Client K came to us after she had her third miscarriage in an 8 month time period. Her and her husband had struggled to get pregnant for about a year before they had their first pregnancy loss. She had a very different vision for what this journey would look like. She feared she would never look at a positive pregnancy test the same way. Our goal was to change that for her and help her trust her body again. Client K had a history of hashimoto’s hypothyroidism accompanied by painful periods, low progesterone, and bloating. We knew we had to get a deeper look at what was going on with her mineral status and gut health, so we did a hair mineral analysis and GI map. Here’s what we found!
Client K’s hair mineral test gave us a lot of information. She had low mineral levels overall and many signs that she wasn’t making enough digestive juices. When we don’t make enough digestive juices, we have a hard time breaking down our food and this leads to imbalances in our gut microbiome. These imbalances can trigger an inflammatory response and alert the immune system. All of this can exacerbate an autoimmune condition. While supporting your digestion can seem simple, it’s a critical first step. Client K also had many signs of liver stress and difficulty detoxing, which is common when minerals are low because they support our natural detox pathways. We were also able to see that her zinc and selenium levels were very low, which could be contributing to her difficulty converting thyroid hormone to the active form. By increasing mineral rich foods and using a few targeted supplements, we were able to help support mineral levels, digestion, and her thyroid. This set her up for success for improving gut and immune system health before embarking on her gut protocol.
Her GI map stool test revealed a lot of what we predicted it would. She had signs of poor digestion, an overgrowth of non beneficial bacteria, an H. pylori infection, and her immune system was depleted. H. pylori was one specific pathogen we wanted to evaluate since it is very common in those with autoimmune thyroid conditions. It’s also a big histamine producer and can increase inflammation. Two things, if you remember from last week, that can contribute to miscarriage in excess. These can also drive up thyroid antibodies and negatively impact thyroid function. Her blood work showed elevated TPO antibodies and low thyroid hormone production. By supporting her gut and immune system health we are also supporting her thyroid health.
As Client K began implementing her recommendations to support her digestion and minerals, she noticed immediate improvement in her bloating and energy. She also noticed she wasn’t waking up at night to pee anymore, which likely helped her energy. After a few weeks she was ready to begin her gut protocol and slowly added in her supplements. Her protocol was 3 phases in order to address the main concerns of her GI map results. We focused on detoxification and her immune system first, then we layered in supplements to eradicate H. pylori, and finally she wrapped up with support for her gut lining and inflammation. Her cycles were a bit all over the place during the protocol, which is normal. She noticed some spotting during ovulation and her luteal phase but this resolved once she finished everything. This was hard mentally for her but she trusted the process and kept going. We reminded her the it’s normal and her hormones will be the last thing to change.
Two months after her protocol is when she really noticed a big difference in the length of her luteal phase and PMS symptoms. From there, she added in bioidentical progesterone since her and her husband were going to starting trying to conceive again. They ended up getting pregnant about 6 months after finishing up her protocol. It was nerve racking for them at first because of their history with loss, but client K now has a beautiful little boy. We could not be happier for her and her growing family.
If you have struggled with miscarriage here is a great podcast episode I did with Meg Langston on recovering from miscarriage.
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!
