One of the things you can do to increase your chances of getting pregnant is to take
certain supplements that are known to have positive effects on fertility. It is important,
though to be aware of the negative effects these same supplements can have as well.
There is one vitamin in particular, that can do a lot to improve your conception odds, but
also has the potential to cause harm.

What is it?

I'm talking about Vitamin C. Here's the deal.. Taking some vitamin C is actually a great
idea, because vitamin C (in small doses) can do something wonderful to increase your
fertility. It actually improves the quality of your cervical fluid. You may already know that
the cervical fluid is crucial for transporting the sperm to your cervix and on to your uterus,
where it will eventually meet up with your egg.

Without good quality cervical fluid, the sperm just doesn't have a chance of surviving for
very long. If you do have very wet and abundant cervical fluid, the sperm can often
survive for up to 6 days inside a woman's body. The longer the sperm can last, the greater
your odds of conception.

But here's the catch...Too much vitamin C can have the opposite effect. Yes, that's
right...too much can cause your cervical fluid to dry up, and that can just about ruin your
chance of ever getting pregnant. So you must be extremely careful to avoid getting megadoses of Vitamin C (especially during cold and flu season where we're often advised to load up on vitamin C).

Now, moving on to the effect vitamin C has on men. Vitamin C is a powerful
anti-oxidant, which protects the DNA of the sperm. Side effects of damaged DNA to
sperm can be risk of miscarriage or chromosomal damage to the baby.

Also, a lack of vitamin C makes sperm clump together, a problem called agglutination.
This problem makes conception difficult, but can be helped with appropriate
supplements of vitamin C.

Additionally, taking supplemental vitamin C can improve sperm count, motility and
viability in male smokers and reduces the number of abnormally formed sperm. The
optimum dose for men is 500mg taken twice daily, for a total of 1000mg daily.

All in all, Vitamin C can have a tremendous impact on a couples ability to conceive a
child, effecting both the female and male partners.