The Rollercoaster Ride of a Fertility Journey - Navigating the Highs and Lows
The journey towards pregnancy can be a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The desire to conceive can create a significant amount of stress, which can ultimately have negative effects on your fertility. And what’s worse, it seems the more we worry about getting pregnant, the less likely we are to conceive, leaving us feeling stuck and out of control.
Month after month, women TTC (trying to conceive) become increasingly anxious and frustrated as their attempts at getting pregnant are unsuccessful. The stress levels build up, making it even harder. Studies have shown that stress can negatively impact fertility by altering the hormonal balance in the body, making it difficult to conceive. This is why it is crucial for women to find ways to manage their stress levels during the preconception phase.
If you are one of these women, I get it. The feeling of being out of control can really add to the stress and anxiety of the situation. It can feel like you have no control over your fertility making it easy to fall into a sense of hopelessness, further reducing your chances of getting pregnant. The good news is, there are steps that you can take to regain a sense of control during this phase of your life and improve your chances of conceiving. And if you are in a place where are about to start or going through IVF, please make sure you read on because this is super important for you too. Don’t just rely on IVF as a magic bullet. IVF needs you to be healthy and calm too.
Firstly, I highly recommend you seek professional help if it’s in your budget. This is a really great way to help manage stress and regain control, which let’s face it can be hard at the best of times. This can come in the form of counselling, seeing a naturopath or any other practitioner where you are able to talk freely through your fears and anxieties.
Naturopathy is another great option and holistic approach to healthcare. Naturopathy focuses on the whole person and the root causes of an illness. This means we look at you as a whole and not just a symptom walking through the door. There is a lot more to you than someone who is struggling to conceive and my role to get to the bottom of your health picture and to make a plan.
Naturopaths have so many effective strategies, supplements and herbs at their disposal that can really help you on your journey to motherhood. We look at how we can balance your hormones, address nutrient deficiencies, reduce exposure to environmental toxins, and most importantly, to manage stress. Supporting your nervous system is one of the key ways to encourage your body's natural healing processes and help you to achieve optimal fertility.
Fertility yoga is another gold star practice that can help you to manage stress and support fertility. When it comes to yoga most people tend to fall into two camps. The first camp being those who are used to practicing stronger forms of yoga which require a lot of physical strength and stamina with more intense and challenging poses. The other camp, people with zero idea about yoga and assume its only for very bendy and flexible people and that it’s too hard and not something they gravitate towards.
Fertility yoga is different in that it specifically focuses on poses that help to balance hormones and support the reproductive system. It does this with nourishing poses that stretch the hips and pelvis and increase blood flow to the reproductive organs. It’s goal isn’t to make you fit and strong but rather to reduce stress and anxiety and help you to improve your chances of getting pregnant. It’s a very gentle and effective form of yoga.
As a naturopath who loves working with women, a big part of how I like to practice is by providing women with a sense of cosiness and a feeling of being held energetically, heard and nurtured. The path to baby can be quite the sterile road especially when IVF enters the picture. It’s my role as a naturopath to give you comfort in knowing that you are doing all you can to optimise your fertility and that at the end of the day you will be ok, no matter the outcome. You are here, doing what you can and that’s enough.
If you would like to learn more about taking charge with your fertility and optimising your health, I am launching a new holistic preconception program that will take you from feeling stressed and overwhelmed on your fertility journey to calm and healthy in both your mind and body so you can enjoy the process of trying for a baby. It does this by following a holistic 6 week preconception program that blends fertility yoga and meditation practices with evidence based naturopathic principles, giving you the tools and knowledge to move through your fertility journey in a more holistic and peaceful way. If you would like to learn more, click HERE.
And if you feel like you need one on one care, you can also book an initial naturopathic consultation so we can go a little deeper. We can order any tests we need and really see what’s going on for you.