Raspberry leaf tea, also known as red raspberry tea, is an herbal tea commonly recommended by midwives to help strengthen the uterus. Women often drink it during pregnancy to prepare the uterus for delivery, and also during the postpartum period...
Starting a family is one of the joys in life that many couples look forward to. Making it happen isn't always easy. Both men and women struggle with infertility issues. As a result, about 10 percent of women in the U.S. have trouble getting or...
FSH, or follicle stimulating hormone, governs the growth of ovarian follicles. FSH levels on day two or three of the menstrual cycle reflect "ovarian reserve," the number of good eggs still left in the ovary, according to David Bruce Sable, M.D....
One of the easiest ways to gauge a woman's fertility is to test the amount of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) she has in her bloodstream. FSH is a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that predicts a woman's fertility by testing the reserve...
An ovulation test kit will let you know when you are at your most fertile period during the month, in order to increase your chances of conceiving. Ovulation test kits do not simply confirm that ovulation has taken place; they accurately predict...
Estrogen, the dominant female hormone, fluctuates at different times during your life and at different times during the menstrual cycle. Men produce estrogen, too, although not in the same amounts that women do. If estrogen levels vary from the...
High follicle=-stimulating hormone levels, known as FSH, can indicate decreased ovarian reserve, which means you have fewer viable eggs left in your ovaries. Your FSH may rise as you age, making pregnancy less likely. An FSH of more than 11...
Couples can face many obstacles to starting their families, and infertility is one of them. Thousands of dollars are spent every year on fertility treatments and medications. Once all other options have been exhausted with no luck, some couples...
Getting pregnant after age 40 is possible, but some women may face more challenges in conceiving than they would at an earlier age. Fertility declines significantly for several years before menopause. The She Knows website classifies ages 38 to 42...
Polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS, is a disease that affects many women of menstruating age. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, PCOS not only affects the ovaries but the adrenal glands as well. PCOS can...
FSH, shorthand for follicle-stimulating hormone, is a substance that is released by the pituitary gland. FSH is required for normal fertility; the hormone stimulates a man's sperm production and the release of eggs in a woman. According to the...
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, most fertilizers contain about the same basic materials: nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and sometimes other nutrients, like zinc, needed for healthy plant growth. Many people use fertilizers to...
Male fertility depends on producing sufficient number of sperm which must be healthy and mobile enough to travel to the woman's egg and penetrate it. This doesn't mean that if a man is fertile his partner will immediately become pregnant;...
False positive results are uncommon on pregnancy tests; false negatives are much more common. Certain medications can cause a false positive result on blood test or home pregnancy tests. Pregnancy tests measure levels of human chorionic...
You can't tell if a man's infertile just by looking at him, but it happens more frequently than you might think. Male infertility accounts for about half of the total infertility cases, reports the American Pregnancy Association, and yet people...
Parenthood is a lifelong dream for many couples, which can easily be prevented by the constant stress, anxiety and pressure brought on when trying to conceive. If conventional methods have yet to aid in conception, a holistic approach may be your...
Salmon, shrimp and flamingos are pink because they eat a diet rich in a substance known as astaxanthin. This carotenoid is an antioxidant with a slew of possible health benefits. It can be incorporated into the diet by eating foods rich in...
Surrogacy exists to support infertile couples, who in 2002 made up as much as two percent of the population, according to Surrogacy Solutions, LLC. Surrogate mothers also help gay and lesbian families who face additional barriers to completing...
The menstrual cycle is orchestrated by precise hormone levels, and any abnormality in these levels can decrease the chance of getting pregnant in any given month. Women with abnormal hormone levels may have no symptoms and may be unaware of...
Prostatitis is a general term for conditions caused by an inflammation of the prostate gland. There are four types of prostatitis--acute bacterial prostatitis, chronic bacterial prostatitis, chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and...
Artificial insemination is a type of fertility procedure that can help a couple conceive a child. It is often used when a partner has a low sperm count or poor sperm motility. Women without male partners or a woman with unexplained infertility can...
During pregnancy your placenta produces the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG. The placenta begins producing this hormone immediately after fertilization and it can be detected by a urine test approximately 12 to 14 days after...
Imagine a time when the health of your child was a complete mystery until the day of delivery. Amniocentesis was first developed in the late 1950s as a way of determining the sex of a child but was not used until the 1970s for the diagnosis of...
A surrogate mother is a woman who carries a child to term for a couple that cannot have a child on their own. Surrogacy is an option for women who cannot bear children due to infertility or other health issues and may otherwise remain childless....
It's quite possible to get pregnant without a man, but it's not possible to get pregnant without sperm. If you can find a source of sperm, you don't need the man who produced it in order to get pregnant. It's actually fairly easy to find sperm;...
The term "surrogate mother" describes several different legal arrangements. Based on 2006 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, 1 percent of all in vitro fertilization...
Pregnancy tests look for a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which the female body releases shortly after the fertilized egg is implanted into the uterine wall. The Mayo Clinic recommends waiting one week after a missed period to...
Getting pregnant is not always as easy as they make it sound in health class. In fact, many couples find it difficult to conceive a baby because they never learned how to determine the days when a woman is the most fertile. Fortunately, the...
Soon after conception, a woman's body begins to produce the hormone HCG or human chorionic gonadotropin. A positive pregnancy test indicates that this hormone has been detected. While urine pregnancy tests look only for the presence or absence of...
