Fertility is influenced by a combination of factors you can actively change: what you eat, how much you move, your body weight, your exposure to certain chemicals, and how well you time intercourse. Most of these adjustments are straightforward, and for many couples, they make a measurable difference in the chances of conceiving.
Eat a Mediterranean-Style Diet
The single dietary pattern with the strongest evidence behind it for fertility is the Mediterranean diet, built around vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, olive oil, and fish. Women undergoing fertility treatment who followed this pattern had a 34% higher rate of live births compared to those who didn’t. Implantation rates and clinical pregnancy rates also improved, though by smaller margins. The benefits likely come from the combination of antioxidants, healthy fats, and fiber working together to reduce inflammation and support hormone balance.
You don’t need to overhaul your kitchen overnight. The core idea is to replace processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and red meat with whole foods, plant-based fats, and lean protein sources like fish and legumes. Even partial shifts toward this pattern appear to help.
Get to a Healthy Weight
A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is the range most strongly associated with healthy ovulation and conception. Weight affects fertility on both sides of the spectrum, but the data on higher BMI is especially clear. Women with obesity (BMI over 30) have lower implantation rates, lower clinical pregnancy rates, and are 1.3 times more likely to miscarry. Men with obesity are 66% more likely to experience infertility and have a 10% higher absolute risk of pregnancy loss when their partner does conceive.
Being underweight also creates problems, though the mechanisms are different. Very low body fat disrupts the hormonal signals that trigger ovulation, which can cause periods to become irregular or stop altogether. If your cycles are irregular and your BMI is below 18.5, gaining even a small amount of weight can restore normal ovulation.
The important thing to understand is that weight loss or gain doesn’t need to be dramatic. Even a 5 to 10% change in body weight can shift hormone levels enough to improve ovulatory function.
Exercise in Moderation
Regular physical activity supports fertility by improving insulin sensitivity, reducing stress hormones, and helping maintain a healthy weight. But there’s a clear threshold where more is no longer better. One large study found that women who exercised four or more hours per week had reduced implantation rates, lower live birth rates, and a higher risk of pregnancy loss. Another found that 60 or more minutes of daily exercise in the year before trying to conceive was associated with increased infertility compared to not exercising at all.
Moderate activity, roughly 30 minutes most days, hits the sweet spot. Walking, swimming, cycling at a comfortable pace, and yoga all qualify. If you’re currently training at high intensity, consider dialing back to moderate levels while you’re trying to conceive. The goal is to keep your body active without pushing it into a stressed state that suppresses reproductive hormones.
Time Intercourse to Your Fertile Window
Your fertile window is six days long: the day you ovulate plus the five days before. But within that window, the odds aren’t evenly distributed. Having sex on the day of ovulation or the two days before gives you the highest chance of conceiving, around 30% per cycle. Five days before ovulation, the probability drops to about 10%. Six or more days before ovulation, conception is essentially impossible.
The practical takeaway is that you don’t need to pinpoint ovulation with perfect accuracy. Having sex every one to two days during the week leading up to expected ovulation covers the high-probability window. Ovulation predictor kits, which detect a hormone surge in your urine, can help you narrow the timing. Tracking basal body temperature works too, though it only confirms ovulation after the fact, so it’s most useful after a few months of data.
Reduce Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors
Certain synthetic chemicals mimic estrogen and other hormones in your body, interfering with the signals that control ovulation, egg quality, and embryo implantation. The most well-documented culprits are bisphenols (found in hard plastics, can linings, and thermal receipt paper), phthalates (found in plastic containers, personal care products, and vinyl flooring), and certain pesticides. These chemicals don’t just block hormones temporarily. They can cause lasting changes to how genes involved in reproduction are expressed, reducing egg quality and disrupting follicle development.
Practical steps to lower your exposure include switching to glass or stainless steel food containers, avoiding microwaving food in plastic, choosing fragrance-free personal care products (fragrance formulations often contain phthalates), eating organic produce when possible to reduce pesticide intake, and washing your hands after handling thermal paper receipts. None of these steps eliminate exposure entirely, since these chemicals are widespread, but reducing your daily load helps.
These precautions matter for men too. BPA exposure has been linked to altered DNA patterns in sperm, and the effects can differ between male and female offspring. Both partners benefit from reducing their chemical exposure during the months before conception.
Supplements That Support Male Fertility
For male partners, two minerals have solid evidence behind them. In a controlled trial, men with low sperm motility who took zinc twice daily for three months showed significant improvements in sperm quality, count, motility, and fertilizing capacity. Selenium, tested separately in a double-blind trial at 100 micrograms per day for three months, significantly increased sperm motility but didn’t change sperm count. These are inexpensive, widely available supplements, and three months is the typical timeframe needed to see results since sperm take about that long to fully develop.
For women, the most commonly recommended fertility supplement is folic acid, which supports early embryonic development and reduces the risk of neural tube defects. A general prenatal vitamin that includes folic acid, vitamin D, and iron is a reasonable starting point for anyone planning a pregnancy.
Other Lifestyle Factors That Matter
Alcohol and tobacco both impair fertility in dose-dependent ways. Smoking damages eggs and sperm directly, accelerates the loss of ovarian reserve, and is one of the few lifestyle factors with no safe threshold for reproductive health. Alcohol’s effects are less stark, but even moderate drinking (more than a few drinks per week) has been associated with longer time to conception and lower success rates with fertility treatment.
Sleep is underappreciated. The hormones that regulate your menstrual cycle, particularly the one that triggers ovulation, are released in patterns tied to your sleep-wake cycle. Consistently getting fewer than six hours or working rotating night shifts can disrupt these patterns enough to affect ovulation. Seven to eight hours on a regular schedule supports normal hormonal cycling.
Stress is harder to quantify, but chronic psychological stress raises cortisol levels, which can suppress the reproductive hormone cascade. You don’t need to achieve perfect calm, but if you’re dealing with sustained, high-level stress, finding ways to manage it (through exercise, therapy, mindfulness, or simply reducing obligations) can remove one more barrier.
When to Seek a Specialist
If you’re under 35 and have been having regular unprotected intercourse for 12 months without conceiving, it’s reasonable to get a fertility evaluation. If you’re 35 or older, that timeline shortens to 6 months. For women over 40, earlier evaluation is appropriate given the steeper decline in egg quality and quantity. These timelines assume no other red flags. If you have irregular periods, a history of pelvic infections, endometriosis, or known hormonal conditions, seeking evaluation sooner makes sense regardless of age.