Fertility WELL Care: Start Before the Positive Pregnancy Test

We put so much care into health once pregnancy begins, but what about the months before conception?

At PHD we think this is a really important part of fertility care. Preconception is an opportunity to look at your health before pregnancy and consider what could be improved now rather than waiting for a positive pregnancy test to start thinking about nutrition, lifestyle and reproductive health.

This is the approach our Advanced Clinical Focus Naturopath Lesley O’Connor brings to fertility care at PHD. Whether you are thinking about having a baby in the future, already trying, preparing for IVF, navigating fertility challenges or starting again after pregnancy loss, there is value in looking after yourself throughout the journey.

There is no perfect fertility plan and there are certainly no guarantees. However, what we can do is understand more about your individual health and work on the things that can reasonably be supported.

Preconception care is healthCARE

We often think about fertility as something quite separate from the rest of our health. In reality reproductive health doesn’t exist in isolation.

Nutrition, iron and other nutrient levels, thyroid function, blood glucose regulation, hormonal health, sleep, stress, exercise, digestive health, alcohol, smoking, medications and underlying conditions can all be relevant.

For women we may also want to understand menstrual cycles and ovulation more closely. PCOS/PMOS, endometriosis, adenomyosis, thyroid conditions, irregular cycles, very short or long cycles and changes in bleeding patterns can all provide useful pieces of the fertility picture.

The aim isn’t to test absolutely everything or put everyone on a huge list of supplements. It is to determine what is relevant to you. Sometimes that means pathology. Sometimes it means improving nutrition or addressing a deficiency. Sometimes we need to look more closely at cycles, hormones, metabolic health or digestive symptoms. Sometimes the biggest changes are surprisingly simple.

That is very much our WELL Care philosophy. Understand the person first and then decide what care actually makes sense.

Why we often start three months before conception

When possible we love having three or more months to work on preconception health.

Sperm takes approximately 2½ to 3 months to develop and mature. Although women are born with their lifetime supply of eggs, the follicles that may eventually ovulate are also going through important stages of development during the months leading up to ovulation.

This gives us a useful window to work on general health, nutrition and potentially modifiable factors before conception.

Three months isn’t a rule though. If you are already trying there is no need to feel that you’ve missed your opportunity. If you’re not planning pregnancy for another year it isn’t too early to start looking after your health either. Our Naturopath Lesley starts where you are.

We need to talk more about sperm

One area Lesley and the PHD team feel strongly about is male preconception health.

Fertility conversations can still become incredibly focused on the woman. She tracks her cycle, changes her diet, takes the supplements, has the blood tests and appointments and may eventually undergo medications, procedures and IVF.

Meanwhile sperm health can receive surprisingly little attention.

Male fertility is not a side issue. Sperm contributes half of the genetic material required to create an embryo and male factors can contribute to difficulty conceiving. Yet it’s well known that the quality and number of sperm is dropping for men as a population every year!

A semen analysis can give us information about sperm concentration, number, movement and morphology. Depending on the circumstances further investigation may also be appropriate through a GP, fertility specialist or andrologist.

We also want to know about the health of the man behind the sperm. Smoking, alcohol, recreational drugs, heat exposure, nutritional status, metabolic health, some medications, illness, inflammation and other lifestyle or environmental factors may influence sperm production and quality.

This isn’t about blame and fertility should never become a competition over whose body is responsible. It is simply about giving sperm health the same thoughtful attention we have traditionally given egg health.

Fertility after 35

Fertility does change with age and we don’t think it is helpful to pretend otherwise. Egg number and egg quality decline over time and age becomes increasingly important when making decisions about fertility investigation and treatment. Often heading to 35 yo or older can be a real fear trigger for people looking to conceive. But fertility doesn’t suddenly disappear on your 35th birthday.

What age does change for us is how proactive we may want to be. If someone is hoping to conceive in their mid to late 30s or beyond we may suggest investigating earlier and making good use of the time available rather than simply waiting.

It is about being informed without being frightened by a number.

What if you’ve already been trying for a long time?

This is where fertility care needs to be particularly considered.

You may already have spent months or years tracking cycles, having blood tests, changing your diet, undergoing IVF or experiencing the enormous disappointment of pregnancy loss.

The last thing you need is another person telling you that you simply need to try harder, relax more or take another handful of supplements.

Sometimes fertility problems have a clear explanation and sometimes they don’t. “Unexplained infertility” generally means that standard investigations haven’t identified a clear cause. It doesn’t mean that your experience isn’t real or that there must be one hidden thing nobody has found yet. 

This is where Naturopath Lesley really thrives; she takes a broader look at your whole health picture. What has already been investigated? What do your results actually show? Are there areas of general health that haven’t received much attention? Has microbiome and gut health been considered? Is there anything that could reasonably be improved before another cycle or treatment? Is further medical investigation warranted?

Naturopathic fertility care can sit alongside your GP, fertility specialist and IVF team. It doesn’t need to be one approach or the other.

Gut health, hormones and the bigger picture

Gut health and the microbiome in general arekey areas to look at when reproductive health and fertility are being investigated; it’s an area of knowledge quite unique to Naturopaths. Microbiome research in areas of reproductive health like endometriosis and fertility is developing quickly and in selected cases gut or vaginal microbiome assessment may be worth considering. It isn’t something everyone trying to conceive automatically needs. However, someone experiencing significant bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, food reactions or other ongoing digestive symptoms, or persistant vagina infections and UTIs shouldn’t have those symptoms ignored simply because the current focus is fertility.

The same applies to any chronic health concern be it poor sleep, exhaustion, metabolic health, thyroid problems or significant menstrual symptoms. 

At PHD we like testing when there is a reason for doing it and when the result has the potential to change what we do next. This may include a microbiome assessment and can be a real strength of holistic naturopathic fertility support.

Looking after yourself matters too

Perhaps the most important part of preconception care gets lost in all the discussion about fertility. Your health matters whether you conceive this month, next month or sometime next year. And when someone desperately wants a baby, it is very easy for every meal, supplement, blood result and decision to become about achieving pregnancy.

We want to bring some of the focus back to you.

Eat well because your body needs nourishment. Address deficiencies because they matter to your health. Get help with the symptoms you’ve been putting up with. Move your body. Sleep. Look after your mental health. Get appropriate medical care. Understand your cycle and reproductive health.

And if there are two people contributing to a pregnancy, ideally both people are doing that work.

You don’t need to wait until pregnancy to start nurturing the people who will become that baby’s family.

Fertility WELL Care with Naturopath Lesley 

Lesley O’Connor is one of our Advanced Clinical Focus Naturopaths with a particular focus on hormonal health, fertility, IVF, preconception and pregnancy care.

She works with women and men, couples and solo parents at different stages of their fertility journey. You might be planning ahead and simply want to know you’re doing the right things. You may have PCOS/PMOS or endometriosis. You might want to improve egg or sperm health before trying. You may already be working with a fertility specialist or preparing for IVF. You may also be coming to us after a journey that has already been much longer and harder than you expected.

Care with Naturopath Lesley is personalised and may include nutrition and lifestyle support, pathology review, reproductive and menstrual health assessment, nutritional supplementation and herbal medicine where appropriate. Most importantly there isn’t a standard “fertility protocol” waiting for you. There is a conversation about you, your health, your fertility journey and what makes sense from here.

If pregnancy is something you are considering now or in the future, you don’t have to wait for a fertility problem or a positive pregnancy test to start caring for your health. You can book a Fertility WELL Care consultation with Lesley through Peninsula Herbal Dispensary.

And if someone you love is thinking about starting or growing their family, please share this with them. Preconception care is a conversation worth having much earlier than most of us do.

Learn More or Book An Appointment With Naturopath Lesley Here