Ep. 162: How to preserve your fertility (no egg freezing required!)

There are ways to preserve your fertility without freezing your eggs! This is good news, because egg freezing is expensive (both the procedure and the storage!), invasive, uncomfortable, and -- unfortunately -- no guarantee of future pregnancy. Today's episode gives you practical suggestions for how to naturally preserve your fertility without egg freezing or any other artificial reproductive techniques. Any woman can make use of egg freezing alternatives!

NOTE: This episode is appropriate for all audiences. 

Helpful links:

• Harvard study on lowering dementia risk by walking.
• Egg Freezing Process
• Fish oil Improving and prolonging your fertility and egg quality.

Episodes for you:

• Ep. 161: A restorative reproductive physician's top supplements
• Ep.157: Is the Copper IUD the best non-hormonal birth control for me?
• Ep.147:  Emotional healing after IVF
• Ep. 92: Glucose is for everyone

Transcript

Caitlin (00:21)
Welcome back to the Wovenwell Podcast. I had a phone call recently from a woman in her mid-30s who was asking me whether I thought she should freeze her eggs. Now, I hadn't met this woman before. In fact, we'd never had a conversation, but she was 35, single, and reeling from a recent annual pap smear where her doctor encouraged her to freeze her eggs. Was that really the next appropriate step for someone in her situation? She was curious.

Now she wanted to be open to children should that opportunity ever arise for her, but she wasn't really drawn to the idea of freezing her eggs. For her, it wasn't so much about the money. That wasn't a real limitation for her, although it is a limitation to many. Those who harvest 20 eggs are more likely to have at least one live birth.

yet each cycle to harvest eggs can cost $5,000 $10,000. And that's not including the $2,000 to $7,000 in cycle stimulating medications, and then of course the ongoing cost of freezing those stored eggs for an indefinite amount of time. But for her, it wasn't the cost, it was more so the invasiveness of it and the mentality behind it. Yes, she hoped to have kids, but was

egg freezing really the automatic next step. What she wanted was natural ways to preserve her fertility until the time when she may have children. And I figure if she's interested about that, then she's probably not the only one who wants a softer, more integrated approach So what are the natural ways to preserve female fertility?

I think that we should start with the basics. Take care of yourself. Now, these are all gonna sound so basic and so straightforward that you're gonna be tempted to just skip past them and listen to the next thing. Don't. Okay, these matter because they are so foundational to human health. We think that we can beat the game and push through deficits in these areas, but we really can't. takes a toll.

sometimes in not so obvious ways like our fertility, but it is still there. So first of all, prioritize sleep. The human body thrives on an average of 7-9 hours of sleep a night. You may have to change up your schedule or your lifestyle to accommodate something like 7-9 hours, but research shows that your short and long term health will benefit from it. We need sleep.

Not only does it help us physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. make sure to prioritize getting good sleep. Next is to stay hydrated. We need about half our body weight in ounces of water per day. So not coffee or soda with water in it, okay, but water. Okay, so maybe you try cold water, hot water, sparkling water, flavored water.

Just make sure there's no sugar involved, fake or otherwise. Okay, so try to find a water that you enjoy drinking and that you can actually do consistently. Set goals or reminders if you need to, but water is your friend. It benefits your brain function, your digestive system, and yes, even your fertility. Next, I would say nourish your body with good food. We tend to eat based on desire and hunger.

instead of nourishment and fuel. Start transitioning your mindset to eating as an act of self-care.

What nutrients does your body need? How much protein and fiber should you be eating each day? Have a consultation with a registered dietitian who can walk you through the basics and help you get started. This is not about calories or fat. It's about nourishment and health. Also, move your body frequently.

If you're like me, you work in a chair in front of a computer and that's not great for us. We have to be intentional about moving our bodies if it's not a natural part of our day. Maybe you take an early morning walk. The morning sunshine is also great for us, by the way. Get a standing desk. I'm actually recording from one right now. Maybe you include a walking pad underneath it so that you can walk while you do your work throughout the day.

Join an intramural sports team in your community. You also get to know other people. Maybe join a local rec center. You can make friends too. And that social component is a benefit for all of us. Move your body. All the research tells us how much this significantly improves our health and reduces our risk for some major health issues down the line like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even dementia.

So those are the first steps necessary to help preserve your fertility. Prioritize sleep, stay hydrated, nourish your body, and move your body. Basic, but essential. Next, if you're a fan of supplements, then there are some supplements that can improve egg quality while benefiting your overall health as well. First, I would recommend NAC, N-Acetyl Cysteine, which not only helps egg quality, but insulin resistance and hormone balancing as well.

CoQ10 is another great one. It's extremely effective at improving an egg's mitochondria, which is very important when you're thinking about trying to conceive even way down the line. Fish oil is another good one. Fish oil has been shown to improve the egg quality of even the most advanced maternal age in a short amount of time. So if you're looking to improve your egg quality to preserve that over time,

Maybe try some of these supplements that really focus in on the egg's health specifically.

Yes, there are more you could take. There are bajillion supplements out there, but it's not about taking 20 supplements every day. It's about intentionally investing in your reproductive health and doing so in manageable ways. So do some research, choose a few supplements

that are good for your fertility and overall health and begin taking them consistently. We have some other episodes about supplements as well, so I'll be sure to link those in the show notes. The next way to naturally preserve your fertility is to manage glucose and insulin issues before they are a diagnosis. Now, these are some of the most common issues I see in the women that I work with, and they often have no clue that they're an issue until

a restorative reproductive medical physician like an OBGYN trained in NAPRO technology looks into that for them. So they have maybe borderline A1C results and they've never been told they're diabetic. So how could they have known this was an issue? But glucose and insulin play a major role in our overall health and specifically our reproductive health.

When left unchecked, they can cause fertility issues and even go on to develop into conditions like diabetes. So the earlier these are managed, the better. Don't wait until you're diagnosed as pre-diabetic to investigate your glucose and insulin levels. Find a trusted doctor trained in restorative medicine and let them explore it with you to see if this is one way in which you can preserve your future fertility.

Similarly, would also recommend treating underlying reproductive health issues like endometriosis. You really don't have to be ready to get pregnant in order to be as healthy as possible. Plus, long-term inflammation from issues like untreated endometriosis can build up to a really negative environment for eggs and future embryos. So let me reiterate this again. You deserve to feel your best now,

regardless of whether or not you're ready to get pregnant. Treating underlying reproductive issues like endometriosis will not only improve your quality of life and be best for your egg health now, but it will also allow you to be ready to respond whenever the timing is right for starting a family. You won't be starting from scratch and beginning the process of finding a surgeon, getting a diagnosis, having it removed,

Hopefully through excision surgery, by the way, with a specialist, that's very important. But you'll already be in a healthy place so that you can simply respond to that invitation and begin trying to conceive. This pairs well, I think, with my final suggestion for today. Ditch the birth control. Women are often told that the only answer to any reproductive health issue is birth control. Painful periods, birth control. Irregular cycles, birth control.

PMDD birth control. Endometriosis birth control. Birth control doesn't heal women. It quiets them. It suppresses the symptoms until they have to be dealt with later. Well, you deserve to have these addressed now. It should not depend on whether or not you are ready to start a family right now. Plus, women of reproductive age are at their healthiest when they're naturally cycling and experiencing the change from estrogen

to progesterone and back each cycle. The synthetic hormones used in birth control are simply not the same, and they do come with side effects and long-term health risks that you should really think about. We don't know for sure whether birth control also decreases long-term fertility in women, but I know that I've worked with enough women struggling to conceive who wish they'd never taken it.

And we can't know for sure, but I do think that it's worth exploring your alternatives. And that's the thing, in women's health, you often feel that you have no alternatives. If we wanna feel good, we have to take birth control. If we wanna have children, we have to have our eggs frozen. Really, there are alternatives available and you deserve to know your options and what's involved in each. Egg freezing is not only an expensive process, like I mentioned earlier,

It's also a fairly invasive one.

It requires hormone injections at high doses that you have to give to yourself that artificially increase egg production and growth. Women often report feeling depressed, anxious, moody, nauseous, bruised, and tender. Because of the stimulation of the ovary and their rapid growth, women are also at risk for ovarian torsion, is horrible, really horrible, pelvic infection,

or a condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. And I'm not gonna go into all these because the purpose is not to scare you. It's simply to inform you. You deserve to know the risks and the complications if you fall into the population that's affected by these side effects. It's also worth considering what you would do with these eggs. Okay, I've had clients told that it's best to freeze eggs in their 20s so that they can use them in their 30s and 40s.

But our fertility is not limited to the availability of eggs. That's not the only thing that's important. Our ability to conceive, carry, and birth a child is an intricate and complex process. It's not just having the egg, but also the uterus, ovaries, cervix. It's the healthy production of estrogen and progesterone. It's the overall reproductive health of the women. And that does

decrease with each passing year. Again, this isn't said to be scary. It's said to be honest. A woman's fertility naturally declines with age. There is an end date with menopause. This is foundational, and women deserve to know. It is unfair to women to be told that they can carry children later in life when that is simply not always the case. It's heartbreaking.

Not everyone will have children, but it shouldn't be because they were lied to or misinformed. Fertility is a gift worth preserving. The opportunity to create new life is truly a miracle. Whether you're single and unsure if you'll ever have children, deep in your career and discerning how to honor your desire for kids, or simply looking for ways to improve your fertility as you try to conceive,

It is good and right to prioritize your fertility and ways to care for it. But I hope it's not from a place of fear. It doesn't have to be from a place of fear. I truly believe that God will guide you and care for you even when it comes to growing your family. I don't know what your life will look like. No one does. But I can say with confidence that if you're living in a way that's open-handed to the goodness God intends for you, it will be a good life.

a rich and fulfilling life. I don't know whether you'll have children now or in the future, but I know that God will be there to guide you and support you along the way. And that whatever life and family look like, God will be in the midst of it to provide comfort, joy, meaning, and purpose. We can invest in our fertility, and I believe that we should, but we don't have to do so from a place of fear.

Y'all, talked about a lot of topics today. I know there's a lot mixed in here and it probably stirred up a lot of things. There's obviously so much more that we could say too. So I'm gonna link some of the other podcast episodes that may expound a bit more on some of the things we hinted on today, like supplements, glucose issues, birth control. Take a look into our other episodes while you're there to see what may be most helpful for you in this particular season of your life.

But you're looking for natural fertility support and solutions, you have definitely come to the right place. That is what we talk about each week, whether it's an episode with myself or with a guest that's talking about a special issue. You can always come back each week to learn more. As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.