Could Your Gut Be the Key to Better Reproductive Health?
Treating your gut could solve your reproductive problems
After implementing changes targeted to her gut for 12-weeks, completely cutting out refined sugar, and walking for 30 minutes a day, one patient I interacted with noticed her reproductive health symptoms almost completely go away. After years of her being on a whole range of medication, this (to her & me) was a miracle. So, I’m here to tell you that it’s possible, it just might start with the critters in your gut.
Let’s Talk Reproduction
Infertility is the inability to conceive after one year of trying with unprotected intercourse. In the United States, close to 20% of women will face infertility, which translates to ~6.7 million women. Factoring in all reproductive issues, including PCOS and endometriosis, that number climbs to well over 25 million women today that face reproductive ailments. Dismally, that number is on the rise. It’s obvious we need to start having serious discussions about women’s health, and a good start is talking about the gut.
What Do I Have to Know about the Gut & Its Connection to Fertility?
Your gut is teeming with more than 100 trillion bacteria that work symbiotically with the body to provide a host of functions, including digesting food, regulating the immune system, synthesizing nutrients, and breaking down toxins. Functions specifically related to reproductive health include that the gut plays a role in:
(1) Immune Function & Inflammation
When your gut health is disturbed, the immune system goes wack, which often times results in chronic inflammation. To make matters worse, chronic inflammation is hard to detect and can go unnoticed with very few symptoms. New evidence shows that chronic inflammation plays a large role in reproductive issues. In particular, it can lead to poor egg quality, exacerbation of PCOS symptoms, poor implantation, and a dis-regulation of hormones. Surprisingly, altering the gut microbiome in a healthy way has been shown to reduce inflammation throughout the body and improve immune function.
(2) Estrogen Metabolism & The Vagina
There is an entire team in the gut responsible for regulating estrogen levels, a hormone that is dis-regulated in many reproductive disorders. Keeping the gut healthy means this regulation is functioning correctly, which leads to improved reproductive health.
Similar to the way the vagina is physically located downstream of the gut, processes in the gut can impact vaginal health downstream! The gut microbiome helps keeps the pH of the vagina just right to support healthy periods, conceptions, and implantations.
Let’s Treat the Gut Now
Here’s a start to make your gut healthier and get on your way for better reproductive health!
- Eat a Mediterranean or any Healthy and Diverse Diet
The Mediterranean diet is known to be one of the best diets for gut health. Primarily a plant-based diet, the Mediterranean diet includes intake of a variety of leafy greens, olive oil, whole grains, legumes, healthy seafood, and nuts. It’s also low in refined sugars and saturated fats, both of which can contribute to an unhealthy gut and chronic inflammation. Here’s a link to get started on finding some recipes that are the best for you!
2. Eat/Drink Fermented Foods
Kombucha, tempeh, kefir, fermented cottage cheese, and unsweetened yogurt can increase the amount of “good” bacteria in your gut (lactobacilli). These fermented foods contribute to the diversity of the gut microbiome and can ultimately decrease inflammation markers, improve estrogen metabolism, and ensure a healthy vagina.
3. Eat Foods High In Fiber
Increasing intake of fibers allows the beneficial bacteria in your gut to use the fiber for fuel. Fiber can also suppress bad bacteria and act as a prebiotic by enhancing both the growth and activity of the gut. High-fiber foods that are known to enhance reproductive health include apricots, pears, and artichoke hearts.
Gut health almost seems like a buzzword these days. But there’s one area where its certainly vastly overlooked — reproductive health!!
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