Pregnancy

Could Allergy Medications Hinder Your Efforts to Conceive?

allergy season Spring is on it’s way, which means that those nasty allergies won’t be far behind! Be careful though, those common allergy treatments can drastically interfere with your efforts to conceive a baby.

Fertilityflower.com, a recently-launched website that helps women build their families or practice natural birth control using the sympto-thermal method, notes that while standard prescribed and over-the-counter (OTC) antihistamines bring some relief for your allergies, they can dry up cervical fluid which can drastically hinder your efforts to conceive.

Cervical fluid functions to:

  • nourish sperm for up to 5 days
  • filter out abnormal sperm
  • make the environment within the vagina less acidic
  • provide a means for the sperm to travel through the uterus and fallopian tubes

Without adequate quantities of fertile cervical fluid, the chances of sperm making their way towards the egg are massively reduced.

If you can avoid taking standard antihistamines, do so. Fortunately, there are some natural remedies for allergy season that won’t interfere with cervical fluid production.

  1. Avoid exposure to the allergen as much as is possible – Close windows (home and car) whenever possible until the majority of the plume has passed.
  2. Neti Pots – Yes, yes…we all hate them but they work at ridding your nasal passages of the tiny, prickly sea urchin-like pollen particles. Use your neti pot twice daily, flushing your nasal passages with salt water (especially after time spent in the outdoors)
  3. Stock your pantry with allergy-fighting foods rich in Omega-3s – Cold-water fish, flaxseed, walnuts are all good sources. You can also use Cod Liver Oil supplements (which have the added benefit of actually improving the quality of your cervical fluid). Stick to between 20,000 and 30,000 UI per day, particularly if you are trying to conceive.
  4. Stinging Nettles – Stinging nettles actually inhibit the production of histamine (which is causing your eyes, nose and every other orifice to leak right now). Nettles are nature’s antihistamine! They come in capsule form, 300mg, and will provide some relief (albeit temporary). You can consume nettles in a tea or a tincture for similar results.
  5. Raw Honey – Raw unprocessed honey contains 90% of the pollens, dusts and molds that are causing your allergies in the first place. A teaspoon of raw honey, daily, is equivalent to a natural allergy shot.

Kimberly Racic, Editor of Fertile Imagination and Founder of FertilityFlower.com, had this to say:

Cervical fluid is critically important in baby-making. So, doing whatever you can to preserve the quality and quantity of the cervical fluid is key. An even better scenario is to treat your seasonal allergies with things like Cod Liver Oil which has the added benefit of actually improving cervical fluid. It’s a win-win situation?

Related Articles:


About the author

Lisa Arneill

Founder of Growing Your Baby and World Traveled Family. Canadian mom of 2 boys, photo addict, lover of bulldogs, and museumgoer. Always looking for our next vacation spot!

1 Comment

  • I think cervical fluid is very often overlooked, especially with so many ‘lubricants’ on the market. Since it seems to easily fixed, no one takes a moment to figure out why she doesn’t have enough quality cervical fluid to begin with! And cod liver oil is fantastic for so many reasons and increasing the quality of the cervical fluid is a definitely big one.

Leave a Comment

Send this to a friend