PREGNANCY FILES

Your month-by-month guide to pregnancy, from fertility, through the whole nine months, and up to “Ta-daa! Baby’s here!”

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If you are both still quite young (under 30), keep trying. “To maximise your natural fertility, switch from Y-fronts to boxers to let your testes hang as loose as possible – this will help them drop their temperature to slightly below body temperature, which is ideal for sperm production,” says urologist Dr Sean Doherty. Have sex every three days. “We think that the best quality of sperm is achieved by ejaculating every three days. This means your body should be full of sperm cells that are neither too mature nor immature.” So get busy, but after 12 months, you should start involving medical personnel in your fertility journey.

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One-third of fertility issues originate with the woman. If you know this, you can now concentrate your efforts on supporting your partner. There are many options on the road to parenthood. Off to the fertility clinic with you two.

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Consult your doctor – a GP or urologist to start – to determine if you are the source of the infertility. “A good history and thorough examination from your GP is always the best starting point,” says urologist Dr Doherty. A regular finding is a varicocele, which is “like having varicose veins on your testes; 98 percent of the time on the left testicle,” he says. A quick surgical procedure can sort that out and drastically increase your sperm count. Is this what’s going on?

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A further third of all fertility issues originate in the man, and the last third of all couples struggling to conceive have problems on both the man’s and the woman’s side. You will now face some interventions. “Men often don’t want to recognise that the fertility troubles could originate with them – it’s a pride issue,” Dr Doherty says. Hard as it may be to face, it really is better to know for sure. Once you have good knowledge, you can take action to sort the problem out, after all.