Lube ttc what have I done!!!!

[Humptydumptydone]

Hi,

My husband and I have been ttc, I am late 30s he is early 40s.

We have both been trying to be as healthy as possible but stupidly when DTD during the fertility window we used Liquid Silk lube.

I thought this was water based and wouldn't be harmful but yesterday read the ingredients and there are parabens amongst other things present. That packaging does say this is not a spermicide.

I am panicking now that a damaged or chemical affected sperm could now make contact with the egg and affect the fetus.

We haven't had problem conceiving in the past just this time needed a bit of lubrication as we were DTD often....

I'm so scared, any positive stories?

Any thoughts anyone?

I don't think lube has much of an effect tbh!

We did switch to using pre seed or conceive plus fertility lubricant while ttc our first. With the second we used normal water based stuff and it took us the same length of time to conceive both times!

We're your children ok?

Which water based lube did you use?

I'm worried about the chemicals that may have caused damage already...😢😢😢

There is no way a lubricant that is sold and approved for use as such is going to be something that causes defects in babies. Understand your anxiety but think it’s unfounded.

For a couple of months we used Durex - I asked my husband if it was ok and he said yeah, I then read the packaging 2 months later and it said it slowed sperm down!

Used pre-seed the next month and caught first time, again caught first time when TTC number 2 using the same.

Total non issue, it won't do anything to sperm/embryo

That's what I'm thinking. Why would they sell it...but the internet says parabens are bad.

I know we deal with chemicals day in day out in every day life but I feel so stupid to have directly applied it...

Certain parabens can cause infertility/hormone imbalance and increase your risk of cancer but If you do become pregnant,you wouldn't know of any damage until later on and potentially not until the child is born, especially with brain development. Even then, if your child had allergies or skin issues, you'd never be able to prove it was caused by the lube.

I presume you both use all paraben free cosmetics, skincare and bath products? If not there's still the risk of those chemicals being in your system and your bloodstream, which will be passed to baby in pregnancy.

Alternately, you could actually do some proper research online and depending on which chemicals are used, you'd see that the dangerous ones are used in such small quantities, often used in products which don't absorb into the skin to prevent levels building up and have legal limits set on them to prevent risk to users.

There's plenty of paraben free products and cosmetics available.

The internet will tell you everything is harmful!
Labeling are quite strict when it comes to potential teratogenic (harmful to the unborn) and they would absolutely have to put a very clear warning on it.

My partner works in dementia research and one of the things that increases dementia is oxygen so breathing. On a molecular level oxygen causes cell death and degeneration. Does this mean it's harmful to breathe? Absolutely not!

It’s normally the strongest sperm that reaches the egg so I don’t think that’s likely at all. Also if that was the case lube companies would have to declare that to avoid lawsuits. And you’re not actually pregnant as far as you know so it’s very premature to be worried. As a learning disability nurse I can assure you these children aren’t the result of parents using lubrication it’s very far fetched

I'm not too worried about parabens in other external cosmetics because i havent directly applied it in the areas used to TTC.

It more the direct application having an impact I'm worried about.

I work in research on B2B ingredient industries including the chemical, personal care and food industries and you would be surprised about the lack of regulatory and safety oversight for a lot of chemicals used in everyday products.
The EU pledged about 10 years ago to ban thousands of PFAS substances (forever chemicals) that are known to be toxic but sadly backtracked on this promise in 2023 due to lobbying pressure. Since Brexit, regularity oversight in UK has been even more lax, and don’t even get me started on the US (just Google “self affirmed GRAS” if you want to know more and prepare to be shocked…)
So I do not think it is being paranoid or excessively anxious to err on the side of caution when using products during pregnancy especially during the first six months when baby’s organs are still developing and sensitive to endocrine disrupters.
OP, when I was TTC we used a gel by a Swiss company called Fertililly. They also make a kind of fertility cup that keeps sperm near the cervix. They sell online. (And obviously this could just be a coincidence but after years of ttc I got pregnant first time after using their cup)

The internet says a lot of things....... don't believe them all.

This

This made me chuckle!

I just thought 'but I wouldn't be shoving a banana up there'

again im worried because we directly applied it.

Yep! A lot of scientists believe that oxygen free radicals cause cellular degradation that ultimately lead to our death…which means that breathing does kill us eventually (if nothing else does first). This just confirms that we have an expiration date (which we know as no one lives forever!) rather than that breathing is harmful. I suppose worriers could opt for antioxidants, but we’ll all die eventually. It’s really interesting though! Glad you commented this.

Yes exactly not dangerous enough to be absorbed when applied to skin but what if directly applied while DTD.

I'm sure quantities are still minimal but just didn't want to add any worries..

I'm pretty sure that if there was a direct link between everyday mass sold and used lubricants and birth defects we would know about it by now.

Any potential baby will be absolutely fine regardless of what lube the sperm has to swim through.

The month I got pregnant we used durex (we weren't trying at that point). Try not to worry about it

How far along are you now?

Don't think all durex have paraben in them...

@Humptydumptydone we decided liquid silk probably stopped us conceiving the month we used it, but I don't think it could cause any issues as a one off if you did happen to conceive this month. Any impact of parabens I imagine would be during the 3 months an egg is maturing (or 2 weeks or whatever it is for sperm!).

I am 14 weeks today. It’s paraben free but still causes issues for the sperm such as motility and viability. Some can be too acidic for sperm too survive but don’t think Durex is one of them

Please do not worry over this.
Lots of people have had happy healthy children when they got pregnant using condoms with spermicide lubricant, people who smoked, who drank to excess.
It's a good idea to avoid some things when ttc, but it doesn't mean using lubricant = health issues in any potential baby.

Thank you for the reassurance everyone

I guess they wouldn't create anything to use in such parts of our bodies if it had detrimental effects....

How long were you trying for while using liquid silk and how long after did you conceive?