Trying to get pregnant? 3 fertility myths

Whether you’re trying to get pregnant now or you want to have kids in the far-off future, educating yourself about fertility can only help your case. “If you want a good outcome, you need to be thoughtful about what information out there can help you,” says Dr. Grifo, the director of the New York University Fertility Center and co-author of “The Whole Life Fertility Plan.” Here, he helps expose some myths surrounding fertility.

Myth #1: Being on the pill now will hurt your chances of getting pregnant later.

Dr. Grifo says this is a huge misconception people have for two reasons. The first is that it can take anywhere from three months to a year for a woman’s menstrual cycle to get back to normal. “It’s harder initially [to conceive], but there’s no measureable impact on fertility,” Dr. Grifo says.

“Another reason for this myth is that a lot of women are on the pill until their late 30s and then have trouble getting pregnant,” Dr. Grifo says. “But the pill has nothing to do with it. They’d have the same problem if they had never been on the pill. [It’s really because] it’s harder to get pregnant after a certain age.”

Myth #2: You shouldn’t think about fertility until you’re absolutely ready to have a baby.

If you are a woman over 30, Dr. Grifo says you need to start thinking about when and if you want to be a mom now, when there are more options available to you. “It breaks my heart when a 44-year-old woman sits down in my office completely dumbfounded that she’s having trouble getting pregnant,” Dr. Grifo says. Simply educating yourself about fertility is a good place to start. Then you can start weighing your options, such as if you want to freeze your eggs so you can be your own egg donor later, when you are ready to have a child, though there are several other options as well.

Myth #3: Drinking alcohol will hurt your chances of getting pregnant.
Good news — Dr. Grifo says having three or four glasses of wine a week isn’t going to hurt your eggs. Things that will negatively impact your fertility include smoking and too much junk food.

“It’s more about treating your body with respect and common sense,” Dr. Grifo says, stressing the importance of eating a balanced diet rich in protein and healthy fats as well as regularly exercising.

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