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.

By all indicators, the reproductive health of Americans has been deteriorating since 1980. Our nation is troubled by rates of teen pregnancies and newborn deaths that are worse than almost all others in the Western world. Science and Babies is a straightforward presentation of the major reproductive issues we face that suggests answers for the public. The book discusses how the clash of opinions on sex and family planning prevents us from making a national commitment to reproductive health; why people in the United States have fewer contraceptive choices than those in many other countries; what we need to do to improve social and medical services for teens and people living in poverty; how couples should "shop" for a fertility service and make consumer-wise decisions; and what we can expect in the futureâ€"featuring interesting accounts of potential scientific advances.

Welcomed as liberation and dismissed as exploitation, egg freezing (oocyte cryopreservation) has rapidly become one of the most widely-discussed and influential new reproductive technologies of this century. In Freezing Fertility, Lucy van de Wiel takes us inside the world of fertility preservation—with its egg freezing parties, contested age limits, proactive anticipations and equity investments—and shows how the popularization of egg freezing has profound consequences for the way in which female fertility and reproductive aging are understood, commercialized and politicized. Beyond an individual reproductive choice for people who may want to have children later in life, Freezing Fertility explores how the rise of egg freezing also reveals broader cultural, political and economic negotiations about reproductive politics, gender inequities, age normativities and the financialization of healthcare. Van de Wiel investigates these issues by analyzing a wide range of sources—varying from sparkly online platforms to heart-breaking court cases and intimate autobiographical accounts—that are emblematic of each stage of the egg freezing procedure. By following the egg’s journey, Freezing Fertility examines how contemporary egg freezing practices both reflect broader social, regulatory and economic power asymmetries and repoliticize fertility and aging in ways that affect the public at large. In doing so, the book explores how the possibility of egg freezing shifts our relation to the beginning and end of life.

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.