Manicures & Martinis. My Turn.

by Guy Ringler, M.D.

One of the primary goals of The American Fertility Association is to educate women and men about reproductive health – to prevent infertility and to preserve fertility.  This Tuesday in Beverly Hills I will be hosting “Manicures and Martinis” - an informal educational offering by the AFA. 

 

Can you prevent infertility?  How does one protect their reproductive health?  We go the gym to stay fit and preserve our overall health, but what do we do for our reproductive health?  Go to the gynecologist or urologist?

 

Everyday in my work as a reproductive endocrinologist/fertility specialist I see women and men who tell me they wish that someone had warned them about the complexities of reproduction and just how difficult it can be to conceive.  We all imagine the perfect scenario in which we meet mr or ms right, fall blissfully in love, and when our careers are at the optimal point for starting a family, we make passionate love and get pregnant the first month.   Wow….now that’s a storyline for Disney, and yet many of us hold on to it.  Real life is much more complicated and messy than that.

 

Protecting a woman’s reproductive health involves educating oneself about contraceptive options, avoiding sexually transmitted infections, maintaining a healthy lifestyle through diet and exercise, avoidance of tobacco and drugs, avoiding excess exposure to environmental toxins, and taking time to set a time-line for family building. 

 

There are many diverse options today for family building and some may be very different from the methods used in one’s family history.  The advances in reproductive medicine and the broadening diversity of societal acceptance has allowed for greater options than ever before. 

 

For men it is equally important to maintain reproductive health through avoidance of infections, excess exposure to alcohol, drugs, and tobacco, and environmental toxins.  Lifestyle is important.   We all go to the gym to stay fit and keep our bodies firm, but we must also protect our reproductive health by gaining an awareness of the elements that can diminish it. 

 

How do we prevent infertility?  By educating ourselves about those factors that break down our reproductive health.  Attend a lecture, a Manicures and Martini event, make an appointment with your internist, gynecologist, or a reproductive endocrinologist and ask what you can do to stay reproductively healthy.

 

Comments

[Corey Whelan]

I can't believe that this event begins in just one hour! I am gasping at the final registration number - 68 - but I know that you will do an amazing job. Kudos in advance!