Fertility and Constipation

Woman experiencing constipation whilst trying to conceive.

If you suffer with regular constipation, and are trying to conceive, then improving your bowel movements can make a huge difference to how you feel and improve your chances of conception.

When we don’t release our waste at least daily, we are storing lots of debris and toxins within the body. We are also compromising our main detox pathway, and this means that new waste cannot be released by the body, leaving us feeling bloated and sluggish, and disrupting chances of conception.

If you are on a lot of medication, for pain for example, then this can also contribute to constipation.

If you find that your faeces is sticky and you are having to wipe a lot to get clean after using the toilet, then you could be at risk of trans-locating bacteria from the bowel into the vagina, causing vaginal dysbiosis: upset with the vaginal biome. If this happens then the vagina is not an environment that is friendly to sperm, and won’t be conducive to conception, as well as potential additional symptoms such as vaginal pain and itching, creating distress and anxiety.

The bowel is the body’s main detox pathway for oestrogen. Excess oestrogen is bound up in the liver and then released into the bowel for excretion. If it is not excreted regularly then this means that excess oestrogen is remaining inside the body, causing imbalance and disharmony. Furthermore, if you have gut dysbiosis, this can signal to the bowel to reabsorb the oestrogen coming from the liver, and send it back into circulation again. This then creates an oestrogen dominant state within the body.

General lifestyle tips for relieving constipation and improving the consistency of the stool is to increase your consumption of vegetables and fruit, and to increase your water intake. Please also see my other blog post on constipation in general, and for self-help tips.

If you are looking for fertility support in Lancashire please get in touch.

If you are experiencing issues like this, or other issues relating to fertility support, please get in touch with me for an appointment.

Stress is a thief

Woman feeling stressed.

Stress is bandied about a lot across the internet and social media. But lets cut to the chase.

When you are chronically stressed (and this can be any type of stress, worry or fear because the body treats it all the same; as a threat) then your adrenal glands will secrete more of the hormone cortisol in order to keep you safe.

However, cortisol is made up of various ingredients, one of which is pregnenolone. This is where the steal happens. Pregnenolone is a key building block for the sex hormones: oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. When the body is stressed, it believes it is under threat, and the priority is survival. So of course, the body will prioritise using the ingredients to create cortisol, the stress hormone, over using it to create our sex hormones. Because if your cycle is irregular, or you have unusual mid-cycle bleeding for example, these are not life-threatening. But the body will interpret any stress as life threatening, so other processes of less importance will be “put on the back-burner”.

So if you are having fertility issues of any kind, identifying areas of stress in your life can be a pivotal starting point. Really take some time reviewing your daily activities and routines and see where things could be improved. Spend some time sitting quietly and try not to think about anything. If this is difficult, write down the thoughts or worries that keep reappearing. Other things to consider:

  • Meditation or some sort of spiritual connection
  • Reflexology and/or acupuncture, massage
  • Gentle exercise allowing time for recovery afterwards
  • Setting time aside to do the things you love to do

If you are looking for fertility support in Lancashire please call/email me directly to have a chat and book in.