Today’s guest post on fertility health is by Kara Rowley of Vibrant Health & Healing. Kara is a midwife and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner that specializes in helping women be healthy in all seasons of their lives. If you’re looking for a holistic approach to fertility health and overall wellness she is the gal to talk to!
Why Fertility Health Matters Even When You’re Not Trying To Get Pregnant
I’ve heard all the excuses why fertility isn’t important…”I’m not trying to get pregnant right now.” “We are on the five year plan.” “I’m on birth control pills.” “We are not having any more kids.” “I’m only 18” or “I’m already 50.” Surely I don’t need to be concerned about my fertility health. Right?! Well, actually wrong!
Your hormones and reproductive organs do more than just allow you to get pregnant. They are central to you being happy, healthy, and living a long fulfilled life. Your fertility health matters even when you are not trying to get pregnant.
What is fertility health? It is the way your hormones and organs work together in a smooth beautiful system each month and throughout the cycles of your life to promote health and feelings of wellbeing.
Let’s look at a few key players in fertility health— Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone.
Estrogen
Estrogen is produced by the ovaries, adrenal glands and fat tissues. Its jobs are complex and multiple, but when it is out of balance the results are felt.
Deficiency:
- Hot flashes
- Night sweats
- Vaginal dryness
- Foggy thinking
- Memory lapses
- Incontinence
- Tearfulness
- Depression
- Sleep disturbances
Excess:
- Mood swings
- Tender breasts
- Water retention
- Nervousness
- Irritability
- Anxiousness
- Fibrocystic breasts
- Uterine fibroids
- Weight gain in hips
- Bleeding changes
Progesterone
Progesterone is produced by the ovaries, placenta, and adrenal glands and again has many purposes beyond reproduction. When it is out of balance life is not great.
Excess:
- Sleepiness
- Breast swelling/tenderness
- Decreased libido
- Mild depression
- Candida infections
Deficiency:
- Hot flashes
- Night sweats
- Vaginal dryness
- Foggy thinking
- Memory lapses
- Bone loss
- Incontinence
- Tearfulness/Depression
- Sleep disturbances
- Heart palpitations
Testosterone
Testosterone is produced by the ovaries, and is also produced in small amounts by the adrenal glands. This hormone, more abundant in men, is important in women for bone density, muscle tone, and normal libido.
Deficiency
- Foggy thinking
- Fatigue
- Aches and pains
- Memory lapses
- Depression
- Sleep problems
Excess
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), which is one of the leading causes of infertility in the United States.
- Excess body or facial hair
- Horse or deepened voice
- Increased muscle mass
- Irregular menstrual cycles
- Hairloss
Fertility Health Hormone Producers
Fertility health goes far beyond getting pregnant. It affects quality of everyday life, no matter what age. The main producers of these reproductive hormones are the ovaries and adrenal glands, so for your hormones to be happy these organs also need to be thriving. Lets take a closer look at these two stars of fertility health:
The Ovaries
The ovaries are located in the lower abdomen on the right and left side between your pubic bone and hip bones. The ovaries produce and release eggs when a woman is cycling and produce the hormones estrogen and progesterone.
The Adrenal Glands
The adrenal glands are located on the top of each kidney and produce estrogen, progesterone and the building blocks of testosterone: androgens, as well as several corticosteroid hormones, including epinephrine and cortisol. Cortisol is the main player in your stress response and anti-inflammatory response as well as an important part of blood sugar control.
If either of the ovaries or adrenals are stressed they pull on all the other organs in the endocrine system. You may have noted that several of the symptoms of excess and deficiency overlap each other so it is hard to tell from symptoms which hormone is the issue.
One reason for this is the hormones all compensate for each other. So it is not as simple as each hormone separately doing its job. It’s a collaborative effort of the whole body to make sure every hormone is functioning. They all have each other’s back, and if one goes down they all go down.
Moving Towards Healthy
As you can see, your fertility health is more than just the ability to get pregnant. It is your whole health: your emotions, your ability to handle stress, anti-inflammatory response, blood sugar levels and much more.
How do you make sure your hormones and endocrine glands are healthy? You start by recognizing that if you have the above symptom it is your body communicating something needs to change.
Your body uses symptoms to communicate to you how it is doing. When it is functioning well you should feel happy, optimistic and full of energy for life. If you don’t, there is something wrong. Next, realize health is multifaceted and oftentimes the culprit comes down to one word: STRESS.
Stress may be physical or emotional. Either way, you may need a professional to help you find the root of your stress so you can balance your hormones in order to thrive in life, whether you are trying to get pregnant or not. Remember, your fertility health is more than the ability to get pregnant; it is the totality of your quality of life.
More Information
For more information on fertility health check out Kara’s website Vibrant Health & Healing. In addition to physical issues, there also can be emotional and spiritual roots to infertility that you can learn more about in this post, Breaking a Spirit of Barrenness.