A helpful medical reference on conceiving and maintaining pregnancy from the Mayo Clinic, #1 on US News & World Report’s 2020-2021 Best Hospitals Honor Roll. Deciding to start or build a family is a life-changing decision. Once the decision is made, there’s a whole new set of unknowns—including whether the journey will be easy or difficult. How can you increase your chances of becoming pregnant? What health and lifestyle changes should you make to have a healthy pregnancy? And if you’re struggling to become pregnant, what medical treatments are available? Where can you get emotional support if you can’t get pregnant or if you’ve had a miscarriage? And when is enough? The fertility experts at Mayo Clinic offer answers to these questions and more. Through the pages of this book, they’ll guide you through the process of trying for—and achieving—a successful pregnancy. You’ll also hear throughout the book from couples and individuals who have struggled to have a family. For a variety of reasons—health conditions, unexplained infertility, or life circumstances—getting pregnant or deciding to have a family was difficult for them. These personal stories are to let you know that you’re not alone in your journey, and to give you hope that with time and patience, pregnancy is often possible. From lifestyle and dietary recommendations to understanding your ovulatory cycle to medications and procedures that can improve fertility, this book is a comprehensive source of answers from “one of the most reliable, respected health resources that Americans have” (Publishers Weekly).

The first fertility-boosting guide to feature the cutting-edge research results on fertility from the Nurses’ Health Study More than 6 million women in the United States alone experience infertility problems User-friendly, medically approved advice clearly explained in 10 nutritional guidelines from two of Harvard Medical School’s top voices in nutrition

Comforting and intimate, this “girlfriend” guide to getting pregnant gets to the heart of all the emotional issues around having children—biological pressure, in-law pressures, greater social pressures—to support women who are considering getting pregnant. Trying to get pregnant is enough to make any woman impatient. The Impatient Woman’s Guide to Getting Pregnant is a complete guide to the medical, psychological, social, and sexual aspects of getting pregnant, told in a funny, compassionate way, like talking to a good friend who’s been through it all. And in fact, Dr. Jean Twenge has been through it all—the mother of three young children, she started researching fertility when trying to conceive for the first time. A renowned sociologist and professor at San Diego State University, Dr. Twenge brought her research background to the huge amount of information—sometimes contradictory, frequently alarmist, and often discouraging— that she encountered online, from family and friends, and in books, and decided to go into the latest studies to find out the real story. The good news is: There is a lot less to worry about than you’ve been led to believe. Dr. Twenge gets to the heart of the emotional issues around getting pregnant, including how to prepare mentally and physically when thinking about conceiving; how to talk about it with family, friends, and your partner; and how to handle the great sadness of a miscarriage. Also covered is how to know when you’re ovulating, when to have sex, timing your pregnancy, maximizing your chances of getting pregnant, how to tilt the odds toward having a boy or a girl, and the best prenatal diet. Trying to conceive often involves an enormous amount of emotion, from anxiety and disappointment to hope and joy. With comfort, humor, and straightforward advice, The Impatient Woman’s Guide to Getting Pregnant is the bedside companion to help you through it.

Dr. Jeremy Groll is an expert in reproductive endocrinology and fertility treatment. Fertility Foods presents his groundbreaking, noninvasive, nutritionally based method, which increases ovulation, reduces miscarriage, and significantly improves your chances of successfully getting and staying pregnant. Dr. Groll's specialized research has proven that there is a powerful link between a body's insulin resistance and fertility problems. Resistance to insulin increases the body's insulin levels, hindering normal ovulation either by limiting the maturation process of the released egg or by preventing ovulation altogether. High insulin levels can also impede the fertilized egg's ability to attach to the uterus, leading to implantation failure and miscarriage. In fact, women with insulin resistance problems are four to five times as likely as other women to suffer miscarriages -- meaning they have as high as a 50 percent chance of miscarriage. Dr. Groll has developed an insulin-reducing diet based on balancing protein and complex carbohydrate intake to create insulin levels most conducive to ovulation. He combines his nutritional plan -- which includes nutritional charts, food suggestions, and recipes -- with a specific exercise program that enhances insulin metabolism and an emotional support system that you can draw on during your quest to become parents. This three-pronged approach increases the rates of spontaneous ovulation and significantly improves the uterine environment, decreasing the potential for miscarriage. One in every ten couples in America is affected by infertility. Yet, only 5 to 10 percent of patients actually need high-tech procedures such as in vitro fertilization. Whether you are taking your first steps in combating infertility or searching for effective methods to support more advanced fertility treatments, Fertility Foods is your helpful and rewarding guide.

Conception - A Fertility Doctor's Memoir will describe the history of IVF and the world it made from someone who has been practicing since its earliest days. It will describe how Dr. Merle Berger first got interested in becoming a doctor, then an obstetrician and gynecologist and finally a specialist in reproductive medicine and infertility as well as a fierce woman's health care advocate. The book will give readers necessary perspective on where this medical technology came from and how quickly it has advanced, and it will lay out many of the ethical conundrums we will face in the coming decades. It will appeal to anyone who has considered IVF in the past 40 years, and those who wonder if they will ever need it in the future. It will also likely appeal to those who have reservations about assisted reproduction and how it has so dramatically moved a fundamental human act out of the bedroom and into the lab, even as it has stoked our fears about designer babies. Conception will help people to understand the headlines we read every day about egg-freezing technology and the way in which celebrities over 45 get pregnant. (Hint: they use donor eggs.) It will make readers fluent in the technologies that will shape reproduction in the coming decades. It will more fully trace the way in which sex was decoupled from reproduction in the 20th century, and it will outline how reproduction might be separated from eggs and sperm in the near future. What lies ahead is thrilling to contemplate and even a little bit frightening. But when we have context for these discussions, readers will be able to make the choices that are best for them.

Practical advice covering contraception, nutrition, diet, and exercise to increase optimal fertility. Includes information for both males and females and ways for them to curtail environmental factors and stress -- Source other than Library of Congress.

A comprehensive handbook for couples looking to start a family, including those have experienced conception problems, draws on the latest medical and healthy research to provide practical advice and up-to-date information on how to maximize fertility and presents a number of conventional and complementary therapies, ranging from nutrition to IVF to assist.