7 Facts You Didn’t Know About Female Infertility
Infertility is a sensitive issue that can leave many women feeling alone in their unfulfilled dreams of getting pregnant.
What they don’t know is that they are hardly alone. According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, infertility affects 7.3 million women and their partners in the U.S. — that’s 12 percent of the reproductive-age population. And as scientists are beginning to discover, even the most seemingly insignificant things can add up to sabotage your baby-making efforts.
In fact, a new study says stress can double a woman’s risk of infertility and something as simple as a 20-minute walk can help her chances. Getting pregnant is never easy (and not always sexy), so to dispel the stigma of infertility (and help you get lucky between the sheets this month), here are some other things you didn’t know.
1. Being Too Fit Can Hurt Fertility (Just Ask Norwegians).
In all medical matters, physical fitness is king. You can’t be too overweight to conceive and you can’t be too underweight to conceive. So the fitter the better, right? Well, not exactly. According to researchers at the Norwegian University Of Science And Technology, 7 percent of all Norwegian women have fertility issues. They conducted a study involving 3,000 women and found that having an exhaustive workout regimen was decreasing their fertility.
2. Women With Blood Type O Are At Double The Risk Of Diminished Infertility Than Any Other Blood Type
Scientists from Yale University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine discovered that among female fertility patients in their 30s, those with type O were twice as likely as other blood types to have a hormone profile that made their ovaries seem older than their age.