Boost your fertility chances by

• Eating a healthy diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables. You need lots of B6 to help balance hormones, find it in bananas, chicken and white fish. Also vitamin E, which is essential for fertility, is found in avocados, olive oil and sunflower seeds. Iron and vitamin B12 are also essential and red meat, sesame seeds, dried fruits like prunes, raisins and apricots, and even tuna are good sources of well absorbed iron. B12 is found in chicken, eggs, beef and Marmite. Take a folic acid supplement too.
• Get your man to eat a handful of Brazil nuts daily. They are rich in fertility boosting selenium.
• Cutting down on caffeine and quitting smoking or using recreational drugs
• Cutting down on alcohol
• Getting regular exercise and watching your weight

What if you need treatment?

See your GP if you're concerned. You may just need a simple hormone drug to stimulate your ovaries or your doctor may recommend further treatment to investigate your fertility. Tests can show your hormone levels and blood count. A semen sample from your partner can be checked for sperm levels.

Other treatments, from donor sperm, to assisted conception techniques such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) where a single sperm is injected into the egg and then the embryo is placed back in the womb, will then be discussed with you.

IVF treatment

Around 24,000 couples opt for IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatment every year in the UK. About 8000 babies are conceived through IVF which involves removing eggs from the woman's ovaries and mixing them with either her partner's or a donor's sperm to fertilise. The fertilised eggs are then put back in the womb.

Do keep in mind that NHS treatment availability varies throughout the UK. You're entitled to at least one NHS cycle of IVF, but you may have to fund subsequent treatments yourself, which can be expensive. You may need several IVF treatments before you conceive and there's no guarantee then that you will end up with a baby. IVF treatment is quite gruelling and can take a lot out of a couple, so get as much help and support from family and friends or support groups as you can, and do be prepared for disappointment. Only about one in three women will become pregnant with IVF and some of these pregnancies will fail.

Choose a clinic that is licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates and inspects all clinics.

- More advice and support for conception

By Julia Shaw

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