8 Steps to Pregnancy!

Want to be pregnant but so far not happening? 

Or not ready for pregnancy, but having infrequent or irregular cycles and know it’s not right?

There are some pretty easy steps you can take that will often remedy this.

First, are you ovulating? Are you putting out an egg? 

If your cycles come every 21 to 35 days from start of one to start of the next, you are likely ovulating. 

However, longer or shorter cycles within that range may indicate hormone imbalance. Around 26-30 days is preferable.

Even in couples with regular periods and “normal” semen analysis, something in your daily life could be negatively affecting your chances of conceiving… male and female. 

And remember a healthy Mom and Dad in the months prior to conception makes a healthy pregnancy and baby much more likely.

Here are 8 steps to improve hormone function, regulate cycles and increase fertility in you and your partner.

1) Eat nutrient dense food

Simply put, your body needs meat, fish, eggs and veggies. It can live without sugar, flour, and industrial seed oils like corn, soybean, cotton, sunflower and safflower.

Meat, fish, eggs, veggies. I encourage people to memorize these 4 words. These are the most nutrient dense foods. 

What to order when you go to a restaurant? Look for meat, fish, eggs, veggies!

Of course, fruit, nuts, good fats and whole fat dairy can make worthwhile contributions to a healthy diet as long as they are well tolerated. Generally best if nuts are soaked first.

I recognize some prefer a vegan or vegetarian diet. Many feel really great when they first implement one of these diets. Significantly increasing veggies and cutting down on sugar and processed foods makes the body very happy. 

When done carefully some can be quite healthy on these diets for the long run, but many will begin to fade and not feel as good after a while. 

For many they find the diet limiting, omitting the most nutrient dense foods and sacrificing variety. It typically results in greater consumption of moderate to low nutrient density foods (see table).  Simple carbs are often used to try to feel full. The result is often poor gut health, and lots of supplementing missed nutrients. 

Whatever YOUR healthy diet entails, it is better to focus on what you DO eat, rather than on what you don’t or “can’t” eat. 

You can eat whatever you want. But once you see how good and how satisfied you feel on nutrient dense foods you may hesitate to go back. 

Meat and eggs are most nutrient dense when pasture-raised. Its whole life… not grass fed and grain finished. Most animals aren’t made to eat grains, usually corn. A diet of cereal makes animals fat and inflamed just like it does you. 

Wild caught fish are best. Cold-water fatty fish like salmon, anchovies, and sardines are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which are super anti-inflammatory. These fish are also are an important source of EPA and DHA. DHA is critical for normal brain and eye development in babies. If you don’t eat much fish you may want to supplement with a good cod liver oil or ratfish oil.

Avoid fish farmed here in the US. They are generally fed grain. Salmon farmed in Norway are better and more affordable than wild, though still not as nutritious as wild.

Veggies include non-starchy like broccoli, cauliflower, beets, turnips and dark green leafies, as well as starchy vegetables like potatoes, lentils, chickpeas, and squashes.

Check out EWG.org’s clean 15 and dirty dozen to know what to buy organic and what doesn’t need to be. It is updated every year.

2) Exercise regularly

Exercise increases diversity of the gut microbiome. Diversity means more, better, bigger families of beneficial bacteria, doing great things in your gut… like crowding out the “bad” guys and improving hormone function. This improves fertility!

Exercise can be walking, hiking, yoga, weight lifting, biking, running, swimming, skiing, skating, dancing, high or low impact aerobics. Whatever you like to do. A variety is best.

Sometimes I just walk or run up and down the stairs in my house. Or, stand in place and do all the aerobics, calisthenics or yoga I can think of. It is important to break up your day with movement and not sit too long. It is also great to vary the intensity of your workouts.

3) Get good sleep, decrease stress

When you sleep your body repairs and resets. Research is pretty clear that most of us need at least 7 hours of actual sleep. You may need 8-9 hours in bed in order to get this.  

You may need more but not likely less. A habit of less than 7 or more than 10 hours of sleep can negatively impact health and fertility.

Insufficient or poor sleep is a major stress. And stress negatively affects everything your body is trying to do, particularly fertility. 

When you are in a state of fight or flight, reproductive functions shut down in order to funnel all energy to survival. Fight or flight is meant to be a very brief, occasional state so this would be fine. But many of us seem to live in flight or flight much of the time. This is not fine.

The alternative is called ‘rest and digest’, or ‘calm and connect’. 

Rest might mean just stopping and taking a deep breath, giving your mind and your body a break. Digest might refer to better digesting your food, or taking in your surroundings and appreciating the world around you. 

Remember thinking all the time is not helpful. It often becomes worry or obsession. It may keep you in more of a fight or flight state. And it can distract you from simply being present. So clear your mind often… rest and digest.

4) Experience pleasure

What is your core belief about why we are here on earth? To toil and worry and never catch up? Or are we actually meant to enjoy our time here? 

When you connect with another person, play, laugh, see a cute baby or pet, watch an emotional movie, create or hear lovely music, accomplish a feat or exercise you will likely have an outpouring of endorphins. 

‘Endo’ means from within and ‘orphins’ refers to morphine, the pain reliever. Endorphins are our own built in pain reliever. They make us feel good. They decrease stress and boost our immune system. This contributes to better ovary and sperm health and better fertility.

5) Keep blood sugar stable. 

Eating lots of simple carbs contributes to high blood sugar, or hyperglycemia. Simple carbs include bread products, pasta, sweets, fruit juice, and soda. Even oatmeal, rice and potatoes can spike blood sugar in larger amounts or when not eaten with plenty of protein and good fat.

If you tend toward hIgh blood sugar you may benefit from eating less often and fasting longer overnight to reset insulin levels.

Low blood sugar is the problem for some. If you get light-headed or “hangry” when you haven’t eaten in a while you may have low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia. 

If you tend toward low blood sugar you may benefit from eating every 2-3 hours, including good fat and protein each time, not having carbs alone and not fasting too long overnight.

Both high and low blood sugar cause surges of insulin. 

In women, these insulin surges cause estrogen to be converted to testosterone. And in men, they cause testosterone to be converted to estrogen. Not what we want.

So just keeping your blood sugar stable can promote healthy hormone function.

6) Avoid endocrine disruptors.

Endocrine basically means hormone. So, endocrine disruptor is a fancy word for something that throws off your hormones. 

You’ve heard about BPA and maybe you avoid drinking out of plastic water bottles because of it. But what about “BPA free” water bottles?

Understand that “BPA free” plastic means plastic made with a derivative of BPA, such as BPF, BPS or others. These are just as harmful and should be avoided too. 

What is more important is not to eat or drink anything HOT from plastic. This includes coffee cup lids and paper plates which are coated in plastic. And for heaven’s sake do NOT heat your food in plastic containers. Heat releases BPA.

Oh, and the printing on store receipts is quite high in BPA. Don’t handle them or avoid touching the printed side.

BPA binds with your hormones so they can’t do their job. It negatively affects sperm in multiple ways, including impacting its epigenetics. This can affect your baby.

Other endocrine disruptors include certain drugs, smoking, pollution, radiation, and infection in your gut or your blood. These can create oxidative stress… think inflammation. 

Inflamed fluid in your abdomen can contribute to worsening endometriosis. And inflammation can injure testicular cells affecting sperm and can injure ovarian eggs.

If it is impossible to avoid pollution or second hand smoke in your world, be sure to get LOTS of antioxidants in your diet. Deeply colored fruits and veggies like blueberries, strawberries, goji berries as well as kale, beets and spinach are high in antioxidants. Also, pecans and dark chocolate!

7) Get your gut healthy.

Bacteria in the gut have enzymes that influence hormone activity. This is good.

A robust and diverse micro-biome will promote better hormone activity.

How to have a healthy gut:

• Avoid foods that feed “bad” bacteria like simple carbs.

• Avoid foods/chemicals that irritate the gut such as gluten, arsenic, and BPA.

• Drink healing bone broth or meat stock daily to heal and seal your gut.

• Restore beneficial gut flora with probiotic and prebiotic foods.

• Treat parasites, yeast and bad bugs.

• Manage your stress, really. 

8) Gain or lose just a little weight.

Research is clear that having too little body fat as well as too much negatively impacts hormone activity including fertility.

In an underweight woman, especially below 18.5 BMI, gaining just a few pounds may be enough to allow your body to think about fertility instead of just survival.

In an overweight woman, over 25 BMI, even losing 5 or 10 pounds could be all it takes to shift to healthier hormone signaling and pregnancy. 

You can find your BMI online by inserting height and weight. It is not a perfect measurement so don’t get too caught up in it. It gives a rough estimate of body fat.

Lastly, love yourself, just as you are. Drop the self-criticism. It isn’t helpful. See the beauty in yourself and others. Take good care of your body and your mental and emotional health because you are worth it. 

This will make it easier to get pregnant, and to more fully experience and enjoy life.

If you want help getting pregnant, or regulating periods for future pregnancy or health…get in touch.