Infertility
1 in 8 couples have trouble conceiving, that’s about 6.7 million people. Infertility is usually defined as not achieving pregnancy after a year of having regular intercourse. Infertility isn’t always female related. One-third of cases are female factor while another one-third are due to male fertility factors. An additional one-third of the cases are caused by a combination of issues.
Causes of Infertility
Most cases of infertility are caused by a wide range of problems that disrupt ovulation. Ovulation is the release of the egg from the woman’s ovary (occurring every month) about two weeks before the first day of each menstrual period. Without proper ovulation, a woman will not become pregnant. Ovulation problems are a result of hormone imbalances from a wide variety of causes. Here are some factors that may interfere with fertility:
- Smoking
- Poor Diet
- Heavy alcohol use (more than three to four drinks a day).
- Stress
- Diabetes
- Over training
- Being obese or underweight
- History of STDs, pelvic inflammatory disease
- History of endometriosis or PCOS
- Thyroid imbalances
- Radiation treatment and/or chemotherapy
- Age 30 or older
The Conventional Approach To Treating Infertility
Conventional treatments for infertility range quite a bit, dealing with both female and male issues. While they can be successful, they frequently include prescribing medications or using surgery, and rarely look at the root cause of infertility.
What you may not know is that traditional fertility treatments create higher-risk pregnancies. These treatments create a higher risk for both the mother and child compared to a natural pregnancy. While some of these methods may need to be used if natural means aren’t effective, oftentimes they are the first options offered.
While many cases of infertility are easily diagnosed, there are also many cases of unexplained infertility. Approximately 30% of couples do not have an answer explaining why they cannot become pregnant. Failing to offer complete hormone testing may result in missing an imbalance, such as thyroid, which is often part of the infertility equation.
The Functional Medicine Approach To Infertility
A major overlooked root cause of infertility in America today, is our lifestyle. This includes the toxicity of our food, our water, environment, and other factors that can greatly imbalance your hormones including stress, infections, lack of sleep and overuse of stimulants like caffeine and cigarettes.
Once we improve these lifestyle factors, not only is hormonal health improved, so is fertility. After all, your fertility is based on how healthy you are overall. In Functional Medicine, balancing factors that impair fertility is normal protocol for our 6 pillars of health.
What we’ve realized through current medical studies and advanced testing, is environmental toxins and gut health greatly impact hormonal health and fertility. We work with patients to help discover which areas need the most care in terms of hormonal health, but also how to improve the health of their whole bodies, from proper liver detox to making smarter, less toxic food choices (although they may think they do eat healthy). If hormone replacement is needed, we look at bio-identical hormone replacement options that can be tested with blood work to ensure correct dosage.
At Wichita Health & Hormone Clinic we follow a functional medicine approach to identify what factors can be at the root cause of your infertility. Many times the same factors can harm other areas of your health as well. Together, we can create a customized plan to address the issues that cause imbalances, and approach infertility more holistically.
Does This Sound Like You?
Do you have body aches, fatigue, anxiety, and/or sleep disturbances?
Do you need several cups of coffee just to feel awake and start your day?
Or maybe you just experience low energy throughout the day?
You may have even mentioned it to your doctor, only to be told “it’s just part of getting older”.
Chances are, it has nothing to do with age – but that it is actually a hormonal issue resulting from imbalanced adrenal glands.
Sadly, many conventional physicians will overlook the adrenal glands and don’t know how to run the available testing to check the levels of stress hormones that could be at the root of your chronic fatigue.
And that’s why a traditionally trained doctor is typically in favor of using your symptoms to reach a diagnosis like “chronic fatigue” – which is a mystery illness with no cure!
Adrenals & Stress
So how are the adrenals linked to your energy levels? The adrenals, a set of important glands that rest on top of your kidneys, are in charge of regulating important stress hormones like cortisol – responsible for the “fight of flight” response and other stress hormones like epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
When your stress response is not balanced, the ability to turn these hormones “on and off” can wreak havoc with your energy levels.
Due to illness, prolonged low-grade stress and other factors, your adrenal glands may be overworked, causing feelings of intense fatigue and exhaustion even after a full night’s sleep.
Without proper regulation from your endocrine system, you may feel unable to cope with normal everyday stress or even handle the normal activities of life.
Craving salty or sweet foods is not uncommon, as a way to refuel fast, since the body is searching to upgrade energy any way it can.
Sadly, eating this way can create even more imbalances, especially with your gut microbiome. Additionally, adrenal dysfunction can result in more than just decreased energy, it can also cause low libido, weight gain, increased PMS/menopausal symptoms, constipation, and a weakened immune system.
How We Approach Stress
In my practice, we are trained to get to the root of your chronic fatigue and any of the other symptoms you may be suffering from – and advanced hormone testing is a key piece to ensure that you won’t continue to “run on empty” due to your adrenals.
If we do discover you have adrenal imbalances, then chances are your stress hormones are not “shutting off” correctly, which could happen for a variety of reasons.
“How do I fix my adrenals?” might be your next question.
Balancing your adrenals takes more than just dealing with those glands separately.
There is a complex brain – adrenal feedback loop, that typically gets “off kilter”… called the HPA axis which also involves glands in your brain.
That’s why in Functional Medicine, we never treat “areas” or “parts” of the body separately, but look at the body as a whole.
As part of our stress recovery program, we devise a full body balancing protocol that not only supports your adrenals but also brings balance back to other areas that may be causing havoc with your adrenals – including diet, gut health, lifestyle and stress factors, sleep habits and more.
If you have been experiencing symptoms that may be connected with adrenal dysfunction and are looking for answers, schedule an appointment with Wichita Health and Hormone Clinic today so we can see if you may be at risk and what your options are.
Take The First Step On Your
Journey With Me
Perhaps you have questions you’d like to ask before you make a decision to become a patient. We are happy to answer any questions you have to determine if Wichita Health and Hormone Clinic is right for you.
Contact Us
Wichita Health and Hormone Clinic
7570 W 21st St N
Bldg #1026, Suite C113
Phone: 316-201-6774
sclawson@wichitahhc.com
