Home remedies to boost the odds of becoming pregnant include thinking positive thoughts and placing a pink or blue ribbon under a bed pillow, depending on whether a mother-to-be is hoping for a girl or boy.
But women who want to try something with a bit more science behind it can start by changing their eating habits. So say Harvard doctors who recently completed a study on women's diets and fertility.
Their findings suggest that certain foods and lifestyle factors can significantly affect hormone levels and improve fertility in women with ovulation problems -- a common cause of infertility, says Dr. Jorge Chavarro, lead author of the study, which was published last month in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
What he and his colleagues found supports a growing body of evidence that diet can greatly affect hormone levels, particularly insulin, which then affects fertility. Although the research does not prove that certain foods have a direct effect, it does suggest that a woman can increase the odds of becoming pregnant without risky, costly or invasive treatments -- something many women, and their doctors, may overlook.
"Making changes to your lifestyle should be a first step when people are facing problems with fertility," says Chavarro, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health's department of nutrition.
In the study, women who followed five or more lifestyle or dietary recommendations reduced their risk of ovulatory infertility by as much as 80%, compared with women who engaged in none of the recommendations.
Ovulation problems -- in which women ovulate irregularly or not at all -- account for 18% to 30% of all infertility cases, Chavarro says. Doctors often prescribe fertility drugs as treatment, but the medication can raise the risk of conceiving twins or higher-order multiples.
The study should open some eyes in the field of reproductive medicine, says Dr. Fady Sharara, a Virginia fertility doctor who has studied fertility and body mass index and has long supported the value of a healthful diet for fertility.
"I'm so happy that this paper came out," says Sharara, medical director of the Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine. "I've been telling my patients for years that you have to change your diet. I personally believe that this is very important for many women, not just those who are overweight."
