Top 5 Tips for Healthy Fertility

with
Holly Lo

This is an unedited transcript.

Welcome back to the MomDaze podcast. I’m your host, Holly Lo. And we are continuing on with our conversation about healthy fertility, reproduction, heading into what pregnancy looks like.

So if you’ve been following along for a little bit, we’ve been having some amazing conversations about just fertility, reproduction, and our reproductive health in general, something that I feel we could really keep going on, we don’t cover this topic enough. It’s a conversation that needs to continue. But we also need to carry on and we’re going to move forward into pregnancy, and birth and postpartum and all those fun parts of, you know, fertility that actually works properly. So before we had there, though, let’s finish this part off with my top five tips. And I narrowed it right down, I kind of put it all into one little pile for you. And I’m like, okay, what can I do? What can I give you? How can I make this concise, we’re going to do our best. So stay with me. These are top tips for healthy fertility. And again, these are just simple things. I make changes in, we can make shifts in if we’re already doing some of them. So first, let’s start off with mindset. And yes, this is a huge topic. So I’m not going to go long on talking about any of these five. But there’s lots of great podcasts and programs and work you can do with coaches, with therapists for clearing blocks. That’s the best way I can put it, clearing blocks, emotional blocks, trauma, relationship blocks, things like that, clearing those things out of the way. Why is that something that’s important when we’re discussing fertility? Well, here’s what research shows, it shows that our mind body connection is stronger than we ever knew. And it also it’s shown that if we don’t feel safe, let’s say for example, if we don’t feel secure in our relationship to begin with, then we could be experiencing fertility issues, if we don’t feel that we are, you know, maybe personally as women that we’ve experienced trauma in our life, or maybe our our own personal history with our mothers, or our upbringing, things like that, that caused trauma in our bodies. And we’ve talked about that in the past, you go back and look at our whole series on trauma, how it affects our physical bodies, this is going to affect your reproductive health and wellness. So making sure that we have addressed that I’d say is step one, step one, clear out the blocks, emotionally speaking, maybe generationally speaking in your own history, and finding people who are qualified to help you do that this is not a self help type of thing. This is something that you really do want to walk through with other people. Maybe it’s simply some neuro reprogramming, right, maybe you’ve really struggled with fertility. And now you are battling a mindset you are finding yourself really struggling with trusting your body, trusting the process, trusting treatments, trusting whatever that looks like. So clearing the blocks would be tip number one, and that’s a big one, it’s a big thing to bite off. But I would recommend you start there. When you spend some time doing the work with you, you know, you’re not your partner, it’s not working on someone else. It’s doing the work for you. And hopefully, you know, if you’re in a relationship with someone, then they’re willing to do that work as well. If you can do that first, then the rest of the steps in these tips will flow a little smoother. So I recommend if you haven’t done any of that, then pause, pause and do that first. Even if it takes you four or five months to even begin getting through some of that, even if it takes you maybe a year. If you don’t have that time you think because you’re later in life and you’re into your 40s and you’re working on fertility, then you need to start somewhere. So starting at clearing the blocks emotionally, and letting go some of the baggage get help immediately and work through that quickly. And even if it’s going to be an ongoing process, which I promise you for all of us it is an ongoing process. But the secret sauce is even if you begin you will start to feel and see shifts in your body that will clear the way so clear the blocks is tip Number one, number two, we’re going to talk about clearing toxins. Now this is not a big, you know, conversation really because it’s much simpler now than it ever was. Clearing the toxins is multifaceted. And again, we could do a series on each one of these tips, we, we really could cover each one of these fully in depth. But I just want to give you a taste a little taste of each one, and what this could entail. So in your home, what are toxins in your home, that you could ditch and switch, right, it’s a term we love to use, what is a ditch and switch you can

do in your own house, the start in the laundry room, can we ditch out actually, there’s no switch even needed to be honest. But we can ditch dryer sheets, I was having a bit of a giggle the other day, not not in a judgmental way at all simply in Oh, I can’t believe I used to buy these kind of feeling when I was walking down the grocery store aisles and I don’t even go down the cleaning aisle anymore. I don’t go down the laundry aisle I haven’t in years, to be honest. But I was walking past them. And the over whelming smell you know what I’m talking about that the super strong odor. And I used to love that. I used to love the smell jack so used to love that cuz in my mind that was a clean smell. It was a connection to clean. But since I removed toxins from my life and from my home, and we haven’t had them in years and our home, now just walking down the aisles near it really provokes a reaction, not No, not a physical reaction that says but I, I really do have a negative reaction to them. Now, in the sense that I can’t imagine, I just can’t imagine, first of all having to shop down that aisle, I’d have to hold my breath. And second of all, just bringing that into my home. So if you haven’t done that yet, there’s a simple digital switch for that you don’t have to buy at the grocery store, I personally have my products delivered right to my door. And it’s it ends up being more cost effective for me. So there are many, many really good actually effective, you know, chemical free or much lower, like different options available to you now as you know, I mean I love my doTERRA so my doTERRA laundry soap, my multipurpose cleaner, my dishwasher pods, my all of it. And whatever I don’t order I make my own because it’s just simply you know, vinegar in a spray bottle with some water and my favorite oils thrown in for cleaning the bathtub or whatever bottle a container of Armand Hammer baking soda, which is only meant for cleaning please don’t cook with it is fantastic with a bottle of lemon oil, clean your toilets, clean your sinks, clean everything around your house. So there really is just no good reason to not switch out some of our household cleaners. For simple, really simple and effective options that you can either make, like I said, make yourself order online or find from somewhere that you can purchase, you know maybe your health food store Whole Foods type place, you’ll pay a little bit more in that sense, but honestly, it’s worth it. Whatever’s going into our home is off gassing into our air. So that’s a big part of this why what’s the big deal? Why do we need to switch our toxins gotta get them out of the house. That’s the thing. The other step then is whatever’s going on to our bodies is going into our bodies so ladies, especially but men as well so your partners can be aware of this. Ladies, it’s really important our makeup, or skincare, our haircare all of these things that we’re putting some thought into it. Now I know that you maybe have invested into some of these products already and it’s a lot of money. The idea is while you’re working on fertility either put those aside, right if it’s not a lifestyle change, you’re willing to commit to put them aside and find cleaner options. In the meantime, again, I work with doTERRA so that’s what I use I use all their skincare is all their haircare I use oils. But there are tons of great brands out there. There’s a makeup company I love using st it’s one of my absolute favorites, my my neighbor down the road is a brilliant at it, she she sells it so I am able to buy that from her mineral makeup. It’s clean, it’s safe, it’s easy to use. I have it on right now. It’s it’s just one of my favorite options. So you can find people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to these products and then ask their opinions, but get really good at being investigative. And that’s for all of these tips. You want to become your own best advocate. So if you’re looking at new skincare if you’re looking at new haircare, don’t just read the label. I know that’s the first start. That’s a great place to go and to begin. But you do want to do a little digging, you want to look at some of these, you know, clean meters, some of the ratings that you can have for some of these ingredients, because you may read ingredients and think oh, that sounds terrible when at the end of the day, it’s just a version of You know, a vegetable glycerin but it’s named differently. So knowing your ingredients is important and unless you’re, you know, a chemistry major or scientist, some of these labels are going to be confusing. So learn to look them up, learn to look up what’s in your your skincare, learn to look up what’s in your shampoo and conditioner, learn to look up what you’re putting on, especially for things like deodorants. You know, things that are going on to your armpits where your lymph system is, and you want to make perfumes, things like that, you want to make sure they are not synthetic, that they’re not going to disrupt your endocrine system. So there’s some easy digital switches you can do. And that’s

lots of what we talked about on the our Oh, the baby’s business pages and things like that some simple ways that we can swap things out. If you need tips, that’s where you’ll find them. What’s another one we can clear out, I’m thinking for a minute here. So we’ve done our laundry rooms, we’ve done our bathroom, let’s say when you really look at toxins, again, you’re gonna look at maybe things that you’re wearing, right if you want to take it that far. But the other one that I know is a really big, big one is our feminine hygiene project products. So hot pads and tampons, especially. So I’m gonna focus on those. Now if you’re using things like a diva copper or a cup, if you’re using something like next Sundays that you’ve heard me talk about how much I love those now, they are not completely toxin free, I’ll be honest with you. Because they’re waterproof linings, the pee Well, type of materials that are used in those products, they do still have a chemical component. So be aware of that. The only way you can get completely chemical free is if you actually go with a washable pad that does not have any synthetics in it, it’s very difficult to find that and you know, it’s a little more work. So you make the best choice for you. That’s I take that with take all of this with that grain of salt, make the best choice for you of what you can do. I’m not saying it’s all or nothing. This is not a you know, ditch and switch your entire life. It’s what can I do? What can I change out? What’s a simple one to me, for me to start with maybe, and then work our way through. It’s kind of like when we do food elimination or, you know, some pretty heavy diet changes for people who have a lot of inflammation. Sometimes you start with one thing. And then as you get that kind of flowing and underway, then you take the next step. So when you’re talking about reproductive health, anything that’s touching reproductive organs, like pads and tampons, you really do need to consider those. And if there was one toxin thing I would take away first it would be these, get them out, get rid of them. And switch to something like natural hair is a great company that I work with, I love them, we sell them in our shop, I use them with my clients. So I recommend them just because I know their product really well. But there’s lots of great options. Now you can get disposable pads, tampons, liners, all the stuff that you normally can buy for equivalent pricing, but minus the toxic add ins like formaldehyde, chlorine binding agents, the stuff that you find in diapers, it’s the same type of thing. And those actually leach into our cells, they leach into our body and they affect our reproductive organs or reproductive cycle. They cause inflammation, it causes heavier bleeding, clotting, cramping, things we do not need, we’ve talked about this in the past. So clearing the toxins, that’s a big one, make the switch to something that is a lower level, either lower level talks, you know, toxicity, like next Sundays or things like that, or switch completely over to something like a cup, or, you know, whatever works for you that you’re going to use and be comfortable with. But let’s lower the toxic load on our reproductive organs. Because again, we’re talking about our healthy reproduction, we need to take care of that part of our body first and foremost. So clearing the toxins and now leading to that is clearing inflammation. How much inflammation I feel like this entire generation we have the last three probably generations of women are carrying a incredible load of inflammation in our bodies that has never been seen before. Look at the rates of fibromyalgia and women look at the rates and that’s an inflammation disease literally, it’s a it’s a way of saying we can’t really see what really is going on in here because of the amount of inflammation it’s causing aches and pains and joint discomfort and, and nausea and, you know, tiredness and all the things flu like symptoms, it’s just debilitating and people who go through it, it’s a very real and and horrifying feeling to be told that we don’t we don’t really have a fix for this. It’s inflammation. And I don’t mean to simplify something that’s complex. That’s not my point. There are lots of things going on in our body that are inflammation based and we do have some simple steps that we can proactively take so while whether you’re working with a specialist for AP you know, real conditions that you’re you’re battling and you’re actually working to bring down or if you’re just concerned about fertility, health or if you’re dealing with or you know, just fear periods or cycle disruption, discomfort, look at inflammation. That’s at the end of the day, that is what is ruling our body’s wellness and dis ease that happens in our body. So how are we going to clear the inflammation? That’s a good question. Let’s talk about that. So when inflammation is building in parts of our body, it may not be all over. Maybe it starts in one area, maybe it’s our gut. And that tends to be the issue. Inflammation starts to build in our gut lining and our intestinal lining our stomach, all of our digestive organs will respond first to that inflammation, and that can send off warnings to our brain, we then get anxiety, depression, other mental disorders going on, we can have just fluctuations in hormones that are unexplained that type of thing, because our gut controls so much of that. But if our gut isn’t happy, I’d like to say if you got not happy mum was not happy in your reproductive system will pay the price. So paying attention, implemented the that’s going on in your gut, you’re dealing with bloating, dealing,

sensitivities and discomforts. If you just in general are feeling very fatigued and rundown you’re getting ill are often headaches and tension in your body and things like that. There are ways to help either lower that or even completely eliminate that supplementation is a big part of this. Having proper Whole Foods supplementation is a really key factor to this. And it’s just kind of like a baseline starting point, we need to make sure that we are nutritionally supported, so that our body knows how to process its vitamin and mineral content, and the foods that we’re eating, and it knows how to properly use it in a way that’s not going to cause inflammation further. I hate to say it again, but eliminating things like inflammation causing foods like dairy and processed meats and grains, white foods and that sense, heavy starches and that sort of thing, not saying that everyone needs to be gluten free. I’m not saying everybody should be carb counting. No, actually, carbs are your friend. In many cases, it’s being aware of what your personal body responds to. So if you eat, you know, something, and you immediately an hour later found yourself feeling very groggy, or even in a half hour, you’re feeling very tired and lethargic. Note what it was that you ate, if it’s a combination of things. And then next time, remove one of those things, or remove a few of those things from eating and see how you feel. Don’t eat it again. And then try it again another time and see if it happens. Again, it’s a bit of investigative work. And you have to be committed to this. Unless you’re going to do something like you know, doing a full toxin and hormone panel with a professional like a naturopath doing something like touch testing. We’ll talk about that. And then going on and doing some food sensitivity testing. Those are important factors, too, that can help eliminate a lot of this guesswork and save you time. It really can. Because you’ll get some great markers of what is your body actually dealing with in these foods and how could it be contributing to inflammation, the food is a really big one for inflammation. Obviously, we’re talking toxicity again to with inflammation, we’re looking at things like smoking and you know, drinking alcohol use, we really want to eliminate them. It’s just what we really don’t want to I’m sure some people don’t want to, but your body wants you to your body does really want you to anything that is a synthetic, it needs to be eliminated, it just needs to be cleared out of your body. And that’s going to involve some cleansing that’s going to involve some, you know, maybe gentle cleansing, it could just be some simple dietary tweaks. And these are great things to do with a, you know, a fertility dietary specialist, not a traditional nutritionist, I would not recommend that. That’s my I’m going to put my two cents in there. But when it comes to fertility in particular, you want someone who knows the ins and outs of this. So there are actual fertility nutritionists who work specifically with us because they’re paying attention to your hormones to your cycle. And that is key when you’re wanting to deal with some of the inflammation and getting yourself a healthy baseline to start this process and to get yourself into a good position to grow healthy baby to be able to carry a healthy baby and to not feel like your body is just rundown and struggling. So we’re going to clear out the inflammation. There’s lots of great things that can add in there things like you know we use this very powerful but gentle I know it sounds like an oxymoron but it’s powerful and potent but still gentle and your systems we use a turmeric dual caps and it’s got curcumin and two rooms and it’s oil plus powder plus activated with black pepper all the good stuff you’re supposed to have in capsule form. So that’s a great one for inflammation making sure that it’s helping bring down the inflammation and using it daily. So using something like that is important. Something else like a poly phenol that will help bring down you know, discomfort and pain, inflammation. That’s another one that’s really helpful to have on a regular basis. So things like phyto, estrogen, you know, a natural version of a phyto, estrogen that can help rid your body of negative estrogen and balance things out. That will help with all of this with releasing toxins, clearing, inflammation, all of that is really important. So those are just some things that you can do a little research on. Again, we’re always here to send you links and information on specific products or items if you want direction in that way, but work with something that you know, and trust that is really, really important. Number four, I would say is clear. The confusion, oh, man, if we could just clear confusion around trying to conceive, when that the lovely, there’s so much confusion around the trying to conceive process, or even just trying to remedy our fertility or cycles, whatever that looks like for where you’re at. And it can be confusing, because there’s so many opinions, and there’s so much information thrown at us in snippets. And I don’t want this to be that type of thing. I want this podcast to be a starting point and a launching point for you to do your work to you. Do your research, find the right people to connect with. But really clearing the confusion also requires some test work it requires. For example, I worked with Dr. Danielle and you know, hopefully we’ll have her on again to chat about more about this. But we did things like a Dutch test and you pay for that you pay to do it, it’s a couple $100 One of the best things you can do for yourself is something like a Dutch test, because it will give you a snapshot of your hormones a proper one, not something you’ll get from a standard blood test from your doctor. This is comprehensive, like, I’m telling you very comprehensive throughout different times of the day hormone fluctuations, it’s going to give you a baseline to work with. Now, if you don’t know, what’s actually going on with your hormones that directly affects your ability to get pregnant or fertility, then how will you know where to start? You can still do all these steps, but you’ll be kind of taking shots in the dark. As far as seed cycling, should I be doing cycling at this? You know, should I be doing it every month? Should I be using melatonin? That’s another one that can be a little bit controversial? Should I be using a milligram of melatonin to improve egg quality? Or is this now going to affect my ovulation cycle? Because it can, should I be using low dose aspirin or baby aspirin to help with implantation? If I’m struggling with miscarriages? These are questions you won’t know the answers to necessarily. Some of them are, you know, generalized if you know options, and that anyone can safely try them, which is great. But some of them you’ll get a much clearer direction if you know what you’re working with. So testing, getting a look at your toxic load. Having a toxin screen done having a Dutch test done to get a baseline for your hormones, maybe having a food sensitivity tests done, those would be my top three that I would bring up that I’ve done. And I think they’re fantastic. And like I said, we’ll hopefully talk more about that in depth. But those would be my starting point for clearing some of the confusion, because it can get very overwhelming. If you walk straight into a fertility clinic, you’re going to be walking through a whole bunch of testing that may or may not serve you in the long run. Please keep in mind, I love that we have the option with fertility clinics, especially in Canada, the help we have is beautiful. But there’s still a business and they’re still there to make money. So they will be putting in forefront but they’ll also be putting their interests alongside it. So please go in there with a grain of salt knowing that you may need to still advocate you do still need to advocate for yourself. And there may be further testing you’re going to want to do. Those three that I’ve mentioned would be my favorites to look at. Last but not least, number five, probably one of the hardest things to do especially if you’ve been trying to conceive or you’ve been through a fertility process for a number of years, and you’ve struggled with it, or secondary infertility, whatever that looks like for you or you’ve just been up against maybe some challenges like endometriosis, PCOS, unexplained infertility, whatever that is. If you are dealing with these things, you are then going to have expectations that have built and this kind of comes back to clearing the blocks as well. So number one, and number five kind of go together. But clearing expectations. Hmm, that’s a tough one. Setting aside those hopes and dreams is not necessary. We need to keep the hope going. We need to keep you need to keep hope alive. And it is amazing to me that in in the face of some incredible hardships and circumstances. Women that I’ve spoken to with over the years who have miscarried over and over and over again who’ve had stillbirths who have have struggled to even conceive once continue to hold hope and that I think is can feel like a curse and it can feel like a gift. It depends on what part of your cycle you’re in, in reality, but it really is important that the expectations are lowered or leveled. Lowered maybe is the raw gold close.

I am here to heal my body I’m going to work on healing my body to the healthiest version of me. Not necessarily to conceive, and that’s hard to let go of, it really is the same. When we talk about clearing blocks, you can go in with a full view and expectation that I’m going to do this just to get pregnant, and then you don’t and then those expectations feel like they’ve been dashed, those hopes are broken. The reality is, when we’re clearing any of these things, it’s simply to be at our best health. Right? It’s not necessarily to have an end result that we’re envisioning. Now, hear me on this, because I’m a big fan of, of visualization and positive mindset and all of these things. So don’t get this wrong. Clearing expectations simply means laying them down and saying, you know, come hell or high water, I’m going to do the best that I can that are going to work with what I have available to me whether it’s budget wise, or, or you know, where I live, the specialist I have available, whatever it looks like, I will work with what I’ve got, and I will do my best. Because at the end of all this, that’s all you can do. All you can say is I’ve done what I’m able to do prioritizing what matters to you. So if it really is a priority that really matters, you will find a way you do find the budget, you do make it happen. And we all know how that looks, we know how that works. So clearing expectations on your partner as well, they may not at all be on board with the changes that you want to make for your own health. That’s okay. I mean, ultimately, it should be a partnership, it shouldn’t be, hey, we’re on board to build this baby together. You know, because it takes to to make a healthy baby. It’s not all on mom. But ultimately you are responsible for you. So you’re going to lay the expectations, you know, kind of level them a bit, level the playing field and say, Alright, here we go. I want to feel better in these areas. Mentally, physically, emotionally, whatever that is in my home in the toxin cleaning, whatever it looks like. So I’m going to take care of that. I’m going to do the things I’m able to do. And I will encourage people in my life to do the same thing, but I’m not going to hold expectation for them. So if we can work our way through some of these five things, right, clearing the blocks, clearing the toxins, clear up the inflammation, clear the confusion, and then clear some expectations, you will find you’ll breathe easier, you will find that you you feel lighter, you will find that you know meeting your cycle each month and tracking will be a little more joyful. It’s not a heaviness them. So I would encourage you to put those into action. Give it a try. And I love to know in your feedback, send me an email, give us some feedback, leave a review whatever that is, but I would love to know which one of these five you’re going to start with. Are you going to start at number one, or have you already done that? Are you in number two? Number three range? What can I help with? And how can we support you as you work your way through this? As always, I will see you on our next episode when we’re talking more about first trimester.

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