Mobiles, tablets ... at a distance in the name of healthier sperm

Just had a chat to the Communications Manager of the Fertility Coalition, an initiative that hopefully will get the preconception message on more people’s radar. Just disappointing to see that their website misses mention of a vitally important issue in discussion of “other factors” affecting fertility and babies.

Electromagnetic radiation, unseen but insidious and now thanks to Wi-fi and mobile phones, all around us. Particularly at risk are the young men who carry mobile phones in pockets and work with laptops or tablets in laps. You need to put some distance between yourself fellas! 

Find somewhere else to stow that phone, put your laptop or tablet on a desk, especially in the 4 months before conception. Foresight UK Association for Promotion of Preconceptual Care says “Carrying a mobile phone in the trouser pocket has been linked to low sperm count/immotile sperm, so do not let your husband - do whatever it takes to stop him.”

And while I’m on the subject, young women of the world listen up. No phones tucked in bras and no phones close to your new baby’s still-developing brain (that's in utero and when nursing)! 

Fertility ... it's just the first step

Worthwhile fledgling initiative, courtesy of the Fertility Coalition, which includes Andrology Australia, Jean Hailes for Women’s Health and the Robinson Institute. Surprise, surprise, they’re promoting diet and lifestyle changes as a way of improving fertility. But why stop there? “Getting pregnant” is just the first tiny step in a long, rewarding, albeit sometimes challenging journey. Every stage of the journey can be improved if both partners are in great shape before they conceive, and if they’re aware of the best birthing, feeding and nurturing choices that build on that great foundation.

The Coalition contacted me, looking for case histories, I suggested my own story might be worth telling...

Thirty years ago, when I decided rather late in life that I would have a baby and that healthy preparation was the way to go, very few practitioners were familiar with the concept. So aware of Foresight UK’s work, in Sydney it was mostly a self-guided journey, which resulted in my becoming first time Mum at 38 (conceived in the first cycle of “trying”), 3 hour labour, long-term breastfeeding, but most important - exceptionally beautiful bright, happy healthy baby. Same story again when I was 42. My two sons are now young men (27 and 23), together they have seen a doctor only six times in their collective 50 years, which is to me the most important part of the preconception story. 

For over 30 years I’ve promoted the benefits of both partners cleaning up their diets and their lifestyles before conception. However I’m an educator, not in clinical practice and while tens of thousands of couples have read my books, my focus goes way beyond fertility. With good preconception healthcare for both partners the whole reproductive cycle unfolds to best advantage, which was how and why I was originally inspired. Prospective parents are certainly well served by recommendations to “clean up their preconception act” but also need to think about what lies beyond that positive pregnancy test.