What can affect my ovulation?
Female Fertility Factors
There can be several health factors that affect your fertility and ovulation. Consult your healthcare provider if you believe you could be experiencing any of these conditions.
- PCOS – Polycystic Ovary Syndrome affects your hormones and the release of eggs. It can cause the body to make extra male hormones, have irregular periods, and have irregular or absent ovulation.
- Endometriosis – Endometriosis is caused by tissue similar to the lining of your uterus growing on other areas of your body. This can affect your fertility, because this tissue can block fallopian tubes or cover the ovaries. It can also interfere with the development of the uterine lining.
- POI – Primary Ovarian Insufficiency causes your ovaries stop working normally before age 40. The ovaries can have fewer eggs or not release the eggs correctly. Because the ovaries are not working correctly, they are also not sending enough hormone messages to the brain. These hormone messages are necessary for your body to correctly ovulate.
- Lifestyle Factors – When trying to conceive, keep in mind any health factors that affect your chances. Smoking, drinking a lot of alcohol, obesity, or extreme amounts of stress or exercise, can affect your cycle. And these factors may make it more difficult to get pregnant.
- Age – Over time, your body has fewer follicles and eggs. Your ovaries have more difficulty releasing eggs, and your eggs are more prone to genetic anomalies. To make this a little easier to understand, a healthy woman in her 20s or early 30s will have a 1 in 4 chance to get pregnant in any given month. But by her 40s, it becomes a 1 in 10 chance to get pregnant. Since more women are waiting longer to have children, age becomes a bigger concern for women trying to get conceive.
Male Fertility Factors
And don’t forget that there are several things that can affect your man’s fertility. It’s not all on you! Roughly one third of all infertility cases of infertility are linked to male health issues. The various factors that can affect male fertility can include:
- Varicoceles – This causes swelling in the veins in the scrotum. Because the veins are swollen, it blocks blood from draining correctly causing the temperature of the testicles to increase. The warmer temperature limits the making of sperm and can cause low sperm counts.
- Retrograde Ejaculation – This is caused when the muscles and nerves in the man’s bladder doesn’t close fully during orgasm. Semen then flows backwards into the bladder rather than out the penis and never makes it to the vagina.
- Obstructions – There are be many reasons why the reproductive tract is blocked. Recurring infections, surgeries, swelling or developmental issues can cause a blocked reproductive tract. A blocked reproductive tract will prevent sperm and semen from leaving the penis and reaching the vagina.
- Sperm Disorders – Sperm are necessary for fertility. Anything that affects the sperm’s growth, production, or mobility can cause infertility. Some factors are health related, such as long-term sickness or infections like mumps. Other factors are lifestyle related, like smoking or drinking alcohol.
- Hormone Imbalances – Testosterone is the hormone the brain uses to send messages to the testicles in men. It causes the testicles to create sperm. When testosterone is too low, it can cause low sperm counts as well as erection issues.
- Medications – Some medications can cause changes to sperm, including sperm count and mobility. More commonly, these medications are taken to treat arthritis, depression, infections, high blood pressure, cancer, or digestive issues.
- Autoimmune Disorder – Autoimmune disorders are caused when the immune system attacks its own body. In some cases, the immune system attacks the sperm specifically, which causes infertility.