I sometimes have people ask me if they should stick to a certain diet or should consume certain times of foods on their menstrual cycle in order to conceive a boy or girl baby. I think the perception is that what you do on your menstrual cycle affects what happens during your ovulation cycle.
I heard from someone who said: “I’m trying for a boy baby. I have heard that I should adhere to a certain diet while I am on my period to make me more likely to conceive a son. What should I be eating when I’m on my period?”
She was making several assumptions here. She was assuming that her diet affected the gender of her baby. And she was also assuming that the most important time of the diet was when she was on her menstrual cycle. Only one of these assumptions was true. I will tell you which one was true below.
Most Of The Time, What You Eat When You Are On Your Period Doesn’t Affect Your Baby’s Gender: Many women actually ovulate (and therefore can become pregnant) at least a week after their period is over. Sometimes, the time frame is even longer than this. Although you can ovulate at any time during your cycle, most people ovulate somewhere near the center of it. Sure, some are a little early and some are a little late. But very few people ovulate while they are on are just after they are on their period. Most of the time, you are looking at 10 – 14 days after your period before you are fertile.
Now, the reason that what you eat is important is because when you eat enough acidic foods (like some meat and dairy) to change your vaginal PH (during ovulation and not during menstruation,) then a baby girl is more likely. And when you eat enough alkaline foods (like some fruits and vegetables) to make your vaginal PH alkaline, then a boy baby is more likely. (To be fair, this is only one variable that can affect baby gender. There are at least two others.)
But, changing your PH takes several days. And, you have to continue on with the diet until it is time for you to conceive. In order to ensure that this is happening, I highly recommend testing your PH regularly and making whatever adjustments are necessary.
Why Your Ovulation Cycle Is More Important Than Your Menstrual Cycle When It Comes To Your Baby’s Gender: With this said, let’s say that you ovulate around 16 days after the first day of your menstrual period. If you were to eat alkaline foods during your period and then stop once your period stops, then there would still be more than a week until it really counts and you would need to be your most alkaline. This is just too long to wait.
The better plan would be to begin the process after your period stops and then continue to test your PH (by using PH test strips) and your ovulation (by using an ovulation test kit) and making sure that your PH is right as your ovulation approaches. Because what really matters is your PH on the day that you can possibly conceive. And sometimes, you need a few days of leeway in order to make this happen correctly. But you wouldn’t necessarily need to start as early as your period.
That’s why it can help to begin this process a little while before you actually want to conceive. You can test yourself regularly and see where your natural baseline is, what foods affect it, and how long it takes you to reach your optional PH. That way, when ovulation approaches, there’s no need to panic and you will know what you need to do in order to get where you need to be.
But to answer the question posed, worrying about your diet only when you are on your period isn’t the best use of your time or energy. You are better off worrying about the time period before ovulation and gauging your PH throughout the month so that you make sure that your PH never gets too far from ideal so that a couple of days before ovulation, you can tweak it as needed. In other words, your diet during your ovulation cycle is much more important than you diet during your menstrual cycle or period.
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