Some women will try ANYTHING to increase their odds of getting pregnant, and the latest alleged fertility booster burning up the message boards is this: using raw egg whites as lubricant during sex. Sure, your knee-jerk reaction might be ewww … but some moms swear this method holds water.
So … what do the experts say?
"Using egg whites as a lubricant to increase a woman’s chances of getting pregnant is discussed quite frequently on fertility message boards and elsewhere online," says Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, OB/GYN for Bundoo.com. "The thinking behind it is that it mimics cervical mucus, which helps the sperm find its way into the cervical opening on its way to fertilizing an egg."
In fact, cervical mucus does indeed change throughout a woman’s menstrual cycle, and the type of mucus seen during ovulation is commonly referred to as — you got it — "egg white cervical mucus." "This probably explains the jump to thinking that actual egg whites can increase a woman’s chance of getting pregnant," Lincoln says.
Egg whites are also thought to impact the vaginal environment's pH in a fertility-friendly way. "Egg white is supposed to make the vaginal area more basic, so that the sperm have a better chance of survival," says Jennifer Burns, a naturopathic family practitioner and founder of the Bienetre Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
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Yet in spite of this method's many fans, "there isn’t any really hard scientific data to back this practice up," says Lincoln. "Many women swear it was the thing that worked for them, but it’s impossible to know if they would have conceived that very same cycle without this extra trick."
Still think it's worth a shot? It turns out you may want to leave the carton of eggs in the kitchen.
"Using egg whites to help with fertility potentially can be risky because we all know that under-cooked eggs can carry bacteria that could be harmful," warns Melissa Goist, an OB/GYN at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center.
In other words, you may want to skip this trick and stick to some safer — and more scientific — methods for babymaking.
One eggy example to try? Check your cervical mucus for this egg-white-like consistency, which means your fertility is at an all-month high. "This natural healthy environment that our body creates is better at helping with fertility," says Goist. "So instead of worrying about a good lubricant, start paying more attention to your body’s natural signals that it is a good time to try!"
Have you tried using raw egg white as a lubricant to get pregnant?
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