A Naturopathic Approach to Fertility Support

PART 2 OPTIMIZE WELLNESS & FERTILITY: A COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT

(To read the first section of this series: PART 1 OPTIMIZE WELLNESS & FERTILITY: THE BASICS….Click Here)


NOW WHAT? I am healthy, clean and lean, have completed detoxification methods and started preconception care. Lets take a comprehensive look at specific steps we can take to get you and keep you pregnant!

OVULATION: Start tracking your ovulation for at least three months. You would be surprised at how many women assume they ovulate mid-cycle but end up ovulating much earlier or later. If you have a longer cycle make sure you are not dealing with anovulation or Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome(PCOS). If you have a shorter cycle less than 26 days, and or ovulate later then day 16 then start therapeutics to lengthen the luteal phase of your cycle.

• URINE STICKS & TEST STRIPS: Expensive but work well, get a one month supply and see how it works for you and then you can track it for a few more months until you get consistency.
• CERVICAL MUCUS: Assess your cervical mucus through your cycle to note changes aiming towards ovulation. All women have cervical mucus through out their cycle and 24-48 hours before and at ovulation your will have a surge in hormones that increase mucus signaling heightened fertility and best time for intercourse. Once you can predict this fertile time you can aim to have sex just before ovulation and within 24-72 hour time frames for best results in pregnancy.
• BBT: Basal Body Temperature. Start taking your temperature every day first thing in the morning BEFORE you get out of bed and move around. Try to do this about the same time each day for 3 cycles. Chart it on calendar or APP and look for an obvious spike in temperature of one degree or more at the same time each month signaling ovulation.
• All three of these markers should match in times of the month. For more information and details on tracking ovulation I highly recommend Toni Weschlers book Take Charge of Your Fertility.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STRESS:

• CORTISOL & ADRENALS

Does Cortisol affect Fertility?
When your adrenals are shot, all your hormones are thrown off. The body digests cholesterol from the diet to make hormones. It will run them down the hormone pathways to make cortisol, DHEA, estrogen progesterone testosterone etc…yet in chronic states of stress, cortisol creation dominates the pathways and the other hormones get out of balance or depleted.  High cortisol will suppress the pituitary’s ability to release luteinizing hormone (LH). An LH surge is essential for ovulation generally at about day 14 of the menstrual cycle to release an egg. Abnormal cortisol levels can suppress ovulation creating a state of infertility. Estrogen, progesterone and the sex hormone ratios will also be imbalanced making it hard to promote fertility. In men, high levels of cortisol will lower testosterone levels which can make it difficult to get and or maintain erections. READ MORE….
 

• HORMONES: Get tested. Get your hormones tested to look at levels and specifically ratios of estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen dominance is very prevalent in our work driven society. The more the fight or flight part of the nervous system is activated and the longer it has been activated the more likely you are in need of hormone balancing with grounding adaptogens, plants, foods and exercises. I don’t rely on labs 100% but it can give us a lot of information to create a baseline and rule things in or out if pregnancy is not coming to you as easily as expected. Best tests to run are full hormone panels including sex hormones, thyroid, and cortisol, and may include AMH, Blood Sugar Values, Cholesterol, MTHFR, Clotting factors, Homocysteine, and Micronutrients.
• THYROID: The thyroid is known as the regulator of metabolism. But it also has far reaching effects to mood balance (implicating depression and anxiety), menstrual cycle regulation, sex hormone balance, lipid metabolism, growth, development, carbohydrate metabolism, release of stomach acid for digestion, and gastrointestinal motility among others. Many people show normal thyroid function on laboratory work, but still are clinically hypothyroid. READ MORE….

AGE: Age does play into fertility since as women we are born with all of the eggs we will ever have. As we age we have less eggs in the ovaries and some of them are of lesser quality so can lead to miscarriage if they are not viable. That being said 25 or 45 you can have imbalances in hormones affecting fertility as well as successful pregnancies and births. Coming from a woman who had her first child at almost 39 the bottom line I work with is, if you are ovulating you can get pregnant, so we start there!

 

 

IMPROVING EGG HEALTH, QUALITY, QUANTITY(Excerpt from the Center for Human Reproduction)

It is possible to improve a woman’s egg quality. The most important factor in treating a woman with diminished ovarian reserve, the cause of poor egg quality, is a timely diagnosis. Ovarian Reserve (OR) will continue to decline with time, so the sooner diminished ovarian reserve is diagnosed, the sooner effective treatment can begin, and we will have a better chance of improving the quality (and quantity) of the patient’s eggs, ultimately resulting in better pregnancy chances.

• DHEA Supplementation: In 2004, CHR’s Dr. Norbert Gleicher and Dr. David H Barad introduced dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) supplementation as a form of innovative fertility treatment for women with diminished ovarian reserve that, since then, has demonstrated some remarkable results. In the last few years, DHEA supplementation has been accepted worldwide. DHEA (a mild male hormone that is converted to testosterone and estradiol in the body) has been shown to increase the quality and quantity of eggs by improving the ovarian environment where the eggs mature.
  • "DHEA, whose use was pioneered by CHR, has been shown to increase both egg quality and quantity."
  • Diminished ovarian reserve, which is characterized by abnormally low levels of androgens in the ovaries, typically result in poor quality eggs. Supplementation with DHEA raises the androgen levels in the ovaries, and this “restoration” of androgen levels in the ovaries appears to affect egg quality positively. The improvement in egg quality then leads to an improvement in embryo quality, increased IVF success rates, decreased miscarriage rates, and decreased chances for chromosomal abnormalities in embryos.

• CoQ10 (Coenzyme Q10) Supplementation
  • Recently, we have started using CoQ10 (Coenzyme Q10) supplementation in women with diminished ovarian reserve, in addition to DHEA, in order to improve egg quality. While DHEA works on growing eggs by providing an androgen-rich environment to mature in, CoQ10 is an important nutrient for the mitochondria, a small organelle that provides energy to cells--including eggs--in human body. CoQ10 levels, as well as the number of healthy mitochondria, decline as women age, and top researchers in this area, like CHR’s Dr. Vitaly A Kushnir, believe that the age-related decline in CoQ10 levels contribute to the age-related loss in egg quality.
  • There are many women who have been advised by other fertility centers that, because of their poor quality eggs, their only chance of conception was with egg donation. But by combining DHEA/CoQ10 supplementation with a customized IVF treatment plan, we’ve helped countless women improve their egg quality and successfully conceive without the use of donor eggs. In fact, about one third of women who did not have enough good-quality eggs to attempt pregnancies with their own eggs at other fertility centers have successfully conceived and delivered, using their own eggs, after treatment at CHR!

 

SPERM: HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES:
“Male Factor is at least partly responsible in about 50% of infertile couples.”
~Dr. Stephen Shaban
 

• GENERAL HEALTH: Commit to a full 90-minute medical assessment. Thorough intake to evaluate medial history, goals and ongoing issues. Labs to assess cardiac function, thyroid, hormones and nutrient deficiencies all associated with energy and libido changes. Physical exam. Deal with stress and lower Stress levels ASAP. Quit smoking and no more than one alcoholic drink a day. Exercise! Get the blood pumping and lose the extra weight. Cardiovascular(CV) Health and low Thyroid function play a huge role in how your body uses oxygen to make ATP(energy) and funnel energy for libido. If you have family history of CV disease or signs and symptoms get checked out. Stress and Diet are two main components to lower energy levels that are overlooked when discussing physical as well as mental/emotional states related to sex drive and motivation. Nutrient deficiencies like anemia, methylation problems and poor carb/fat/protein ratios will take the pep right out of your step. Check it out!
• SUPPLEMENTS can help along with a healthy diet, plant based with raw foods daily, organic NON-GMO products as often as you are able. Don’t forget about water(and not water in coffee). Eight glasses of water a day, every day to hydrate the cells, increase oxygen carrying capacity and circulation. If you have deficiencies add these to your diet through foods or in a supplement: iron, B vitamins specifically B6, B12 and folate, trace minerals and essential fatty acids. Maca is great for calming the adrenals and providing and energy boost in a grounded way by enhancing communication between the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. Arginine, Carnitine and Ginseng can all help stimulate blood flow for erectile dysfunction and boost metabolism.
• SEMEN ANALYSIS:  It is important to look at the volume of sperm, motility, morphology  and total count. Analysis should be done 2-3 times for proper assessment.
• TESTING: Get your general annual exam first! Next is hormone testing including FSH, LH, Testosterone, E2, Prolactin, TSH, and can include blood and semen antibodies as well as bacteria associated with semen. Heavy metals accumulations and toxins, Mumps antibodies igg/igm, rubella antibodies igg/igm, and semen dna fragmentation.
• ANDROPAUSE & LOW TESTOSTERONE LEVELS: As men age, they begin to experience symptoms that fall in line with hormonal imbalance, particularly low testosterone¹ Many men never seek treatment and go about their daily lives experiencing significant decline in testosterone production, resulting in symptoms like fatigue, low libido, decreased strength, decreased mental capacity, anxiety, depression, decreased lean body mass, fatigue, and decrease in bone mineral density, among others. READ MORE….

 

DIET AND LIFESTYLE:

• ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET: Pregnancy is an enormously inflammatory process so the goal is to do everything you can to keep inflammation and inflammatory processes in the body at an all time low. This will lighten the load on your body when implantation happens to prevent possible miscarriage. The top 5 anti-inflammatory diet changes you can make to aid in fertility(and preconception which = 90 days) are to avoid WHEAT, DAIRY, COFFEE, ALCOHOL and SUGAR. Get food allergy testing done. This can pin point other possible foods causing a immune reaction in the body promoting inflammation. The testing also can encourage you to stick to a difficult diet regime when you see it in ink that certain foods are reeking havoc in your body.
• GRAIN BRAIN GRAIN BODY: A worthwhile book to read to support your diet choices for fertility and anti-aging.  GRAIN BRAIN by Dr. Perlmutter

 

POSITIVE THINKING: Seek Balance.
We are all seeking a fine balance in our lives as a cornerstone of health, happiness and wellness. In our fast paced lives this is often easier said than done and the deep impacts of stress and im-balance in our lives are largely overlooked. In any system, ecosystem or human system, physiologically we are programmed for homeostasis. We are innately born to stay in balance and create harmony in the body. We are very good at it and the younger we are the more we take advantage of this ability. As we age our nervous systems can start to get overloaded, the stress in our lives magnifies with jobs, financial woes, love and life and death.  Our digestion changes with stress and over time we need different things to support this pull towards center. Our ability to remove toxins can get sluggish, hormones start to get pulled in the wrong direction, blood sugar is dysregulated by pumping more cortisol into the system, our metabolic processes slow down, get distracted...and slowly but surely, over time, possibly over decades, we are off balance and cant seem to find our central axis again.

This process can be slow and easy, or fast and furious depending on who you are, what type of environment you were raised in, access to clean food and water or not, genetic and family history influences. The variables are endless. We all have the ability to cope with stress but after multiple heavy hits our system will start to struggle with this mechanism. The cause and the outcome will be different for us all.

What You Can Do: Sit up Straight  ~ Move your body every day ~ Sleep 8 hours every night, Take a nap! ~ Eat good clean and lean food, lots of veggies! ~ Look people in the eye and Communicate directly ~ Drink water every day, more than you think ~ Laugh, it boosts immunity
 

• DO YOGA: KUNDALINI YOGA is amazing way to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Promotes fertile processes.
• MEDITATE: Start now, one minute at a time. You can take a class, use an APP, walk or chant but multitudes of studies show that meditation holds a very important key to balance and happiness to enrich our lives. Try it and see what happens.
• SELF CARE: What do YOU need to do to take care of yourself. Ask for help? Create, sing, dance? Set boundaries? Find out what it is and stick to it. You deserve it!
• PATIENCE: At the end of the day studies show that within a year women and couples will become pregnant regardless of the intervention. Try to practice happiness in your life, eat well, laugh a lot, add preconception care if you have the opportunity and a big dose of self love and…..patience.

Have Questions? Lets talk!
Schedule a free 15 minute consult with Dr.Martin

Naturopathic Womens Wellness
1295 Yellow Pine Ave. Boulder CO 80304
P: 303-545-2021  |  F: 303-545-2003 
E: DrMartin@nawellness.com
 |  Dr. Hillary Martin  |