Study Shows How Eating Breakfast Can Improve Your Fertility

While I was going through years of infertility, I made certain to read everything I possibly could on the topic. Let's just say that there are some interesting approaches to fertility out there, from eating pineapple to drinking milkshakes.

According to the CDC, there are 6.7 million women of childbearing age who are coping with infertility in terms of getting pregnant or carrying a baby to term.

Infertility is an awfully difficult process to go through. It can be painful, depressing and demoralizing. I've been there. Actually, I was there twice. Multiple miscarriages, countless procedures and hundreds of appointments later, I became one of the lucky ones.

The biggest obstacle for me was polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Affecting up to one in ten woman of reproductive age, PCOS can disrupt a woman's menstrual cycle and reproductive abilities. In women with PCOS, the ovary doesn't make the hormones it needs for an egg to mature. Without progesterone, a woman's menstrual cycle is irregular or absent. Though follicles may start to grow and build up fluid, ovulation does not actually occur. However, a in a recent study, researchers found that there may be a simple solution that could help women with PCOS improve menstrual regularity and therefore increase their chances of fertility.

Related: 10 "unsafe" things I did while pregnant ... and still had a healthy baby

That simple solution is eating a good breakfast.

Now, the study did look at just 60 women, so more research may be needed, but in the meantime it probably could not hurt to keep an eye on your morning meal. The women in the study were all of childbearing age, all had PCOS and all had a low Body Mass Index (BMI). One group consumed their heartiest meal at breakfast, and the other group consumed theirs at dinner. The group that consumed a big breakfast had lower glucose levels, better insulin resistance, and lower testosterone levels, while the other group saw no changes. Though the study was just done over a three month period, the results also show a higher rate of ovulation among woman within the breakfast group.

Now that is some helpful information.

Eating a hearty, healthy breakfast leads to an increase in the level of fertility among woman with menstrual irregularities due to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. As much as I wish I had known this years ago when I was battling infertility, I sure hope that this information will help women who are coping with it now.

So, who's hungry?

-By Jessica Cohen

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