Fertility Optimisation: Holistic Solutions for Successful Pregnancy & Healthy Babies.
Fertility: Challenges and Opportunities
Whether you have fertility struggles or are simply looking to proactively optimise or preserve fertility, there are a wide range of functional medicine approaches that will help you reach your goal. Fertility and successful pregnancy are a combination of maternal and paternal factors and both parents play an important role with factors such as alcohol intake and nutrient status months before pregnancy having a significant impact.
A Multifactorial Approach to Fertility
Toxicity: Measuring and Reducing Your Burden
Environmental exposures can result in long standing toxin accumulations that can impair fertility and harm a developing baby. Mycotoxins from water damaged buildings and vehicles, as well as from contaminated sources of food can contribute to endometriosis as well as miscarriage and hormonal disruption. Heavy metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic, aluminium and even excess copper can be a hidden danger. Common household items can be a source of hormone disrupting chemicals such as phthalates and BPA’s. And a modern diet can be a source of toxins from foods and gut bacteria.
Knowing your own toxic load and actively reducing it even up to a year or more before pregnancy can dramatically improve fertility, ease of conception, likelihood of morning sickness and prevent a range of problems down the track. Learn what testing is available and find out where you stand today.
Nutrient Status Fuel for Mother and Baby.
Understanding the impact and importance of food and nutrition for up to 6 months before pregnancy can prepare the mothers body with the right fats, vitamins and minerals to support the growth of a healthy baby. Find out which supplements are worth taking as well as what foods are packed with nutrition to restore or optimise your fertility. Understand the nutritional needs of women in pregnancy as well as the different nutrients appropriate to men seeking to optimise sperm quality and count. Understand the role of different nutrients and substances on infant immune and brain development and conceive with confidence.
Fertility Challenges: Common Culprits
Many women attempting to conceive in their 30’s and 40’s look to IVF and medical interventions when they have difficulties. Whilst this can sometimes be a solution, it unfortunately involves injecting large doses of hormones to override normal reproductive function.These large amounts of hormones are considered an independent risk factor for hormone sensitive cancers like breast cancer later in life. Additionally IVF treatment typically fails to look for and address any of the underlying reasons why pregnancy may not be occurring in the first place.
Women with infertility are often not even aware they may be suffering from progesterone deficiency and that this is easily replaceable with a prescription tablet or cream. Additionally around 11% of women suffer from endometriosis which can stop IVF from working altogether. Instead of testing for this and treating it, many IVF services offer expensive repeated IVF cycles which fail to result in successful pregnancy. When endometriosis is detected and removed surgically this can often restore fertility in a matter of months, with or without IVF.
A Functional Medicine Roadmap to Fertility Success
True fertility health isn’t about quick fixes—it’s about nurturing your body’s innate capacity to conceive and sustain life, including eliminating obstacles and challenges along the way. Learn about reducing toxins, optimising diet, lifestyle and supplementation and empower your journey with insights into common challenges and verified solutions. For couples navigating male factor infertility, protocols include sperm health optimisation through antioxidants and lifestyle detoxification. All strategies can be combined with assisted reproductive services to optimise egg and sperm quality for IVF as well as improve experiences during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Dr. Casey’s Strategies for Empowered Parenthood
Her protocols are tailored to your values, priorities, biology and goals, focusing on:
- Targeted Detox: Make informed decisions about the major pollutants impacting pregnancy and baby health.
- Nutrient Optimisation: Providing the building blocks for healthy hormones and therefore healthy egg, sperm and baby.
- Environmental Detox: Reducing exposure to endocrine disruptors in plastics, cosmetics, and household toxins.
- Mind-Body Harmony: Techniques to reduce cortisol spikes and foster emotional resilience during the fertility journey.