The Most Underrated Learning from Dr. Andrew Huberman
How fertility is a measure of health
Majority of us know who Dr Huberman is.
Maybe he was the one that made you look at your health, or taught you how to hack it using the finest supplements. Perhaps you are aiming to be your most productive using his recommendations.
But, most likely, you are not thinking about fertility when looking at his content.
His podcast, Huberman Lab, has grown in popularity exponentially since its inception. However, at 238k views on Youtube (vs 4–5M in his most watched episodes), the episode on “How To Optimize Fertility” is not his most popular one.
Here, Dr. Huberman talks about how fertility impacts both longevity and vitality, and how it should be discussed as and connected with your overall health, regardless of whether you are a man or a woman.
Who would have thought? Not me…
The importance of fertility
As a woman struggling with irregular periods and hormonal imbalances, I have always cared about menstrual health and I constantly consume any kind of content that addresses these issues.
But when discussing anything that has to do with hormones, I find myself mostly having conversations with women. Very rarely I have these kinds of discussions with a (cisgender) man — maybe because they don’t have a monthly reminder to make them think about it.
Huberman’s point in this 4-hour long episode (which sounds like a lot, but turns to be very little when you are talking about such a complex system), is that fertility is, more than anything, a measure of health.
We rarely think about it in this way, but it is true — being at your peak fertility means all your systems are working correctly. A lack of fertility is usually an indication of a bigger issue. Which is closely related to all the menstrual issues women suffer from — endometriosis, PCOS, fibrosis…
Conversations about fertility are usually centered around offspring. The topic is otherwise neglected and pushed aside, until it is time for another baby.
Whether you want to have kids or not, you need to start caring about your fertility. For your own health.
Fertility is an issue for all of us
Numerous studies have found that fertility has drastically reduced in most industrialized countries, but the causes remain to be largely unknown.
Aside from the specific recommendations from Dr Huberman in his podcast (summarized here), there is a deeper learning to be taken from here.
When we think about being healthy, we usually think about a physical aspect — not only looking good, but also being able to move without getting tired very quickly. If we think about our inner workings, we usually relate it to the absence of pain. We might check certain bio-indicators in routine blood work and call it a day.
However, if we want to really advocate for our holistic health, we need to understand the status of our hormones and our fertility, and look at if the way we are living life is optimizing for that.
Fertility is not a means to an end (i.e. having babies) but a means on its own. We need to see it as a core function of our body, and an indicator of overall health.
This also means that we cannot have (cisgender) women being the only ones to care about it. We are generally asking women to be the safe-keepers of birth control as well as be the ones optimal for conceiving. Are we distributing this weight equally?
When you are exercising in the morning or adding that extra veggie portion in your plate, you are focusing on staying healthy and probably living long.
With this narrative, I want to encourage you to also think about how your habits are affecting your fertility in the same way. After all, it is an indicator of your longevity.
Disclaimer: This article is only for informational purposes and it is not aimed to give professional advice. If you are experiencing any health issues, you should seek help from a medical professional.
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