Are You Using Fertility-Friendly Lubricant?
Fertility-Friendly Lubricants - What to Know When Trying to Conceive
Are you using lube and trying to get pregnant?
Not all lubricants are created equal when it comes to trying to conceive (TTC). It might be surprising to learn that some can do more harm than good. Some of the most common lubricants you get at the drugstore, like KY, and Astroglide, just to name two, were found to slow down sperm motility and, in some cases, even cause DNA damage to the sperm.
The use of lubrication while trying to get pregnant is helpful if you are experiencing vaginal dryness or discomfort during penetration. If discomfort is getting in the way of your ability to try to conceive and/or enjoy intimacy, lubricants can bring much relief. While some fertility medications can cause dryness, even the stress and pressure of trying in your fertile window can get in the way of your body’s ability to relax and get aroused.
This helpful information is here to guide you in optimizing your TTC experience because you have enough to think about without worrying about your lube. Lubricants are not scientifically proven to improve your chances of conception per se, but if they help your body to relax and both of you to enjoy the experience, that is a huge win in my book. Fertility-friendly lubricants are said to mimic fertile cervical mucus, and if there is more of that, you can definitely benefit from it.
Here are a few things to watch out for when considering personal lubricants for fertility:
Sneaky Ingredients
Many lubes contain parabens, glycerin, or silicone which are toxic to sperm and your conception. Two brands marketed as fertility-enhancing lubricants, Preseed and Conceive Plus, seem to work well but include endocrine-disrupting parabens. Steer clear of ingredients like these.
Household oils
Household oils like sesame, coconut, canola, and olive oil are not recommended as lubricants when trying to get pregnant, as they also decrease sperm motility and transportation. These thick substances do not mimic cervical fluid and are too thick for sperm to get through.
Saliva
Using saliva as lubrication can also, surprisingly, interrupt the motility of sperm and should be avoided.
Luckily, some fertility-friendly and even fertility-enhancing lubricants are on the market these days that you can use while trying to get pregnant. Check out our favorite fertility-friendly lubricants:
Good Clean Love Biogenesis Fertility Lube - you can purchase this at a discount at our Fullscript store.
Baby Dance by Fairhaven Health - you can purchase Baby Dance at a discount at our store here.
Why do these work better than the others? Easy peasy. They don’t have any red flags for harmful chemicals or ingredients, they don’t have oils that slow down sperm, and they often match the ideal pH of your cervical mucus. It’s a no-brainer once you have the facts.
If you have been diagnosed with unexplained infertility, male-factor infertility, or abnormal semen analysis, you are going to want to give yourself the best chance of conceiving at home. If your cervical fluid is not plentiful or is hard to identify, you might be a good candidate for including a lubricant during intercourse in your fertile window. What do you have to lose? You might even have more fun while doing it. No pun intended.
If you want to know more ways to optimize your fertility, we would love to support you. Click here to book a free 15-minute discovery call.
PMID: 9886513 DOI: 10.1093/humrep/13.12.3351
PMID: 24390681 PMCID: PMC3947082 DOI: 10.1007/s10815-013-0168-x