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Natural medicine can affect IVF outcomes through a few methods:
Reducing environmental toxin load
Improving nutritional status
Regulation of metabolic hormones that affect reproductive hormones
Environmental toxins like plastics, herbicides/pesticides, and agricultural hormones and antibiotics are very widespread. Our water, our air, our food, and our bodies, inside and out are constantly being exposed to these chemicals. While they negatively affect our bodies in many ways, fertility indicators like egg quality, sperm quality, and the uterine environment are where we are seeing these chemicals being an obstacle to healthy pregnancies.
The Standard American Diet is well known for being calorie-laden and nutrient-deficient. How is this possible? Combine high intake of processed and fast food with a lack of vegetable and fruit intake and overall low nutrient levels in the soil our food is grown in, the picture becomes clear (if not pretty). Many, many Americans do not grow up eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables. Many people do not know how to cook and often are grabbing packaged, pre-prepared foods that are more about tickling taste buds than improving health.
An outgrowth of the Standard American Diet is insulin resistance (causing diabetes and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). Eating more starches than your body can comfortably digest triggers a metabolic switch that wants to store every last calorie for later and also boosts baseline inflammatory levels. On the other end of the spectrum is a group of women who restrict calories and over-exercise their bodies into nutrient deficiency.
By addressing these obstacles to natural fertility, we are sending women into IVF with healthier bodies. Those healthier bodies will require lower doses of medications, fewer surgeries and procedures to get better outcomes. Bonus: Women who are eating better, exercising better and sleeping better will handle the sheer stress of infertility care better.
The good news?
Nearly all of this is reversible through knowledge and behavioral changes.
The better news? The same knowledge and behavioral changes that will help you get pregnant will also keep your future family healthy and protected.
Are you ready to kick off your fertility journey?