An Unexpected Fertility Foe?
There are so many things that can interfere with fertility. If you’re like most women, you get overwhelmed going down the list. There’s smoking, caffeine, too much or too little exercise and even the type of underwear that your partner wears. It’s tough to identify and keep track of every little thing that might interfere.
Part of this is because we don’t always know what’s causing fertility problems. Sometimes, a man and woman who are otherwise healthy and seem to have all of the correctly working parts just can’t seem to conceive. So, we turn to a thousand little things to see if we can figure out which one is to blame.
One of those little things is medications. Sometimes certain antidepressants or painkillers, for example, can reduce your chances of getting pregnant. Some experts tell us that even simple medications like antibiotics may affect your ability to get pregnant one degree or another.
The good news, though, is that there’s little or no reliable clinical evidence to suggest that antibiotics can truly harm your fertility. They can affect your cycle, and your production of cervical mucus in particular. That said, the infection you’re trying to combat can also do those things, so not taking an antibiotic doesn’t really solve that problem.
Oh, and antibiotics shouldn’t affect your spouse’s fertility, either. There is one antibiotic – Sulphasalazine – which is used to treat inflammatory bowel disease, and it’s believed that one may affect sperm production.
Don’t just stop taking antibiotics without talking to your doctor just because you’re trying to conceive. In the long run, you’re probably causing yourself other problems by not taking them.
In general, antibiotics shouldn’t be too high on your list of possible fertility foes. Exhaust all of your other possibilities before you start blaming these.
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