Hot Flashes During Pregnancy: Hormones to Blame

Hot flashes are quite common during pregnancy, and affect your wellness and wellbeing due to the changes in hormones that occur in your body at this time. Your sexual and reproductive system is largely governed by hormones, which is why hot flashes are most commonly associated with menopause, a time when huge changes are occurring in the hormones associated with the reproductive system. Hot flashes are also common in pregnancy, however, although they tend to occur towards the end of pregnancy rather than in the first two trimesters. They are even more common in the postpartum period (the time just after giving birth).

Hormones such as progesterone, which are common in pregnancy, raise your body temperature, and some of the other side effects of pregnancy, such as nausea, can also increase your temperature or feeling of cold sweats. The heat generated by the developing baby can also lead to you feeling increasingly hot as the pregnancy progresses.

 

Researchers have recently found that pregnant women complain of suffering from hot flashes five times more often than those who are not pregnant (of the same age). In fact, around 90 percent of pregnant women are thought to suffer from hot flashes during the postpartum period, and 81 percent of women start having hot flashes around or before the third trimester.

 

Hot flashes can even occur before you have discovered that you are pregnant, around about the time that the embryo normally implants into the wall of the uterus. This is usually about eight to 10 days after ovulation occurs. Progesterone is produced after ovulation and this may be the reason for hot flashes to occur at this time.

 

As they are caused by hormones, you cannot prevent hot flashes altogether but you can try to use external methods to keep your body temperature down.

Categories: body temperature, flashes, hormones, hot, hot flashes, occur, postpartum period, pregnancy, Pregnant Women, time

Sexpert Knowledge: Weird Facts You Never Knew about Sex

Where would we be without sex? Well, the short answer is we wouldn’t be here at all, but aside from providing us with the beginning of our existence, sex is extremely beneficial to your wellbeing if only because it’s the focus of some weird and wonderful facts. Let’s take a look at some of the coolest things you never knew about sex and sexual health.

1. The basics: Ok, you probably know the basics of sex, but here’s how the numbers stack up. If you’re a woman, you only – as you’re likely already aware – release one egg a month. If you’re a man, on the other hand, your production is much more prolific. In just one ejaculation, you emit anywhere between 30 million and 750 million sperm.

2. Getting piggy with it: However many sperm men expel in a single ejaculation, you fellers have nothing on pigs – a single swine ejaculate contains about 8 billion sperm cells.

3. Mission impossible: With so many pregnancies being unintended or “happy accidents,” the stats surrounding the sheer possibility of conception are mind-boggling. In order to get a single sperm to a ready egg, it has to arrive in the small three to six-day window in which women are fertile. The sperm rarely remain viable for more than two days or so, but they can hang around in the reproductive tract for up to five days.

4. It’s getting hot in here: When you’re ovulating, this process heats up your body by as much as half a degree Fahrenheit. Before ovulation, your body temperature lands between 96 and 98 degrees F (35.5 to 36.6 degrees Celsius), but right after ovulation, your body temperature rises to an average of 97 to 99 degrees F (36.1 to 37.2 degrees C). This is why many women who try to conceive, or try to avoid conceiving, take their temperature every day to detect ovulation.

5. Animals in the bedroom: Aside from being frowned upon, bestiality has been found to be detrimental to your wellness. In 2011, a study found that having sex with animals – be they chickens, pigs or horses – might raise men’s risk of penile cancer. This is possibly because these acts cause microtrauma to the penis and lets foreign microorganisms in. This includes the human papilloma virus (HPV) which can cause cancer in humans.

6. It’s a bit nippy: Nipples are proven erogenous zones, and it seems like the big man upstairs knew what he was doing. Brain-imaging research on women has shown that the same area of your brain that registers nipple stimulation also registers stimulation from your vagina, cervix and clitoris.

7. Let’s talk about sex, baby: While you may be worried that sex education encourages children to go out and give sex a try, in fact the opposite is true. A 2012 study published by the non-profit Guttmacher Institute found that any sex education at all delays teen sex.

8. The more the merrier: However, before you pat yourself on the back for teaching your teenager the birds and the bees, delaying sex doesn’t stop adolescents experimenting in more than pairs. Yep, a 2011 study found that one in 13 (7.3%) teen girls aged 14 to 20, have had a group-sex experience. The study, which was published in the Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, also found that these girls were also more likely to have been exposed to pornography and childhood sexual abuse than their peers. More than half of that group reported being pressured into the multiple-sex-partner situation and, perhaps most worryingly of all, 45% indicated no condom was used during their most recent group-sex encounter.

Categories: body temperature, degrees, group sex, Nipples, ovulation, pigs, sex education, single, sperm, study

Contraception: The Facts Everyone Should Know

Contraception should tick a lot of boxes in one go – it should be cheap, easy to use, convenient, reversible and without any side effects. Beyond anything else though, it should protect against STDs as well as pregnancy. The type of contraception you use needs to fit your lifestyle perfectly, as well as your future goals for having a family or not. There are numerous choices out there, each with their own set of pros and cons – it’s simply a matter of sifting through until you find one which best suits your needs. From barrier methods to monitoring your natural cycle, choosing the right contraception is vital for a happy and safe sex life.

 

Natural methods are popular with women who don’t want to worry about hormones disrupting their natural cycle. They can be a little cumbersome but once you get the hang of them, they can be very effective. Natural methods of contraception include the rhythm method, which requires the woman to record the length of her menstrual cycle for several months. In doing this, she can then subtract 19 days from the shortest cycle and nine from the longest – this period of time will give her her most fertile period. During this stage, if she abstains from sex, she will be able to prevent pregnancy. The Basal body temperature technique goes by the body temperature recorded with a special thermometer. A woman’s body temperature rises after ovulation, and women are advised to avoid sex for up to three days post ovulation – this method is tricky to get right and easy to fail with though. The pull-out method, often favoured by teens, is a method which involves the male withdrawing his penis just as he is about to ejaculate. There is no special device needed nor any prescription, but there is a high failure rate and the risk of STDs as well. This method isn’t recommended as a safe and effective form of contraception.

Oral contraceptives contain two hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, which regularise your periods, prevent ovarian cysts and reduce the pain and bleeding during the menstrual cycle. For many women, they are a miracle in the fight against painful periods. However, there are other side effects such as nausea or vomiting, breast tenderness and the risk of blood clots. Your GP is the best person to advise you as to whether or not the pill is the best form of contraception for you – while there are risks, they are also very efficient in protecting against pregnancy. Likewise, the contraceptive injection is very effective and can last up to two to three months. Some women find that these injections cause irregular periods, weight gain, leg cramps and depression – this is also worth discussing first with your GP. The IUD is a copper device which is fitted into the womb and creates an inhospitable environment so that a fertilised egg can’t settle and impregnate itself. They are fitted by a professional and can last up to ten years, so they’re great for women who don’t want to consider children for a long time. However, there is a risk of cramps, heavy bleeding and even infection. If you don’t want to go down the hormonal route, there is still the barrier methods. Including male and female condoms, this method protects against STDs as well as pregnancy and can be hugely effective in achieving both. It’s important to remember that no methods besides abstinence can offer 100 percent success, but the barrier method is a popular choice which many find to be effective and fits well into their lifestyle.

Categories: barrier methods, body temperature, contraception, cycle, hormones, menstrual cycle, method, natural cycle, Natural Methods, Sex, Women

Spice Up Your Winter: Foods to Help Keep You Warm

As the winter weather slowly starts to creep in, you start to put away the fans and swimwear and bring out your woolly jumpers and electric blankets. However, covering up isn’t the only way to get warm this winter; you can also keep warm and cosy by including certain foods in your diet.

 

1. Spices – For a warmer body temperature, as well as flavour and aroma, you can’t go wrong with warming spices like cinnamon sticks, cloves, ginger and pepper. Ginger contains thermogenic properties that help to increase your body temperature – as well as being extremely beneficial for your digestive wellness – while cloves have an amazing capacity to warm the body and freshen the mouth.

 

2. Vegetables – Whether you boil them, steam them or blend them up in soups and smoothies, nothing warms your inner furnace as quickly as vegetables. As an added bonus, eating plenty of veg helps to boost your immunity, increase your blood flow and give those cheeks a rosy glow.

 

3. Honey – The winter blues can send your sugar cravings into overdrive, and so honey is a great, healthier alternative to refined sugar. Adding it to warm water makes for the perfect drink on a long winter’s night, and the natural sweetener is also works wonders for your complexion.

 

4. Onion – So it gives you bad breath and may induce tears, but all will be forgiven when you realise how beneficial onions are to your winter wellbeing. If you include onion as part of your daily diet, it acts as a persistent body heater, helping to ward off that constant chill.

 

5. Chillies – As chillies are so hot and spicy, they work to stimulate your body temperature by enhancing your blood circulation. Plus, the reason why chillies’ flavour is so pungent is due to a substance called Capsaicin, which also works to increase thermo genesis.

 

6. Green Tea – This beverage packs a triple threat to fight that winter chill, as green tea contains caffeine, catechins and antioxidants. The latter component helps to improve your metabolism, which warms you up, while the other two together increase thermo genesis by up to 77%.

 

7. Coconut Oil – As coconut oil is mostly made up of medium-chain fatty acids, it’s an excellent way to increase thermo genesis and help to raise your body temperature.

Categories: body temperature, Coconut Oil, foods, green tea, honey, increase thermo, spices, thermo genesis, Winter Warmers

Are You Putting Your Health at Risk With the Pill?

The contraceptive pill has hit the headlines recently for worrying claims that it could be a harmful medication. In a study carried out by Indiana University, researchers discovered that women taking the contraceptive pill felt less sexy overall, had fewer orgasms and less frequent sex, as well as finding it more difficult to become aroused. There is an increasing list of health risks attached to the pill, from breast tenderness and nausea to more serious claims such as blood clots, high blood pressure and even stroke. However, there could now be new risks which aren’t laid out on the list provided by your local family planning clinic which could make you rethink your method of contraception. Long term use of the birth control pill could increase the risk of artery build-ups in your body, which may in turn increase your risk of heart disease. In a study involving 1300 healthy women aged between 35 and 55, there was up to a 30 percent increase in the prevalence of plaque for every 10 years of oral contraceptive use. The researchers highlighted that the plaques were small and not large enough to block an artery, but any plaque is a risk to your heart health. Around 100 million women around the world use oral contraceptives, all of which could now be risking their hearts for the sake of an easy pregnancy preventative.

 

There are many health risks which are increased by the use of the oral contraceptive pill. For example, this form of birth control can more than double your risk of fatal blood clots, as well as making your bones thinner and increasing your blood pressure. Some studies claim that it could also increase your risk of developing cervical and breast cancers. Besides the serious health risks, there are also some unpleasant side effects which many women report to suffer from due to the influx of artificial hormones flowing through the body. These include irregular bleeding or spotting, weight gain, mood changes, migraines and nausea, breast tenderness, and yeast overgrowth or infection. Because there are other options for birth control which don’t rely on hormones, many GPs advise choosing an alternative form of contraception. Such methods include barrier methods which are far safer, if slightly less convenient, such as condoms.

 

With these methods there are no side effects and no toxic chemicals or substances flooding your body every day. There is also the natural family planning method, or NFP, which you should learn from a reliable source but that can leave you empowered by understanding your menstrual cycle better. The temperature method is another alternative, which works by you pinpointing your day of ovulation so that you can avoid intercourse for a few days before and after it. You take your basal body temperature every morning with an accurate basal thermometer so that you can note the rise in temperature after ovulation. Although this method can be unreliable by itself, as your body temperature can change for a number of reasons, when it is combined with the mucus method it can be very accurate in assessing your fertility. The two methods used together can provide a success rate as high as 98 percent. The mucus method works by tracking the changes in the amount and texture of your vaginal discharge. As your oestrogen levels rise in your body, your discharge will alter. Other methods also include female condoms, the diaphragm and cervical cap. Each has its set of pros and cons, but they don’t require hormones which means you can avoid the stress and risk of the damaging side effects.

Categories: Birth Control, blood clots, body temperature, contraception, contraceptive pill, Health Risks, Pill, Side Effects