The best way to solve a problem is to find out what’s causing it. Infertility and miscarriage are no exception. I can’t even begin to count the number of women I know whose “miracle babies” are living proof that no doctor should ever say, “you’ll never be able to have a baby.”
Miracle babies bless the lives of mothers and fathers with health conditions or medical treatments which greatly reduce the odds of a successful pregnancy. I will cover miracle baby stories in a future post. Now I want to talk to you about commonly overlooked causes of infertility and miscarriage.
This post is an overview of the main causes of infertility and repeat miscarriage. Because of this post’s double focus on fertility and miscarriage, I’m mainly covering women’s health issues here. However, you’ll notice that some of the health topics can affect men as well.
Health conditions
Numerous health conditions can affect fertility and increase the risk of miscarriage. Doctors frequently diagnose endometriosis, ovarian cysts and PCOS as causes of infertility and/or miscarriage. Rather than covering everything, I’ll provide an overview of commonly underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed conditions that can cause infertility and miscarriage.
Elusive PCOS
That being said, it is difficult to diagnose some cases of PCOS, especially if the symptom pattern and/or lab results are atypical. Dr. Laura Briden is an expert on PCOS and hormonal balance. She notes that there are different patterns of PCOS, not all of which fit the classic picture. In fact, many women with PCOS are neither overweight nor plagued by excessive body hair. Strikingly, not all women with PCOS even have ovarian cysts. Nor do all women with ovarian cysts have PCOS. Read more by Dr. Briden here.
Blood sugar handling issues
Partly overlapping PCOS and partly separate from it is the issue of blood sugar regulation. Overconsuming sugars and starches overload the endocrine system. The resulting blood sugar roller coaster reduces fertility in both men and women. You don’t have to be diagnosed with diabetes to have blood sugar regulation issues.
Week 2 of the Feed Your Fertile Body!™ Program focuses on the effects of excess sugars and starches.
Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism
Most doctors recognize the impact of hypothyroidism on fertility and pregnancy. For reasons I won’t speculate on here, the only thyroid function test doctors typically run on women of childbearing age is TSH. TSH only measures the level of thyroid-stimulating hormone released by your pituitary gland. It doesn’t even tell the whole story of how much active and inactive thyroid hormone the thyroid gland actually produces. And it definitely doesn’t diagnose one of the most common causes of infertility and repeat miscarriage, autoimmune (Hashimoto’s) hypothyroidism.
To diagnose Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, your doctor needs to run antibodies to thyroid tissue.
Most doctors, even endocrinologists, assert that it’s irrelevant whether you have stand-alone hypothyroidism or autoimmune hypothyroidism. Well, it may be irrelevant to them because they prescribe the same pill to treat both conditions. But if you have autoimmune hypothyroidism, that actually changes everything for you. In fact, Hashimoto’s requires extensive immune and gut support, not just thyroid medication. Furthermore, the nutritional support I provide to women with Hashimoto’s is quite different from the plan I recommend for women with stand-alone hypothyroidism. Learn more here and here.
Celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity
I’ll discuss this in more detail in the nutritional deficiencies section below. However, I’m giving undiagnosed celiac disease a double mention here because it is both a health condition and a nutritional deficiency condition. Celiac disease can affect both male and female fertility. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a real condition that can have a profound impact on health. Learn more about gluten here.
Nutritional deficiencies
Even if you have a great diet, read this section! We can have nutritional deficiencies for reasons other than poor eating habits. For example, you may eat great foods but not absorb them because of a functional or medical health issue.
Processed and fake foods
Only real foods have significant nutrition. Foods we grow with pesticides, modified genes, herbicides and artificial fertilizers may look like the real thing, but their nutritional value is quite different. Scientific studies show that organic foods rate higher in nutrient content than conventionally grown food.
Unfortunately, soil depletion as a result of intensive agriculture means our fruits and vegetables contain measurably lower vitamin and mineral levels today than those of a few decades ago. So even when we choose biodynamic or organic options, we may still need some nutritional supplementation to meet our pre-conception and pregnancy needs.
Underconsumption of fats
For many different reasons, we need cholesterol, fats and fat-soluble vitamins they contain for fertility and pregnancy. Male and female sex hormones use cholesterol as a precursor. Fats provide long-lasting energy to fuel daily activity and reduce our reliance on sugars and starches for energy. This decreases the wear and tear on our blood-sugar regulation mechanisms, leaving more nutrients and resources for fertility and pregnancy.
Essential fatty acids and cholesterol are important both for sustaining a pregnancy and for fetal development. In particular, the brain and nervous system rely on these nutrients.
Healthy fats contain fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K that support fertility and fetal development. In fact, Week 1 of Feed Your Fertile Body!™ Program focuses on fats and fat-soluble vitamins.
Celiac disease and infertility
Men and women who have unexplained infertility sometimes turn out to have celiac disease. Contrary to popular belief, many people who have celiac disease lack the hallmark digestive symptoms. Get tested if you have unexplained infertility and/or unexplained nutritional deficiencies.
Additionally, if you have celiac disease, you have a somewhat higher chance of infertility than the general population.
The nutritional depletion that uncontrolled or undiagnosed celiac disease causes is likely the main reason for the somewhat reduced fertility of the celiac population. You can learn more about celiac disease as a cause of infertility here. Of course, if you have celiac disease, you can reduce its impact on fertility by strictly avoiding gluten in food and non-food sources and by consuming a nutrient-dense diet appropriate to fertility.
Of course, nutritional deficiency drives every condition, not just celiac disease, to some extent. And in turn, health conditions often deplete specific nutrients. In the next section, we’ll take a look at toxic exposures, which also deplete nutrients.
Toxic exposures
Exposures to environmental toxicants are still underreported causes of infertility and miscarriage. Many toxic exposures have a detrimental impact on male and female fertility as well as fetal development. Common exposures include glyphosate, pesticides, phthalates and toxicants in your drinking water, as well as many home and body care products. Unfortunately, heavy metals are another issue to keep on your radar. Mercury depletes nutrients needed for fertility and fetal development. Moreover, studies show that lead is among the causes of infertility and miscarriage.
Lifestyle
Never underestimate the role of stress and associated stress hormones in any health problem. Fertility is no exception! Proper self-care is paramount in the pre-conception period.
Do your best to reduce stress from work, family, or internal pressure. Prioritize yourself just as you would any other important part of your life.