Think that your fertility and your gut health are two separate issues? Think again.
The evidence is mounting that our gut microbiome is highly linked with our hormonal balance and fertility. Not to mention the many collective experiences of women who will tell you firsthand that when they improved their gut health there fertility flourished. Let’s talk about the many ways that improving your gut health can lay the foundation for healthy conception, implantation, and a thriving pregnancy.
A 2022 article in Cells describes the many ways that female fertility is linked with the gut microbiota. First, the gut is highly involved in regulating our endogenous levels of sex hormones because the gut bacteria play a critical role in monitoring, changing, and metabolizing the levels of circulating hormones, like estrogen. Second, and very importantly, the gut microbiome and the immune system are highly intertwined. Both PCOS and endometriosis are diseases that are driven by the immune system. Women with these diseases are shown to have imbalanced or reduced levels of healthy bacteria in the gut, and women with these conditions often times have trouble getting pregnant and staying pregnant. Lastly it is well documented that the gut microbiome is highly related to the vaginal and uterine microbiome.
Leaky Gut
You may have heard of “leaky gut” syndrome. Leaky gut syndrome describes a condition in which your gut becomes more permeable to toxins, bacteria, and undigested food particles. In a healthy gut, the lining of the intestine is well-sealed, and will prevent these harmful things from passing into your bloodstream and affecting your whole body. When you have a leaky gut, these toxins can pass into your circulation causing an immune and inflammatory response by your body. Some common symptoms of leaky gut syndrome might include gas bloating fatigue brain fog. This is also the mechanism by which the gut microbiome and problems with the gut microbiome can affect other parts of the body. For example it was mentioned before that the gut microbiome is highly related to the vaginal and uterine microbiome. Increased gut permeability (leaky gut) is likely to be the reason for this.
Inflammation
We’ve all heard of “Inflammation” but what is it really? Inflammation is a natural response of the body to any sort of injury like infection, wounds, or other trauma. When you have an infection or a trauma, the immune cells of your body rush to the area of injury to help fix the problem. This team of specialized cells helps heal the infection or trauma through many different cellular activities. Sometimes we can notice these cellular activities because they cause swelling redness puffiness pain and soreness. The term, “inflammation” has gotten a bad reputation, but inflammation is actually a critically important part of our body’s ability to heal. Without inflammation infection and trauma and wounds would certainly kill us.
The difference between healthy and unhealthy inflammation is when inflammation becomes chronic. Inflammation should be a temporary state, working to heal an acute problem like an infection or a wound. When inflammatory cellular activities are constantly turned on, in overtime, on overdrive, this can lead to healthy cells and healthy tissue becoming damaged.
This is what leaky gut causes in the body. When you have a steady stream of bacteria, toxins, and undigested food particles flowing freely into the bloodstream (where they don’t belong), your immune system will be constantly turned on and constantly trying to rid your body of these invaders. Your intestines are used to and can handle bacteria, toxins, and food, but these things shouldn’t travel to other parts of your body.
Inflammation and Implantation
We’ve already discussed how inflammation can drive certain infertility-causing diseases like PCOS and endometriosis, but there is one more way in which inflammation can cause a big problem for your fertility. For healthy conception, the embryo must be able to implant into the lining of the uterus. This lining is called the endometrium, or the endometrial lining. A 2020 to study in Placenta describes the complex and important relationship between inflammation and the likelihood of embryo implantation into the uterine lining.
Inflammation of the endometrial lining can turn into conditions like endometritis, which is inflammation of the endometrium. Over time, it can also cause structural changes to the endometrial lining. For example, chronic inflammation can cause scarring and thickening of the endometrial lining, making it difficult for an embryo to implant and grow into a healthy pregnancy. Chronic inflammation can also cause a condition called glandular atrophy where the ovaries to shrink and their ability to function properly decreases.
Nutrient Absorption
Beyond inflammation, there is another important reason why gut health is essential for fertility. Poor gut health can prevent your body from absorbing and receiving vital nutrients, like fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals from being absorbed into your bloodstream. When your gut is inflamed or otherwise compromised, its ability to absorb the nutrients from your food is also impaired. This is why it’s critical to focus on your gut health if you are taking any fertility-supporting supplements or are eating nutrient dense foods to promote fertility. If your gut health is compromised you won’t get the benefits of these foods and supplements. Improving gut health can help to improve nutrient absorption and support healthy ovulation healthy conception and healthy implantation.
So what can you do to improve your gut health to improve your overall fertility?
First you can pay attention to other signs that you might be experiencing inflammation in the body. Some common signs of inflammation throughout the body can include persistent fatigue, headaches or migraines, muscle pain and stiffness, digestive issues like gas bloating and diarrhea, skin problems like dry itchy skin eczema acne and rashes, brain fog and concentration problems, getting sick often and a weekend immune system, and chronic allergies like asthma and other autoimmune issues.
If you’re seeing any of these symptoms and you suspect you might be experiencing gut problems and associated inflammation, you can visit a naturopathic doctor or functional medicine doctor to get a workup and find the root cause of the inflammation
There are some simple things you can do to reduce inflammation in your body such as
Cleaning up your household and beauty products. Reducing your exposure to plastics, reducing your exposure to chemicals in skin care products, and cleaning products will reduce your overall exposure to toxic materials that can cause irritation in the gut.
Choose organic, local, fresh foods. Processed foods are known to promote inflammation and cause a host of health problems. The best choice for you on your fertility journey is to invest the time and the money to source responsibly harvested and grown fruits vegetables and meat. These foods are free from pesticides herbicides and fertilizers that can wreak havoc on your body. This is the simplest way to improve your body’s functioning.
Castor oil packs. Castor oil is often used in the beauty world for promoting growth of hair and nails. However it is a powerful anti-inflammatory. Castor oil has a component in it called ricinoleic acid which can help reduce inflammation improve circulation and improve movement of lymph fluid. If you’re having gut issues a simple castor oil pack can do wonders for helping is your gut discomfort.
Abdominal massage. Deep organ level mobilization of the tissues in and around the digestive organs is a commonly overlooked but extremely powerful approach to improving gut health. Chronic inflammation can lead to a thickening and scarring of tissue that can then cause tissues to stick together and become immobile. When the gut becomes immobile, it is no longer able to efficiently move food through the intestines. This can lead to more bloating more gas and more constipation. Furthermore when food doesn’t move through your system you have a prolonged exposure to the toxins, chemicals, and bad bacteria that came along with that food. Abdominal massage can help improve the mobility of your organs. It can help your intestines restore their functioning by encouraging the innate movement of the smooth muscle around the intestines.
If you’re struggling to conceive your baby, if you’ve been trying to get pregnant for a while, if you are wondering what else you could be doing to get pregnant, ask yourself if you have addressed your gut issues. Reproductive endocrinologist and gynecologist specializing in fertility will often overlook this incredibly important component to our overall health and fertility.
Gut health is an important component to promoting fertility because of its role in our bodies chronic inflammation, and our ability to absorb nutrients.
Fabozzi, Gemma, et al. "Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, gut microbiota, and human (in) fertility—it is time to consider the triad." Cells 11.21 (2022): 3335.
Sehring, Jacqueline, Angeline Beltsos, and Roohi Jeelani. "Human implantation: The complex interplay between endometrial receptivity, inflammation, and the microbiome." Placenta 117 (2022): 179-186.