10 Ways to Boost Fertility Naturally | Freedom Chinese Medicine

Pregnancy1 Do you need to boost your fertility? Would you prefer to do so naturally? Is your fertility affected by a low egg count or advanced age? If yes, take heart, you’re not alone. I was there and I’ve seen many women in that situation. There are many things that you can do..

Of course, specific professional advice tailored to your unique situation is the best way. Seeing an experienced Chinese Medicine practitioner, Naturopath or Integrative Medicine practitioner is the best way to obtain guidance to optimise your health and Natural Fertility.

Your Western fertility specialist can help of course. But most of them don’t teach you how to improve your fertility naturally, to improve your chances of success with or without IVF.

These tips below can complement your care. They are about minimising the factors which can result in the premature recruitment or destruction of your eggs.

Now, I realise that some of these tips can seem like hard work. Too much effort. I do understand. But coming from someone who went through years of trying to conceive, I will say that it’s worth it. Having a baby in your arms is wonderful, but it also hard work..

..And, I feel the best we can do when TTC is to do our best, try everything that we can, so we have no regrets. Whether you successfully conceive or not at the end of all this, you want to know in your heart that you did everything you could. Not be left wondering 5 years down the track whether you should have tried this or that..

So here goes my first 10 tips, in order of priority:

Eat well. Avoid genetically modified food, plastics (which we eat & drink from), alcohol, caffeine, artificial sweeteners and refined sugar. Eat whole, recognizable food. Raw food is generally not well digested, so mostly cooked foods is best.For some of you this will be difficult, for others not so. Start with cutting out one thing, the most damaging to fertility, which is either alcohol, caffeine or refined sugar. The thing to remember here is that it’s not forever. 5 months tops if you have egg quality issues. And that eating well improves your health, and the health of your pregnancy, your potential child and their children. It’s worth it. And it’s easy once you get the hang of it.

Improve your digestive function. Poor nutrient absorption and/or availability can result in many problems. Including fertility problems. Some examples include DNA transcription errors, high levels of oxidative stress, poor mitochondrial function (this all basically has to do with how well your cells function), poor circulation, poor metabolism of toxins, weakened immune system and poor hormone synthesis. Contact us if you need help to improve your digestion.

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Eat Organic. Including any animal products and their feed. Yes it’s worth it. You can reduce the cost of organic food by growing some of your own. Even sprouts on a window sill. And it’s certainly cheaper than an IVF cycle. Let’s look at the specific affects of environmental toxins on our fertility:

– HCB is one such toxin which is sprayed on grains as an antifungal. HCB can reduce ovulatory estradiol levels (basically your estrogen levels when you’re ovulating), causes degenerative changes in primordial follicles (your eggs at the start of their lifespan) and may induce premature ovarian failure¹

– Cadmium is another environmental toxin found in food and fertilisers which decreases the number of growing follicles (your young eggs), alters mitochondrial structure, disrupts progesterone synthesis², increases miscarriages and reduces gonadotropin binding³. This all basically means that Cadmium affects you negatively on a cellular and hormonal level in terms of getting pregnant.

– Arsenic is also found in insecticides, fungicides, chicken, pork, wine, tobacco and seafood. Arsenic causes oxidative damage to ovaries.⁴

Eat a wide variety of organic fruits, vegetables and naturally fed lean meats, seeds and nuts. In particular, if you have indicators of a low egg count: Eat carrots, sweet potato, tomato, liver, beets, apples, avocados, purslane, kiwi fruit, parsnips, dill, celery, coriander & parsley. These foods aid the recruitment of your follicles (to become an egg to ovulate), and improve cellular function related to energy production and anti-ageing processes. Here are some handy juice recipes to boost your fertility.

Spinach, whole eggs, poultry and lamb help improve egg maturation, follicular recruitment.

Blueberries, bilberries, black berries and raspberries are also helpful. Minimising intake of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage is a good idea as they contain aflatoxins, which can work against getting pregnant when you’re older.

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Don’t use bleached products, especially those used to wipe or insert into your vagina. Bleached products contain dioxins which are an industrial pollutant. Dioxin exposure can promote endometriosis, reduces FSH receptors (our cells ability to respond to this hormone which stimulates our follicles), can cause no ovulation and ovarian dysfunction.⁵

Chew your food thoroughly. The extra saliva will help to break down some of the toxins that may be in your food. Yep, simple saliva can help. Try counting to 20 whilst chewing before you swallow each mouthful.

Reduce your radiation exposure. Yes radiation can affect your ovaries and DNA. You can reduce your radiation exposure by not putting your mobile phone near your pelvis, ie. in your pocket. You can also turn your mobile phone, ipad or tablet off at night.

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Drink filtered water and shower in filtered water if possible. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are found in plastics, adhesive and flame retardants. We are exposed to them through eating fish, duck and tap water. PCBs cause complete reproductive failure in mink. PCBs reduce the number ovarian follicles, may cause premature ovarian failure and reduces fertilised eggs.⁶

Remove toxic chemicals from your home, including what you wash in and put on your face. Mercury is found in some personal care products such as preparation H, spermicides, contact lens solutions and makeup.

Avoid green tea. Yes green tea has many health benefits, but not when we want to optimise our egg count. Green tea reduces VEGF production and inhibits granulosa cell proliferation,⁷ which basically means that it doesn’t help your ovaries.

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Enough to think about & implement for now? I understand that can be a lot to take in. Try introducing one change per week or even a month so the habit sticks. Please like our Facebook page or subscribe to our newsletter for more tips and resourceful information about health.

Also be aware that the lifespan of your eggs, from what we call a primordial follicle to ovulation is 150 days. Yes, 5 months. So boosting your fertility in this way can be gradual process but it needs to be sustainable and consistent over months to really make a difference. The added bonus of following this advice for pregnancy is that it can improve your health overall. And your future child’s health. And their children’s health..

Are you interested in a fertility Telehealth consult? To get tailored expert advice for your unique situation? Click here to read more about what that involves & how to book.

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