Not Your Average Fertility Tests & Supplement Recommendations

According to the CDC, 1 out of 7 couples has trouble conceiving.  In the next 10 years that number is expected to reach 1 out of 3.  The 90-day period prior to conception can potentially change the baby’s genetic code (and, therefore, can affect the next generation after that!). The quality of the egg and sperm start developing during this time.

Along with important conventional testing, like hormone levels (FSH, LH, and progesterone), there are other testing tools that can help someone get pregnant while also addressing root causes of lower fertility.  The information in this podcast will educate you on some unconventional tests that you can do either at home or with the assistance of your doctor and can help improve your fertility.  

Whether you are trying to get pregnant or not we could all use a little help supplementing our diets with proper nutritional support.  Life is stressful; we can’t avoid all environmental toxins that are in our food and our environment. There is a lot happening TO our bodies which means that supplementation is very necessary not just before and during pregnancy but for the duration of our lives in order to achieve optimal health.  We'll share our recommendations that support healthy fertility and beyond.  

Stop Chasing Wellness is an online wellness coaching company founded by two Holistic Health Coaches, Gina and Kristin. Be sure to check out all of our offerings including our book, Stop Chasing Wellness; Create It, and our growing catalog of Hormone Specific coaching courses. All of our courses and offerings are designed to help you feel and live your best life in a simplified way that works for you. You can find Stop Chasing Wellness on Facebook and Instagram

Transcript

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Stop Chasing Wellness podcast.
If you're here listening to this podcast, we believe it's because you value your health
and you might be looking for answers to help you live your healthiest life in a more simplified
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information that's swirling all around you.
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As certified holistic health coaches, Gina and I, I'm health coach Kristin here, focus
our health coaching on the belief that what we put on our plate is a direct reflection
of what's going on in our lives.
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to your level of physical activity and overall health of your spirituality practice, your
career, your finances, and education.
The foods you put on your plate are just one piece of the wheel that we call the circle
of life.
Before we start our podcast, we invite you to check out our website, stopchasingwellness.com
to learn more about the wellness coaching programs that we offer, as well as to purchase
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And our online wellness coaching programs are done in a way that allow you to start
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help you make this your own personalized experience.
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be feeding your body so that you can take the guesswork out of healthy eating.
Basically, we teach you how to stop chasing wellness and learn to start creating it.
Or check out our three-day hormone reset program.
We absolutely love our offerings and we know you'll love them too.
In today's podcast, health coach Gina and I explore the subject of fertility, specifically
relating to testing and supplementation.
According to the CDC, one out of seven couples has trouble conceiving.
That number is expected to reach one out of three within the next 10 years.
So the 90-day period prior to conception can potentially change the baby's genetic code
and then therefore it can affect the next generation after that.
The quality of the egg and sperm start developing during this time.
And along with important conventional testing for fertility, things like hormone levels
of FSH, LH, and progesterone, there are other testing tools that can help someone get pregnant
while also addressing the root causes of fertility.
And we're also going to talk about supplementation because even if we eat well, we could all
use a little help.
Life is stressful.
We're not all eating the most perfect diets and we can't avoid all of the environmental
toxins.
There's a lot happening to our bodies, which means that supplementation is very necessary
for optimal health.
So this podcast is going to help empower you to make changes that support your fertility
and encourage you to understand how to talk specifically to your doctor about tests that
might be available and supplementation.
So let's get right to it.
Hello everybody.
You're here today with health coach Kristin and myself, health coach Gina.
And we're excited to talk to you today about pregnancy and fertility and really assessing
and improving fertility and choosing the right fertility supplements.
Studies show, and specifically the CDC, a study shows one in seven couples have a problem
conceiving, and that number is expected to climb to one in three in the next 10 years.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's a lot.
That's crazy.
But optimizing our health correctly can help us have healthy pregnancies and are the same
in our thirties and forties as it does in our twenties.
So it's really just about optimizing our nutrition and our wellness and really giving the body
what it needs and removing what the body doesn't need.
Given half a chance, the body will heal itself.
So today we're going to talk about testing, specifically seven unconventional fertility
testing tools.
And these are tests to get targeted information.
So we can highly customize nutrition protocols for clients so they can use food as medicine.
That's really what in health coaching, that's what it really comes down to is having a healthy
mind and a healthy body and using food as our medicine.
The quality of the egg and the sperm begins 90 days prior to conception.
So that 90 day period can really impact the genetic code of that baby and even the following
generation, which is pretty cool.
And the first testing tool that we want to start with is the MTHFR, you may or may not
have heard of that.
It's been more common in the past several years, but the MTHFR is a genetic mutation
that about 50% of the population have.
That's where people can't convert their folic acid and B vitamins into a usable form that
can lead to depression, trouble detoxifying, and for the purpose of this podcast can lead
to multiple miscarriages.
And it also prevents people from being able to break down heavy metals in the body, which
is another cause of infertility, that heavy metal toxicity.
Next we'll talk about food sensitivity testing.
These are more difficult than all out food allergies, right?
They're subtle, they're difficult to detect.
People don't really correlate the symptoms that they're getting to the food they're eating.
So if you think about ways that you can identify this for dark circles, right?
Dark circles under the eyes can indicate negative liver response to a certain food.
Other symptoms can be headaches, bloating, gas, irritability, grogginess.
And we like to look at the five most common sensitivities and triggers, which could be
the gluten, soy, dairy, corn, and eggs.
I'd like to see an elimination diet anywhere from one to three weeks.
Three weeks is pretty optimal.
And there's testing that can be done for that, which is the IgG blood test.
So once we have more of a handle on where people are with their food sensitivities,
we know how to work with the diet, right?
There's a lot of things like the GMO foods, corn, soy, and canola oil of those GMO foods,
overuse of antibiotics, and then antibiotics in the meat and dairy supply, I believe profin
meds and gut infections like candida, parasites, protozoa, and overconsumption of sugar and
caffeine and then the dreaded, we know, right, chronic stress.
And I think...
Go ahead.
What?
Sorry.
I'm like just thinking about this IgG blood test is so good.
It's so important because that's the one that tests like this huge panel of all sorts of
different foods and it gets really detailed and because you could be eating something
that's really like good for you, like asparagus or broccoli and you could have a food allergy
to that, that could be getting in the way.
So when you're continually eating those foods that are healthy for other people, but you
have an allergy to it, it's creating that inflammation in the body.
So if there's a suspicion that there's something else going on, like when you do a food elimination
of those five common things, but you're still feeling some of those symptoms, getting that
IgG blood test is so good because it really goes more in depth on what else is really
going on here.
And removing that can help relieve all that inflammation and just that right there can
help put the hormones back in balance.
Yes, exactly.
And those things that people are dealing with, with those food sensitivities and it can lead
to leaky gut and leaky gut leads to autoimmune conditions.
And even, let's put it this way, even healthy people need to rebuild their gut lining from
time to time for optimal health.
So it's not just people that have conditions or issues, it's even the healthy, the people
who eat healthy, live healthy, have low stress.
We all need to maintain that just by living in the day and age that we live.
Absolutely.
100%.
Yep.
There's also a leaky gut test, which you can find a blood and saliva test.
This is part of root cause testing, right?
We don't, also in health coaching, we're not here to put band-aids on issues.
We're here to get to the root cause and heal the root cause, which oftentimes, most times
is from the gut.
There's also a gut pathogen test.
That's a stool test that is ran for pathogenic imbalances like candida, fungus, E. coli,
parasite or protozoa infections.
And if you have an overgrowth of bad bugs in the GI tract, it is a cause for hormonal
imbalances, especially PCOS, which is a cause of infertility.
So PCOS drives that pedestrian down, preventing the egg to be able to be implanted and it
drives the testosterone up.
That's amazing.
I know it's really, it's really fascinating.
What you're saying, like get to the root when we know that there's something wrong with
that gut bacteria balance and doing that test, find out, then you can heal the gut.
You work to heal the gut instead of guessing at it.
Love this.
You got it.
Next is the stress and sex hormone test.
This is a four points saliva test and includes both stress and the sex hormones.
And it looks at things like cortisol, pregnenolone, DHEA, and it sees how the body creates and
manages those stress hormones.
So things to look out for, are you feeling chronically exhausted?
Do you have lightheadedness?
Do you have insomnia, anxiety or depression?
If you're experiencing those types of things, that's the time that we want to stop, slow
down and re-engage in those primary foods that we talk about with health coaching.
It's more than just food, right?
There's a whole circle of life that we use in one of our tools in coaching for primary
foods, which is, are you happy in your career?
Are you happy in your relationship, your home life?
Are you exercising?
Do you have a spiritual practice?
How's your financial situation?
Things like that all have to do with our wellness.
We really want to focus on increasing self-care, right?
If that stress is on overload, really work on that self-care like at your job.
We don't think about those primary foods because our society is so like, what can I do?
What can I take?
What's the, you know, give me the pill to fix this problem would really give more credit
to what self-care and those circle of that whole wheel of life that does for your overall
health.
It's not given enough credit.
Yeah, you're exactly right on that.
We were more the pill for every ill, right?
So when we refill those adrenals, the sex hormones balance out on their own.
It's amazing.
And at that point, clients should be able to conceive naturally and quickly.
Once we get those hormones balanced and that stress under control, the diet under control,
optimize that nutrition, things really start going in the right direction.
Thyroid testing is another one.
Thyroid plays a crucial role in ovulation.
I think about thyroid as the furnace and the thermostat of the body.
Once that thyroid is off, it can cause miscarriage or can even cause infertility.
So things we want to look at with thyroid testing, this is free, you do it at home.
Take your temperature when you wake up, take your temperature before you go to bed at night
and take your temperature after meals.
When the thyroid is off, it can cause the body to not ovulate.
So there's some blood tests that we like to look at with the thyroid also, which is
the TSH, the T3, the T4, the TPO, and the reverse T3 to see where this situation is
starting.
Did it start in the thyroid or did it start in the adrenals?
There's a close relationship there.
And then lastly, we'll talk about the pH testing.
Our blood pH, this is pretty fascinating.
Our blood pH, in order for us to maintain life, has to be within a small window of 7.25
to 7.45.
That's pretty narrow.
That's what keeps us alive.
I know.
Yeah.
Think about like when your swimming pool turns green, like your pH is way off, like you can
compare the body to a swimming pool, like with that pH.
It's so crazy how delicate though our bodies are.
That's pretty, that is so, it's a very narrow margin right there.
Very, very.
So we have to have that pH about, that's our blood pH.
Now when our bodies are working, we'll test our pH with urine and saliva to see just how
hard the body's working to maintain that blood pH window that we need to survive.
If the body's working too hard and we're too acidic, for one thing, the sperm won't be
able to survive to fertilize the egg.
And then secondly, the body starts leaching minerals that we need from our bones in order
to keep that, what the body needs and not change that blood pH balance.
So there's the mineral deficiencies like that can knock the thyroid out of balance and can
cause problems with the nervous system as well.
So once that...
Actually the pH, I mean with really just increasing like your dark green leafy vegetables and
like chlorophyll and sea vegetables and stuff really does a big, has a big impact on that
pH.
So that's an easy fix.
That is an easy one to fix, but talk to us more.
So that's the seven testing tools that we would use, right?
But then there's also ways that we can optimize the body nutritionally and with supplements.
Why don't you talk to us about that, Stephris?
Well, we're talking about supplementation to support fertility.
When I look at this, like I am past my fertility years, but when I look at all this, like this
is just stuff for everybody, but I guess, yeah, especially when you're considering becoming
pregnant or when you are pregnant, you want to have the best nutrition in your body to
support that.
So whether I'm trying to get pregnant or not, I want the best, most optimal nutrition in
my body.
And supplementing during pregnancy, I think is especially important because our food supply
is so depleted.
It's hard for us, not just during pregnancy, but every day to get the nutrition that we
need from our food sources.
I mean, we're eating an overly processed amount, like too many processed foods in our diet.
It's just too easy for all of us to kind of reach for all that stuff because of convenience.
It's so readily available.
It makes life easy for us.
But those foods typically are so nutritionally deplete or we just live in a very toxic world.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the chemicals we use in our homes and on our bodies,
all of that stuff is just creating toxicity.
So it's hard for our bodies to just get the amount of optimal nutrition they need from
just what we're eating alone.
So it really is important to supplement, especially during pregnancy or when you're
considering getting pregnant.
So first off, for fertility purposes, we like to recommend a prenatal vitamin or a prenatal
supplement or something that you can take during prenatal or pregnancy and something
that's sourced from whole food sources.
And the reason for that is that our bodies, they best absorb the nutrients from foods.
But when I tell people, like go out and eat a rainbow of foods every day, that you would
be chewing from morning till night.
So getting the amount and the variety every single day is really, really difficult.
It's easy to say to do it, but to actually do it as a whole other thing.
And one thing that we love, Gina and I have been recommending for many years, 10 plus
for me is juice plus.
And the reason for that is because it is whole food.
It's encapsulated produce, but it's so much of what we need during fertility and pregnancy
is already in there.
And I get so excited talking about it and it also all has folate in there, which is
a natural source of the B vitamins that our bodies need during pregnancy to support all
of like the neurologic functions and stuff for children and also reduces the chances
and risk of like birth defects and neurological disorders.
And it's also juice plus is certified by third party independent certification by NSF for
purity, which is super important because so over 90% of the supplements that you can buy
over the counter or on the shelves readily available are sourced from other countries.
First of all, they're lab produced, which means that it's a scientist in lab guessing
at like what strain or what source of vitamin C or D or all these A, D, E, and K vitamins
in there.
Like it's all just a scientist making it in the lab and we can't duplicate what nature
can produce.
So it's already in juice plus in the capsules, all sourced from whole food sources with farmers
that work in co-op with the company.
So it's all grown in the United States of America.
There's nothing sprayed on it.
There's no chemicals.
There's no pesticides.
There's no mold.
All that stuff you wouldn't want in your unborn baby.
So it's the best of the best.
Another one that we also recommend, another thing that's recommended is like getting a
super greens type formula and all of that stuff is already in juice plus.
So you want to get all those rich amounts of those dark green leafy vegetables, which
juice plus is very high in because that helps support that detoxification process.
Like as a mother, you are the host of this growing baby.
You need your body to be detoxifying, getting rid of all the crap that's in the food that
you don't need.
Just helping to support the liver, your liver is like your, your filter.
So getting those dark green leafy vegetables in they're micronutrient rich, it supports
your immune health, your digestive health, that digestive health supports gut health.
We need all of that stuff.
But then the greens are very good for blood oxygenation.
So those, again, they're already in juice plus and as a pregnant mother, getting an
Omega supplement is super important, especially for the brain development of the baby.
So a lot of people will recommend an Omega three supplement or a fish oil supplement,
but we love the juice plus blend because it is a blend of Omegas.
It's Omegas three, five, six, seven, and nine.
And it's all sourced from plants, again, certified for NSF by NSF for purity.
So it's, it goes right to the source instead of like, get your fish oil, it's like, well,
what are the fish eating?
Right.
So that's how we recommend for dairy, right?
Like if you want really want vitamin D from your dairy, or you want your calcium, go eat
what the cows are supposed to be eating.
And another one.
Yeah, I'd go right to the source, click that.
And then what I love about that too, the Omega, the juice plus Omega.
It's not a fish oil.
I don't know about Eugenia, but I've never been able to like stomach a fish oil.
It makes me like, I do feel kind of queasy when I take it, I don't know, just the quality
of it.
You're feeling like that after a supplement?
That's a sign.
Plus I would get those fishy burps, and I would think when the heck was last time I
ate tuna fish?
Why am I burping up tuna in the afternoon?
I haven't had fish all day, that's weird, kind of gross, but how about a probiotic?
And that's already also in juice plus.
So our foods, we used to get like all these good, you know, bugs in our food and bacteria
in our foods long before we started like processing foods and pasteurizing milk and
dairy.
And that stuff just kills all the good bugs in our food.
So it's really important for us to supplement with a probiotic.
And I think like all of all that stuff that's killing all that good bacteria, we need to
make up for it.
Juice plus also contains probiotics, pre and probiotics, which is super important because
that also helps your body to absorb all the nutrition that's in the juice plus as well.
Another one for pregnant women, vitamin C, super important.
There's a lot of foods in juice plus that are high in vitamin C like kiwi and papaya,
red bell pepper, cauliflower, oranges.
Those are excellent sources of vitamin C and they're already in your juice plus.
The only other things that I would recommend for pregnant women or women trying to become
pregnant is to supplement with a vitamin D supplement in addition to juice plus, because
that's our sunshine vitamin.
It's really hard to get it in our food.
Although the juice plus shake mix that Gina and I love has mushroom powder in it.
And that's one of the best food sources of vitamin D.
And again, if you're getting up vitamin D from food sources, we're probably absorbing
it better than through supplementation.
But I mean, vitamin D, a good amount of vitamin D for pregnant women can help lessen the odds
of a baby being born with type one diabetes, asthma, even schizophrenia, which is...
And it can also decrease your chances of developing preeclampsia and gestational diabetes as a
pregnant mother, which is, that is not fun.
I had preeclampsia with my first born and that was awful.
Lucky to go to life.
Much of this stuff is like, I wish I knew this back then, I would have been a way better
pregnant lady.
Well, we know the tools now, we know the resources now, and we're happy to be in a position where
we could share them with other women.
Yes.
I know.
I'm like, if I knew all of this, then I would have just like my pregnancies would have been,
it would have been better.
Like my grandmother used to say, too soon, we get old, too late, we get smart.
I wish I knew all this stuff.
Yeah.
That was a wild grandmother.
Yep.
She got all those good one-liners.
So this is all such good stuff.
And like I said, I think all the stuff that, you know, we're sharing this stuff, especially
about the supplementation.
I keep saying, it's not, it's great to have all of this in you while you're trying to
become pregnant or while you are pregnant, because you want to be the healthiest that
you can to feel the best, have the most energy and give your unborn baby the most, you know,
the best chances to get all the nutrition in while they're still in utero, that this
is just stuff that for life, you know, having all of this, this nutrition in your body.
And I really just love that Juice Plus Plus has almost all of what you need as a pregnant
woman is all just in one capsule.
It's so easy.
We know lots of people that have used Juice Plus Plus as their prenatal and they have
the most amazing healthy babies that just have that little juicy, they call them juicy
babies.
They get that juicy glow.
Oh, I love it.
Okay, Gina, are we all set?
I love everything that you shared.
I thought that was all such good stuff.
I think one of the things that stood out to me when you talked about that, the MTHFR mutation,
it's crazy to me that almost 50% of the population has that mutation and we don't know about
it because it's not something that doctors typically would go for as far as testing.
But I think from what I understand about it, it's like that genetic mutation has been on
the rise in part because of our highly processed food sources that we're just losing that ability
to convert those B vitamins, which probably is because of processed foods, which is crazy.
That's an over-the-counter testing kit that you can get too.
It doesn't have to necessarily be ordered from the doctor, although they can, it doesn't
have to be.
So that could be looking at any of those genetic, like those 23andMe type things or any of those
swab tests that check for that stuff.
And the same with the food sensitivities test, you can order that from Amazon.
Yeah.
I always tell people, check with your insurance first, see what it covers.
Because if you're going to copay that makes it cheaper, do it that way.
But it's good to know that you don't have to go to your doctor and do something like
through a lab that might cost a lot more.
There's other options to make it affordable for people to find this stuff out.
Because the more you know where you're deficient or what your issues are, and even with the
food sensitivity and the food allergy stuff and the MTHFR thing, that even goes beyond
fertility.
That's just having those mutations and those sensitivities and allergies contribute to
deficiencies in the body and inflammation just stops us from living our best and keeping
getting hormones balanced and feeling your best.
That's it.
That's nutrition.
Yeah.
The more we know.
Yeah.
All good stuff.
All right, Gina.
I think that's a wrap.
That's a wrap.
We'll talk to everybody soon.
Thanks, guys.
Friends, thank you so much for joining us today.
We know this podcast was full of amazing information.
Our wish is that this blesses you in some way, and we'd love for you to share this podcast
with your friends and family so that others can learn about testing options for fertility
and supplementation for fertility and beyond.
As you listen to this podcast, we know you are thinking of others that need to hear this.
When you hear that calling, it's not accidental, so please share this podcast with them.
We pray that this podcast will help more people to feel the confidence that they need to begin
their own healing journey and take their health to the next level, reach their health goals,
to learn about nutrition and lifestyle choices so that we can all reach the goal to live
a long, healthy, and happy life.
Don't forget to follow health coach Gina and I on Facebook and Instagram at Stop Chasing
Wellness, and we also invite you to check out our book and the online wellness coaching
programs that we offer at stopchasingwellness.com.
We thank you for spending your valuable time with us today.
God bless.
Thank you.