This week is our final episode of the infertility awareness series. I am excited to talk with Deidre Bloomquist. She is a functional nutritionist, and her specialty is reversing infertility through restoring health by reducing toxicity. In today’s episode we dive into how toxicity impacts the body and fertility.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear:
-Endocrine disruptors like phthalates and fragrances impact hormones, which affects fertility.
-Toxins are everywhere, especially in products with fragrances, which are in many everyday products people use.
-Your gut health matters for fertility because it impacts your hormones, and when there are imbalances, like dysbiosis, it stresses out your body, which can impact your hormones too; toxins like pesticides, heavy metals, mold, and even emotional stressors can cause gut imbalances.
-In early conception, the thyroid is important in cellular replication, and if the thyroid is not functioning optimally it might cause fertility issues; heavy metals like aluminum and mercury, along with mold, can throw your thyroid off balance.
-A lot of times people think that their symptoms are completely normal, when it can be traced back to toxins that you were exposed to in utero; learning how to manage how many toxins you come into contact with will ultimately impact the health of your child.
-Unexplained infertility is definitely explainable, and what it really means is doctors don’t really know why you are unable to get pregnant; by digging deeper into the root causes of your symptoms, you are given a pathway to make the changes you need in order to get pregnant.
-When IUI or IVF doesn't work typically it's because the body doesn’t feel safe, and it is trying to keep you safe; doing functional work can help and prepare your body for those procedures or to get pregnant naturally.
To reduce toxicity and support fertility, start with your water source. Invest in a good quality filter. Look at things around your home and see what has fragrances, and buy things new in a better quality when you run out of that product. Make changes slowly, and remember perfection is not the goal. Prioritize daily use items for immediate improvement.
Connect w/ Deidre:
www.instagram.com/alwaysgrowing_nutrition
Subscribe to The Endo Belly Girl Podcast:
Apple | Spotify
Connect w/ Alyssa:
Work w/ Alyssa:
Learn more about Alyssa
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. This may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.
This week is our final episode of the infertility awareness series. I am excited to talk with Deidre Bloomquist. She is a functional nutritionist, and her specialty is reversing infertility through restoring health by reducing toxicity. In today’s episode we dive into how toxicity impacts the body and fertility.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear:
-Endocrine disruptors like phthalates and fragrances impact hormones, which affects fertility.
-Toxins are everywhere, especially in products with fragrances, which are in many everyday products people use.
-Your gut health matters for fertility because it impacts your hormones, and when there are imbalances, like dysbiosis, it stresses out your body, which can impact your hormones too; toxins like pesticides, heavy metals, mold, and even emotional stressors can cause gut imbalances.
-In early conception, the thyroid is important in cellular replication, and if the thyroid is not functioning optimally it might cause fertility issues; heavy metals like aluminum and mercury, along with mold, can throw your thyroid off balance.
-A lot of times people think that their symptoms are completely normal, when it can be traced back to toxins that you were exposed to in utero; learning how to manage how many toxins you come into contact with will ultimately impact the health of your child.
-Unexplained infertility is definitely explainable, and what it really means is doctors don’t really know why you are unable to get pregnant; by digging deeper into the root causes of your symptoms, you are given a pathway to make the changes you need in order to get pregnant.
-When IUI or IVF doesn't work typically it's because the body doesn’t feel safe, and it is trying to keep you safe; doing functional work can help and prepare your body for those procedures or to get pregnant naturally.
To reduce toxicity and support fertility, start with your water source. Invest in a good quality filter. Look at things around your home and see what has fragrances, and buy things new in a better quality when you run out of that product. Make changes slowly, and remember perfection is not the goal. Prioritize daily use items for immediate improvement.
Connect w/ Deidre:
www.instagram.com/alwaysgrowing_nutrition
Subscribe to The Endo Belly Girl Podcast:
Apple | Spotify
Connect w/ Alyssa:
Work w/ Alyssa:
Learn more about Alyssa
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. This may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.
Alyssa Chavez [00:00:01]:
Hello, my friend, and welcome back to the Endo Belly Girl podcast. Today we are on our very last episode, not the last episode of the podcast, don't worry, but the last episode of our four part fertility series that we were focusing on for the month of April. And our last guest of the month here. Her name is Deidre Bloomquist. She is the owner of always growing Nutrition, which is a virtual practice that serves clients all around the United States. And she is also a functional nutritionist, just like I am. In fact, she has actually been one of my instructors as I have been learning all of these skills and knowledge that I've learned over the years. I know what she's about.
Alyssa Chavez [00:00:52]:
I know the. Her way of thinking and the way that she works with clients, and I really appreciate that. She actually, at this point in time, runs a team of practitioners who work with women ranging from things from digestive issues to hormone imbalance. And she actually also has a dedicated pediatric practice, which is really cool. So she works with kids as well, but her specialty is in reversing infertility, mainly by restoring health through reducing toxicity, which is super cool. And she's going to talk about that a lot in today's episode. There's a lot of fascinating little nuggets related to toxicity and infertility, which is absolutely important even when you're struggling with endometriosis. Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:01:39]:
There's a lot of factors that can go into play when it comes to fertility, but at the end of the day, when we're going from this functional route, we are really thinking of looking from all angles, right? Because toxicity can absolutely be something that is an issue for endometriosis in and of itself, and absolutely can be an issue when it comes to fertility. So I'm excited to dive into that conversation, kind of investigate the ins and outs of that. And Deidre just has so much knowledge to share, you know? In fact, she has, in addition to running her own practice, like I said, she teaches other practitioners in using functional testing and creating healing protocols. She's a teacher at a program called Restorative Wellness Solutions, which is a program that I have been through. And she is actually getting ready to publish her first book this spring, which is so exciting. I can't wait to hear more about that, and I'll definitely share when I hear more information there. But we had fantastic conversations, so many nuances and ins and outs. This might be one that you need to come back to a couple of times to really hear all of the information.
Alyssa Chavez [00:02:50]:
But I would really recommend just sitting down listening to it, enjoy it, and just soak it all in. So I will go ahead and let Deidre take it away. All right. Hello, Deidre. Thank you so, so much for being on here today. I am super excited to chat with you and so you can share all of the wonderful information that you have with everybody today. So thank you so much for being here.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:03:18]:
Of course, I'm excited to talk about this.
Alyssa Chavez [00:03:20]:
Nice. And I know you have been working with people on their health and particularly on fertility for quite some time, so you have so much information. Deidre has actually been one of my instructors along the way, as I've been learning at restorative wellness solutions, continuing my education. So I know that she has a lot of valuable information. So I was wondering if you can just start off by telling us a little bit about yourself, what you do, how you came to be doing, what you're doing, all of the fun things.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:03:51]:
Okay. So I am a functional nutritionist and I own a company called always growing nutrition. And there I lead a team of practitioners. And our business is essentially split into two categories. We work with adults, typically in six month containers, and we focus a lot on fertility, a lot of hormonal imbalances, and this doesn't mean that we certainly don't work with other people, with other issues outside of that, but that is really our main focus. And then the other side of our business is pediatrics. So we work with a lot of children, and working with children was never something that I really intended to do. But when my son got really bad eczema when he was about a year old, I just wasn't getting the help that I was looking for and realized that there were a lot of kids who also needed help.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:04:38]:
So I built up the pediatric side of things. And now we have a wonderful team of practitioners who is solely focused on pediatric. As you know, I teach for restorative wellness solutions. I teach the first three levels, thinking about gut healing, optimizing hormones and blood chemistry at this point in time. I've been teaching with them for about four years now, and I've had my practice for over ten years. And I got into this space because I was a full time crossFit trainer and I loved fitness and loved working with people on nutrition and knew how important nutrition was. But I also saw people beating their bodies up in ways that were far beyond food quality and calorie intake. But I was really interested in adrenal hormones and how all of that played in.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:05:27]:
And I never intended to go down the route of learning or being an expert in gut health or toxicity. But kind of as my practices evolved and the type of clients that we've worked with have evolved, it has just led me there to be the thing that I'm really passionate about and know that a lot of people are really missing a lot of the time, unfortunately. So we do a lot of functional testing work with people all over the US. Our practice is fully virtual, so we work with people outside of the country as well. But our team is spread all out, and it's really nice to have a team environment when working with clients.
Alyssa Chavez [00:06:02]:
Yeah, absolutely. That's very cool. You guys are doing so much cool stuff. I love that. Filling so many needs.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:06:10]:
Yes, absolutely. That's kind of how I approach things, like see a need, fill a need. Perfect.
Alyssa Chavez [00:06:15]:
I love that. Well, since fertility is one of the things that you focus on a lot, and we are, for this month of April, we are focusing in on fertility since it is infertility awareness month, and it is a major concern for a lot of people and definitely a lot of people who have endometriosis, which is our. Our top priority around here. I was wondering if we can have a little conversation around that. And I know one of the big topics that you talk a lot about when it comes to fertility is toxicity, which I think is super fascinating. There's a lot to cover, of course, within that and how it causes some imbalances in your body. But I was wondering if you can start off by just maybe giving us a little introduction to that, how toxicity can affect fertility, some of the different places and ways that toxicity can come up in your body. For somebody who has no idea how those two things can even be connected, because that may not be an immediate first thought if you're struggling to get pregnant.
Alyssa Chavez [00:07:18]:
Can you talk to us a little bit about that?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:07:21]:
Yeah. So, I think a lot of times what happens is when women get pregnant, they start to think about the toxins that they're coming in contact with, their debut products, the type of makeup they're using, the lotion they put on their body, and we start to think more about what we're actually putting in our body and thinking about food quality. And the truth is that it starts a lot sooner than that when we start thinking about toxicity and the ways that it can impact not only our health, but also our children's health. So, in full transparency, one of the big reasons I got so involved and interested in toxicity was thinking about my son, and the eczema therapy that he had was knowing that a lot of that came from me. And there were things that I could have done preconception to prevent some of those health issues for him. So when we think about fertility specifically, there are a lot of different ways that toxicity impacts the body. So most people have heard the term endocrine disruptors. And we think about these different things in our everyday products that impact hormones directly.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:08:25]:
And those are certainly very prevalent. So one of the big ones we can talk about is phthalates. Thinking about fragrances is all that phthalates means fragrances are in so many things. You know, I'm in my mid thirties. When I was growing up, bath and body works was like a huge thing. Like we had scented everything. Scented crayons, like scented makeup. Right? And those are all phthalates.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:08:49]:
And so, so many of us grew up with these things and being consistently exposed to them, especially for women, because women use so many more beauty products than men do. And phthalates are endocrine receptors, which means that it changes the way that hormones in our body are able to function. So that might mean that it causes our body to produce more estrogen, making us estrogen dominant, or it can mean that we produce less progesterone, making it difficult to ovulate, making it difficult to conceive, making it difficult to carry a pregnancy. So one of the things we see a lot with toxicities is the occurrence of miscarriage. And we know that one in four women will have a miscarriage. And I think we're going to see that rate unfortunately increase just because of the way that toxicity is impacting the body. So there are so many different exposure routes, of course. But it's definitely something I think people need to be thinking about in combination with all of their other health issues.
Alyssa Chavez [00:09:47]:
Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree. It's really looking at the big picture, right. Because there's so many different things to think about. But also, like you said, those toxins are just everywhere. So having, and even, I love that you're bringing up even the fragrance stuff because that alone is such a big, a big issue. A big thing, because how many things are fragranced? And one fun fact, or not so fun fact, really, that a lot of people may not be aware of is that even if phthalates aren't listed on an ingredients list, if it says just the word fragrance, that can, it can actually still include phthalates because the fragrance is proprietal information. So it's a whole legal thing that they are able to sneak ingredients like that into products that we use, which is nuts.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:10:39]:
Yeah, it's literally everything. I mean, I think part of the reason why talking about toxicity is so overwhelming for a lot of people is because it is so prevalent. It's the makeup you wear. It's the lotion. It's your shampoo and your soap. It's your dishwasher detergent and your laundry detergent. It's your candles. It's everything.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:10:59]:
And so it becomes really, really complicated very quickly. But it is something to be aware of. And I think that when we're aware of an issue, we can at least make better decisions. And it doesn't necessarily mean, like, get rid of everything, though. If you want to get rid of everything, that's okay. But it just means you can be better informed to. To reduce some of those things.
Alyssa Chavez [00:11:20]:
Yeah, absolutely. Now, one of the other things that you talk about a lot is how gut health relates to fertility. And, of course, that can be impacted by those toxins as well. Right. We all ends up kind of looping back to those same ideas, but can you share with us a little bit about just that connection between gut health and fertility?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:11:42]:
Yeah. So this is kind of where I really started in digging into fertility was the connection between impaired gut health or imbalances in the gut and how that impacts hormones. So often, for instance, when women come in and they say, hey, I'm having a hard time getting pregnant, can you test my hormones? I don't actually want to test their hormones. I don't think that's important. If there's something going on with the hormones, it's less important to me to understand what is happening, and I want to know why it's happening in the first place. And a lot of times that starts with gut health. So when there is dysbiosis in the gut, which essentially means there's an imbalance between the good microbes and the opportunistic or harmful microbes, it can cause imbalances, which then lead to inflammation, and it puts stress on the body. And the thing to keep in mind when it comes to hormones is any type of stress can become a bad stress, and it then impacts hormones.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:12:38]:
So, for instance, let's say you have yeast overgrowth in the gut that causes stress on the adrenal glands. The hormones function together. They don't function in a bubble. So it's not just the adrenal glands get impacted. When the adrenal glands are impacted, the thyroid is impacted, your sex hormones are impacted. And when it comes to the ability to ovulate, and therefore the ability to conceive, one of the really important things for the body is that the body feels safe in doing so. And it's a hard truth to swallow. I think a lot of times for women that the environment in their body might not be safe enough for conception or for caring to term.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:13:18]:
And it's a sign from the body that it is utilizing resources for you to make sure that you are safe. First and foremost, you are your body's first priority. It is a really crappy way of going about it to prevent you from getting pregnant or causing a miscarriage. But it's. Its goal is to keep you safe. And so when we take that stress off of the gut and rebalance the gut and remove any overgrowths, infections, and therefore calm down the immune system, we reduce inflammation. And a lot of times that can be a really crucial step for women to rebalancing hormones. And then how we ultimately have taken that a step further is, why do those gut imbalances exist in the first place? So what is causing that to happen? Are there toxicities that are imbalancing the gut? There are things like glyphosate, for instance.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:14:08]:
Glyphosate is a pesticide that gets put on all conventional produce. It serves as a broad spectrum antibiotic, which means that it causes dysbiosis in the gut. It also impairs a lot of liver function, which changes the way that the gut's able to function. And we know that that's happening. And that's just one of many toxicities. Heavy metals can contribute to yeast overgrowths in the gut. If you're exposed to things like mold or metals or even industrial chemicals in your environment can contribute to parasitic overgrowths. And so we do certainly need to focus on rebalancing the gut in order to support fertility.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:14:43]:
But we also often need to think about, why is that happening in the first place. Because the body is designed to maintain homeostasis and that gut balance. And so if it's not able to do that, there's some type of toxicity at play, even if it's like an emotional toxicity, like stress, for instance, that impacts gut health as well.
Alyssa Chavez [00:15:04]:
So many things.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:15:05]:
So many things.
Alyssa Chavez [00:15:08]:
I think that's why the type of work that you do is so important, because it helps to get to the bottom of, okay, what are the things that you need to focus on? Because I think what happens a lot with people is they may hear little tidbits of information like this on the Internet, right? Googling and trying to figure out what's going on in your body, and you come up with this giant list of possibilities. And if you try, if you're trying to just tackle absolutely everything, it can be a bit much. So it's more a matter of figuring out what's going on in your unique body. Right. Because you may not have parasites and yeast and heavy metals and glyphosate toxicity, you may not have all of those things. Hopefully not. But you may have some of those things that you need to address, so.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:15:50]:
Right, absolutely. And I totally understand why it's so overwhelming for people, and especially when you try to diy it. And there are so many things that you can diy at home, you know, in terms of reducing, like toxicity in your home, things you're putting on and in your body, reduce stress levels, like manage emotional health, all of those things can be done at home. And the best part is a lot of those things are free in a way, like making those changes and decisions are free. But I think to your point, when it becomes those more clinical things, it's likely not everything. It's very rare that we see somebody have a smorgasbord of issues. It's usually, here's the key issues for you, and it's just a matter of working with somebody who can really dial into that.
Alyssa Chavez [00:16:34]:
Yeah, absolutely. Totally agree. Now, another fun topic that can also be a very big topic is your thyroid and fertility, and hypothyroidism in particular seems to be just super common. I actually see a lot of women come in who have both endometriosis and hypothyroidism, or possibly even hashimoto's diagnosis. Right. It's becoming, I feel like, more and more prevalent. So I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about that, what kind of can contribute to these thyroid issues in the first place, how that all relates back to fertility as well.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:17:12]:
Yeah, so the way this relates back to fertility is in early conception, especially, thyroid hormones are really important for facilitating cellular development and replication. So we know that we are creating babies from scratch and we're doing a lot of cellular replication very early on, especially. And it happens very rapidly, which is why when we think about miscarriages, most of them happen before twelve weeks, but especially earlier in pregnancy, thinking about usually eight weeks and before. And that's because most of that replication happens at that point in time. So particularly when it comes to the presence of miscarriages, I do think about hypothyroidism as a potential contributing factor, because we know that you're ovulating and we know the potential to conceive between both partners is there, but why can't we carry to term? And so one of the things that we do is we do a full thyroid panel on all of our clients to assess their thyroid picture to see if there is anything happening that is either clinical or subclinical, because this is something that a lot of providers aren't looking at. They're only measuring TSH, which is not an accurate look at thyroid function as a whole, especially for women who have a good amount of stress in their life if they've used hormonal birth control in the past. All of those things can change the way that the brain communicates with the thyroid. And so we need to make sure that the thyroid is functioning effectively to support early fetal development.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:18:39]:
So when we think about the thyroid in particular and things that can impact it, there's two big categories of toxicity that come to mind for me. The first is heavy metals. So, when we think about heavy metals, heavy metals are things that we should ideally be able to come in contact with and eliminate effectively. Now, we're only able to do that if our liver has the capacity to do so. So one of the other things that we commonly see when we think about thyroid function and heavy metal issues is impaired methylation. And methylation is a pathway in the liver that's very crucial for the detoxification of heavy metals. And because of genetic variations, at least half of the population has trouble with this methylation capacity. So it means that we need to ensure that you are getting nutrients in the correct form to support that methylation and therefore the excretion of those heavy metals so that they are not residing in the thyroid and causing issues.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:19:37]:
So even when we think about, and this will be true for mold, too, but when we think about Hashimoto's and autoimmunity, a lot of times the way that conventional medicine talks about autoimmunity is that the body and the immune system is attacking itself. And I don't like to think about it that way. I like to think about it as there is something in that tissue that the body is, your immune system is trying to remove. And if it's unable to do so, there can be collateral damage that happens as a result of that, which then means that you might not have adequate thyroid function. So we definitely want to be, you know, the big metals I think about is aluminum. Thinking about aluminum specifically in your antiperspirants. So if you have a deep antiperspirant that reduces sweating, it contains aluminum. I also think about, you know, aluminum foil, the type of cookware that you're using.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:20:27]:
Of course, the other big one that we commonly see is mercury. Mercury is often in amalgam fillings. So those are the silver fillings in dental work. You can also get a lot of mercury through food exposure. It could be in water exposure. And that's one of the big ways that heavy metal exposure, unfortunately happens, is by drinking tap water. Anybody who follows me on Instagram knows that I am a stickler on tap water. I don't think anybody should be drinking tap water.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:20:53]:
I really think there's a lot of things that come through tap water, but heavy metal exposure being one of the big ones. But then we also think about mold impacting this irate. So, when you think about mold, it can be either food or environment based. But commonly, what happens is we live in a moldy environment where there's been water damage at some point in time. And mold isn't necessarily the issue, but it's the mycotoxins that it produces. So, mycotoxins are the poisonous substances that mold produces, and they are poisonous to us. They are toxic to our immune system, to our brain. They can cause all sorts of issues.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:21:28]:
And one of the big areas that gets impacted can be the thyroid. So, if you live in a molding environment and you breathe in mold spores, you inhale them in, in your nose, and there's a very thin membrane that goes between the sinuses and your brain. And it's very easy for these substances to cross into the brain cavity and therefore into the brain. And when it becomes neurotoxic, meaning that it's impacting the brain in some way, it can impact the way that hormones function, because the brain is responsible for all hormone functions, especially when we think about the hypothalamus and pituitary. So anything that can impact the brain, we need to be thinking about as a potential factor for fertility and thyroid function and how all of those things are connected. And just one more way that we need to think back to what type of toxicity is impacting the body, therefore, potentially infertility.
Alyssa Chavez [00:22:18]:
Yeah.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:22:19]:
Wow.
Alyssa Chavez [00:22:20]:
Another. Another big topic. There's so much that goes into that. That's one thing that I really love about this type of work. And the thing that, for me, really attracted me to functional nutrition was just kind of the layers that happened there, right? Because it's, you know, I was one of those people who used to think like, oh, my hormones are imbalanced. I need to address balancing my hormones. And now I've come to realize that that's really, at the end of the day, a symptom of what is going on deeper within your body. And that, again, can be such a wide variety of things and so many different possibilities to look at.
Alyssa Chavez [00:22:56]:
But that's where this type of work can be really powerful, too, to actually see what might be going on. And not even just for the purpose of fertility, but for the purpose of just becoming a healthier version of you. Right. So many people are struggling with symptoms of all the things that you're talking about. Right? You're struggling with fatigue, you're struggling with changes in your mood and your energy levels is definitely a huge thing that I see. The hormone balance, adrenals. I mean, there's so many different things that can be impacted down the road. So besides just trying to improve your fertility and be able to carry a healthy pregnancy, it's just okay.
Alyssa Chavez [00:23:36]:
Trying to get to a healthier version of yourself?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:23:39]:
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And I think, you know, to your point, a lot, there's so many things that people think are completely normal and they've come to accept as, like, this is just normal. For me, it's always been that way. And a lot of times these are longstanding issues. You know, like, I'm sure you see this, too. We work with a lot of women in particular who have said, I've always been constipated, you know, I've always had thyroid issues or thyroid issues run in my family, and it becomes more of a question of what is the environment that has created the susceptibility for those things. Was there potentially some type of exposure that came in utero, you know, thinking about the way that we transfer things to our children? A lot of those things come from our mothers. And so we're not only, you know, impacting our health and thinking about those things, but also thinking down the line, too.
Alyssa Chavez [00:24:27]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's something that I have been learning about and ToPic that I really want to even dig in deeper and maybe, maybe just the world in general. We need more research on this. But how your health can impact the health of your future child, the things that you're eating and drinking and doing both pre pregnancy and of course, during the pregnancy and even during the time that you're breastfeeding, all of these things can impact the future health of your child and even your grandchildren down the road. It's crazy, the widespread impacts, but that can also be on a positive scale. Right. When we're thinking of the impacts of your own health, we can think of starting to make some of these positive changes so that we know that further down the road, we are doing a favor to our grandchildren, you know?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:25:14]:
Right. Yeah.
Alyssa Chavez [00:25:16]:
Which I think is pretty cool to think about.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:25:18]:
Yeah. All right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:25:20]:
One topic that I think is super important to bring up because it's something that I think people are told all the time in doctors offices and can be super frustrating and confusing, is hearing the term unexplained infertility, which I find to be super interesting that I even hear women who have an endometriosis diagnosis coming to me still saying that they were told they have unexplained infertility. I'm like, those two things don't even go together. Or maybe I know some of my listeners, too, maybe don't actually have any sort of diagnosis yet, but maybe have some of the symptoms and are thinking that's a possibility. But what I'd really like to talk about is that when you hear somebody come to you and say, I've been told I have unexplained infertility, what does that really mean, and what do you do with that?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:26:09]:
Yeah. So I think a lot of times when we think about these type of diagnoses, especially kind of these broad spectrum ones, like unexplained infertility, it just means we don't know why you can't get pregnant. Unfortunately, it means that there has been necessary testing done. Your hormone levels are in a good spot. Sperm analysis has likely been done, and everything's in a good spot there, and we just don't know why things aren't happening. But I think the thing to keep in mind is that a lot of times when we are visiting conventional physicians, they're not really digging into much beyond the issue that you are there for. So they're looking at your hormones specifically to say, everything looks okay. We can't figure out why this shouldn't.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:26:54]:
This isn't working. You know, we've gone so far as to have clients who have gone through multiple rounds of IUI, IVF, been unable to conceive, and still being then diagnosed with unexplained infertility, who are then able to conceive naturally by doing this deeper work. And the thing to keep in mind is there's so much more beyond your hormones. It is really digging to those deeper layers of what's happening in your diet, what's happening in your lifestyle, what does your health history look like, and what are the symptoms that fall outside of hormonal health? So, for instance, one of the things that I often hear is when we're thinking about fertility, doctors might ask, well, they might ask, what does your monthly cycle look like? Is it painful? Is it heavy? Is it normal? What's the length like? And we're still looking specifically at hormones at that point and their function, but we need to be asking, what is your digestion like? Do you have heartburn? Do you have constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas? Do you have, what are your energy levels like? What's your sleep like? What is your diet like? What does your blood sugar look like? You know, what does your alcohol intake look like? There's so many different factors that fall outside of that that can be looked at. And it's just a matter of thinking a little bit more critically and thinking about the body as a whole, because nothing in the body is without consequence if something is. Is upset. So it just. It usually means just digging a little bit deeper and looking to somebody who has more of a functional or holistic outlook on what might be causing those issues or making your body feel unsafe for conception.
Alyssa Chavez [00:28:36]:
Yeah, love that. It's always nice to have some sort of pathway forward, right? Because I think that's where a lot of that frustration comes in. You're told, I have unexplained infertility. So either I feel like there's nothing I can do about it, right? But it's more a matter of just, okay, there's more to learn, there's more places to look. It's just. It just really comes down to, okay, we need to dig deeper and figure out what's actually going on in your body, because there's always going to be a reason if things are out of balance, if your fertility isn't functioning the way that it should be. Right. It's a matter of figuring out what's actually going on under the hood.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:29:16]:
Or even when we think about blood work, it's so common for people to come in and say, everything looks normal, I feel terrible. Everything looks normal. Well, conventional ranges and functional ranges are very different things. Conventionally, we're thinking about diagnosing for disease. Functionally, we're thinking about where things should be optimally. And often there are. You know, I can't tell you, and I'm sure you see this, too, how many times somebody comes in with perfect blood work, and then we look at it and it's all marked up and there's a ton of things that are high or low. It's just a different way of looking at things.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:29:49]:
It's a different lens because we're not looking to diagnose for disease. We're not looking to, you know, give a pill for an ill. It's a totally different approach.
Alyssa Chavez [00:29:58]:
Yeah, yeah, totally. Very common. Right. I've actually been having a lot of conversations with people about that recently. Just the lab ranges versus functional ranges, how that looks different, how. How we address things differently. Yeah, there's a lot there. Now, you mentioned people going through IUI or IVF, so.
Alyssa Chavez [00:30:21]:
And I know I've actually been down that road myself and know the. The feeling of going through these processes and having it come back and be unsuccessful. And, of course, that's really frustrating when you've invested so much time, energy, effort, much less the emotional investment that goes into all of that, which can certainly be true when you're trying to conceive naturally as well. But how can all of this type of work impact the results of IUI or IVF cycles? And how. Why might those cycles become back unsuccessful if you haven't addressed some of these other underlying causes?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:31:03]:
So, kind of like we were talking about before, if your body feels unsafe for conception, there's a reason for that, and it's trying to keep you safe. And even if we try to manipulate the body into doing so, it doesn't mean that we're going to trick it into thinking that it is safe or able to do so. So we do work with a lot of people who have either gone through IU or IVF and been able to conceive naturally, or we work with people who still want to do their IUI and IVF and want to do some work ahead of that to ensure the best possible scenario. When we think about that, we're really thinking about optimizing the health of the body to withstand those type of procedures because they are stressful on the body, especially when we think about IVF in particular. And the same is true of IUI, especially if you're using something like Clomid, because of the way that the medications and the hormones that are used put stress on the liver in particular, because the liver is one of the key places that is responsible for the metabolism and elimination of hormones, which are toxins in our body. We don't often think about them, but those are endotoxins. And so if we, let's say, already have a liver that is burdened and struggling to function with toxicity, whether it is internal or external toxicity, and we use those medications in the process of IUI and IVF, it puts more burden on the liver, which can make things worse in the grand scheme of things. And so when we start to think about not only supporting systems that are going to be impacted by those procedures, but then also think about potential nutrient deficiencies or imbalances that can result from those things, you know, a lot of people, especially with IVF, utilize antibiotics.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:32:48]:
Well, what's the state of gut health? Can we prepare for those things? Or how can you prevent the damage while doing those type of procedures? So it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to ever choose one way or the other. Right. And totally forego IUI and IVF and only focus on the functional nutrition side of things. They really can coexist together. And it's a great way to make sure that your body has all of the support that it possibly needs.
Alyssa Chavez [00:33:16]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's something that I talk about a lot is that the, I think a lot of us do think of, it's one or the other. You're either going to take the western medicine approach or you're going to take the holistic approach. But I love that you're talking about that, that it doesn't have to necessarily be a choice. I mean, of course, in the ideal world, right, you do this type of work and you are able to conceive naturally, but there is even a percentage of the population who may have, you know, actual physical things going on in their body where they're, you know, blocked tubes or whatever it might be, where they're just physically not able to conceive naturally or maybe just feel better going that route and would like to do that. So I love that you're talking about the idea that those two can really blend together and we can utilize the best of both worlds because that can be kind of the winning combo for some people, too.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:34:09]:
Yeah, absolutely. It just requires a little bit of strategy, ultimately. And with all things, when you're thinking about doing any type of detoxification work, there's a timing component. You know, most people, when they come to us, they're, they've been trying for years to conceive and they want to conceive yesterday. Right. So there, there's just a timing component a lot of times, and there's some strategy involved. So I think, you know, one of the things that I recommend for people is it can be really hard to do this, but ask for help sooner rather than later, because often it becomes, you get to a point where it feels very, you can feel very impatient. You're waiting for that end goal to happen.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:34:49]:
And sometimes there's some things that need to happen in order to get there, regardless of what route you go.
Alyssa Chavez [00:34:53]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:34:54]:
Yeah.
Alyssa Chavez [00:34:55]:
Totally agree on that for sure. Now, you talked a little bit before about for somebody who is struggling with fertility and maybe is listening to this and going, oh, I wonder if I am having some toxicity issues or some of the other things that you have mentioned to. So what are some of those things that people can be starting to do at home when you're coming, when you're looking at lowering your toxin burden or just supporting your fertility overall? Of course, it's wonderful to be able to work with a practitioner and kind of have that hands on approach and do all the functional testing. There's so much that you can learn from all of this. But for somebody who's kind of maybe just getting started, just getting their feet wet with all of this stuff, what are some recommendations that you have for somebody just to get started at home?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:35:41]:
So I think the first thing I would do would be look at your water source. There's a lot, there's a website on the EWG. You can go to their tap water database and you can see what's in your tap water based on your zip code. This is a really good starting point for a lot of people to see exactly what they are being exposed to when they are hopefully hydrating throughout the day. And unfortunately, there's a lot of things in our tap water in the US, we're thinking about not only heavy metals, there are a lot of pharmaceuticals that come into the tap water because of the way the tap water is treated. So even things like hormonal birth control can be in the tap water, which certainly impacts fertility. But there can also be anti inflammatories, antidepressants, all sorts of things. We also see a lot of radioactive chemicals in tap water as well.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:36:33]:
So I think getting a good water source is crucial. It can be a little tricky, depending on your budget and space demands in your home. But typically for clients, we recommend either doing reverse osmosis or a distillation system regardless of what you choose. And there are many great brands on the market, you know, Greenfield Aqua, true. I know therassage has a filter. There's different brands, there's different sizes. It can be a whole house system, an under the counter system. You can also just get a better picture.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:37:05]:
But unfortunately, the carbon filters in refrigerators are not filtering out as much as you think. Brita filters, even Berkey filters, are not filtering what you think they are. And so getting a reverse osmosis or a distillation system is going to be crucial to ensure that you're getting as much as possible out of the system, out of. Out of your water as possible. And with both of those, we obviously want to think about remineralizing in some capacity. So that would be the number one thing I would recommend. And then the second thing would be just looking at things around your home. So, like, we were talking about fragrances, for instance.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:37:40]:
Look at things in your home. And it doesn't mean if you see fragrance, like, throw it out today and go, like, buy everything brand new. But usually what we recommend is to buy things new in a better quality as you run out of them. So if you run out of mascaras a day and you know you need to buy more, great, let's find a better option. That's a great time to make the swap. There's a lot of great apps that allow you to scan the barcodes of products to see the rating on them for toxicity. And if they're quality. EWG has one.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:38:11]:
There's one called think dirty. They're super easy to use. You can also browse them for better quality items based on what you're looking for. But think about anything that you put on your body. So your makeup, your lotion, deodorant, face treatments of any kind, shampoo and conditioner and soap. Your laundry detergent is a big one, especially because we wear our clothes all day and they're in contact with our body. Your dish detergent, dish soaps, things like that. Look around your home.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:38:40]:
If you're using things like glaze plugins, just throw them away. But you can usually swap out candles. If you really love having candles in your home, there's usually a better option for most things. It's just a matter of making those changes as they come up. And those are going to be some of, like, the really big things that you can do upfront to reduce your toxicity. You can certainly do a deep dive into things. There are so many things you can do at home. It's a really, you know, there's a big rabbit hole to go down there.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:39:07]:
But I think making changes slowly is. Is a really good way to go about it.
Alyssa Chavez [00:39:12]:
Yeah, I agree. I think that's great advice.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:39:14]:
Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:39:14]:
It's not a matter of, like, going around your house and throwing everything and spending hundreds of dollars replacing all of it at once, but just little by little making those positive changes. And that was kind of the approach that I took initially when I started learning about how all of the products that I was using were impacting my health. I would just. Okay, I'm out of laundry detergent. I need to find a better option. Let me, let me look that up. And it kind of became like a fun game. Like, okay, now I need to make a switch on this now I need to make a switch on this now.
Alyssa Chavez [00:39:43]:
It all becomes relatively easy because I already kind of have my go to product. So it's, it's. Yeah, it's just making those little changes over time.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:39:52]:
Yep. Absolutely. And it, you know, it doesn't, perfection's not the goal by any means. You know, there, I'm sure there are still things in our home, even, that we find all the time that it's like, meh, not, not an a product by any means, but it's okay for every once in a while, we're really thinking about the things that we're repetitively using day in and day out.
Alyssa Chavez [00:40:13]:
Yeah, kind of prioritizing on that because I've certainly seen this go the other end of the spectrum, too, where people get, become so obsessive about it that then it ends up kind of impacting your stress and your adrenal levels because you're so stressed about every little product. I have known people will go in to see their hairdresser and they're bringing all their own products because they don't want things touching their body because then I'm not going to be able to get pregnant. And that's, that's certainly not going to help things either. Right. Take a breath if you like. For me, I get my haircut like twice a year. I figure if it's, which I know isn't very often, it probably should be more than that. Oh, well, I know that.
Alyssa Chavez [00:40:55]:
Okay. If I go in twice a year and my hairdresser is not using the best products that there are, it's probably going to be fine. But if I'm the shampoo that I'm using on a day to day basis I have researched and I know that it's a clean brand that I use. So things like that. Right. It's not about being paranoid about every little thing that you're using that's touching your body, because we, our bodies, you do have a liver, right. You do have ways of detoxifying. It's more of a matter of reducing that toxic load.
Alyssa Chavez [00:41:25]:
You know, doing your best, especially in your home, because you have much more control in your own house on what, what is in and around your environment. So that can always be the best place to start and just making those little choices for yourself along the way.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:41:43]:
Yep. Absolutely. It doesn't have to be as overwhelming. It's as overwhelming as you would like to make it. And I think a lot of times when we talk about making product changes, it can be very overwhelming. It's not intended to be that way. But I also think that it's important that we understand the severity that toxins have in our life now, and it's hard to convey that message without it feel overwhelming, unfortunately. So it's just sometimes a matter of taking a step back and just working through it slowly.
Alyssa Chavez [00:42:11]:
Yeah, agreed. All right. I think there are so many wonderful nuggets in there today. I'm going to go back and listen to this one again myself, and there's so many great things in here. But is there anything else that we missed that you feel like you'd like to share before we wrap up today?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:42:29]:
I don't think so. I think, you know, the biggest thing from my perspective when it comes to infertility is there is, you know, a lot of times we think about getting pregnant as the end goal and the measure of success. And there's so much that you can do to support your own health. And in the event that you become pregnant, that not only helps you, it helps your child, but it helps make sure that you're in a good spot as you enter motherhood as well.
Alyssa Chavez [00:42:53]:
Absolutely. Beautiful words to end on. All right, now I know people are going to want to find you, connect with you, learn more about you and what you do. Deidre shares a lot of wonderful information on her instagram page and website as well. So can you share a little bit about where people can find you and connect with you and all the things?
Deidre Bloomquist [00:43:16]:
Yeah. Our website is always dashgrowing.com, and on Instagram we have two pages. Our main page is always growing nutrition, and then we also have a pediatric specific page, which is always growing littles. We share a lot of information there. I try to provide as much free content as possible to help educate people because I know working with a practitioner is not always in people's budget, or at least not right now. And there's so much to know out there, and so I try to make that as easily accessible as possible.
Alyssa Chavez [00:43:47]:
Nice.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:43:48]:
Cool.
Alyssa Chavez [00:43:49]:
Well, thank you so much. Thank you just for being here today, for all of the information that you've shared. I'm sure this is going to leave people a lot to think about and process and hopefully give a little bit of just hope and inspiration that there are so many different places to look. Right? One perspective is like, oh, my gosh, there's so much. This is overwhelming. But the other perspective is, wow, there are so many places that I can look. There's so many more layers to uncover in my health that I maybe haven't addressed yet. And so that leaves that possibility.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:44:21]:
Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:44:22]:
That layer of hope in there. So I hope that you can all leave with some of that today. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here today, Deidre. I really appreciate you being here, taking the time, sharing this with everybody, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day.
Deidre Bloomquist [00:44:37]:
Awesome. Thanks for having me.