My Fertility Journey - Part 2
After being assured that I would be pregnant within one year, I proceeded to put all my trust into my functional medicine doctor and her plan. The results of her testing made sense to me because I had already researched my symptoms and concluded that I had a hormonal imbalance, high estrogen and low progesterone. My period symptoms, while they may be common in today’s world, were certainly not normal. With this decision, I dove deeper into a serious lifestyle change program which included dietary changes, sleep changes, supplements and a series of daily and weekly rituals all aimed at supporting my body in its efforts to detox and rebalance my hormones.
Prior to seeing this doctor, I had already implemented some changes but it was still a very strict and difficult regiment to maintain. Some changes included, using the Think Dirty® App or Environmental Working Group to choose all household and personal care items, bringing my toxicity score down to 0 and avoiding plastic like the plague. I also was advised to do the following:
- Wear blue blocking glasses after dark.
- Take magnesium baths three times a week.
- Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.
- Dry brush daily.
- Use a sun lamp every morning while doing some light morning cardio.
- Weight lift at least three times per week.
- Meditate for at least 10 minutes daily.
- Get at least 30 minutes of sunshine daily.
- Go for Acupuncture 1-2 times per week.
- Utilize an infrared sauna every other day for the first 14 days of my cycle.
- Eat white button mushrooms, rosemary, and more dietary fiber.
- Eat fermented foods and reinstate meat (at least fish) into my diet.
- Supplement with vitex berry, fiber, vitamin c, vitamin D, fish oil, ubiquinol, resveratrol, magnesium glycinate, quercetin, probiotics (by no means should anyone use this list as their own, a supplementation regiment should be implemented based on your personal needs and test results by a competent professional).
I strictly adhered to these changes for nine months, despite month after month of no change. Of this list, the hardest change to grapple with was the reinstatement of meat. I had been vegetarian for ten years and vegan for an additional two years, the moral and ethical weight I felt with this decision was crushing to say the least. After eight months on this protocol, without change, I was feeling heartbroken and hopeless. Each month was an emotional rollercoaster of hope followed by heartache and I eventually decided to turn to spiritual healing… and meat eating.
I reached out to my friend, Danielle Felitto, who performed a distance healing on me. Danielle has studied and trained for years with a healer named Arathi Ma, and continues to do so today. I remember being doubled over in pain while texting Danielle, and asking for her assistance through energetic healing. About ten minutes later I felt my pain subside and a calming loving wave came over me. It felt almost as if someone was cradling my uterus in the most loving way, and I drifted off to sleep. Since that time, I have not experienced another painful period, this is four years ago now. At the same time, I had also (begrudgingly) reinstated meat into my diet in the form of fish. With these final bits of support, we were pregnant at month nine!
I used to be a firm believer in a strictly plant-based diet; however, with fertility being a measurement of overall health, I no longer feel that a flesh free diet is optimal (at least for me). While I have continued eating a wide array of whole foods and plant foods, I now regularly eat a variety of animal products all sourced from pasture raised, regenerative farmers.
This experience taught me so much about my will and determination and gave me understanding of the pain of infertility experienced by so many families today. I also found a new relationship with my body, a faith in my ability to heal and a deeper trust in the natural world and its ability to support our abundance. I feel this experience is a testament to the power of prayer, friendship, and God in healing. Having a trust and belief that the universe and my body are here to support my highest and best good has settled me in the most challenging of moments and I would need to pull on this strength as my pregnancy neared its completion and my child’s birth plan unraveled.
My favorite Pregnancy Books
Ina May’s Guide to Child Birth - Ina May Gaskin
The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care - Sally Fallon Morell and Thomas S. Cowan
The Natural Pregnancy Book: Herbs, Nutrition, and Other Holistic Choices - Aviva Jill Romm
Functional Medicine Doctors
Bianca Chiara - https://www.atlantichealth.org/find-a-doctor/bianca-chiara-1104031020
Functional Medicine Doctor Directory - https://www.ifm.org/find-a-practitioner
Devine Healing and Journeying Into the Light
Arathi Ma - https://www.arathima.com/