I am one of the 1 out of 10 women that have PCOS. 70-80% of women with PCOS have difficulties getting pregnant. I have made it no secret that it took us a lot longer than we anticipated to get pregnant. I hope by sharing our fertility journey it gives others hope and the realization they are not alone.
Before I get started on this blog post I want to take a second to emphasize that one’s fertility journey is highly personal. Bio-individuality is a huge factor. This content in your article is based on my personal experiences and what worked for us. If you are seeking medical advice, I highly suggest reaching out to a Functional Medicine Doctor. I am a big fan of Valerie Donaldson, MD.
There are many things that can contribute to one’s fertility: nutrition, stress, nutrient deficiencies, structural issues, toxic load and lifestyle factors. For the sake of this article I will break each category down.
Nutrition
- If you have been following along you know that my diet did a complete 180 when I was in college. I went from eating highly processed foods to following Sarah Ballantyne’s Paleo Protocol which is essentially eating foods in their purest form and eliminating top trigger foods. Within a few years I went from being prescribed over a dozen medications to being able to manage all of my symptoms with diet and lifestyle. Once I made one change and felt good about it, I gained momentum with feeling comfortable to make other changes.
- A few years into this journey I came off of anxiety and ADD medication. When I came off of these medications my metabolism went way down and I gained 50 pounds within months. This is when I learned all about balancing my blood sugar – and learned that I have PCOS. You can still eat really clean but if you are not pairing your foods properly it can impact your weight. I learned the importance of combining vegetables, animal protein (I am not a fan of plant based proteins), and healthy fats at every meal. Instead of just grazing all day, I started to eat actual meals. Since PCOS is a metabolic/endocrine disorder, the weight started to just fall off. As this happened, my periods became a lot more normal.
- We eat 95% home cooked meals and I do not drink. I haven’t drank in over 5 years. I talk all about my journey in Giving Up Alcohol On My Blog. Alcohol impacts female hormones differently than it impacts males. Even just one drink a week threw my body off, so I avoid it entirely and will likely never go back since I feel so much better without it. Since fertility is 50% the male too, my husband eats the way I do as well. We both feel so much better when we focus on real foods and stay away from highly inflammatory foods. Protein is king – animal protein that is. There are certain nutrients in animal meat that cannot be found in other forms of protein. I prioritize high quality animal protein at every meal along with vegetables. One of my favorite places to get our meats from is Butcher Box. Use my link and get FREE beef for life.
Nutrient Deficiencies
- I worked with my Functional Medicine doctor to do blood work to not just ensure my results were within normal range but within optional range. In my experience, traditional doctors will not talk to you about functional ranges, instead they will look at just the normal range which is not the best for fertility.
- Both Mitchell and I take WeNatal which is a prenatal and I also take the omega they offer too. This is a must for us! I also take inositol powder every night and magnesium. I wrote a whole blog post on Why Magnesium is A Must For Me and a lot of people.
Stress
- The year before we got pregnant we built our dream home. While I am so happy we made the move, the process was extremely stressful. For me, if we were going to build a home I wanted it to be exactly how I wanted it. Looking back it makes sense why I did not get pregnant then. I am not sure my body could have handled it! Sometimes when you look at things from above and take the emotions out of it, it makes sense why things are not happening the way you want them to happen.
- Both my husband and I have become a lot more selective of the things we do socially. We no longer say yes to everything and jam pack our weekends. We prioritize slow weekends at home and only say yes to social outings that we really want to do. FOMO is no longer a thing, instead we embrace it. We also have made an intentional effort to surround ourselves with others that are in alignment with us. We no longer surround ourselves with people who live for the weekend and want to go out all weekend long. We are big fan of home dinners and gathering in the home.
- For my husband, although he loves his job it can also be very demanding. Instead of focusing on things we could not change within his work, we started focusing on the things we could add in that make him feel more well balanced. He feels so good after working out and loves kick starting the week by going to church, both things we have made a priority which have helped him feel more in balance. He also started eating breakfast. This may not seem like a big deal, but he used to drink 4 cups of coffee on an empty stomach, this puts the body in fight or flight instantly. Now, instead he eats egg muffins from our meal prep menu, and drinks a green juice in the afternoon instead of drinking his afternoon coffee. He feels so much better with this!
Toxic load
- It is easy to get wrapped up in everything around us that can be considered as toxic. Instead of letting myself go crazy about thinking about it all, I slowly started to change things in our home to help us live a lower toxic lifestyle. I linked a few of my favorite swaps below:
- Pots and pans
- Food storage
- Better for you cleaning products and ensuring everything we use is unscented
- Like I mentioned above, we moved into our new home last year. While it was cleaned prior to moving in, between all of the new materials, chemicals and dust from the building process, I could not stop coughing for 4 months straight. It was an adjustment to my body. We took a break from wallpapering, bringing new items into the house (furniture containers VOCs-volatile organic compounds which can be toxic to breathe in) and the cough eventually went away. It made sense as to why I was not getting pregnant.
- I also make an effort to sweat everyday to help my body detox as well as drink teas that help my body flush things out! I wrote a whole blog post about my Go To Teas.
Lifestyle Factors
- One thing we did not realize was a big no no for men that want to get their wife pregnant is extreme heat! My husband loves the sauna, he would go in it every day. This apparently can kill sperm. Once we figured this out, he stopped using the sauna and I got pregnant within a few months.
- We stopped obsessing. Earlier this year I was getting frustrated every month that I was not pregnant. We told ourselves that we were still going to take aligned action (take care of our bodies, track my cycle, ect) but we would not stress about it. We started looking at it as maybe we have not gotten pregnant yet because we are supposed to be focusing on other things. I started a home decor business with my friend (since I found out I was pregnant I am not longer part of it) and Mitchell was focusing on the things that filled him up then too. We told ourselves that if this did not work for us we would just adopt and we were truly at peace with it. Shortly after, I found out I was pregnant. While I truly believe there are a lot of changes that can support your fertility I also think a big part of it is surrendering too. The waiting period taught me a lot about how everything is always working in our favor and our higher being always has a greater plan. I am thankful for the time it took us to get pregnant. It brought my husband and I closer and it gave us the space to focus on things that we otherwise would not have been able to focus on.
xoxo Allianna
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