Understanding the Rise in Infertility
Episode 151
Infertility isn’t something that we should be ashamed of. In today’s episode of Integrative Wellness Radio Dr. Nicole walks us through how infertility is actually a lack of understanding about the hormones that are off in our body. She then gives us a detailed insight into why Infertility isn’t bad luck or bad genes. Tune in to the whole episode and gather knowledge on dealing with infertility and how to prepare for a healthy pregnancy and birth. Interested in learning more about Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole’s courses, memberships, or private work? Learn more at Integrative You . Have a quick question, Would you like to schedule a call, or just want to say hi? Text us at 732.913.0009. Our mission to innovate humans & Healthcare does NOT start and stop with us! This is why we are also dedicated to helping other practitioners in evolving healthcare too! If you are a healthcare leader and are looking to up-level your clinical + business excellence Learn more about our course membership: Limitless Healthprenuer and start boldly disrupting this industry! Noteworthy Time Stamps: 02:35 Why infertility is becoming such an epidemic 05:37 Infertility isn’t your fault 17:09 Blood sugar instability and hormone levels 24:57 What are micoestrogens? 34:09 Infections and Infertility 43:48 A case study 50:42 You don’t know what you don’t know
Topics: infertility, understanding, hormones, fertility, unknown, pregnancy, something, integrative
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Understanding the Rise in Infertility
- Infertility is often a symptom of hormonal dysregulation, not a personal failing.
- Understanding the connection between blood sugar instability and hormone levels is crucial for reproductive health.
- Environmental factors, like exposure to microestrogens and infections, can significantly impact fertility.
- A holistic approach that addresses lifestyle and environmental influences is key to improving fertility outcomes.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine to learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey.
Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on my own. **Unknown:** Hello.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. I been up all night, no sleep. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick and Dr. Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine to learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey. I feel like I'm always dreaming. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on my own.
**Unknown:** Hello. Hello, everyone. So we are here tonight. So this month it's all been about hormones, and one of the topics that often comes up in conversation is really trying to understand why there is so many issues with fertility right now.
**Unknown:** And definitely when it comes to infertility, it is something that unfortunately a lot of women are struggling with and a lot of women are feeling really, really ashamed of. And it's really not something that we should necessarily feel ashamed of because it's really just a lack of understanding some of the things that are potentially going on in our body. And it's not our fault that we don't necessarily know what these things are, but unfortunately, when we are dealing with infertility, we are usually just focusing on working with a infertility specialist, and we're trying to jump through hoops in order to get our hormones to a place that make it, um, make it a good environment to have a viable pregnancy, but sometimes we're missing the understanding of why we might be struggling with the infertility, and it really comes back to some very specific foundational principles which I'm gonna talk more about tonight. So, um, I'm really excited to, to talk more about this because I want women to know that there is a solution.
**Unknown:** There is a, a reason for why you may be struggling with infertility. It is not bad genes. It is not bad luck, and it is something that you can... Once you have the knowledge, you can actually prepare your body for having a happy, healthy pregnancy and birth, um, because unfortunately, some of us that are going through fertility treatment are kind of having this really, really, um, y- you know, difficult pregnancy because we feel so tired and so sick and we end up on bed rest, and there is a reason for that as well which I'm gonna talk more about tonight.
**Unknown:** So some of the most important things that you gu- you guys are gonna take away tonight is really understanding why infertility is, uh, becoming such an epidemic, also understanding that you don't know what you don't know. It is impossible for you to understand what is the foundational reason why you are struggling with getting pregnant and, of course, really trying to understand what can you do about it. Um, and sometimes it is an extremely, extremely easy fix, and sometimes it's a little bit more complicated, but that doesn't mean that you can... You know, you can't overcome it.
**Unknown:** It's just having the right strategy and the right tools. When it comes to hormones, I have never ever, ever worked with a woman who just had a hormone problem and there was nothing else going on. Hormones were part of the puzzle, but there was always something else going on. Sometimes that was gut stress.
**Unknown:** Sometimes that was neurological stress. Sometimes it was immune system stress. Sometimes it was compromised detox pathways. Every single person is extremely different, but your hormones don't necessarily just dysfunction by themselves.
**Unknown:** There usually is different reasoning as to why they become imbalanced, and really what it comes down to is it's not necessarily about the diagnosis. It's not really even about necessarily the symptoms. It's about what is the foundational root cause, and when you do the right testing and you ask the right questions, you can actually decipher what is causing the diagnosis or what is causing the symptoms, and this is what allows me to work with so many different types of people, infertility cases being one. But one thing I will say about, um, infertility is I do not accept women that are trying to work on fertility when they give me a timeline, and the only reason I do that is because when you're dealing with the body, every single person's body is extremely different, and the way that you're going to fix the foundation, there's a different timeline for everyone.
**Unknown:** So for, for me to have the pressure to say, "I need to be pregnant in a month and I need you to fix me in a month", that is not necessarily always a realistic expectation. So the women that I tend to work with are the women that we're really giving ourselves the time and we're also giving our bodies the ability to not only maybe clean the things out that are stressing the system but also then replenishing the body to be a extremely healthy environment for a baby to grow and get all of the nutrients that that baby needs because that is a huge part of the puzzle, is your baby is going to steal all of your nutrients, and if you don't have enough, it is going to be... It's gonna make you sick, is really what it comes down to. And it's not necessarily just about looking at your hormones.
**Unknown:** It's about looking beyond that and looking at, is there something that is affecting your hormones? So first and foremost, females that are listening, I want you to know that if you have struggled to get pregnant and then you've gone down the road of fertility treatment and you are still struggling to get pregnant, it is not your fault. It is not your fault that you don't necessarily know the big picture as to why your hormones are imbalanced. It is not your fault that you don't know that if maybe you have deficiencies that are not allowing you to get pregnant.
**Unknown:** It is impossible for you to know what is the core root behind it if you haven't done the right testing.So I want you to move away from the place of feeling guilty, feeling ashamed, feeling like less of a woman because you've been struggling with getting pregnant because there is a reason. It's not just you. There's no-- there's not that there's no reason, and it's just bad luck. There is a reason why it hasn't happened yet.
**Unknown:** And I say yet because it is possible for you to get pregnant once you know what the foundational reason is. So just a foundation that you need to understand as we move into this topic about infertility is that when you are not getting pregnant or struggling to get pregnant, you go and see who? A fertility specialist. And this fertility specialist is ob-obviously focusing on hormones and fertility.
**Unknown:** That is their specialty. And most of medicine is segregated into all of these specialties. So your... If you have a gut issue or you have depression or you have a kidney disorder or whatever you might be struggling with, those are going to be assumed that they have nothing to do with the fact that you're struggling to get pregnant.
**Unknown:** And your fertility specialist is not necessarily going to ask you, "Do you have gastrointestinal issues? Do you have depression? Do you have an autoimmune condition?" They're not necessarily thinking that there is any level of a connection or a relation to your hormones, and that is just bad physiology because everything is connected, and there are so many things, especially different types of immune system stressors that will consistently affect your hormones. And this really gives, uh, brings me to the second point of the lack of understanding basic physiology.
**Unknown:** You know, if we really look at basic physiology, ninety to ninety-five percent of our serotonin, which is our feel-good hormone, is made in our gut. So if you have a gastro problem like irritable bowel syndrome, but you also have depression, but you're working with a psychiatrist and a gastroenterologist, and they're assuming both of those things are completely unrelated, they're wrong because most of that feel-good hormone is actually made in your gut. So how this actually even relates to hormones is that your serotonin directly influences your estrogen, and your estrogen directly influences your serotonin. So if you have depression because of your gut issues, which means you're bottomed out in serotonin, you're gonna have an estrogen problem, and the same thing goes vice versa.
**Unknown:** So there is a massive, massive connection to your mood and your neurotransmitters to your sex hormones. So a common question that I get is, "Why doesn't every physician look at the body from an integrative standpoint?" Or, "What-- why doesn't every practitioner do what you guys do at Integrative Wellness Group?" And I always reply with the foundation of how we do testing in traditional medicine is going to be chemistry-based testing. What is the most common test that you get on a yearly basis? It's gonna be blood work.
**Unknown:** So blood work is going to reveal different types of chemistry imbalances, so one of those primary things is hormones. So if we look at your hormones through your blood work, and we see that your estrogen is low or your progesterone is low, then we're just going to use chemistry-altering substances to boost those levels, AKA we're gonna give you a biogenical hormone or we're gonna give you a hormone replacement, and we're just going to focus on the hormone, and we're not necessarily going to go outside of that box. But your hormones can easily be compromised because you have toxins or because you have infections or because you have gut issues or because you have depression. So it's really a matter of understanding that most of the testing that is done is actually done on the premise of using pharmacology to correct a biochemistry issue.
**Unknown:** So we're always looking at the hormones, and we're never looking beyond that. And this then brings us to the one-size-fits-all treatment. Okay, let's do fertility treatment, which is utilizing a variety of different techniques and hormone replacement in order to get your hormones to a high enough level that you can now be pregnant. But at the end of the day, maybe you're not getting pregnant because the environment is not necessarily the healthiest at this time.
**Unknown:** So this is a really, really great example. So I had a woman who, uh, came to me, and she was struggling with, um, infertility, and she already had something scheduled out. Uh, I think she actually had a, an appointment that was scheduled out four months from when we started to work together because that was the first availability of the fertility specialists, uh, specialist in Manhattan. So what's interesting about that is think about that.
**Unknown:** That's a four-month waiting list, so this fertility specialist is obviously quite busy. So this is not just this woman. There are many, many, many people that are struggling with infertility. So as we started to work together, you know, our primary goal was to not necessarily sit here and just focus on the infertility, but it was to look at the big picture and look at, you know, what is going on in this woman's body that is creating a lot of stress.
**Unknown:** And as we started to work together, you know, one of the biggest things that came up was the fact that she, um, had a lot of issues with her blood sugar. So her blood sugar yo-yoed. Sometimes it was so, um, it was so imbalanced that she would actually faint. That happened a lot more when she was in her twenties.
**Unknown:** And then as she got older, she really wasn't fainting as much, but she still had a lot of issues with like lightheadedness, dizziness. And then she alsoUm, would get extremely, extremely irritable and shaky if she did not eat for a couple of hours. Like, literally... normally some people can go, you know, six, seven hours.
**Unknown:** She wasn't able to go more than two hours without eating something to keep her blood sugar stable So, um, really what her testing revealed is she was extremely hypoglycemic, so low blood sugar and part of this actually came back to some very significant infections that she had in her gastrointestinal system So these infections were affecting her pancreas which was not allowing her to keep her blood sugar stable. So this wasn't really about her diet, this was really about the pancreas being stressed because other aspects of her gut was stressed. So the point of understanding this is that this was not the only piece of the puzzle for this woman dealing with her infertility, but one of the primary things that is absolutely essential for you to have a healthy environment for your baby is that you need to make sure that your blood sugar is stable because your child is going to steal a tremendous amount of your nutrients, glucose being one of them So if you have a boatload of glucose that is floating around in your blood, that could potentially create a lot of inflammation in the body which then can put the baby at risk for developing different types of autoimmune conditions, meaning that your immune system can start to attack the baby because of all the inflammatory stress which would then cause a miscarriage. So this could seem like such a minute thing that, okay, this hypoglycemia, this blood sugar instability has literally nothing to do with infertility, but it actually had a lot to do with infertility and then in addition to that, because of the other things going on in her gut, she was extremely nutrient deficient.
**Unknown:** One of her primary deficiencies was iron. So if any of you have ever looked at a prenatal, one of the primary things in a prenatal is going to be iron, and that is because your baby is going to steal all of the iron that you have in your body. So if you do not have enough to give, your baby is not gonna get the proper nutrients to grow and you are also going to get extremely, extremely sick with morning sickness, headaches, fatigue, et cetera. So the infertility is not always necessarily about the baby.
**Unknown:** Sometimes it's actually about decreasing your risk. So that's why sometimes when women use the different hormone therapies and then they get pregnant through the hormone replacement, they feel very, very sick going through the pregnancy, and this is because their body is struggling to provide the proper nutrients that the baby really needs to grow. So some of the biggest things that are causing our hormones to be imbalanced, that is then leading us down the road of having issues with fertility. So some of the biggest things are in relation to too much, um, hormone in the body that is coming from external sources.
**Unknown:** So one of the biggest culprits for this is industrial farming. So one of the primary things that we get exposed to by consuming different types of animal products that are not organic is high levels of growth hormone and estrogen. So if you have chronically high estrogen, this is going to counterbalance and throw off your progesterone levels which is then going to create irregularity with your periods, which is then also going to create a lot of issues with fertility. So secondarily is chemicals.
**Unknown:** Not only do chemicals from a lot of these personal products that we're using like lotions and shampoos and conditioners, not only do they create a lot of hormone imbalance, but they also create a lot of toxicity within our bodies which unfortunately your body knows best. It's not going to allow a developing baby or embryo to be in a toxic environment. So this is not just about hormone imbalance, this is also about the risk that the child... the growing child will have by being in a toxic environment.
**Unknown:** The blood sugar instability I've already talked about a little bit. So blood sugar instability is going to completely alter your hormone levels but also create a lot of inflammation for a growing baby as well and then there's circulation. So for those of you that are struggling with really cold hands and feet or you have really bad varicose veins, you could easily have circulation issues to the placenta. So if you're not getting proper blood supply to the placenta, that can also create a lot of stress on the baby because the baby is not necessarily getting proper oxygenation because of the lack of blood flow.
**Unknown:** So stress, we all know stress is bad. Um, we don't always realize the effect that it plays, but if you have elevated stress hormones, you are going to have low sex hormones. So the low sex hormones are not going to allow for you to get pregnant because everything is being suppressed. Um, the most interesting thing about stress is that, you know, as much as we have evolved, um, over time, our genetics actually have not necessarily evolved since, you know, we were hunter-gatherers and cavemen and what happens is, is your body doesn't really know the difference of you being in the woods about to fight a tiger or run versus you getting a really crappy email from your boss that made you upsetSo your body still perceives both of those things as a fight or flight response, which will compromise your hormones every single time.
**Unknown:** So gut infections is another big culprit for why our hormones can be imbalanced. So when you're dealing with different types of gut infections, not only can these be things that could affect the, the baby, but also it will com-completely compromise your, um, sex hormone levels because of your body dealing with all of the immune system stress. And the same thing really goes for different types of infections that are happening either in your vaginal tract as well as in the urinary tract. All these infections are extremely, extremely significant for throwing off your hormones and also not creating the most optimal environment for a baby to grow and develop.
**Unknown:** And I've already kind of said this about the nutrient deficiencies, but sometimes not getting pregnant is as simple as you do not have enough nutrients to give. Iron, B vitamins, um, calcium, magnesium, et cetera. These are all things that your baby needs tremendous, tremendous amounts of. So some of the biggest, biggest myths about, um, hormones and infertility is that our PMS is completely normal, myth number one.
**Unknown:** Myth number two is that the foods that we eat do not play a role on our hormones or the fact that we're dealing with infertility. Myth number three is that our hormones are not connected with our neurotransmitters or our mood. And what I mean by that is for those of you that have been listening the whole time is that your serotonin, your feel-good hormone, is completely tied to your estrogen levels. So if your estrogen is depleted, your serotonin is depleted.
**Unknown:** If your serotonin is depleted, your estrogen is depleted. That's just the way that it works. Also, next myth is that your hormones are not going to be influenced by infections, and also that your body getting pregnant is also not gonna be impacted by infections, and that your body's ability to get pregnant is also not going to be affected by toxicity. And then really the last thing is how a lot of us are led to believe that infertility is really just bad luck and bad genes, which is really the biggest myth of them all because it makes us feel guilty, it makes us feel ashamed, and it's not about that.
**Unknown:** It's just about what is going on in your system that you are unaware of that is prohibiting you from not being able to get pregnant at this time. Is it a deficiency? Is it a toxicity? Is it the fact that your immune system is under stress?
**Unknown:** Do you have an autoimmune condition? It's really deciphering what that is. So myth number one when it comes to the PMS. So there's obviously some women that have PMS, and there's some women that don't, and there's some women that get that get their periods really regularly, and then there's some women that get it irregularly.
**Unknown:** So what's the big difference between these different women? You know, there's obviously some women that get pregnant super easily, and then there's other women that don't. So part of this comes back to having different types of PMS symptoms or irregularity with our, with our hormones because of different stressors that are going on behind the scenes with our immune system. So let me use an example here.
**Unknown:** So when some women are leading up to their periods, some women struggle with migraines, some women struggle with looser bowel movements, some women struggle with heart palpitations or irritability. So every single person is extremely different when it comes to how their body is struggling when they're leading up to their period. So th-the reason why this happens is because if your immune system is dealing with stress behind the scenes, so, like, let's use an example of your gut. So if you maybe have IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, maybe that's because you have some undiagnosed bacterial issues in your gut, or maybe you have some undiagnosed candida in your gut.
**Unknown:** So if you have these things going on in your gut that your immune system is constantly tending to, then as you get closer to your menstrual cycle, all of your energy, um, stores actually have to derail, and they have to start focusing on the preparation for your menstrual cycle. So if your immune system has been dealing with the gut infections and now has to derail to prepare for your menstrual cycle, that's the woman who's gonna get the looser bowel movements closer to their period. So it's extremely important to understand that PMS symptoms are not normal, and they different... So if a lot of your stress is in your gut, then you might have the looser bowel movements.
**Unknown:** If some of your stress is circulatory, you might be getting the migraines, but it varies person to person, and it's not just PMS. It's not just about your hormones. There is a, there is a reason, and there is something going on in the, in the background that is causing that. So the other thing too is when it comes to the things that we are eating, there are so many of us that are eating things that are totally screwing up our hormones, and some of that comes back to some of the hormones that are being put into our animal products.
**Unknown:** This is everything from our meats to our dairies, uh, butters, et cetera, growth hormone being the primary thing that we get exposed to. But then in addition to that, there's a lot of soy feed, so you could be consuming different types of animal protein that are being fed soy. A lot of us don't eat soy because we don't want it to throw off our estrogen levels. But if you're eating chicken that ate soy, then you're also still being exposed to the soy and all of the estrogens that are in soySo the other one that is completely off of people's radar is the fact that there is something called mycoestrogens.
**Unknown:** So mycoestrogens are estrogens that come from mold. So there are a group of foods that are high in mold. So one of them is wheat, another one is peanut butter, another one is going to be wine, cheese, corn. How many of us are eating those things?
**Unknown:** Usually all of us. So corn especially have a very, very specific mycotoxin, um, called zearalenone, which is a mycoestrogen. So eating corn, especially when we go gluten-free, if we're doing corn-based pasta, popcorn, tortilla chips, we could easily be exposed to these mycoestrogens that are completely throwing off our hormones and messing up our ability to become pregnant. So it's important to evaluate what you are actually eating and see if that is playing a role in your hormones or, you know, completely compromising your ability to get pregnant.
**Unknown:** So the other thing that I mentioned already was how your estrogen and your serotonin are linked. So if you have excess serotonin, you could easily have excess estrogen. The problem is, is that if you have excess estrogen, you can sometimes devel-- excuse me, develop endometriosis or develop, um, cysts on your ovaries, which can compromise your ability to get pregnant. And then if you have lack of estrogen because you have lack of serotonin, you could easily shift into not getting your period or getting really irregular periods.
**Unknown:** So when you're talking about hormones, they have to be in perfect balance. It's not necessarily about them being too high, too low. They have to be in balance. And when we're dealing with the connection between our mood and if we have depression or anxiety, that is going to be di-directly tied to your sex hormones and vice versa.
**Unknown:** So if you are taking something like an antidepressant, um, which the goal of antidepressants is to amp up the amount of serotonin that you have floating around in, in your synaptic cleft, that sometimes can cause you to have an overload of serotonin, which can then again lead to the excess estrogen. So it's really, really important to start evaluating, you know, did you find that your hormones became really imbalanced once you went on your antidepressant, or once you went on birth control or off of birth control? Um, all of these different things are going to influence the hormones tremendously. So the other thing too is, you know, when you're dealing with the other hormones like, uh, progesterone and testosterone, they kind of have their other...
**Unknown:** They have other implications, but higher levels of testosterone are actually connected to the women that are really struggling with their blood sugar. So as your blood sugar is really, really unstable, AKA maybe you're, you know, you're hypoglycemic and you're really nauseous in the morning, you actually have no appetite, so you don't eat breakfast, and then you tend to crave like c- uh, carbs and salt later on in the day, that's a very typical sign that you have hypoglycemia, low blood sugar. So the longer that that goes on, you can start to affect your testosterone levels, which can then amp up the possibility for polycystic ovarian syndrome. So one of the ways that you can, um, also know if you potentially have elevated testosterone without testing is if you're getting lovely hair growth on your chin or even around your nipples.
**Unknown:** Those are ways that you can know if your testosterone is elevated, um, and it might be tied to the polycystic ovarian syndrome. And the other thing too with the progesterone is progesterone and your other neurotransmitter dopamine work hand in hand. So if you're really low in dopamine, sometimes people are low in dopamine, um, when they have addictive behaviors. They're addicted to chocolate, cigarettes, wine, coffee, whatever the case may be.
**Unknown:** So if you're really low in dopamine and you have a lot of these addictive tendencies, you might also be low in progesterone, and you might notice that your periods are irregular, or they're very painful, or they're really heavy. These are all signs of, uh, not really just progesterone, but also estrogen imbalance. So these are all very specific signs that you need to look for in your body is, do you have hair growth in unwanted places? Do you have, um, anxiety?
**Unknown:** Do you have depression? Um, do you have a lot of pain with your periods, which might indicate that you have, um, o- uh, cysts on your ovaries? These are all very, very important things to evaluate. So another piece of the puzzle, which I mentioned prior, has two parts here, is toxicity.
**Unknown:** So there are a lot of different toxins that we are exposed to in this day and age, and part of these toxins come from drinking tap water, uh, showering in tap water, in addition to the use of our makeups and our lotions and our shampoos and our conditioners and all of these lovely personal products that we use to try to make ourselves beautiful every day. And when it comes to toxicity, this is one of the absolute most common driving forces behind the infertility. I find that the women that I work with, um, that are really, really struggling with the infertility despite going down the road of fertility treatment, it's because they do not have a healthy environment for the baby. And this can be because of heavy metals like mercury that they've been exposed to from fillings in their teethMaybe it's mercury from eating a lot of fish.
**Unknown:** Sometimes it's aluminum for use because they're using, um, antiperspirant every day. Yes, antiperspirant has tons of aluminum in it. Flip it around, you can read it right on the back label. Um, or if they're maybe in the, in the beauty industry, they're either an aesthetician or they work in a salon, and they're constantly inhaling different types of, um, chemicals from the hair dyes or the hairsprays or the dry shampoos and all that fancy stuff.
**Unknown:** So these are extremely important to understand. This is so, so common when women are struggling to get pregnant. And sometimes they, you know, give themselves a month or two to detox and get some of this stuff out, and not only do they get pregnant, but they also have a healthier pregnancy. They actually enjoy being pregnant.
**Unknown:** They actually feel good being pregnant. If you felt super, super sick during your pregnancy, it's because there was something going on that was missed, and maybe it was toxicity, but a lot of times it's deficiency-based, which again, we're gonna talk more about. But the other thing too is it's really not just about these different chemicals, there can also be a very significant role that mold plays in. And if you were listening this whole time, you now know that mold can come from food, like corn and wheat and coffee and wine, but mold also comes from a lot of antibiotic use.
**Unknown:** So if you're the, the kid, I don't care if you're fifty years old, but if you were the kid or, you know, in your teens, in your twenties, that you were constantly on penicillin, amoxicillin, ampicillin, Cipro, whatever, because you had urinary tract infections, or you had ear infections, or you had sore throats, all of those antibiotics are made from mold. Penicillin is made from penicillium mold. So if you're allergic to penicillin or amoxicillin or ampicillin, you are toxic with mold. The only way you could become allergic is if you have toxic levels of mold in your body.
**Unknown:** So this is extremely important for you to know, and I'm trying to give you tools to kind of self-eva-evaluate here because, you know, if you're like, "Oh my gosh, I've been allergic to penicillin since I was five," then that means you've had mold in your system since you were five years old, and maybe if you work on getting that out, you could potentially not have to go down the road of fertility treatment because you lift the burden, and now you can actually have the ability to bounce back and not only get pregnant but have a healthy, happy pregnancy. 'Cause that's probably, like, the most heartbreaking to me, is when women, all they wanna do is be pregnant and have a baby, and then they feel horrible for nine months. And, and then they almost, um, like, don't wanna hear from the women that feel good through their pregnancies because they're like, "This has like been one of the worst experiences 'cause I feel so terrible." And really, at the end of the day, it's just kind of knowing what's going on in your body before you go down the road o-of trying to get pregnant so that you can create the most optimal environment possible. So the other thing too is, um, is, is infections, and part of this comes down to if you have infections, your immune system is gonna steal a lot of your energy reserves.
**Unknown:** And I think that a lot of us realize that being pregnant is, is a huge energetic demand on your body. So if you don't have enough energy for your body to sustain this healthy pregnancy, that's kind of problem number one. But number two is that if you have had reoccurring urinary tract infections, reoccurring, um, bacterial vaginosis, reoccurring yeast infections, you know, that is essentially the environment of where the baby is going to be. So this can easily play a very significant role as to why your body is not allowing you to get pregnant because it's like, "No, no, no, I'm not gonna allow a baby to develop in this environment that is going to, you know, expose it to a lot of different harmful infections." And the reason why I have, um, tampons listed here is because tampons are made from cotton.
**Unknown:** Cotton is another high mold, um, crop. So a lot of women are getting these chronic yeast infections, and it's actually because they're using tampons, and there are-- there's mold on the cotton of the tampons. So this is something that you can change and help your vaginal tract, you know, um, rebound, and then you could potentially stop having yeast infections, number one, and also improve your chances of fertility. So the other thing too is, uh, C-section scars.
**Unknown:** So some women have no problem getting pregnant the first time around, but something happens and then they, you know, they have to get a C-section. And when you have a C-section, depending on, you know, if it's emergency, depending on the surgeon, depending on so many different factors, you could easily have a lot of scar tissue, and that scar tissue can really create adhesions, you know, in and around the uterus, which can then lead to more difficulty with getting pregnant again. So the point of, of all of this, for those of you that have been listening this whole time, is this is not one thing. Like, this is not just like, "Oh, here's the magical reason why there's infertility." It could be infections.
**Unknown:** It could be toxins. It could be scar tissue. It could be, um, imbalanced neurotransmitters. Like, it could be so many different things.
**Unknown:** And the point is, is I'm not saying this to overwhelm you guys. I'm saying this that I want you to understand how many avenues haven't been explored yet. If you're just being looked at as, "Oh-You have imbalanced hormones and nobody's looking at anything else. There are so many factors that need to be considered and so many possibilities that could potentially remove this burden and allow you to get pregnant on your own with no intervention or no, uh, fertility treatment.
**Unknown:** So the other thing too which might sound so simple and so silly, but deficiencies. I cannot tell you how many women are so deficient, and part of deficiencies comes from having irritable bowel syndrome, GERD, reflux, heartburn. Like, if you have a stressed gut, that's where your nutrients are absorbed, so you might not be absorbing nutrients from your food or from your supplements just based on having gut issues. And then also to top that off is they've actually proven at this point, even if you buy organic, the soil has eighty percent less nutrient density than it used to fifty years ago.
**Unknown:** So we are dealing with lack of nutrients in the food, let alone if we have issues in our gut that are not allowing us to absorb it. And I know there's a lot of talk about genetically modified foods, and there's a lot of talk about organic and how there's pesticides and herbicides and all these things happening with our, with our food. But I will tell you, the major pesticide associated with the GMOs called glyphosate. Glyphosate, which is also Roundup by the way, so glyphosate is one of the major, major reasons why we have gut issues, number one.
**Unknown:** Number two, it's one of the major reasons why we're not absorbing any of our nutrients anymore. So just having deficiencies will play a significant role, and one of the top deficiencies is iron. If you are iron deficient, and maybe that's because you've been anemic your whole life, maybe it's because you don't eat meat, maybe it's because you have gut issues. I don't know.
**Unknown:** But if you are iron deficient, that alone will prevent you from getting pregnant, and it is because iron is the top nutrient that your baby is going to steal. So if you don't have enough to give, your body is gonna say, "No, no, no, I'm not gonna put you at risk, and I'm not gonna put your baby at risk." And then the second runner-up here is folate. Folate, not folic acid. This is extremely important to decipher.
**Unknown:** Um, folic acid is synthetic. It is not, uh... most people cannot absorb folic acid, so when you take a prenatal that has folic acid in it, chances are it is doing nothing for you. But if you do folate, methylfolate specifically, that is one of the, uh, primary nutrients that your baby needs in order for its brain and spinal cord to develop.
**Unknown:** So when you see these kids that have cleft palates or they have tongue ties, these are the kids that were, um, in an environment that was extremely folate deficient. And now if you talk to anyone who's, like, a lactation consultant or a breastfeeding consultant, you'll find that tons of kids are getting these lip ties, tongue ties and having to get them surgically fixed. That is a folate deficiency. So folate alone will play a significant, significant role in not getting pregnant.
**Unknown:** So again, sometimes there's a bigger picture. Sometimes there's immune system stress, sometimes there's toxins, sometimes there's, you know, hormone imbalances, but sometimes there's just nutrient deficiencies. So you need to do the right testing in order to be able to decipher these things so that you can truly know what does your body need to then be able to get preg-- balance your hormones and get pregnant on your own. So when it comes to this concept that infertility is due to bad luck or bad genetics, um, there is nothing genetically in your body that will prevent you from getting pregnant.
**Unknown:** Um, yes, there are different types of genetic mutations like the MTHFR. MTHFR is really just something that's gonna make you more folate deficient, so in order to, uh, you know, get your body ready for pregnancy, you just need to take more folate than the average person. But that sh- is not going to define if you can get pregnant or not. So infertility is just your body's way of saying, "I'm not ready.
**Unknown:** I'm not ready because this is not the best environment." And this is not the best environment, again, maybe because you have a bunch of infections that are causing your irritable bowel syndrome. Maybe it's because you have toxins from all of, you know, the personal products that you use or because you lived in a moldy dorm room when you were in college. You know? Or it's coming back to do you have a bunch of deficiencies because, uh, you don't eat a nutrient-dense diet or you have gut issues.
**Unknown:** So when we defy this, and we use the fertility treatment to get pregnant, sometimes what we're gonna find is that we feel really sick going through our pregnancy. And then we get postpartum depression or then we also find that we can't produce milk to breastfeed, or we also find that we just... our, our thyroid completely shuts down after the pregnancy, and we can barely get out of bed. And then we start to feel extremely guilty that, "All I ever wanted was this baby, and now I'm depressed, and now I feel like crap, and I can barely take care of them." And it's this vicious, vicious cycle, and it doesn't have to be that way if you understand the bigger picture behind it.And it's really you owe it to yourself to be able to kind of know what is going on in your body, what does your body need, um, so that you can have that beautiful, amazing, healthy, enjoyable pregnancy that you've dreamed about.
**Unknown:** You know, when we dream about being a mom or dream about being pregnant, we don't necessarily dream about feeling sick for nine months. We dream about it being this beautiful experience that we love every second of, and you deserve that, and you can have it. But sometimes it just takes digging a little bit deeper to understand really where your body is at and what does your body need. So this is one, uh, really interesting case.
**Unknown:** Um, this is actually not a hundred percent related to, um, to infertility because it, it is and it isn't. The woman didn't come to me saying, "I wanna get pregnant," but, uh, part of the conversation was that she didn't have the ability to get pregnant and, you know, she just decided that it wasn't for her. So this was a woman that came to me, and she had, uh, she had some thyroid issues. Uh, she was having a lot of trouble with losing weight.
**Unknown:** She felt really, really hormonally imbalanced. Um, she kind of contributed her hormonal imbalances and her thyroid issues to her mood swings, her fatigue. Um, she really... She had headaches, but she almost kind of, like, blew them off.
**Unknown:** She's like, "Listen, I, I get headaches. They're very mild. I've been getting them since I-- since I'm a kid. That's just my normal." But the other thing that she said was that she had pretty significant memory loss, especially short-term, and what was happening is she had...
**Unknown:** Uh, she owned a business. She had, uh, her assistant kind of chasing her around through the day and writing everything down because she couldn't really remember, you know, minute to minute, so she needed everything on paper so she could actually get through her day. So another thing that she, she said, uh, in relation to, you know, her, her thyroid issues is, like... She's like, "Well, you know, I think that obviously stress is playing a role." And I was asking her, I was like, "Do you...
**Unknown:** If you mind sharing, you know, what's one of the big reasons why you feel stressed? Is it just, you know, you have a lot on your plate? Is it your company, et cetera?" And she's like, "Well, I'm a caretaker right now while I'm also running a business, um, because my mom is really sick, and she has something called vascular dementia". So that was kind of a red flag for me because vascular dementia, what that is, is when you're not having proper, uh, circulation, uh, to the brain, and when you're not having proper circulation, you're not getting proper oxygen to the brain.
**Unknown:** So this can definitely, uh, cause a lot of memory issues, but it can also cause a lot of hormonal issues. And the reason I say that is because your pituitary gland, which is the control center of your hormones, is in... is part of your brain. So as we kind of talked a little bit more and I got to learn more about this woman's history, uh, one of the things she said was that she had her tonsils removed at two years old, um, due to chronic sore throats.
**Unknown:** Uh, she had a lot of antibiotic use because of the sore throats, um, and ear infections as well. Another thing that she said was that she was always really small for her age, which I'm gonna piece all this together for you guys. Um, she was very small for her age up until she was, like, in her twenties, and then, uh, in addition to that, she had very cold hands and feet that later in life it e-eventually ended up getting diagnosed as Raynaud's. Raynaud's is, like, um, really significant circulatory issues to the hands and feet.
**Unknown:** And then the-- obviously, the memory loss, um, started young, but it actually got really severe as an adult. So as, um, I'm really piecing all of this together, the biggest thing that you wanna know is that when you're talking about the tonsils, the tonsils are here, the thyroid is here. So if the tonsils were dealing with a lot of chronic infections, it's very common that those infections can start to get into these lymph nodes of your neck, which can then affect the thyroid. So, uh, one of my patient's husbands, he came to her session with her, and when I was explaining this concept to him, he's like, "So you're saying her thyroid is in a bad neighborhood?" I was like, "That's exactly what I'm saying." And it was a really great analogy because sometimes your thyroid dysfunction can be strictly associated with the things that are happening around it, especially if there is a lot of lymph node issues.
**Unknown:** So the other thing too about the antibiotic use is that when you're dealing with the antibiotic use, it goes back to that mold toxicity, um, because she also told me she was allergic to penicillin. So being allergic to penicillin means that she has ha- has toxic levels of penicillium mold in the body. In addition to that, being small for your age is actually a pituitary issue. So if the pituitary in the brain is underdeveloped or small, that can cause, uh, developmental issues.
**Unknown:** So this was a red flag because I started to think, you know, did she have circulatory issues to the brain since she was a kid? And then the cold hands and feet was another, uh, compiling factor when it came to the, um, circulatory issues and then obviously the memory loss. So kind of piecing all of this together is that part of the circulatory issues for the head wasn't necessarily just about genetics. It was also about the fact that all these lymph nodes in here, if they're congested and gunked up with strep or different types of infections, it's like somebody put their foot on the hose, AKA blood getting in and getting out is going to have a lot of issues.
**Unknown:** So this is what causes something called cerebral, um, venous insufficiency, AKA the blood is not draining out of the head properly, which is gonna cause issues with the brain getting proper amounts of oxygen. This can lead to, uh, early onset of memory loss, but it can also lead to pituitary dysfunction, which will then throw off the hormones. This is the control center. If this is not talking to the thyroid, it's not talking to the ovaries, it's not talking to the adrenal glandsThen you cannot have proper balanced hormones, which will then lead you down a road of infertility.
**Unknown:** So this is extremely important to understand that you might be the woman who's like, "Oh my gosh, my circulation is so bad. I'm always freezing. My hands and feet practically like go numb. My fingertips are white all the time." And that could actually be the reason as to why you're struggling with fertility because your pituitary is not talking to the other parts of your endocrine system.
**Unknown:** So again, for- if you're not overwhelmed yet, but for those of you that have been listening, there are so many factors that need to be considered: your circulation, toxicity, nutrient deficiencies, gut health, um, immune system. There are so many pieces to this puzzle. So, you know, I hope that this is not overwhelming and that this is taken as inspiration because this is gonna allow you to know, wow, there are so many check boxes that are unchecked that I can explore to understand why I'm struggling to get pregnant. So if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm here to tell you that you don't know what you don't know.
**Unknown:** So there's no possible way for you guys to know these things if the only route that you've gone is a fertility specialist because they're looking at your hormones and nothing else. They're not looking at what's influencing your hormones. They're not looking at toxicity. They're not looking at infections.
**Unknown:** They're not looking at nutrients. They're not talking to you about your diet. That is not their wheelhouse. It is not their zone of genius.
**Unknown:** They are focused on the hormones, how can they manipulate the hormonal pathways to get your body to a place that it can get pregnant. So you don't know what you don't know until you do better testing and you have a physician asking better questions. So I really hope that you can use this to not accept that this is it for you, just accept, "I have fertility problems. Fertility, uh, treatment is my only, is my only route." Um, there are so many different aspects to explore that can really help you to get the clarity, and this is not even just about getting pregnant.
**Unknown:** This is also about you being your healthiest version of you so that you could be the best, most energetic mom. You know? That's the thing is like it's not just about the pregnancy. You still have to feel good once you have that baby that you have to take care of day in and day out, every hour of the day, and the last thing you wanna do is feel so tired that you can barely function, um, because your body is so depleted from the pre- uh, pregnancy.
**Unknown:** So the biggest myth of all is that you have no control over your hormones, and it's really once you know the root of what's causing the hormones to be imbalanced, then really anything is possible. And again, for those of you that have been listening the whole time, this is also not about, oh my gosh, I have cer- ... Like as you're sitting here self-diagnosing yourself and you're like, "Well, my gosh, my hands are always cold" and "Oh my gosh, I've had tons of yeast infections" and "Oh my gosh, I... You know, my gut is messed up", I don't want you to think that it's super, super difficult for you to get better.
**Unknown:** Um, a lot of times when I work with women and, you know, obviously infertility is part of the puzzle, you know, within two, three months, their bodies are so much better with the right tools that they're usually able to then start that process of trying to get pregnant. Uh, of course, we always like evaluate their tests and their hormones at that point, but, you know, that's a pretty amazing thing that, you know, for women that have been struggling for years upon years and, you know, poking and prodding themselves with that, you know, in a couple of months, couple of weeks, you can clean out your body and get it to a good place and be able to get pregnant on your own is... You know, I know that sounds like cannot be real, but I, I promise you it is. If you haven't realized this so far, uh, very rarely do things look like a textbook and very rarely do you just match the, uh, the infertility stamp and, you know, if you don't just match that infertility, uh, description in the textbook, then chances are your treatment should not just necessarily be what the textbook reveals about infertility.
**Unknown:** It's really about understanding the bigger picture and knowing like what are the needs of your body. So this obviously brings me to this concept of the, the difference between conventional, functional, and integrative 'cause there is a huge difference between the three. So obviously when you're dealing with conventional approach, it's let's look at the hormones, let's see which ones are imbalanced, and let's manipulate those pathways by using hormone therapy. And then we have functional medicine, which is going to look, um, at, you know, your hormones in a little bit deeper of a manner.
**Unknown:** We're gonna maybe do some different saliva tests. We might do a urinary test, and we're gonna dig a little bit deeper to really truly understand where your hormones are at. But the difference about functional versus integrative is the functional medicine approach, the, the tools are a little bit limited. So instead of using medication per se, we might actually be using, um, supplements and herbs to balance out your hormones, which I used to do that, and I used to work with tons of women and focus on, okay, we gotta fix your hormones.
**Unknown:** But then what I realized is that as women got off of that supplement regimen or, you know, went back to a more balanced diet, their hormones went back out of range. And I found that that wasn't personally how I wanted to practice. I wanted to understand what was the root, and that's what led me down the road of integrative medicine. And I wanted to understand the bigger picture.
**Unknown:** I wanted to understand all of the factors that I talked about tonight influencing the hormones, but I also wanted more tools in the toolbox. I wanted to give women a solution to not only balance their hormones but to fix the major reason why their hormones were off in the first place and also to help correct the hormones in a sustainable way. And I think that that is unfortunately something thatA lot of the approaches lack is sustainability. And what I mean by that is, okay, if I stay on this regimen or if I stay on this protocol, I feel good, but as soon as I come off of it, I don't feel good.
**Unknown:** I wanted to be able to correct the foundation so that once you go back to a more balanced life, you know, or you, you are not necessarily taking tons of vitamins and supplements, all that, you still feel equally as good. Um, so integrated medicine is really all about creating sustainability and allowing us to fix the foundation, which will then allow a lot of the other effects to go away. I think one of the biggest things that we forget nowadays is that healthcare is supposed to be about answers, um, and solutions. I know a lot of the time, you know, especially when we're struggling with our hormones or getting pregnant, we kind of just settle for this, "Well, you just have infertility, and that's kind of it.
**Unknown:** It's just your body." And, you know, we don't necessarily always know the right questions to ask, and we don't always know if there is a solution that is beyond, uh, you know, the fertility treatment option. So we need to be an advocate for our own health and know that there is a reason and there are answers and there are solutions that, you know, are, are solutions that are not only gonna help you get pregnant but also really help your body to be as healthy as possible. But I really hope that this information was of value to, to those of you listening, and I really-- uh, the intention is never to overwhelm. I know it's a lot of information, but there are just so many components that play a role on our hormones, and there's just a lot of things that need to be evaluated to truly know why you may be struggling with infertility.
**Unknown:** And once you know what that, uh, root cause is or what that foundational issue is, the healing process actually becomes pretty, pretty simple. So it's really once you get that information and you know the needs of your body is when this becomes more of a breakthrough experience. So I really hope this was of value and it allows you to feel empowered to know, you know, um, if there's something that has potentially been missed and also gives you, um, the tools to take action on getting better testing so you can understand more about your body and also be able to have the most beautiful, healthy pregnancy that you've always dreamed of. So I thank you all for being here, and I hope this was, again, of value.
**Unknown:** Uh, you could definitely check out our website, integrativewellnessgroup.com. So feel free to tune into that. Um, and then also you can check out the website if you are looking to learn a little bit more about how we work with our patients as well as scheduling one of those strategy calls, um, so that you can get started. So I thank you guys for being here.
**Unknown:** I really hope you enjoyed it, and I really hope you got amazing, amazing clarity. Um, and I hope to see you soon. We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com. All night, no sleep 'cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. Wide awake, that's okay
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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