Full Fat Dairy Foods Help Anovulatory Infertility

Anovulatory infertility is a common problem especially among young women. A Harvard study has shown that simply increasing the amount of full-fat dairy foods in your diet can have a positive effect upon the disorder and may be key to improving fertility naturally for such women.

This positive effect of dairy foods on fertility has only been proven to help annovulation which is not connected to PCOS. It is important to recognize that not all kinds of infertility benefit from full-fat dairy foods and for some high-dairy diets could have a deleterious effect especially when endometriosis is present.

This study was based upon data from 18,555 married women who tried to conceive during an 8 year period. Of these women 438 had anovulatory infertility and it was discovered that they were much more likely to have a lower intake of full-fat dairy foods. Women who ate full-fat dairy food were much less likely to have annovulatory cycles leading the researchers to conclude that:

"High intake of low-fat dairy foods may increase the risk of anovulatory infertility whereas intake of high-fat dairy foods may decrease this risk."

When I work with clients who have anovulatory infertility I find that they are often - but not always - very slim and more often than not are very fit pursuing plenty of work-outs or running. Ironically, habits that may confer life-long good health and protection against many chronic disease may simply not be helpful for peak fertility.

To ovulate the body needs a certain amount of body fat; fat in the form of cholesterol is the basis of our reproductive hormones and a virtual fat deficiency can in turn lead to hormone deficiencies. Eating only fat-free dairy food and working our a lot is a great way to drop estrogen levels - and body fat - if you want to lower cancer risks but not exactly what you need when you want to conceive. Simply put; fat makes estrogen and estrogen fuels ovulation.

If you are having trouble ovulating regularly and respond poorly to Clomid it may be time to explore the full-fat dairy aisle! I encourage my clients to always buy organic full-fat dairy foods, grass fed dairy is even better, to reduce the chances of growth hormones, antibiotics and pesticides in the milk. Fermented milk products also have an edge by providing healthy probiotics.

If you don’t like dairy foods I have found that adding nut butters, extra olive oil and nuts and seeds work equally well. Coconut fat and full fat coconut milk is another great way of increasing fat intake in a healthful way.

This article is intended for informational purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose, offer treatment or replace medical advice for which you should consult a suitably qualified physician.

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Hum Reprod.2007 May;22(5):1340-7. Epub 2007 Feb 28. A prospective study of dairy foods intake and anovulatory infertility. Chavaro JE et al.,