Hormone Balancing for Fertility

Hormone Balancing for Fertility

Katie Benson, Master Nutrition Therapist

Food Blogger, www.healingwholenutrition.com

Men and women both need hormone balance for fertility. Women need balanced reproductive hormones in order to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and carry a healthy baby to term. If there’s an imbalance it may be harder for couples to conceive and maintain a healthy pregnancy. By following some of the below advice, hormones should begin to balance and fertility should improve for most couples.

Eat a Balanced, Whole Foods Diet

The best way to support balanced hormones is to eat a nutritious whole foods diet. The building blocks for hormones are found in the foods we eat. Just as nutrients in food can be helpful for fertility, there are some foods and chemicals added to foods that can be harmful for your health and fertility. What you eat, when you eat and how you eat are essential to maintaining hormonal balance.

Foods to Focus On:

Cruciferous Veggies - cabbage, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, collards and broccoli

Why? Help the liver break down and eliminate estrogen from the body since they contain compounds that help in liver detoxification.

High Fiber foods - beans, lentils, vegetables, berries

Why? Help keep the bowels regular, which is vitally important for hormone balance. Hormones are eliminated from the body via the colon, through our stool, and if we are constipated the hormones get re-absorbed by the colon and re-circulated in our bodies.

Focus on Fats - coconut oil, grass-fed butter (my favorite is Kerrygold), nut butters, ghee

Why? Healthy, saturated fats are crucial for building hormones necessary for conception and a healthy pregnancy.

Pastured-eggs

Why? Love the yolk! Egg yolks are rich in cholesterol and cholesterol is the main component of cell membranes and plays a major role in hormone making.

Whole Milk Dairy Products - unsweetened yogurt, milk, cottage cheese, raw grass-fed cheeses

Why? Consuming too little whole fat dairy foods can also cause problems for our fertility. This is one of my favorite studies showing women who consumed low-fat dairy foods had an increase in fertility issues, compared to those that consumed the full-fat versions.

Fermented Foods - Yogurt, sauerkraut, pickles, kombucha, pickled veggies, kefir

Why? Rich in enzymes, lactic acid and good bacteria, which help digestion and help the gut absorb nutrients, especially the B vitamins which are vital for liver detoxification. Women trying to conceive and pregnant women need a healthy gut to help ward off infection and environmental chemicals that can harm a developing fetus.

Love your Liver

Our liver is in charge of detoxification and for processing estrogen and other sex hormones to be recycled or eliminated from the body. If the liver is busy and overburdened by chemicals and pollutants in our environment, pesticides on our food, hormones in the animal products we consume and from household cleaners and cosmetics, it’s no wonder hormone imbalance may occur! While the liver is busy detoxing and cleansing the body from everyday contaminants, it also has to take on the job of removing any excess hormones from the body. An abundance of estrogen can lead to estrogen-dominance which can throw off the delicate balance of estrogen and progesterone needed for conception and a healthy pregnancy. If the liver is overburdened, it’s easy to see how hormone imbalance can occur if there are a lot of excess hormones floating around that are unable to be eliminated from the body.

How do we show our liver some love?

• Eat cruciferous veggies daily - cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower
• Eat a lot of dark green, leafy veggies - spinach, kale
• Minimize exposure to pesticides on food by eating organic
• Minimize exposure to household chemicals by using natural cleaning supplies, eliminating fragrant candles, using green laundry detergent and dryer sheets

Exercise: But Don’t Overdo It

Most people think that intense two-hour workouts are the key to physical success, but this is not true when it comes to balancing hormones and fertility. Intense exercise increases cortisol, a stress hormone, which is released in stressful situations. The “fight or flight” response is not ideal for reproducing.

Instead of partaking in those 5 mile intense runs and two hour crossfit sessions, try a brisk hike, cycling at a moderate pace, and add in some 30 second sprints to help increase muscle, decrease glucose levels, but also keep cortisol levels at bay. Exercises like yoga, walking, and light jogging decrease stress and cortisol, and increase relaxed, alpha waves in the brain. By reducing stress, we reduce the amount of cortisol released by our adrenal glands. If we are producing too much cortisol, we suppress follicular growth and block or delay the preovulatory surge of LH (luteinizing hormone) - this is not good for fertility because this may hinder a woman’s ability to ovulate!

If you are someone who trains hard and loves intense, long workouts, it might be worth a shot to change up your routine for a couple of months. You may find that you feel better and may even find that you and your partner are pregnant!

Ample Body Fat is Key

Body fat has an important function for fertility. Body fat cells, called adipocytes produce estrogen. Estrogens are primary female reproductive messengers. Estrogen is essential for healthy bone formation, healthy gene expression, maintaining healthy cholesterol levels, and is vital for a healthy menstrual cycle. Women who do not have adequate amounts of body fat may have menstrual cycle irregularities, anovulation and infertility problems. Obese women may have too much estrogen due to too much body fat, which may also contribute to fertility problems. Body fat is necessary for a regular menstrual cycle. Low body fat may also cause ovulation to stop. Some women will continue to have monthly menstruation, but be unaware that she is not ovulating regularly. If ovulation isn’t occurring, conception cannot happen.

Reduce Exposure to Hormone Disruptors (Xenohormones)

Xenohormones are man-made chemicals. These chemicals have the ability to interfere with the natural functions and development of our bodies. Not only can they mimic our natural hormones, but they can block other hormones from binding to receptor sites. All xenohormones are endocrine disruptors. They can alter how natural hormones are produced, metabolized and eliminated.

Some common Xenohormones:

• Solvents & Adhesives (paint, nail polish, household cleaners)
• Plastics
• Non-organic meats (animals are given hormones to fatten them up or to grow quicker)
• Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides
• Emulsifiers in soap and cosmetics
• PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyl) from industrial waste
• Hormonal birth control (pill, shot, ring, implant)

Xenohormones can be absorbed by ingestion, inhalation and direct skin contact.

Reduce and Manage Life’s Stressors

In today’s fast-paced society, especially in America, it is easy for people to become stressed. One would almost think that being stressed is the norm, and if you aren’t stressed it must mean there is something wrong with you or you aren’t trying hard enough to fill every second of your day. However, stress is not a good thing for our bodies in general, and has a large impact on fertility.

Unfortunately for many overly stressed-out people, our bodies are equipped to prevent conception from occurring during times of extreme stress. The presence of adrenaline and cortisol, the hormones that are released by the adrenal glands during stressful times, signals to our body that conditions are not ideal for conception. These stress hormones inhibit us from utilizing the hormone progesterone, which is essential for fertility because it produces a nourished uterine lining that supports a fertilized egg. In something called the “progesterone steal”, progesterone is used, or stolen because in order to make cortisol, the adrenal glands need progesterone. If all of our progesterone is being used up to create stress hormones, what’s left for reproduction? Very little!

How to Manage Stress

Learn what works for you - everyone handles and manages their stress differently!

• Calming walks
• Yoga
• Pilates
• Reading a book
• Short getaway
• Epsom salt baths
• Essential oil baths
• Massage