Preparing for natural conception or IVF? or maybe looking to optimise your hormonal health and future proof your fertility options…?

It takes 3 months for the egg that you ovulate this month to mature so it means there is no better time than now to understand your menstrual cycle, what it’s telling you hormonally and start to ‘tweak’ and optimise this not just for conception and a healthy pregnancy but for beyond. .

Foundations for Fertility and hormone health

NUTRITION

It goes without saying that food choices is one of the biggest factors when it comes to overall health and wellbeing so naturally this cascades into influencing fertility and hormonal health - “you really are what you eat!’. By getting nutrition right means you can start to build your foundations on really good solid ground. Supplements can also be part of this too but it’s the nutrients from the food we eat that should be and really is the key priority. A consultation with a nutritionalist (who incorporates functional testing) or a Functional Medicine practitioner can be invaluable and worth their weight in gold when it comes to delving deeper into this. It takes away all the guess work (and money spent) from reading lots of different books, scrolling instagram, TikTok, google and trying out this or that supplement to see if it works plus it means you have a tailored plan for your very own specific needs.

If this isn’t an option there are some general nutritional principles for fertility and hormone health -

Make sure you are getting nuts and seeds into your diet- they are not only great sources of protein but also contain healthy fats (your body needs fat to make hormones). Healthy fat sources can also include avocado, butter, and ghee.
Include a protein source with every meal - especially at breakfast as this will make sure your blood sugar levels get off to a good start for the day - carbs and sweet food choices cause blood sugar to spike and mean feeling wired and on a sugar rollercoaster for the rest of the day.
Take note of how you feel and what your body is telling you - if you feel sluggish in the afternoon or as the day goes on, then eating to support blood sugar levels can have a big impact. Working to keep your blood sugar balanced can be massively influential here as it’s the blood sugar spikes that play havoc with your hormonal health. Why?? When sugar spikes the body needs to release lots of insulin to bring it down, when these levels drop the body reacts by releasing a big surge of the stress hormone cortisol to counteract this.
but why is this such a big deal???
Insulin plays a massive role when it comes to fertility - it disrupts or even stops ovulation and impacts your egg development and quality. If that’s not enough chaos, cortisol also can impact your delicate hormonal balance by interfering with ovulation and cause irregular cycles too, so neither of these scenarios are great especially if you are looking to optimise conception.

SLEEP

When it comes to hormonal regulation sleep is a massive superpower…

Between 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night is the gold standard. We all know the after effects of disrupted sleep caused from working late, shift work, a late night out, or maybe just from a terrible sleep the night before - in the morning we usually feel really groggy, irritable, can’t concentrate, or maybe go on to make mistakes at work or possibly poor decisions or choices. At a deeper level, this disruption also packs a punch hormonally making everything go a bit offbeat because sleep helps to regulate the body’s cortisol and insulin levels.

Good sleep is a lifestyle habit and ultimately gives the body a chance to hit the pause and reset button. Melatonin is the hormone that helps us to drop off and stay asleep so has a big impact on our sleep-wake cycle (or circadian rhythm). Melatonin naturally rises in the evening, so relaxing, having a bath and winding down will all benefit this process whereas being busy, exercising later in the evening, stress from working late and the blue light from screens or the television can trick the brain into thinking you should be awake and not settling down to sleep.

STRESS

Stress response places our body in a state of fight or flight by pumping out cortisol so we can react to any actual or perceived danger, so it isn’t your enemy - it’s actually your best friend and designed to save your life. However your body should be able to switch back into a relaxed state once any situation or danger has passed, and now more often or not this isn’t the case as we juggle work, life, child care, caring for elderly parents, the relentless emails, meetings and striving to give 110% all the time, means that this stays “switched on” and in ‘survival’ mode.

When it comes to fertility and hormonal balance this isn’t ideal- the body is not interested in making babies or in your menstrual cycle when its in stuck in this survival state- it thinks it’s not safe and just wants to get you out the way of any danger, plus it also means bubbling away in the background you have a load of cortisol pumping around your body playing havoc with your hormones.

How can we change this??

No matter how hard we try we can never eliminate stress totally from our life, but we can try to work towards improving our resilience by building in tiny little micro-habits that can help us to cope better. Thinking about the stressors that we can realistically change (many we can do absolutely nothing about), and focus of these can be the first step to realistically managing stress and its affects.

What this could possibly look like??

Maybe doing an online shop, building in some routines into life to make things easier, delegating, firming up on some boundaries - the really boring but practical things!!
Regulating the breath with yoga, meditation, pilates, qigong- this rebalances the nervous system.
Getting some acupuncture. Of course! its really effective when it comes to helping your body switch off and into that relaxed state.
Meeting up with friends, going out for a walk in nature, being creative - painting/drawing/knitting - exercise whatever feels and is right for you ..…
Finding your tribe and friends that can and will support and lift you. This is especially important for anyone on a fertility journey - lets face it trying to conceive every month and fertility challenges can not just be overwhelming but they are also physically and mentally draining - surround yourself or spend more time with the people who understand this and you can trust.

Environmental Toxins

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) such as BPA, and pesticides are all widely recognised as being very much part of the food we eat and the environment we live in now. It’s no great surprise that these are extremely detrimental not just to our health but fertility too. Many of these can mimic and interfere with our essential hormones such as progesterone and oestrogen - so what can you realistically do??

Our daily choices can have a big impact to the amount of exposure the body has to these toxins, so -

Ditch the non stick cooking pans - stainless steel or cast iron are better choices.

Switch from plastic to glass containers - this prevents xenoestrogens (these mimic and disrupt our natural oestrogen) and BPA contaminating the food and water we consume.

Drinking water from glass bottles as opposed to plastic, and don’t reuse any plastic bottles or drink water from plastic bottles that have been sitting in the sun.

Avoid cooking food in plastic, or putting warm food into plastic containers - this limits the amount of EDC’s leaching into the food you are about to eat.

Household cleaning products - such as brands Ecover and Method can offer alternatives to limiting exposure within our home environment.

Exercise

Exercise is widely accepted as being key for health and wellbeing, it doesn’t just benefit heart and lung health but also shown to lower stress levels too. Exercise works wonders for fertility and hormonal health as it can help to regulate insulin levels - too much insulin (often the case with PCOS), effects egg maturation and can stop ovulation. This is why some form of exercise whether it be walking, running, cycling, gym, HITT, swimming, yoga, pilates, whatever works for you, is a must for hormonal health and fertility.

It’s also worth knowing that too much or strenuous exercise, and/or not fuelling your body with enough food can have the opposite effect - it tips your body into fight and flight mode. (see section about stress)

How much is too much?? As a very rough guide- listen to your body! do you feel exhausted or energised after exercise..?

It takes two…

Yes you guessed it…. fertility isn’t just down to us ladies.. male factor is just as much an important part to play with this too.

Research has shown sperm levels in the Western Word have plummeted over the past 40 years.. so what is considered ‘normal’ now is definately way lower than the ‘normal’ of 10 to 20 years ago..

This means that fertility and conception is team work and understanding the potential impact of lifestyle and environmental factors on male fertility and active participation with this is a crucial part your fertility journey together too..

Looking for help or support?

Please know and be assured that ANY realistic and positive changes you can make will have a positive impact. It doesn’t need to be overwhelming, perfect or make you feel like you are under even more pressure to stick to lots of new ‘rules’. Any small changes from even just one of these sections that you can stick to most of the time is a far healthier approach and better than all or nothing.

If you are reading this and would like to dig a bit deeper, cannot understand why it’s taking you so long to get pregnant, or if you would like to prepare your body and your cycle to make it more robust hormonally for IVF or natural conception, I can help you piece together the pieces of your hormone jigsaw and support you with a plan for this. If you would like to find out more about ways we could work together please do get in touch.

Fertility Foundations