I’m excited to be starting a series of blog posts on fertility! I want to encourage you that nutrition is key! It is important to have well rounded care which is why I always recommend seeing a doctor, but I am amazed at what can be accomplished simply through proper nourishment. In this series I’ll be discussing the common nutrient deficiencies I’ve seen in relation to infertility and how to overcome them.
I couldn’t wait to start this series because this is a topic near and dear to my heart. I have previous experience in this field helping many people in their fertility journey, helping them to conceive and maintain a healthy pregnancy even when they had been previously told there was little hope for them. I worked for a functional medicine doctor, where I saw patients with hormone imbalances and nutrient deficiencies that ultimately affected their ability to conceive. This doctor saw a need for fertility nutrition and created a treatment protocol to specifically help women having issues with fertility but also women who wanted to get healthier before trying to conceive so that they could have a healthy pregnancy. I became the nutritionist for this approach and worked with ob/gyn and fertility specialists at Houston Fertility Institute to help reverse infertility and increase success in assisted reproduction like IVF. I really loved specializing in fertility and I cannot wait to share some of the things I learned with all of you so that I can help you during your journey. This may mean just getting healthy so that you can successfully conceive and have a healthy pregnancy or if you have been trying for some time and want to understand some other reasons that could be influencing your fertility, I’m excited to help with that too.
The first deficiency I am touching on is vitamin D. Did you know vitamin D is actually a steroid hormone? It plays a role in the health of bones, cardiovascular system, endocrine system, neural function in the brain, immune health, and also plays an important role in your hormones. Today I am going to talk about its link to your hormones and fertility.
So you may think of vitamin D as related to bone health and wonder what the fertility link is. There is, however, so much more to this vitamin, it helps stimulate hormone production in your ovaries and pituitary glands because there are vitamin D receptors in these tissues. Vitamin D is also important for sperm health and sperm also have a vitamin D receptor. The hormones produced from your pituitary glands stimulate production of sex hormones in your ovaries. The sex hormones regulate your menstrual cycle and ovulation which lead towards a healthy pregnancy. Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) are the important hormones made in your pituitary gland that signal your ovaries to make progesterone, estrogen and testosterone. Your ovaries release a single egg each month which is called ovulation. Ovulation is needed to conceive the baby and is a common issue when dealing with infertility especially with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis.
Below is a hormone chart so you can visually see how the hormone pathway works. Next week I will be talking about the importance of B5 and cholesterol. Vitamin D helps with the signaling production of your hormones but then there has to be the other nutrients around to actually make the hormones.
When I had women come into the office for infertility or just general preconception nutrition the first thing I tested was their vitamin D level. Since vitamin D is so important in so many processes in the body it was a no brainer to check this nutrient first. Usually people were low, especially people with darker skin and I advised them to increase their vitamin D rich foods and start a supplement immediately. I recommend an emulsified vitamin D liquid about 2,000-5,000 IUs and up to 10,000 depending on how low your vitamin D is. If you want to learn more about how to naturally incorporate more vitamin D into your lifestyle, read my post about it here.
It is encouraging to think about the fact that our nutrition can impact such an important issue as fertility. It is wonderful that simply by increasing vitamin D intake your reproduction can be so positively impacted. If you wish for a more comprehensive personalized approach please feel free to drop me an email, I would love to assist you on your fertility journey!
Next week I’ll be explaining more about the chart above and how vitamin B and cholesterol relate to fertility. Stay tuned!
