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RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND a definitive link between fertility problems and high cholesterol.
According to a new study, couples with high levels of the waxy, fat-like substance took “considerably longer” to conceive.
And it is not just connected to the woman trying to get pregnant.
“Couples in which both the prospective mother and father had high cholesterol levels took the longest time to conceive a child,” said lead author Enrique Schisterman.
“Our study also found couples in which the woman had high cholesterol and the man did not took longer to become pregnant than couples where both partners had cholesterol levels in the normal range.”
He urged couples trying to achieve pregnancy to improve their chance by getting their cholesterol checked – and brought down to acceptable levels, if required.
As part of their study, the teams from University at Buffalo (New York), and Emory University in Atlanta, followed 501 couples between 2005 and 2009.
They were studied until pregnancy or for up to one year of trying. They provided blood samples which were tested for cholesterol.
According to a fertility clinic in Ireland, cholesterol helps to produce hormones, such as oestrogen and testosterone, which are essential to conception.
“But too much or two little can hinder the process,” ReproMed Ireland notes.
Senior Clinical Embryologist at the clinic Declan Keane said the findings “reinforce the need for individuals and couples who are struggling to conceive to seek advice on altering their lifestyles to give their bodies the best chance at not only a healthy future, but one with a child”.
Keane also said that other health issues such as weight, diet and lifestyle can seriously harm fertility health.
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The results reported in the article are in no way surprising, as there has long been an understood link between fertility and general health. The real question is one of causation. Is cholesterol an Independent risk factor for infertility, or is this merely a co-incidence? Granted Cholesterol is a precursor for steroid hormone synthesis, but does too much Cholesterol really interfere with the process? Or is it just the case that people with high Cholesterol levels are more likely to have difficulty due to lifestyle and dietary factors through other mechanisms? The danger is that people may think that simply taking a statin drug to lower cholesterol may improve their chances of conceiving when really they need to more holistically address their state of wellbeing through lifestyle changes. I think the article hints at this towards the end, but it needs to be clearer.
Best advice I could give to anyone having problems is to go to a Napro clinic. The old ways are sometimes the best rather than relying on monitors. We have a great little one year old from going there!
And here’s me spending €500 getting my tubes tied, and all I needed was to keep eating fry ups.
The “new study” link isn’t bringing me to the study. Where is the actual original study?
Totally agree. It’s like that study saying that people who skip breakfast have a higher chance of having a heart attack. It didn’t take anything else into consideration (actual diet, exercise levels, physical activity) and was tracked in 40-60 year old american males only. The actual difference between those that had a breaky having a heart attack and those that didn’t was 6% versus 7%. So negligible but used in sales pitches by cereal companies everywhere as definative “proof”.
Total BS if your ask me and totally useless in any real investigation into the cause of heart attacks or the effects of having a breakfast 40-60 mins after your wake.
You can’t expect to take magic pills and be healthy. It requires awareness and personal responsibility. Something a lot of people are lacking in.
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