TV, how sleepy you get.
• Make love during the full moon
• Keep sleep and wake times consistent and avoid shift work. If you are tracking ovulation signs, then you should taking your basal body temperature at the same time every morning anyway.

Efforts to conceive can be challenging and heartbreaking. The fertility enhancing methods mentioned here are easy, free, and painless. They will boost your overall health as well as your fertility so if you are trying to conceive it can only help and not hurt to synchronize your cycles with the earth.

Variations in Sperm Counts

Variations in Sperm Counts

Author: Marc Deschamps

Article: Copyright 2006 Marc Deschamps

The main factors that affect the normal sperm count and quality can be summarized in six main points:

• sperm mobility
• concentration
• morphology
• speed
• count
• sub-fertility.

Drawbacks in any of these areas can greatly affect the chances of conception.

Sperm mobility refers to the sperm's ability to move in a rather dynamic and active fashion. When it comes to healthy sperm, more than 50% of them may be considered active if more than 25% of them are moving vehemently in one direction. It is this movement that enables the sperm to travel through the cervical canal, into the uterus and the fallopian tubes and finally, to break through the egg.

Normal sperm count is a function of concentration that refers to the number of sperm cells in a milliliter of semen. The average or normal concentration measures around 22 million sperm cells per milliliter of semen.

The third point is morphology. A healthy sperm cell bears a resemblance to a tadpole in shape. The oval head of the sperm holds the genetic material, while the center provides energy and the tail thrusts the sperm forward. Experts believe that oddly shaped sperm are not capable of fertilizing an egg.

Speed is another factor that affects sperm quality. Based on a study made by the World Health Organization, in a healthy male only 25% of sperm will exhibit progressive mobility. These are the sperm with the best chance of successfully infiltrating and fertilizing an egg.

Normal sperm count is also a vital factor in sperm production. Count refers to the number of sperm in the fluid that is ejaculated. There are over 50 million sperm in a normal ejaculate, and a total count below 40 million may indicate decreased fertility.

The sixth and last factor is sub-fertility. This term refers to couples that are unable to achieve conception after a year's period of unprotected intercourse. This is, however, different from infertility. The typical causes of male sub-fertility include sperm production problems, blockage in the sperm's delivery system, injuries to the testicles, low or high hormone production, anatomical problems, varicocele, past illnesses, side effects of medications, and sperm quality.

Increasing the volume of ejaculation and the normal sperm count has become a common obsession among men. During the past few years, the medical community had been committed to developing a safe and effective alternative treatment to the run of the mill advice that has been handed down from one generation to the next. Recent studies show that increasing sperm volume could actually be accomplished in two ways.

The first way to increase sperm county is by taking herbal supplements that contain amino acids and zinc. Amino acids, if taken regularly, are generally believed to increase ejaculate
fluid. Zinc seems to improve both the amount of sperm produced as well as the sperm's ability to move spontaneously and independently. Together with amino acids, this will increase normal sperm count and volume significantly.

The second way to increase sperm count is by doing PC exercises. Kegel exercises
can not only help you last longer, they can also aid in increasing sperm volume. Several exercises can help to keep your penis in great shape and shoot like a champion.

About the author:
Marc Deschamps is the editor of For-Men-Only-Magazine.com, a free online publication dedicated to the sexual health of the modern man. Other articles on male semen can be found at
http://www.for-men-only-magazine.com/contents-of-semen.html


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Fertility Focused Intercourse: Mission Impossible?

Author: David Picella

When it comes to a discussion of human fertility, the saying
"life is not fair" seems to have extraordinary significance.
Couples who don't want to get pregnant seem to be the ones that
do and the ones that do--don't. Nobody knows this better than
the couples that desperately want children but fail to conceive,
month-after-month. As the biological clock keeps on ticking, is
there anything more that these couples can do? Absolutely!

Having interviewed hundreds of couples who have meticulously
documented the woman's fertile days and the days on which
intercourse occurred, it has become crystal clear that: (a) most
couples think that they are doing a good job of having
intercourse on all the right days, while (b) the vast majority
are completely missing the boat!

What is so difficult about Fertility Focused Intercourse?

Let's start with the basics of female fertility cycles. First,
Women of normal fertility are not fertile very often. From a
biologic perspective, the most fertile woman on the planet can
only conceive between 5 and 6 days per menstrual cycle. A woman
with reduced fertility might have significantly fewer days that
are truly fertile, perhaps 2 or 3. According to simple
mathematics, if there are only 3 days per month to conceive,
that is only 36 days at the end of the year. Second, not all
fertile days are created equal. Intercourse that occurs on "the
day" of ovulation can be assumed to be the most fertile day of
the menstrual cycle, but even then the probability of achieving
a pregnancy is never 100%!

When does ovulation occur?

Frequently, ovulation occurs approximately 14 after the first
day of the menstrual period. In a classic study by Vollman[1] of
14,848 menstrual cycles, ovulation as detected by a shift in
basal body temperature occurred on exactly day 14 in only 1,591
cycles (10.7%). Thus the exception here is far more common then
the rule. The 28-day normal menstrual cycle is simply a myth.
The first step in fertility focused intercourse, therefore, is
to do away with any notion of a calendar and to adopt a method
of detecting when ovulation actually occurs.

There are many ways to "detect" the day of ovulation such as
monitoring LH and estrogen in the urine or checking for cervical
mucus and changes in the basal body temperature (just to name a
few). Unfortunately, however, there is no way to "observe" when
ovulation actually occurs. No matter what method you are using,
the margin of error is at least plus or minus 2 to 3 days
(sometimes more). This means that if you rely on your favorite
indicator of the day of ovulation to tell you when to have
intercourse you may be missing the most important day to
conceive on a regular basis.

What is the best way to time intercourse?

So what is the best advice? Unfortunately, healthcare providers
frequently offer some of the worst information. For example, "we
were told to have intercourse 'every other day' in order to
'save sperm.'" "Have intercourse every month starting on day 6
for 12 consecutive days." Or even worse, "because you do not
know when the most fertile day is you would have to have
intercourse every day to maximize your chances." - nonsense!

From this brief discussion, the best advice is: (a) choose a
method of fertility monitoring that will give you a few days
notice that ovulation is going to occur. This means monitoring
estrogen levels directly or the effect of estrogen on saliva or
cervical mucus. (b) When fertility begins, intercourse should
occur daily until at least 2 days after ovulation is detected.
Once released, the egg can only be fertilized during a narrow
window of approximately 24-hours. You want to make sure that
intercourse occurs on "the day" of ovulation in order to
maximize your chances.

Intercourse Patterns

By now you have figured correctly that fertility focused
intercourse is truly a "labor of love." It is not easy! It might
mean having intercourse as many as nine days in a row. Even
among couples with the strongest convictions for attempting to
achieve pregnancy a few fertile days always seem to be missed.
Here are some helpful suggestions:

1. Plan in advance. If you were going to go on a fancy date with
your spouse you would give a few days notice. If you know the
fertile days are coming, then you likewise will have time to
prepare for them.

2. Get your priorities straight. If the doctor scheduled a
procedure to test some aspect of your fertility you might take a
day off work. Furthermore, you would probably follow through
even if you had a headache! Should you not subject yourself to
similar inconveniences when your most fertile days arrive!?

3. Get professional help. Believe it or not, there are
professionals who can help you make sense of all this and give
you real good advice. The American Academy of Fertility Care
Professionals is an excellent place to start.

If you and your spouse have been having difficulty achieving a
pregnancy, then just remember--knowledge is power. In this case,
the right knowledge may even give you the power to procreate!
You may as well consider the question of when to have sex to be
the single most important issue. Why? Because there is no
diagnostic medical procedure, test, or surgery that is going to
make you pregnant. If you just had surgery to correct a
fertility problem, for example, and you are not following these
instructions you could very well be making out badly on your
investment. Fertility focused intercourse may not be easy, but
it is not mission impossible--it is mission responsible--and the
responsibility falls upon both you and your spouse.

Have fun!

1. Vollman, R.F., The Menstrual Cycle. 1977, Philadelphia: W. B.
Saunders.


Article:
Copyright 2006 Majella.us

About the author:
David Picella helps couples who are trying to conceive naturally
without the use of expensive artificial reproductive techniques.
You can read more articles by him and by other experts in
Natural Procreative Techniques (NPT) and NaProTechnology or
NaProSurgery at: http://www.majella.us