Ro Huntriss - Deliciously Healthy Fertility: Nutrition and Recipes to Help You Conceive

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The importance of a mom-to-bes diet in pregnancy is well understooda baby needs nutrients to grow and develop and it obtains these from its mothers diet. However, the importance of a preconception dietfor women and menis often overlooked, yet it can not only influence your babys health but also play a significant role in optimizing fertility.

Diet and lifestyle cant solve every fertility issue, but they can help regulate menstrual cycles, improve egg and sperm quality, influence implantation, and reduce the risk of miscarriage. As awareness of how diet impacts fertility remains low, I am so glad to be sharing this science with you and explaining how to apply it practically to your own life.

I began to explore the field of fertility nutrition when I became acutely aware of the lack of support and trustworthy dietary advice available to women and men trying to conceive, or planning to conceive in the future. I realized that many people were eager to make changes to their diet and lifestyle to support their fertility but didnt know what changes to make and whether they would make a difference. They were looking for guidance and support. I wanted to help, and with my background as a dietitian with masters degrees in both Advanced Nutrition and Clinical Research and a huge passion for this area, I was confident I could.

Being 35 myself at the time of writing this book, Im also aware of the number of women who are having children later in life for a variety of different reasons. We know that as we age, biology isnt on our side, but nutrition and lifestyle can be. Being equipped with knowledge of how fertility can be optimized through diet and how we live can help many couples who are trying to conceive later in life.

I dedicated years to reviewing hundreds, if not thousands, of research papers related to nutrition, lifestyle, and fertility and saw that there really were significant associations between what women and men ate, the supplements they took, their lifestyles, and their fertility outcomes. I started sharing this evidence-based information on my Instagram page and began to support couples through their journeys to conception and beyond. I really began to see the power of this science in actionhow it has changed and created lives.

This book aims to make trustworthy nutritional advice accessible to all the couples who need it. It discusses the basics of human reproduction, examines the issues that couples may face, and looks at how the nutrients in their diets, coupled with their lifestyles, can help solve different pieces of the fertility puzzle for women and men. The second half of the book sees the science of fertility nutrition translated into more than 60 recipes so you can be confident that what youre eating supports your journey and goals, while understanding why these recipes can help.

Thank you for choosing this bookI truly hope that it supports and inspires you on your own unique journey.

Ro Huntriss

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A guide

to fertility

Understanding the fundamentals of the reproductive processes, as well as the factors both within and beyond your control that can affect your chances of conceiving, can help you take steps where possible to enhance your own fertility. The following section explains what helps and hinders fertility and explores how your diet and lifestyle can have a significant impact on your chances of conception and a successful pregnancy.

A guide to fertility | Contents

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Understanding womens reproductive cycles

Women are born with all their eggs, in the form of immature oocytes (see ), which stay dormant in the ovaries until puberty, at around the age of 12. Each month, one dominant follicle (sometimes more) releases a mature egg during ovulation, ready for fertilization. The process by which an egg matures is closely controlled by your hormones during the menstrual cycle.

How your hormones govern the menstrual cycle

Every month, the cascade of hormonal changes, illustrated opposite, occurs in your body to prepare you for a possible pregnancy. This monthly cycle begins on the first day of your period and lasts until the day before your next period. During each cycle, an egg released from one of your ovaries couldif all the conditions are rightbe fertilized by a sperm, form an embryo, and develop into a pregnancy. In some cases, more than one follicle may release an egg, increasing the chance of having twins, or more.

If an egg is fertilized, it divides rapidly to form an embryo. This travels down the Fallopian tube to your uterus, where its ready to implant in the uterine lining. If the embryo implants successfully, your body releases a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). This hormone is detected in pregnancy tests to signal that your pregnancy has begun. The interplay between reproductive hormonesprogesterone, estrogen, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH)is crucial for a healthy, functioning menstrual cycle and conception. If your hormones become unbalanced, this can affect their control of the menstrual cycle and your ability to conceive successfully (see ).

It takes around three months for an immature oocyte to mature into an egg that is ready to be released at ovulation. This makes the three months before conception a valuable opportunity to influence the quality of your eggs through your diet and lifestyle (see ).

Your menstrual cycle hormones and fertile window

Your cycle comprises two phases: the follicular phase starts on the first day of your period and lasts until ovulation. The luteal phase begins once an egg is released and ends either with your next period or a fertilized egg, ready for implantation. As sperm can live for up to five days, your most fertile window is the five days before ovulation and up to 24 hours after an egg is released (see ).