Top Pillars of Healthy Fertility
Pregnancy doesn’t just happens in the womb
No one system can work alone because our bodies are amazing and intricate. Something happening up stream can have a effect way down stream.
Fertility is no different. In fact, its is a whole body thing. Although eggs and sperm and found in one place and a baby grows in yet another, it requires so many systems and even whole body health to perfectly support conceptions and creating a new life.
So as I work with my clients, I always promote “health first”.
Health is fertility. Fertility is health. And getting pregnant and staying pregnant can happen a whole lot easier if the body is in sync from head to toe.
Just remember that your womb is not an island.
Here are my top 8 anchors of fertility.
These areas have been proven to be supportive and needed for not only getting pregnant, but also the health of the pregnancy and baby. Some are obvious, but others may be unexpected.
Healthy eating habits
This provides your body with the fuel and food needed to make fertility and pregnancy hormones, as well as healthy eggs. Hormones need building blocks and raw materials to reach appropriate levels. Follicle and eggs need to be energized to mature and develop to key phases in time for ovulation (certainly a concern for chromosome issues). Healthy foods can also be therapeutic and protective, providing all the things needed for healthy eggs, as well as healthy ovarian and uterine environment.
Gut health
Good digestion eliminates toxins including excess estrogen which can be harmful it if recirculates. But also, healthy gut bacteria prevent estrogen from reactivating and messing with your cycle and fertility. Lastly, your gut and brain have a bi-directional communication system called the gut-brain axis. This interdependent relationship can be seriously interrupted without gut health.
Immune system
Great at keeping foreign things out of our body that could make a sick. But during fertilization, a healthy immune system should shut off essentially and allow this “foreign”DNA that is the sperm fused with the egg to live in the uterus for the next 40 weeks. By the way, the immune system is housed in the gut. Yet, another reason why proper digestion and healthy gut bacteria are very important.
Liver health
The liver plays a major role in detoxing excess hormones, namely estrogen, which could throw off the normal flow of fertility hormones if not removed. The liver is also important for storing vitamins and nutrients which are needed for whole body health and fertility
Sleep
Certainly underrated in our current culture, but researchers found that melatonin, the hormone that rises at night when we sleep, is a key protective antioxidant found in healthy eggs. Staying up late and even using your phone or watching tv can mess with your sleep patterns (screens have a blue light frequency that tells your body its day instead of night and you don’t make as much melatonin). Proper rest is restorative to your body. This is when the body heals, repairs, detoxifies, and even shifts energy to different parts of the body. Constantly poor or inadequate sleep disturbs your natural rhythm which messes with the rhythm of your fertility and pregnancy hormones.
Stress
I know, you hear it all the time, but it’s true. Stress isn’t good for anyone. Certainly high amounts of the stress hormone, cortisol, messes with the delicate hormone balance needed for fertility. It redirects normal hormone patterns creates a domino effect involving insulin and inflammation. Both of which are underlying issues for uterine and ovarian health as well as common reproductive disorders like PCOS and endometriosis.
Thyroid health
The thyroid produces another key hormone that needs to be balanced for healthy cycles. Specifically, an imbalance in TSH can affect T4 and T3. The active form T3 is need for healthy, strong ovulation. Which means not just the proper development of the egg inside the follicle but proper function of the follicle itself. After ovulation, the remaining follicle, now the corpus luteum, is needed to make progesterone. This hormone is needed to support the uterine lining in the early weeks of pregnancy and to make sure the next cycle doesn’t start before a fertilized egg can implant.
Mindset
The mind-body connection affects hormones, inflammation, digestion, and of course stress. The power of the mind should not be forgotten
Hormone balance
I listed this as a bonus. Just as a reminder that hormones control everything. Each part of your menstrual cycle. How well your eggs develop. How a fertilized egg implants. How well the placenta develops. You get the point. Hormones are what ties one seemingly distant system to another. What connects your brain to your ovaries. Just remember that even “normal” labs may not tell the whole picture because it all depends on your unique needs and how your body functions at those levels.
What does it all mean
These anchors of fertility are meant to provide the best foundation for whole body health to allow fertility to flow.
A pregnant body is a healthy body and when internal and external stressor are reduced (meaning anything that makes your body work harder) and your body is well nourished and has everything it needs to support each anchor, fertility will be flow more easily.
Use this list and consider these anchors as you evaluate anywhere in your life that can use more focused support. Fertility is a whole body concern and finally addressing low fertility may just mean pulling on the right thread to find your root cause.
Unexplained does not mean unexplainable. It just means you haven’t found the right answer because you haven’t asked the right question.
xx and baby dust,
Ericka
