Client A came to us after having two miscarriages back to back and then not being able to conceive again for one year. She was ready to figure out where her body needed support and connect the dots of why she was struggling so much with her fertility. While fertility was her main concern, she also struggled with eczema, long cycles (40-50 days), and had gained 20lb over the last year without really changing anything with her diet. Because of this health history and the miscarriages, we knew we wanted to tackle gut and immune system health first. A healthy immune system is critical for maintaining a healthy pregnancy and those with eczema often have a dysfunctional immune system, so we had her do a GI map and hair mineral analysis in order to take a deeper look. Here’s what we found!
Her stool test showed us what was going on in her gut. She had elevated levels of a pathogen called H. pylori, which can negatively impact digestion, our immune system, thyroid, and lead to elevated histamine levels (hello eczema!). We also discovered that she had significant overgrowth of non beneficial bacteria and not enough beneficial bacteria. This showed overall that the balance of bacteria and environment in her gut was not optimal. We were able to identify that her digestion was sluggish and she wasn’t making enough digestive enzymes. Her immune system was also very low functioning. When this happens, our immune system is dysfunctional and can contribute to miscarriage. She was also having a big reaction to gluten. While this may have been overwhelming for some women to hear, Client A was relieved. She was happy there was something she could take action on and had a great mindset when starting her protocol. It was inspiring!
Client A’s hair test matched up with her stool test. She had low mineral levels across the board and her thyroid and adrenals were fatigued, just like her immune system. This is very common when gut issues are present, especially sluggish digestion. Minerals impact our gut health and gut health impacts our minerals. In order to better support her digestion, we focused on supporting magnesium, sodium, potassium, and zinc. These are all important for stomach acid production and proper movement of food through the digestive tract. Zinc is critical for immune system function and egg maturation as well (and a million other things).
One of the biggest things we took away from her hair test was that her adrenals were exhausted. The good thing about a hair test is that it doesn’t lie. You can’t hide from your stress response. Client A really needed this wake up call. While she ate well and generally took care of herself, she was working way too much, overcommitted herself in her personal life, and wasn’t handling stress well. Her healthy habits could not compensate enough for the amount of stress filling up her stress bucket. This was also impacting her libido, which is another layer of complication when you’re trying to conceive.
One of the most important things she did was reflect on how she wanted to feel and what is truly important to her. She also reflected on what she wanted her life to look like as a mom. After having fertility struggles, this was painful, but important. The way she was living was not sustainable for her own health, let alone bringing another life into this world. She slowly worked on getting clear with what was important to her and only focusing on that. This led to clarity on what she needed to spend her time doing and what she truly didn’t have time/energy for.
So while we added in mineral support, we also focused on her mindset and lifestyle/priorities so she could stop burning through them so much too.
You may be wondering when the heck we layered bioidentical progesterone in for Client A since all we’ve talked about so far is her gut protocol and supporting her minerals. And that is really the point. We almost never start with progesterone. Most of the women we are working with have some sort of gut dysfunction, which makes it incredibly difficult to raise progesterone levels. The bacteria in our gut have a huge impact on how our bodies utilize progesterone. Just because you’re supplementing with progesterone doesn’t mean you will improve your progesterone status. Progesterone is like a mother hormone. It will fill in holes and take care of issues, damage, and inflammation in the body where ever it needs it. How do we ensure that the progesterone we are making and/or taking is being used to support our fertility? To work on the foundations first. We would include nutrition, lifestyle/stress, minerals, and gut health into those foundations.
After her gut protocol, her eczema cleared up, she had her first 34 day cycle, and she felt good in her body. She was now ready for progesterone. She added in 200mg a day of bioidentical progesterone. She did a combination of sublingual and topical to reach that 200mg each day post ovulation until she got her period. She chose to take the progesterone for 3 cycles prior to trying to conceive. She was still working on making changes with her work schedule during this time and wanted to have a few things in place before trying to conceive again, which we admired. We know it’s not easy to delay conception. Most of the women we work with have been struggling for years to conceive and our longing to be mothers or mother more children. Her delay didn’t go quite as planned since she ended up conceiving during the second cycle of progesterone, but she was ready. She continued taking progesterone during the first trimester since she had the history of miscarriage. She had minimal morning sickness and felt really good, which progesterone can help with as well.
If you’re taking progesterone or tried it in the past and didn’t notice a difference, there could be deeper dysfunction in the body using up that progesterone for something else. If you related to Client A’s story and would like this kind of support on your fertility journey, learn more about our Nurture Your Fertility program here.
I also have a progesterone guide that you can check out here!
reminder: i’m currently accepting people into my Nurture Your Fertility program. you can learn more here about the program and fill out an application!
