One Thing To Know Before Giving Up On Natural Pregnancy
Question:
Are you unhealthy if you are (in)fertile? Or are you (in)fertile bc you are unhealthy?
Answer: Trick question.
This is the issue with the vast umbrella of words like “healthy” or “unhealthy”. We all have different definitions, we all have different tolerances. For example, someone could go days without a bowel movement and not think twice and not think this is an issue (it is by the way. And another person and go at 10 am instead of 6 am and feel like something is off. So, it’s kinda of a trick question.
The truth of the matter is there is dysfunction. Period. And a healthy body should have healthy, normal function. So, to give a definitive answer, no, we can not claim a perfect bill of health if we have low fertility.
But when struggling to get pregnant, there are known knowns, known unknowns, and then there are unknowns unknowns. Those are the worst, most insidious. Wreaking havoc yet flying under the radar of your awareness and attention.
What are the knowns knowns:
Been trying for a while, maybe a year, maybe 7 years, and you can’t get pregnant
Known unknowns
The why and how come of it know. you know there is a problem and ou look first to your womb and fertility hormones
Unknown unknowns
That seemingly unrelated thing that has been staring you in the face
Knowledge that your overall health and fertility are intimately related
Awareness and belief that that is where you should be looking, the breadcrumbs you should be following
Symptoms and red flags
Here is a list to consider all other seemingly distant issues that are often concurrent with fertility challenges
PMS
Fatigue, low energy
Menstrual cramps
Sleep issues
Anxiety, depression
Acne
Chronic vaginal infections
Low/no sex drive
Hair loss
These are just a few of the issues common place to women that get swept up and never addressed, yet all along are blaring signals your body tries to use to let you know there is a problem with your whole body health.
In most cases, for most women, low fertility is a classic case of supply and demand. From an evolutionary standpoint, reproduction is a bonus, a luxury of resources, not a key to personal survival. So you have a women with one or more of the symptoms of hormonal imbalance and she is caught unaware when getting or staying pregnant proves difficult.
You know how sometimes, maybe after you get sick you look back and see it might because you ran yourself ragged. Not sleeping well. Not eating well. Running off of fumes. Pushing yourself too far and you end up with a cold or the flu. Something minor right? Well take that and multiple it and you end with something bigger like low fertility
Supply and demand
You were demanding so much from your body and you weren’t supplying it with the right things like fuel and nutrition and restorative things like sleep and stress relief. Same thing applies for your health and your fertility. Your health is stressed and strained by so many other things are dealing and yet you demand that your body also get pregnant, cycle and ovulate regularly, and deliver the right hormones in the right amounts to support fertility.
What’s the fix
Stop looking at your womb.
Pregnancy happens outside of the womb. It may seem counterintuitive, but just go with me. If your ability to get pregnant was like the game mouse trap, you have about 20 steps to clear way on the other side of the board before the final piece is triggered. And just like in your body, those piece have to be set up perfectly unless the chain reaction will stall somewhere around step 5 or 10 and never trip all the way down to the mouse getting caught.
The roadblock can be caused by one or more things:
Poor self care and healthy habits,
High internal and external stress causing cell and tissue damage,
Improper nutrition and nutrient balance
There is so much info in your standard blood test if you are looking through a functional lens that has a much narrow range for what qualifies as “normal” and healthy.
Lack of vitamins, minerals
Stress markers
Liver health
Heart health
Thyroid
Inflammatory markers
So go and find those things that are not functioning as they should. Find those things that are demanding more resources than they should. Find ways to increase the supply of nourishing supportive elements to your life, body, and fertility.
