Special Report: Toxic Mold May Impact Your Ability to Have Kids

Let’s Talk About Fertility.

For many women it can be a tough issue. In fact, the CDC suggests 10% of women struggle to get pregnant or hold a pregnancy to term. This often leads couples longing to conceive to make important and costly medical decisions at a time when they feel vulnerable and desperate.

Women often look to conventional medicine ranging from ultrasounds to hormone treatments and in-vitro fertilization.

These methods, while helpful for a many women, are invasive and don’t always result in a pregnancy that holds to term. The unfortunate truth is that some women, try as they may, never become pregnant but will risk the pain and stress of medical procedures if it gives them a shot at becoming a parent.

That’s because in the progressive 21st century, women often view the decision to have children or not to as part of their identity. This comes as no surprise when many childless older-generation Millennials proudly self-identify as “dinks” or dual income, no kids.

But for women who would have chosen to start a family that includes kids, finding out they are struggling with infertility is still a devastating blow. Studies suggest that fertility barriers can cause significant psychological distress on women.

Think About Your Friends

Are any of them struggling with infertility? Perhaps, a family member has shared their story with you? Or maybe you yourself have had fertility issues in the past? 6.1 million women in the United States alone have infertility issues, no wonder we know so many.

I can think of more than a few women in my immediate group of friends who have tried medical procedures to cure infertility. They start out hopeful, but nervous about the outcome and cautiously optimistic. Sometimes that optimism pays off and other times they are disappointed.

The rollercoaster of emotions is hard for any person to experience, especially when you have to repeat it over and over. Psychological distress is a natural outcome from a cycle of medicine that isn’t producing the right results.

What if there’s another way that’s less stressful on the mind and body?

Medical Procedures Treat Symptoms, Not the Cause

When you go to the doctor for a sinus infection they give you antibiotics to clear it up. They may prescribe a decongestant or cold medicine to relieve the stuffy nose, coughing and sneezing associated with your condition.

All of that is important because you want to feel better. But a medical doctor may not tell you to check your air quality if you are getting sick over and over again. Their job is to treat the symptoms to make the problem go away. The same is true for how OB’s address infertility issues.

Conventional Medicine Answers the Call

The science behind using conventional medicine to treat infertility has been used for many years. It includes ultrasounds to look for scar tissue, cancer cells and fibroids. They are looking for anything that could cause blockage in the reproductive system, or could cause it to be an unhealthy environment for a fetus to grow.

Next, they check hormone levels often resulting in prescribing dosages of progesterone and synthetic hormones to makeup for low levels of pregnancy hormones in women with fertility issues.

This process is considered fairly reliable, even if it doesn’t give consistent results. But what if women didn’t have to endure invasive treatments and synthetic hormones to increase their fertility? What if they could raise hormone levels naturally and conceive without intervention?

Questions like these are ones that women have been asking themselves for decades as they put themselves through rigorous, sometimes heartbreaking treatment methods.

Toxic Mold and Fertility

There’s evidence to suggest mold has an impact on hormone levels and overall fertility. This is a documented symptom of Toxic Mold poisoning.

What is Toxic Mold Poisoning?

If you’ve never heard the term before you may be frantically Googling Toxic Mold poisoning right now. But the definition is pretty straight-forward. Toxic Mold poisoning is a reaction to prolonged exposure to Stachybotrys chartarum, also known as black mold.

Prolonged exposure can occur when black mold grows inside the far reaches of the cabinets of your home, inside the walls, in the crawlspace or the ceiling, attic or basement. Usually it occurs when the mold is hiding in dark, damp spaces where you don’t readily see it.

Often times mold in the home can be identified by the musty odor it gives off. If you can’t seem to clean a room enough to get rid of a particular smell it’s likely you have mold. But mold cannot always be identified by smell. Sometimes you don’t find out about it until it starts to impact your health.

You want to ask your doctor about toxic mold exposure when you experience symptoms like a lingering cough that won’t go away, sneezing, congestion, red, watery eyes and allergy-like itchiness that may be paired with some bleeding from the lungs, asthma-like symptoms and even dizziness.

In rare but severe cases, toxic mold can cause anaphylactic reactions and even death. It’s that serious.

In addition to the above mentioned symptoms, many experts now believe that black mold exposure is also linked to infertility.

Getting Rid of Mold to Improve Fertility

The best way to ensure mold is not an issue in your home is to promptly address any leaks in the structure.

By repairing leaks quickly you can prevent black mold from growing. But mold can also grow on food, and in other damp areas of the home even without leaks. While preventing black mold is one thing, eliminating it is another.

If you’ve found mold in your home, you may have heard that a natural way to destroy it is with powerful UV light. Some newer HVAC systems offer UV light filters to prevent mold from taking hold of the area in or near the HVAC unit.

But a word of caution If you’re going to use UV light, it must have both intensity and dwell time. Dwell time is the amount of time the spore is in contact with the light. If you can’t guarantee those things then skip the UV light in favor of an air purifier with a HEPA filter.

Another natural remedy that works against mold is using a spray bottle with an equal mix of water and vodka and a few drops of tea tree oil. If you want to avoid using bleach and chemicals in the home, this is a good alternative that kills mold.

If you can keep your home’s humidity under 50% that’s ideal, but in humid regions it’s important to make sure you remove rotten wood from the structure of the home. And always remove rotten perishables when they begin to degrade.

Outside the Box

Whether you are someone considering fertility treatment options for the first time, or someone who’s tried all that medicine has to offer but did not conceive, perhaps looking for mold in your home is something to consider?

This is especially true for people who suspect mold in the home because of a musty smell or any of the other symptoms of Toxic Mold poisoning listed above. But remember, a number of issues that are not treated medically can impact fertility. This includes diet, stress level, exposure to pesticides, toxins and more.

If you consider fertility part of your livelihood and a piece of your identity, you may not have to endure the mental anguish associated with the traditional medicine fertility rollercoaster.

Take control of your fertility by understanding your cycle, know what doctors are looking for when they treat infertility, and remove environmental hazards that can lower your hormone levels causing infertility.

This special report is just the tip of the iceberg, and there’s much more to come on how mold impacts your overall health when you follow our blog.