This FDA-Approved Lubricant May Be Just What You Need While TTC

Let's talk about lube, shall we? The relative readiness of one's vagina is not normally a topic of conversation at brunch, but get a bunch of women together who are trying to conceive (TTC), and watch that change on a dime. Suddenly, it's no longer taboo — it's a medical necessity, and everyone wants to know — what is the best lubricant for trying to conceive? For years, everyone's talked about Pre-Seed as a safe TTC lubricant, but now, a new TTC lubricant is on the market, and there hasn't been one for awhile.

The newest fertility friendly lubricant is from Fairhaven Health, and is called aptly, BabyDance. It's cleared by the FDA for sale, and is isotonic, which is different from the other gels on the market. BabyDance fertility-safe lubricant shares many of the same properties as Pre-Seed and Astroglide TTC lubricant, but with one marked difference: BabyDance is free of all parabens. Recent studies have suggested that parabens are a possible endocrine disruptor, and many companies, especially companies which deal with pregnancy and children, have abandoned the use of them in manufacturing products.

BabyDance is also clinically proven not to interfere with critical sperm parameters like some traditional lubricants. These parameters include motility, DNA quality, penetration into cervical mucus, or ability to fertilize and support embryo development. It comes with applicators so you can have the desired amount of lubricant during sex, and is also optimized for your own vaginal health. Score.

It's also so new, in fact, that it has very few articles written about it or reviews on buying websites. The literature on the IsoLove (the company that manufactures the lube) website is all related to the general efficacy of traditional lubricants and the microflora of the vagina. While it sounds hopeful, it hasn't received any outside peer review just yet — so we're trusting the manufacturer without an outside review process. However, its chief competitors have been reviewed several time. The Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics examined nine of the most popular lubricants, and Pre-Seed and Conceive Plus both performed exceedingly well, maintaining 92 percent of the vitality of the spermatozoa.

When a new TTC lubricant is on the market, you can guarantee health writers like me hear about it really quickly — sometimes before most stores even stock it, so the chatter about BabyDance is minimal because it's early days. Who knows, maybe BabyDance will take over the market, and Amazon will sell out of it as often as they do Pre-Seed. Again, it's too early to tell. The clearance from the FDA is a good start, but it's not an approval, which means that it's regulated enough to be sold, but the FDA is not supporting its claims yet.

So why then is BabyDance so great? “I’ve reviewed research and clinical data many fertility products and believe BabyDance to be the clear market leader for fertility lubricants and a great help for couples who are trying to conceive naturally," the lead physician dedicated to the product, Dr. Peter Rizk, fertility expert and OB-GYN says. "The isotonic formula is pH-matched to fertile cervical fluids so it won’t irritate sensitive vaginal tissues and — very importantly — won’t harm sperm function." Which is all well and good, but more rigorous testing and honest reviews on sites like Amazon are needed.

BabyDance might be worth a try and you can find it at the Fairhaven Health website. One note, though. Many fertility clinics and doctors' offices have a preferred lubricant they like their patients to use. If you want to switch to BabyDance, great, but make sure you talk to your practitioner first, just to see what they think. Good luck.

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