Understanding the Causes of Infertility: A Functional Medicine Approach

When you first decide you want to be a parent, you are overcome with emotion – from anticipation to excitement and everything in between. Unfortunately, for about 15% of couples that excitement is replaced with anxiety when faced with infertility.

The emotional road to parenthood is confusing enough without infertility. But, if you do reach a point in your journey where you need to figure out what is preventing you from conceiving, functional medicine offers a unique perspective.

The functional medicine approach to infertility looks at the body as a whole. Your provider helps you identify the root cause, so that you can treat your infertility from the source and return your body to optimal health.

This article explores infertility from a functional medicine perspective, including common biological, environmental, and lifestyle causes of infertility. At the end of the article, you will also learn how Boulder Holistic Functional Medicine in Boulder, Colorado, finds and treats infertility with a holistic approach.

What is Infertility?

Infertility is an inability to have children. It affects men and women equally, with about a third of all infertility cases attributed to women, a third to men, and the final third a combination of factors between a man and woman.

Most doctors recommend that you try to conceive with natural cycling methods for at least a year before any other options are explored. In fact, the very definition of infertility is the inability to conceive after a year of regular, unprotected sex.

The truth is that it can take months or even years to discover the exact cause of your infertility. Tests include diagnostics for a woman’s ovulation cycle, a man’s sperm count, and other medical exams which reveal the overall health of you and your partner.

How Can Functional Medicine Help with Fertility?

While a regular medical professional can help you understand and diagnose infertility, their approach is sporadic at best. They look at factors that could be affecting your physical health, like disease, medical conditions, etc, but they don’t often look at you and the parts of your life that may influence your ability to conceive.

Your fertility is influenced by your biology, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Everything from your weight, diet, exercise, stress levels, and toxin exposure can affect your ability to become pregnant.

Functional medicine searches for the root cause of your infertility, in the hopes that the cause will reveal the best path to optimal health.

The comprehensive approach taken by functional medicine doctors takes all aspects of your health and lifestyle into account. We do testing that helps look for imbalances in hormones, gut health, genetic factors, immune function, toxin exposure and other key systems that could be influencing fertility.

Common Causes of Infertility

The common causes of infertility differ in men and women, but some causes affect both sexes. Fertility declines with age, and every decade makes it more difficult for a woman to get pregnant. Both sexes are affected by weight, smoking, poor gut health, lack of sleep, and extreme stress.

Some factors are specific to women, including:

Ovulatory Disorders like PCOS, premature ovarian failure, poor egg quality, irregular or infrequent periods
Physical factors like blocked fallopian tubes, uterine disorders, STD’s, uterine fibroids, endometriosis
History or recurrent miscarriages
MTHFR, SNP’s, antiphospholipid antibodies

Others are specific to men:

Sperm disorders like low sperm count or poor sperm quality
Testicular and ejaculatory issues like varicoceles and erectile dysfunction
Smoking, excessive alcohol use, or illicit drug use, including marujuana can lower sperm count and contribute to poor sperm quality
Bike riding greater than 5 hours per week leads to low sperm count
Wearing restrictive garments that keep testicles too hot

Boulder Holistic Functional Medicine also specializes at identifying and treating environmental factors. Chemical exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in single-use plastics, perfumes, air fresheners, and cleaning products can affect fertility in both sexes. Mold, mycotoxins, and heavy metals are also endocrine disruptors.

Functional Medicine Diagnosis and Treatment

When it comes to infertility, there are many different approaches. The traditional approach involves hormone tests and imaging studies.

The functional medicine approach includes a whole body assessment; one that may include genetic testing, lifestyle assessments, dietary review, and environmental tests. Your doctor will also test for hormonal imbalances, gut health, immune function, and mental health.

Although several people may have the same diagnoses, infertility causes are as varied as the individual. The functional medicine approach takes this into account and crafts a treatment plan with medical tests, holistic treatments, specialists, and anything else that will help you return to optimal health.

Infertility Self-Care

Infertility is a physically and emotionally challenging experience for men and women. It can feel extremely isolating and rife with shame and confusion.

Emotional and mental health both play a role in infertility. Too much stress or pressure can make it more difficult to conceive. Cortisol – the stress hormone – disrupts ovulation in women and affects sperm quantity and motility in men.

Introducing infertility self care practices like mindfulness, creative expression, and therapy can dramatically reduce stress and make you feel less alone.

Here are a few infertility self-care ideas for you to consider while dealing with infertility

1. Practice mindfulness & meditation

These practices help manage stress and make you feel more calm. You can try popular meditation apps like Calm and Insight Timer, for short, guided meditation and mindfulness techniques

2. Introduce regular relaxation techniques

Self care looks a little different for everyone. Think about some ways that you love to relax, whether it’s taking a bath, reading a book, taking a walk in nature… Try to add more of these relaxation techniques into your daily life, starting with once a week and making them more frequent with time

3.Take a look at your diet

Certain foods, including most fruits and vegetables, have essential antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that support a healthy body and mind. Work with a professional if you need help choosing the right diet or want guidance on which foods to add or cut out for better fertility.

4. Try counseling or therapy

Venting your frustration and talking about how you feel while dealing with infertility is a healing experience. Speak with a therapist or counselor if you need help processing the physical and emotional consequences surrounding infertility. Relationship counseling may also help relieve any strain that arises between you and your partner.

5. Take breaks

Give yourself permission to take breaks from fertility-related activities as needed. That might be putting treatment, therapy, and research on pause so you can simply live your life with the constant worry, stress, and pressure.

6. Experiment with creative expression

Self expression is essential for healing – whether that’s in a journal or through some other artistic pursuit like painting, dancing, cooking, etc. Experiment with more activities that bring joy and fun into your life

7. Engage in mind-body exercise

Physical activity reduces stress and improves your overall wellbeing. With mind-body exercise like yoga and tai chi, you connect more deeply to your body. Trauma is often stored in the body and can be released through physical movement.

Through regular self care, you will become more familiar with the signs and rhythms if your body. This will not only help you reduce stress and heal any imbalances in your physical body, but heal your relationship with yourself that could be suffering as a result of your infertility.