Infertility is an ever increasing problem for many individuals that desire to start a family and the explanation of why this occurs can be multi-factorial and sometimes, completely unknown. For those wishing to achieve pregnancy, infertility is often a frustrating, costly, stressful and emotional rollercoaster.
What is infertility and what causes it? Infertility is defined as the inability to become pregnant after 1 year of actively trying to conceive, without the use of contraceptives in women under the age of 35. One etiology of infertility can be due to conditions such as PCOS, thyroid diseases, endometriosis, and other chronic illnesses. Environmental factors such as smoking, alcohol, drug use, and stress can also play a big role in a the ability to achieve pregnancy. Sometime there is a single causation, but oftentimes the etiology is multifactorial and requires a holistic and comprehensive approach to address the underlying factors.
As a Naturopathic doctor and East Asian Medicine Practitioner, my goal is to get to the root cause and work on what we term the foundations of health because a good foundation can not only improve your chances of getting pregnant, but can increase efficacy of other medical interventions if those are indicated. To accomplish this, my goal is to optimize your foundations of health, which include sleep, diet, movement, minimizing stress etc. Having the foundations of health in place will also increase your chances of maintaining a healthy pregnancy. In addition, acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine can be so helpful to increase blood flow to the pelvis and reproductive organs and boost the body before and during pregnancy.
If you have been trying to get pregnant and have been unable to do so, or if you plan on becoming pregnant and want to optimize your health beforehand, I would love to support you in this journey. Please make an appointment with Dr. Chelsea Mikula-Chao on Tuesday mornings, Thursday afternoon/evening and Friday mornings at SNCC.
References:
1. Kuohung, Wendy & Horstein, Mark (2019). Overview of Infertility. UpToDate.
