Handle With Care

"We found that women who had the highest intake of dairy were more likely to have live births. For women under 35 there doesn't seem to be an association but for women over 35 the association is much stronger."
"That is the exact opposite of what we expected to find."
"It's possible that some of the hormones may actually be helpful. Even though it's a very small amount, it is still the same hormone that helps the embryos implant."
Dr. Jorge Chavarro, Massachusetts General Hospital

Carlo Allegri/National Post files   Eating ice cream may boost an older woman's ability to conceive children, a new U.S. study says, and it may increase the chances of the baby being healthy, too, researchers claimed in the same study.

That hormone of which he speaks is progesterone. It works to make the womb 'sticky', helping introduced embryos to become implanted. It's the hormone that is known to decrease in women as they age; one of the reasons why it becomes more difficult to conceive, as a woman's best-before date lapses into stagnation then staggers into inoperability.

So go ahead, have those ice cream cones you crave, and while you're at it, don't forget the yogurt and drink plenty of milk if you want to be able to lactate properly to breast-feed that child you'll be nurturing in your womb, even at that biologically advanced age, through in vitro fertilization. The ice cream has a positive effect, you see, not only on your mood, but on the chances that the implantation of that embryo is taking and producing a successful pregnancy.

It's right there in the research finding out of Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Centre, so don't just take anyone's word for it who might recommend dairy products. While you're at it, look it up as research presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Hawaii. It's the real thing, really it is! And the bonus is that through this process healthier babies result as well.

A project was undertaken at Massachusetts General Fertility Centre, where women over the age of 35 were asked to inventory their food intake during treatment. And the results show that the women who ate ice cream, cream, yogurt and milk were 21 percent likelier to give birth through IVF than the women who rarely consumed dairy products.

Three portions of dairy daily turned out to be the recipe for greatest success. The portions were equivalent to a scoop of ice cream, a single glass of milk and a slice of cheese. Lead researcher on the project, Dr. Jorge Chavarro, explained that cow's milk contains hormones that tend to increase chances of embryo implantation in the womb.

This is the same researcher who proved through another study that men who regularly consumed large amounts of milk, cheese and yogurt demonstrated poorer quality sperm. So figure that one out. Also known is that lactose, (milk sugar) present in dairy products, acts as a toxin in the ovaries of animals, a caution that it may harm fertility for women.

So is that complex, or is it not?