Herbal Medicine - Fertility
Once you and your partner decide to have a baby one of the most important things that you both can do to help ensure a healthy baby and smooth pregnancy is pre-conception care. There are many things that you both can do yourselves in your daily life to help attain this goal. Changes to diet, lifestyle and your environment can greatly increase your fertility health and chances of conceiving sooner. Herbal medicine plays an important role in your fertility journey as well. It can also be used in conjunction with IVF and may help increase the chances of a successful outcome.
Ideally pre-conception care should begin 3-6 months prior to trying to conceive. This enables your body and the woman’s hormone cycle time to detoxify, balance and regulate to create optimum fertility health. The pre-conception plan that I design for you will include herbal medicines specific to your health condition, diet/nutritional, lifestyle and environmental advice.
What role does herbal medicine play in fertility?
For women
When treating you for pre-conception care the first thing that I look at with you is the nature of your menstrual cycle. The length of your cycle, number of days you bleed for, characteristics of your bleed and PMS/PMT all give indications of how your hormones are working. A history of PCOS, endometriosis or fibroids also shows me if you have hormonal imbalances that need addressing.
Your thyroid health, stress levels and insulin levels are elements that can also play major roles in your fertility health. Thyroxine, adrenalin and insulin are hormones. Hormones work in a cascade fashion, rather like dominoes, when one goes out of balance this often has a knock-on effect to the other hormones in your body including oestrogen and progesterone. This is why I will assess how these hormones are functioning in your body and work with you to optimise them.
Your liver and digestive function have key background parts to play ensuring that your detoxification and elimination pathways are working well. These organs work to help breakdown and remove used hormones from your system making sure that congestion of old hormones does not build up creating issues in your menstrual cycle. They are also important mechanisms in eliminating chemical toxins from body that can have an effect on reducing fertility health. Boosting both your liver and digestive functions usually feature on the pre-conception plan that I will discuss with you.
For men
Although you don’t physically carry your baby you are still responsible for 50% of it’s DNA and creating a baby with the best possible health. Your sperm health, hormonal health, nutritional levels and levels of toxicity all contribute to the chances of your partner conceiving.
When helping you with pre-conception care we look at your sperm health to check their count, motility and morphology. It’s not just the count that matters. Sperm production is dependent on testosterone and other hormone levels, I can help address any imbalances with herbal medicine and nutrition. Sperm are very susceptible to free radical damage. This highlights the importance of assessing chemical and radiation levels present in your daily environment. I will go through adjustments with you that can easily be made to your daily routine as well as prescribe anti-oxidants to help reduce free radical damage.
Similarly, to helping women with pre-conception care addressing liver and digestive function as well as stress levels and diet are paramount in providing a successful pre-conception care plan.
I completed a one-year post-graduate study course in fertility, pre-conception care and pregnancy. This has deepened my passion for helping couples to conceive healthy babies and to experience a smooth pregnancy and labour.
If you would like to discuss how pre-conception care can benefit you please
CALL 0406 628240 or book your appointment online today.
