Hi, I am Dr. Ankita Srivastava. I am a gynaecologist and obstetrician with over 10 years of experience. I currently practice at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi and at Zoe Nutrition For Life. I am the co-creator of the conceive effortlessly online program. It is a 3 month online program designed to provide personalised care and attention to you from leading experts in the country and help you get pregnant faster, naturally, easily & most definitely. 😊
I often interact with several patients who are a part of my online program to give them personalised consultations and guide them regarding the problems that they are facing in their pregnancy journey. This, along with my experience practicing at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi, have together helped me understand and know some of the most common and unaddressed queries, issues and concerns that modern couples face when they are trying to start their family and conceive a baby. I also believe that we can all learn from each other's journey as well as the experiences, hence, I document interactions with several of my patients so that others can learn from these documentations as well. One such case has been shared by me below.
Patient's query:
"A doctor that I was seeing earlier suggested that I have egg quality issues due to which I have irregular periods and hence I've not been able to conceive. What would you advise me to do about it?"
This is something that I get asked quite often. Several patients that I see everyday are facing issues with their irregular periods or egg quality. I've tried to address several common queries around these topics in the recommendation section below.
My recommendations:
"Okay, so before going into details of normalising irregular periods, let me first talk about what are regular periods and what are irregular periods in brief so that we can easily decipher when someone's periods are regular or not. So, What are regular periods? If they're happening every 28 days (plus and minus seven days) then they periods are considered to be regular. Meaning that if a girl is bleeding anytime between every 21 to every 35 days, that's normal. But, if she starts menstruating in less than 21 days, that means her periods are occurring every two weeks, then that is a problem. Or, if she bleeding more than every 31 days, then that means her periods occur every six weeks or more, that again, is a problem. So if I'm getting my period every 21 days or 35 days, that's fine, but beyond that is a problem. Now, moving on to why do irregular periods occur? Irregular periods could be physiological wherein supposing we are stressed, we have an exam, we are traveling, etc, sometimes the hormones can go up and down and we can have irregular periods. But, what are the organic causes of irregular periods? If there is a thyroid dysfunction, ie: if there is hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, then there can be a problem. Serum, prolactin, hormonal disturbances, PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids can cause irregular periods. So all these things will cause irregular periods.
Now the question comes, how do you manage this? If you have irregular periods, the most important thing is lifestyle management. You have to have a healthy diet, exercise, sleep good, plenty of fluids (at least three to four litres of water every day which will help you flush out the toxins and help in creating a balanced environment in the uterus as well). So, all these things are important. Plus you have to diagnose and treat the cause of the irregular periods. If supposing there is hypothyroidism, you have to treat that, if supposing there is PCOS we have to take treatment for that. So all these things we have to do in order to treat irregular periods.
Moving on to the next question which is understanding how to increase the egg quality? First of all, you have to cut out red meat and gluten. Plus you have to stop consuming alcohol as well as smoking as that also reduces egg quality. Caffeine intake needs to come down, tea, coffee, all these things need to come down. All these things also contribute in reduction in egg quality. Stress reduction needs to be there for increasing the egg quality. You must follow high protein diet: legumes, pulses, fish should be added and red meat should be reduced, take nuts, garlic, ginger, all these things are very helpful. Berries are very helpful. Citrus fruits are helpful. Green leafy vegetables are very good. So all these things will help increasing the egg quality and your chances of conception."
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I hope you found this article useful. If you want a detailed consultation with me, you can write to me or drop me a whatsapp. You can also read another article by Dr. Parul Chopra Buttan on understanding all about PCOS by clicking here.
You can go Zoe's 3 month fertility program- Conceive Effortlessly, to boost fertility and achieve pregnancy faster by clicking below. You can also check out some of our other programs that help you improve your overall lifestyle:
2. Deep Sleep Meditation for a healthy and fulfilling sleep, every night.
4. EASY30’ Workout Program: At-home workouts for weight loss & fitness.
Love and good health,
Dr. Ankita Srivastava
Gynaecologist & Obstetrician
MBBS, MS, DNB, MRCOGII (London)
Email: drankita@zoe.menu | Whatsapp: 8527198370
At Zoe we have created an online program to help you improve fertility and get pregnant faster by adapting small lifestyle changes that focus on weight, nutrition, sleep and mindset. This video series is your and your partner’s perfect pregnancy planner. Check it out here.
