Soya is great for minimising the effects of menopause. However, it compromises your fertility, writes Hannah Chira
Consumption of soya and its products may work against any woman who is trying to conceive.
According to fertility experts in the UK, a compound in soya called genistein sabotages the sperm as it swims towards the egg.
Surprisingly, even small doses in the female tract could burn sperm out, so avoiding soya around women’s most fertile days of the month might aid conception.
Long swim
All soya products contain genistein. Soya is also present in vegetables such as peas and beans, but the researchers say it is not yet clear if levels of the compounds in these foods are significant.
When human sperm was exposed to the compound in the lab, the compound began a reaction in a large proportion of the sperm that gives it the ability to fertilise an egg.
In reality, this only happens after the sperm has been inside the female for some hours and is close to completing its long swim towards the egg.
Therefore, the presence of genistein in and around the womb hampers conception by making the sperm peak too soon, say the researchers.
This hence means they would not be able to fertilise the egg.
