Introduction
You already know that living a healthy lifestyle is important to your overall health. What you may not know is that it is also very important to your fertility.
Factors
Several factors can affect the quality of sperm and have an impact on fertility. Poor lifestyle choices can lead to issues with fertility so it is important to take a good, hard look at your drinking, smoking, and other habits and make changes if these can potentially be a barrier to you and your partner conceiving a child.
If poor lifestyle choices are affecting your fertility, now is the time to change bad habits and start making healthy choices.
Below are some lifestyle factors that may be hampering your ability to conceive a child:
Smoke
Smoking can have a negative impact on fertility causing a decrease in the quality of your sperm. Smoking tobacco damages your sperm cells and decreases sperm size and movement. It may also negatively affect your semen. If you are trying to conceive, consider talking to your health care professional about ways to quit smoking.
Stress
Infertility can be discouraging as well as stressful and the amount of sperm you produce may decrease if you experience excessive or prolonged periods of emotional stress. Stress can also lower your sex drive and make you less inclined to have sex further making it difficult for couples to conceive.
Obesity
Being overweight or obese is associated with male infertility and can lead to the quality and quantity of your sperm being lowered. It is important to maintain a healthy weight, eat a balanced diet, and incorporate physical activity into your regular routine. By doing so, you can keep your sperm in good condition and increase your chances of conceiving with your partner.
Alcohol
Heavy drinking on a regular basis is harmful to sperm and can decrease sperm production. Studies have shown that men who drink heavily and regularly have lowered sperm counts and testosterone levels. Alcohol can also cause impotence by decreasing the blood flow to your penis and damaging the nervous system making it impossible to have an erection.
Drug Use
Cocaine has been known to have a significant impact on fertility. Regular use of cocaine can lower sperm counts, motility, and leads to a substantial increase in the amount of abnormal sperm. Anabolic Steroid use is pervasive in our culture and can have long lasting effects on male fertility. Steroids severely damage the sperm and the sperm that is produced is much less active than normal. Even more troubling is that sperm production is virtually stopped when using steroids, making it impossible for users to get their partners pregnant.