A lot of what you fancy does you good

Sex, and plenty of it, not only increases the odds of getting pregnant, it can also help to avoid problems that sometimes lead to miscarriages and stillbirths, New Scientist magazine has reported.

Having sex early and often - even oral sex - with the intended father, can reduce the chances of the mother's immune system rejecting the foetus.

"According to reproductive biologists at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, far from being an exercise in futility, plenty of sex - even a full year before conception - helps to guard against a litany of ailments," the magazine said.

The more accustomed the woman's immune system is to the man's sperm, the less likely her body will be to reject the foetus, which contains foreign proteins from the father.

Immediate rejection of the fertilised egg can cause infertility or, if the mother's immune system works more slowly, miscarriages can occur.

The Australian scientists also suggested that immune rejection could lead to pre-eclampsia, a potentially fatal condition that can cause high blood-pressure and convulsions in women. But they said the theory was still controversial.

"We see patients who have two miscarriages, then they finally manage to get through their miscarriage period and they have pre-eclampsia, or the placenta detaches and they have a stillbirth at 24 weeks," said Gustaaf Dekker, a member of the research team.

The placenta is the lifeline of the foetus, supplying oxygen and nutrients.

Sperm is full of foreign proteins, so the woman's immune system goes into high alert at the first sign of it.

But sperm also contains components that promote acceptance by the woman's body and repeated exposure to them can help when trying to conceive.

- REUTERS

nzherald.co.nz/health