First, and foremost, please be gentle on yourself.  Whatever you are going through, please know that 1 in 6 Canadians deal with infertility so you aren’t alone.  Sometimes, the time isn’t right and that is why it is hard to conceive – the universe has strange ways of giving us what we need at the right time.  Sometimes, taking a break from trying every month and/or then having unprotected intercourse with no expectations may be the secret.

View your entire body as a flower garden and tend to it with self-care and love and it will flourish.  Just take care of yourself and try not to let any peer or societal pressure make you stressed about the idea of conceiving.  We always put too much pressure on ourselves and naturally get influenced by everything we see online and our friends and family posting about their kids and new babies being born.  If you need to, take a break from social media for a while so you don’t see the new baby posts and announcements.

Your time will come.  In the meantime, keep watering your flower garden with love and it will be ready for the ‘right time’.

There is a lot of stress right now.  Stress increases your cortisol which in turn will affect your estrogen, progesterone, thyroid and other hormones.  This can lead to changes in your menstrual cycles, affect your endometrial lining, and may trigger inflammation.  Egg and sperm quality can decrease with increased stress.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to keep your stress down as much as possible right now.  Some strategies are:

• Connect with friends and/or family virtually if they aren’t within your close contacts
• Pamper yourself with a delicious meal, either home-cooked or order takeout
• Have a warm bath with magnesium salts
• Create a bedtime routine such as a warm tea, reading a book, and/or meditation
• Create a morning routine that excites you each morning. Maybe it’s a black cup of coffee and a journal or hot lemon water and listening to music.
• Speak to your healthcare professional or naturopathic doctor about any additional adrenal, anxiety, or calming supplements that may help
• Find an hour of quiet time in the day or even 30 minutes in the middle of the day for some alone time
• Have a massage or acupuncture treatment from time to time

If you haven’t had your hormones tested, talk to your doctor about having them tested.  There are many ways to test your hormones – via the blood, saliva, and through the urine.  MDs will order a blood test which will give you an idea of which hormones are out of range. You may even consider speaking with a naturopathic doctor or other functional healthcare provider to know if your levels are within the optimal range and NOT just in the normal reference range.  If you are lucky, you may be able to get your MD to requisition a urinary cortisol test.  A functional medicine practitioner or a naturopathic doctor has the ability to order saliva testing or dried urine hormonal testing.  Saliva will give you an idea of how much hormone is in the tissue ready to be utilized where urinary testing will measure the metabolites so you have an idea of how your body is utilizing hormones.

Inflammation can affect your hormones and yield oxidative stress which can decrease egg/sperm quality. Poor quality can impact sperm motility, fertilization rate, implantation, and embryo development if pregnancy were to occur.  Inflammation could be related to a chronic inflammatory condition like diabetes or an autoimmune disorder like rheumatoid arthritis or it can be from an injury.  Digestive issues can also trigger inflammation.

There are various anti-inflammatories to help reduce inflammation and antioxidants like melatonin and glutathione that can help to reduce oxidative stress.  Working with a naturopathic doctor and figuring out what the root cause is of the inflammation is always the best approach so you can take the best supplement(s) for you.