Why are we less fertile?

Fertility disorders affect approximately 15% of couples. The classic causes are physical problems, but currently we add 5% more causes that encompass the current pace of life, delayed motherhood, environmental factors and stress.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Lifestyle determines a couple's fertility. An increase or decrease in weight, smoking, consuming alcohol or suffering stress, are factors that negatively affect fertility.
• Age also influences, from the age of 20, as younger, greater fertility.
• External aspects can also be affected: pollution or toxic substances have detrimental effects.

The influence of lifestyle

Certainly fertility is linked to lifestyle.

1. Weight changes Being overweight and influencing endocrinological factors that regulate the. They can cause a decrease in ovulation and, therefore, a decrease in your chances of getting pregnant. In addition, obese women have a higher rate of pregnancy complications (hypertension, ...) making it difficult to carry a healthy fetus to term.

Likewise, an excessively low weight also produces endocrinological alterations that can reduce or eliminate normal ovulation, or not adequately prepare the womb to receive an embryo already formed.

2. smoking smoking reduces fertility, both female and male. They have a lower oxygen content in their blood and therefore all the organs of the body are affected, including the uterus and ovaries, as well as the testicles in men. In the ovaries of smokers, a greater number of defective eggs are produced and the fallopian tubes have a poorer function, so smoking increases the risk of. In addition, smokers have a higher abortion rate.

smoking influences semen quality, causing damage to sperm DNA.

3. Alcohol Alcohol adversely affects conception in both women and men. It affects the regulation of several hormones, including those that control the reproductive system, which can alter ovulation and sperm production.

4. Stress Some couples who try to conceive and fail may have a considerably high stress level. In addition, feeling the weight of the responsibility of a child, or the fear of the influence of a brother in a first child can alter the emotional state of the woman and cause stress. This state can increase certain hormones that alter ovulation and, therefore, make conception difficult.

Age is also important

The relationship between a woman's age and fertility is more than proven.

• Between the ages of 20 and 30: a woman has the best chance of becoming pregnant, not having a miscarriage and that the fetus has the least risk of Down syndrome.
• Between 30 and 35 years: fertility decreases slightly, slightly increasing the risk of miscarriage and Down syndrome.
• From the age of 38: fertility decreases more rapidly and the risk of miscarriage, which until then was approximately 15%, increases to 30% at age 40. The risk that the fetus is affected by Down syndrome also increases, rising from a possibility in 1000 at age 30, to a possibility in 300 at 35 and one in 100 at 40 years.

As age increases, more non-ovulatory cycles occur. In addition, the ovules deteriorate their quality so it is more difficult for them to be fertilized by sperm. On the other hand, there is an increase in undetected abortions, that is, fertilized eggs that fail to nest in the uterus and, therefore, do not even produce a delay in menstruation. These ovulatory alterations can be by default and also by excess, so there is a greater risk of twin pregnancies in women between 35 and 39 years old.

Also, pregnancies in older women are at higher risk. To begin with, they have a higher risk of chromosomal alteration, the most common being Down syndrome. But in addition to chromosomal problems, these pregnant women have a greater risk of increased blood pressure and, consequently, of suffering one, or eclampsia. The onset of gestational diabetes is also influenced by maternal age.

Environmental toxic substances ...

There are approximately 300 toxic substances that accumulate in the blood. There are many that we live with on a daily basis and that can cause endocrinological and fertility problems. Among them, we highlight Bisphenol-A, which is used to make baby bottles, food plastics, cans ... and acrylamide, which is found in cigarettes, is used to make paper, treat drinking water ... These two toxins reduce the amount of sperm present in semen as well as their mobility. Insecticides used in agriculture also contain substances that alter sperm production.

For their part, dioxins and furans used to make pesticides and some preservatives have been linked to the appearance of endometriosis, a gynecological pathology that is associated with a high percentage of sterility in addition to other problems such as significant pain with menstruation.

The case of lead ...

Lead was present in the blood of 88% of American children in 1976 and is currently only found in 1.4%. Pipes no longer use lead, and lead has been removed from gasoline and some cookware. High levels of lead in the blood produce an alteration in the formation of sperm in men, and in women they cause changes in the menstrual cycle, as well as an increase in the rate of abortions.

RISK PROFESSIONS

Men who work exposed to high temperatures such as foundries, furnaces ... have an increase in temperature in the testicles that produces an alteration in the formation of sperm, so the quality of their semen is reduced.

The same occurs with drivers who spend many hours behind the wheel.

How does pollution affect?

Air pollution has very detrimental effects on various health aspects, mainly respiratory, but it also increases oncological and heart diseases. In the reproductive area, contamination decreases the quality of semen, increasing mutations, and in women it increases the abortion rate. There are studies that show that in the Spanish autonomous communities with greater industrial development, the quality of sperm is lower and that it presents a decrease in the number of sperm.

Remember that…

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