Low-fat Milk Makes Women Less Fertile

This was on the BBC Breakfast new on Wednesday morning:-

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10426238

For a woman trying to conceive, the best prescription could be eating ice cream every day.
It might play havoc with her diet but it could help her get pregnant, according to a study.
Researchers have found that women who drink whole milk and eat full fat dairy products such as ice cream are more fertile than those who stick to low fat products.

My first thought was, “so where does this leave me?? I don’t even like full-cream milk!”

For those readers who don’t know, I have primary infertility. DH (“dear husband”) and I’ve been trying to conceive for over 4 years; we’ve been through the full barrage of tests, tried several courses of Clomid and the only option left to us is to pay for IVF. I’m 41, so that means we aren’t eligible to even one course of IVF on the NHS. (Of course, developing hypothyroidism in the middle of it all didn’t help.)

BEFORE anyone starts: DH has had the all clear. The problem is with me and it’s probably inherited. My mum tried for 6 heart breaking years to get pregnant before she conceived my eldest sister when she was 43. She thought she was going through the menopause when she discovered she was pregnant with me, 4.5 years later. Instead, she was 4 months pregnant. I was born a couple of months shy of her 48th birthday.

Until a year ago, it never occurred to me that mum had had a problem conceiving – I’d always assumed that, because I knew she’d had a couple of miscarriages between me and Eldest, the problem was maintaining a pregnancy. It wasn’t until I hit my lowest point on the Clomid merry-go-round and cried on the phone to BigSis that I learned otherwise. (NB: BigSis is my foster sister. I’ve known her almost my entire life and claim her as my own. Eldest is actually 6 weeks younger than BigSis.)

So where does this leave me? As I said, I don’t like full-cream milk. And I’m on Weight Watchers and would rather spend the points somewhere-else (on chocolate for example). We use skimmed milk – always have. Also, for part of each month we rely on UHT skimmed milk instead of popping out for a few pints of the fresh stuff; it tastes almost the same. But, I’m not willing to turn my back that might help me conceive.

My solution? Full-fat yoghurt. At 3 points a portion, this is double the “cost” of my usual fat-free variety. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find something nice that isn’t packed full of sugar. Wish me luck!

- Pam