ļ»æEpisode 231
Title: Rethinking Secondary Fertility
Host: Dr. Nicole Rivera
________________
Transcription:
Dr. Nicole (00:01.11)
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Integrative You Radio. So I am doing a short and sweet podcast here. And I want to talk about something called secondary infertility. And this was a request from someone on social media. And honestly, I really didn't hear that term before. Like, what is secondary infertility? And primarily its definition is not being able to have a second child after having a first. And I love how we're labeling everything nowadays, but when I specifically looked this up, it said that this is affecting millions of families, which I find to be very alarming, but very eye-opening. And so I'm not here right now to talk about the chemistry and all the physical reasons why this can happen. Because one, you birthed a baby. So it's possible. And this isn't genetics, this isn't bad luck. There is a factor here that is playing a role in the inability to conceive. And is this really just about the body, the physical body, you know, is this something wrong with the uterus? Is this a hormonal imbalance? Maybe. But what's the root of it? What's the root of the potential chronic inflammation in the body? What's the root of the gut being messed up? What's the root of the hormones being imbalanced? What's the root of the control center, the hypothalamus gland not functioning optimally, which could be not signaling properly to your thyroid and to your reproductive organs and your ovaries. So what is the root of those things? So I'm here to invite you to the idea that your chemistry is being affected by your mind. And I say this because we're living in a real weird world right now.
Dr. Nicole (02:18.642)
There have been so many things that have created chronic stress across the globe. And I will say that the chronic stress and the chronic fear that happened specifically in America just from 2020, that now continues to happen because it's one thing after another. There's a pandemic to there's potentially another pandemic. Oh, there's going to be a new strain. Oh, there's inflation; can't even afford strawberries anymore. Oh, you know, now there's a war over here and there's a war over there and there might be a war here. It has been non-stop. And there has been a global shift in people rethinking their lives, rethinking the states that they live in, depending on the circumstances that were implemented in the lockdowns, there have been people that have just been reevaluating the culture of where they've been, because maybe they were ostracized based on their opinions, through these crazy times. I have seen it left and right. I have seen it all over the place. And I know personally, I have said, gosh, this is a scary time to raise a kid. And when I first had my child...
Dr. Nicole (04:17.69)
...so grateful, living that abundance, living in that gratitude, and it's all great. And then all of a sudden, you start to worry about the future. Oh my gosh, like what about when he gets older? I don't know if I can put him in school. The daycares freak me out and nobody gets how we eat. And am I really going to find a nanny that can cope with our lifestyle and understands what we do? Oh, his learning and I don't want him to be sheltered, but I don't want him to potentially go to school and be programmed, and it spirals. And I'm saying this out loud because I'm a super vocal person, but I know a lot of people have all these, you know, whirling thoughts, and they're not speaking about it, and they're too scared to speak about it, and they don't know who to speak about it to. But I invite you to think about your conscious or your unconscious fears around having a child in the current state of the world? And is that playing a role in your stress hormones going up and your sex hormones going down, aka your estrogen and progesterone and testosterone, all the things that you need to be in balance to get pregnant? Also, do you have a lack of clarity of vision? Clarity of vision plays a role in the functionality of your pineal gland and your hypothalamus. This is more on an energetic basis. Lack of clarity will play a very significant role in those specific parts of the brain not functioning optimally. If you are constantly stressed and you have high cortisol and high adrenaline, you're going to have chronic inflammation, you're going to have blood sugar dysregulation, despite how clean your diet is. You have to have proper balanced hormones, you have to have proper balanced blood sugar in order to get pregnant. And you also can't have chronic inflammation because if you have chronic inflammation, you are more inclined for autoimmunity and your body knows that if you have an autoimmune attack on the fetus, that is, you're going to miscarry.
Dr. Nicole (06:41.322)
So there are biochemical reasons, but are those biochemical cascades happening due to the conscious or unconscious fears of, is this a safe place for me to raise a child right now? And especially if your first pregnancy, you were told that you were high risk, you were told that the baby's not growing, you had a really traumatic birth, and you're super scared to have that happen again. You were told your baby had heart issues and got rushed into surgery and you didn't get to bond with your baby for a week. These things are happening left and right. And firstly for me, I don't want to fucking go near a hospital ever in my whole life. And I sure as hell will go through all of the pain of having a home birth, which I did, because I don't want to step foot. Because as for some people, hospitals are comforting because they're scared of the process of having a baby. I'm the opposite. I am terrified to go anywhere near a hospital because I know that there are very specific protocols that are implemented that no doctor or nurse is in control of. And I'm not going to be a part of that process. So you have to weigh out your fear. Is your fear going to be around a system that you don't have faith in? Or is your fear around, my home birth is going to hurt like a bitch? Because yeah, it does. And also, making big moves in life can be really, really scary. And it's out of many people's comfort zones. But you have to weigh out that discomfort to say, do I want another kid? Do I feel like it's better for me to raise my family in a different culture in a different country? You know, what does that look like? Yeah, it's going to be hard and there's paperwork and there's obstacles, but is that a consideration?
Dr. Nicole (09:00.674)
So that you can have the family that you want to have. So I really invite you to stop seeking externally, more tests, more diagnoses, and start to look internally. Because chances are, internally there is a disconnect. There is a misalignment with the true desire to have that baby, and it might be rooted in fear. It might be rooted in... Is this a safe environment for my child? Is this a safe world for my child? And if you can figure out what your plan is to create or put yourself in the position that you can create the future for your family, chances are you'll get pregnant again. This is my opinion, but it's also because I've worked with many women with infertility, they didn't come to me for that. It was just part of the health history intake. And when we started to get to the root of what was happening in their mind, from the stressors, the not feeling safe, not feeling secure, anxious, scared of the future, didn't have clarity on the future, work on that, work on balancing the biochemistry. And they're like, hey, surprise, I'm pregnant. And it's not because we focused on the hormones, it was because we removed the roadblocks. And those roadblocks, it's not just about supplements, diet, anything like that. This is about clearing the crap in your mind, collapsing the shit that's holding you back, and creating a vision for the future that is truly in alignment with you and your family.
