Fertility Expert Answers Questions from Instagram

Fertility Expert Answers Questions from Instagram

Transcription :

It’s time to answer your questions. Often, on Instagram, I ask what questions you have for me so that I can answer them, and I do try to answer as many as I can. But this week I got too many, I wasn’t able to answer all of them, which is why I’m doing this video, to finish up answering those videos. So you got the best of both worlds. You got me answering on Instagram and here on YouTube. If you’re excited about this, then make sure you like this video. Please leave a comment below and subscribe to get the best fertility tips so that you can get pregnant as fast as possible. Also, leave your questions below. If you’ve got additional questions about your fertility, I’ll do the best I can to answer those as well.

In case you are new here, this is FertilityTV. This is the place to be when you are trying to get pregnant, improve your health, and get to the root cause of your fertility struggles. I’ve helped thousands of women improve their fertility and get pregnant over the last 20 years that I have been a natural fertility expert. I help them by finding out what is not letting them get pregnant, developing a personalized fertility plan for them, and giving them the ongoing support that they need while following the plan and improving their health and fertility and getting pregnant all along. To make it easier for you, I’ve also created a free guide that you can download right now that gives you the seven steps that are going to help you to empower your fertility from home, and it’s totally free. So download it right now using the link in the description below.

All right. So we said or I said that I was going to be answering the questions that I didn’t get to on Instagram, and here we are. We’re starting with number one, and this is from Ashley. She says, “10-day luteal phase, always spot one to two days before.” She didn’t say days, but I’m interpreting. “My reproductive endocrinologist and OB say I don’t have a luteal phase defect. I disagree.” I would also disagree. She says she disagrees. I’m agreeing with her. Here’s the thing. Without more information, I’m going to agree with you and say, yes, I believe that this is a luteal phase defect because luteal phases should be a minimum of 12 days and you have 10 days plus the spotting. So I would like to dig deeper into this. I would like you to dig deeper into this, Ashley. Find out what your hormones are. I would actually like for you to track your progesterone in your luteal phase.

I’d also like to track your hormones leading up to that because, often, what can happen is that we have a luteal phase issue because of what’s going on in the follicular phase. There’s many reasons for this. So those are things that I want you to track. We also need to look at your stress. Stress plays a big role here. Lack of sleep plays a big role here. Poor diet plays a big role here. All of these things can impact your hormones and, in this case, your luteal phase, so we need to dive deeper into that so that we can get the right answers for you. But I do agree with you. I think that needs to be addressed. The reason your RE and OB don’t think that this is a problem is because they don’t really deal with luteal phase defects. It’s not something that they regularly support, and their focus is really on the other side, which is like, “What do we need to do to just get you pregnant?” So they don’t really address this sort of thing. Don’t get frustrated by that, but get the right support that you need.

Okay. This next question is actually a two-parter from the same person, Michelle, and I’m going to reverse the questions that she asks. She says, “Can weight stop you from getting pregnant,” and then, “What kind of diet would you recommend?” So, simply, with the first question, is can weight stop you from getting pregnant, yes, it can. You could be underweight and have not enough weight on your body. Your BMI could be too low, and that could be an issue. Your BMI could be too high, you could be overweight, and that can also be a contributing factor. We want to make sure that we address those things and support them as much as we can. So we do want you to have a regular good, healthy BMI and good body weight. What kind of diet you should be on? In general, if I had to give you one diet, I would say let’s follow a paleo diet. But, otherwise, I do like to customize my dietary recommendations to you based on your health, your history, your hormones, your blood tests, and what you need to accomplish.

Okay, number three. This is from Jillian. She says, “How to raise morphology in sperm? Zero percent morphology sperm analysis results.” So I think, for me, the first thing that we need to look at here is not how do we raise this, although obviously we do want to raise morphology because zero is not going to get us very far when we’re trying to get pregnant, but, first and foremost, when I get a result like this, the first thing I recommend is retesting. So I want to make sure that you have him retested, and I also want to talk about the lab that this was tested at. Often, I see that this is done at just a general lab, and I don’t think that that’s the appropriate place for a semen analysis. So I want to make sure that this was done either at a fertility clinic, a male fertility urology office, or a lab that focuses on fertility because then you’re going to get the best results.

Then, like I said, let’s retest that, and let’s give it a couple weeks, retest it. Then we also need to make sure that there was enough time in between, so I prefer to recommend, when we’re looking at a semen analysis or giving a sample for a semen analysis, that there is no less than two days and no more than five days between ejaculations. That is something that I think is important here as well when we’re talking about a semen analysis. Assuming that everything is accurate in what we see here, then my recommendation is to go to a male urologist, rule out a varicocele or any other structural issue that might be impacting this. Then, from there, we’ve got to dive deeper, looking at lifestyle and diet and health, exposure to toxins, all sorts of things, so that we can understand why this morphology is zero and then know what to do about it.

Okay. So this next one is from Meg. She says, “Is walking one hour a day enough exercise for fertility?” I do think so. My baseline recommendation and what I’d love to recommend is that you walk at least for 45 minutes to an hour every day and that you get moving. Can you do a little bit more? Potentially. Can you do a little bit less? Well, sure. But what I’m shooting for is a minimum of three to four hours of exercise a week, and it really doesn’t have to be vigorous or strenuous. It can just be walking, like you’re saying. But it should not be walking like you’re walking your dog who’s smelling the roses every three feet or something like that. We want to walk with a purpose. We want to walk to move, to exercise, to sweat, to burn calories, and to increase our heart rate. So that’s really what you’re striving for when you are trying to exercise.

This next one also is very similar to the first one about luteal phase. She says, “Short luteal phase. Is breastfeeding to blame? Trying to conceive and not ready to wean at 39 years old.” So I would say probably. I don’t know enough about your history and your hormones, but, in this case, I would say that if your luteal phase was fine pre-pregnancy and then now that you are postpartum and you’re breastfeeding, it could easily be that you are just breastfeeding too much. I’m not saying too much for the baby. I’m just saying for this specific purpose. That can cause your luteal phase to be shorter.

So one thing you can do is just maybe not wean entirely but decrease the frequency of breastfeeding throughout the day or decrease the time in which you breastfeed. Try to just reduce it by one or two. Again, I don’t know how often you’re breastfeeding, but try to decrease that by a little bit, and let’s see if that lengthens the luteal phase first and foremost. You can also have your prolactin tested to see what those levels are at because that can also be a sign of what’s contributing to that shorter luteal face.

Okay. This next question is, “How long after trying to conceive should you see a doctor if unsuccessful?” The rule of thumb here… And this is a great, great question to answer for everybody. So the rule of thumb is that if you are under 35, you try for at least a year before seeking additional support and that if you’re over 35, you try for at least six months before seeking additional support. The caveat that I say to everybody is if you already know you have a health issue, a hormonal issue, a reproductive issue, or something that may be causing it to be more difficult for you to conceive, then I don’t really want you waiting that length of time. Do I want you to try? Sure, and I think six months is probably the minimum that I want you to try before you seek additional help.

But we want you to be proactive. So if you know there’s an issue, let’s start to address those things now, first and foremost, before we keep trying and end up on this hamster wheel. So I do think that this is an important piece for all of us, and I also want you all to trust your gut. If you know inside that something feels wrong and something just doesn’t feel right, then trust your gut, listen to yourself, and get some additional support. This is exactly why I have the Hope Fertility Coaching Program, because for those of you who are trying, who need additional support, who need to dive deeper into your fertility to understand what’s going on, why these things are happening, and, more importantly, what you can do about it naturally and with some time and be proactive so that you can have an easier time conceiving, that’s exactly why I created my coaching program. Again, if you want more information on that, then you can just use the link in the description below to apply.

Thank you for watching until the end. If you want your questions answered just like I answered these questions in this video, then you’ve got to share your questions with me. So post them below so that I can read them and do the best I can to answer them. If you want a real deep dive into your fertility, if you want to find the root cause that’s not letting you get pregnant, be sure to fill out the application as soon as possible using the link in the description below to speak to a real human on my team so that we can identify if this is the right next step for you and see if you are a good fit to join my Hope Fertility Program. Now, make sure you check out the next video right here to keep learning more about your fertility, and until the next video, stay fertile.