If you are like any other person hoping to conceive each month and feeling defeated and depressed each month you don’t see that second line on the pregnancy test, there may be more you could be looking into to assess what is getting in the way of conception.
This is especially true for clients of mine who are diagnosed with ‘unexplained infertility’. After doing all of the blood work and ultrasounds, your doctors may have told you that there is nothing wrong. Hearing that nothing is wrong ‘should’ feel good, but in the case of infertility, it can be debilitating as people walk away from these appointments still not pregnant and still not knowing what can be done.
There is likely more you can do, especially if you haven’t included a Naturopathic Doctor into your health team yet.
This week, new research surfaced that showed an association between vaginal flora and implantation failure. In the study, the women who had repeated implantation failure also had much lower numbers of healthy bacteria, specifically lactobacillus species. The results of this study don’t mean we just need to plug in healthy bacteria as our hormones can play a role in the level of healthy bacteria in the vagina. We work at balancing all aspects of your health – hormones, digestive health as well as vaginal microbiome and pH.
How do you know if you have a vaginal microbiome issue? There are a few ways to know if this is something that should be addressed. You can ask your doctors at your fertility centre to test via an EMMA assessment and a vaginal swab (the swab only looks for yeast and unhealthy bacteria, not levels of good bacteria). If you have a history of chronic bacterial vaginosis or vaginal yeast infections, it would be worthwhile addressing your microbiome and hormones in order to treat the root cause of these chronic infections.
Talk to your ND or MD for more info. Having a thorough assessment done with an ND can be helpful to look for any other health-related issues that could be causing your ‘unexplained infertility’.
Book in for an initial consultation with me here or join the waitlist for my new fertility online course and learn from home what you can do to help increase your chances of conception. Email me at jada@drjada.ca to be put on the waitlist.