Eating a diet rich in seafood may help couples get pregnant faster, a new study suggests.
Couples who ate a lot of seafood tended to have sex more often and conceive faster than other couples, researchers from Harvard University found.
Prior studies have linked the consumption of fish high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon and tuna, to increased progesterone levels, shorter time to pregnancy, and better semen quality.
With 15 to 25 percent of couples unable to conceive after a year, researchers hope the findings can help increase the chances of pregnancy without medical assistance.
For the study, 500 Michigan and Texas couples from the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) Study were followed for one year.
To determine the relationship between seafood intake and time to pregnancy, participants recorded their seafood intake and sexual activity in daily journals.
Findings showed that 92 percent of couples who ate seafood more than twice a week were pregnant after 12 months in comparison with 79 percent among couples consuming less seafood.
Additionally, when both partners consumed eight or more four-ounce servings per menstrual cycle, the frequency of sexual intercourse was almost 22 percent higher.
If both partners consumed seafood the same day, the odds of having sex were 39 percent higher compared to couples where neither partner consumed seafood.
'One of the surprising finds was that male intake seemed just as important as the female intake,' Dr Audrey Gaskins, a research associate at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, told Daily Mail Online.
'We often forget about how the male component is just as important as the female component when it comes to conceiving.