Your Fertility Cup

August 14, 2020

Your Fertility Cup

In natural medicine much of your fertility and reproductive function comes down to the strength of your Kidneys.

Your Kidneys are the source of your strength in being to generate new life through conception and carrying to term.

Strong Kidney function means stronger fertility.

We liken your Kidney strength to a cup. If your cup is full then it can overflow into new life easily. If it is not, then it will be more difficult to conceive.

We call it your Fertility Cup^*.

How full your cup is depends on the following:

What you were born with

Some people are born with full cups and others are not. Generally, the younger you were at menarche the more full your cup was.

How hard you’ve worked

Working hard (mentally or physically) for long hours depletes your Fertility Cup*.

What you’ve eaten and the condition of your digestion.

Poor digestive function (bloating, loose bowels, reflux, etc..) and poor foods (processed and nutrition-deficient foods) depletes your fertility cup. Good food and digestion refills your fertility cup.

Your stress levels

High stress levels impact your whole body and depletes your Fertility Cup*.

Your Temperature

If you are too cold your Fertility Cup* will have trouble filling. If you check your oral temperature first thing in the morning before you get out of bed and it’s less than 36.3 degrees, then you are too cold. Also, if you generally feel cold (ie. you’re wearing a jumper while everyone around you gets around in T-shirts) you are probably too cold too.

Your Toxin Load

Toxins include pathogens (viruses, bacteria and parasites), chemicals (like plastics, pesticides), heavy metals (like mercury) and radiation (from electronics use). We all have many of these toxins but often the load is so great that the body cannot cope and can no longer function as it should.

**So What Can You Do to Refill Your Fertility Cup*?**

Eat well – eat highly nutritious foods (mainly fruit and veg).
Orchestrate a better work/life balance and do your best to remove stressors from your life.
Tell your body it’s now ok to fall pregnant. This can be done through meditation or through affirmations.
Warm up – do things to start to warm your basal temperature up.
Help you body deal with and reduce your toxin load.

fertility cup

Eating to Help Refill Your Fertility Cup

August 14, 2020

Fertility

Eating to Help Refill Your Fertility Cup

Your Fertility Cup* reflects the strength of your reproductive function and ability to conceive.

If your Fertility Cup is empty you need to refill it to conceive and carry a healthy baby to term.

One of the ways to refill your Fertility Cup is through what you eat.

Rather than diving into copious details about the specific foods to eat and avoid, which will probably only cause you further stress (another factor that empties your cup) I’ll give you overall general guidelines here.

Eat More of These to Refill Your Fertility Cup*

Fruit and Vege – so good for your body in so many ways. Fruit in particular is great: ‘Eat fruit to produce fruit’. Fruit and vege cleanses your system and provides great nutrition. They also contain high quality glucose, which is needed for healthy reproductive function. Fruit and vege teaming with ‘pro fertility’ compounds include wild berries, bananas, oranges, avocados, grapes, melons, cucumbers, limes, cherries, spinach, kale, artichokes, garlic, asparagus, potatoes, sprouts and raw honey.
Whole Foods – eat foods as nature intended – whole. So eat the whole potato (skin and all) rather than make mashed potato from a packet. Organic is is course best as it helps to reduce your toxin load. But if you can’t do all organic, try to the following organic: potatoes, leafy greens, broccoli and celery. Otherwise standard fruit and vege is fine but wash things well.

Eat Moderately

Good Fats – good fats such as those in avocado and nuts can trigger beneficial hormone production but don’t go overboard. Your liver dislikes all fats and it will compromise your liver function if you eat too much of it. A healthy and robust liver helps to govern your periods. If you suffer from bad PMS or period pain then go easy on fats.

Eat Less of These (they stop you from filling your Fertility Cup)

Cold Food and Drink – if you are too cold then don’t make yourself colder by consuming cold things. Being too cold empties your Fertility Cup* and affects your hormone production.
Processed Foods – see ‘Eat more whole foods’ above.
Grains & Sugar – (particularly grains that contain gluten) cause a lot of inflammation and feed pathogens (viruses, bacteria and parasites) to increase your toxin load. A high toxin load affects your fertility.
Eggs – eggs feed pathogens to increase your toxin load.
Highly Adrenalised Foods Including Animal Protein and Dairy – high levels of adrenaline are almost like an antifertility drug.
Coffee and Alcohol – coffee spikes your adrenaline and alcohol compromises your liver. Neither are good for fertility.

What Now?

Before you freak out about cutting out all the foods you love, know that doing something is better than nothing.

So, try eating 50% more fruit and vege and 50% less of the things you shouldn’t eat. This can have a big affect on refilling your Fertility Cup to improve your ability to conceive and carry to term.

But the more you can do to eat as we’ve just discussed, the better you will be able to start filling your Fertility Cup* again.

If you’d like more information about foods then book a Free 45 Minute Natural Fertility health Check*.

*This service is provided free by our practitioners. There are no conditions and no other paid services subsidise these free appointments.

[Special Note: Ketogenic diets have become popular to lose weight. They are typically high in protein and fats and low in high glycaemic index carbs. Whilst they can do a great job at helping you lose weight they probably don’t do your fertility many favours. The problem is too much fat (even good fats) impacts your liver function (which governs your periods according to natural medicine). Also your reproductive system needs high quality glucose, not huge amounts of protein, to function well. Although, reducing high GI carbs (like bread, pasta, cake, etc…) will do good things for your fertility. So, unless you have a lot of weight to lose, it is better for your fertility to mainly eat fruit and vege with some protein (and cut out the naughty carbs).]

Warm Up to Fill Your Fertility Cup

August 13, 2020

Fertility

Warm Up to Fill Your Fertility Cup

If you are too cold you may have trouble conceiving. Being too cold can affect digestive enzyme and hormone production to affect fertility. Also, a cold uterus does not encourage the formation of new life.

How do you know if you are too cold?

If you feel cold (ie. nobody other than you is wearing a jumper, you hate cold weather, or you simply feel cold all the time) then you are probably too cold.

If your waking oral temperature is less than 36.4 degrees then you are too cold. To do this you need to buy an oral thermometer (one you put under your tongue) and take your temperature when you wake – but before you get out of bed. If your temperature is under 36.0 degrees then you are getting very cold (if you are this cold you really need to visit us).

Feel the temperature of your lower abdomen. If it feels colder than your upper abdomen then you likely have a cold uterus.

What to Do If You Are Too Cold

You need to warm up! Here’s some strategies you can follow yourself.

Don’t eat much cold food or drink – it will only make you colder. Eat mainly cooked food. Still eat some raw foods but add ginger or cinnamon to it. The warmth of these foods helps to offset the cold of the food.
Eat warming foods – warming foods gently warm your interior to help fill your ‘Fertility Cup’. This includes cooked food, but also includes spices that warm you even when eaten raw like ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, turmeric and mild chilli (don’t go crazy with chilli as it can heat you up to much to cause the opposite problem).
Routinely use a hot water bottle on your lower back and your lower abdomen – these physically heat up these problem areas.
Don’t walk around in bare feet – the cold from the floor can transfer cold to your Kidneys as there is a Kidney acupuncture point on the bottom of your feet. Cold Kidneys are no good for fertility.
Cover your mid-drift – don’t wear clothes that reveal your lower back or your abdomen. It’s too easy for them to get cold.
Don’t work in a cold environment – such as a butcher shop, office with airconditioning turned up too high or outside in winter without the proper clothing.

If you feel cold all the time or your oral temperature is less than 36.0 degrees, you should visit us for a Free 45 Minute Natural Fertility Health Check*

*This service is provided free by our practitioners. It is done online via video call with one of our practitioners. There are no conditions and no other paid services subsidise these free appointments.

falling pregnant fertility

Your Temperature and Your Fertility

August 13, 2020

Fertility

Your Temperature and Your Fertility

There are two main temperature issues with fertility:

Being too cold generally.
The body not achieving the required temperatures during your cycle to conceive.

Being Too Cold Generally

In natural medicine you and your uterus must be sufficiently warm to conceive and to nurture new life to birth. Almost all things in nature grow better when it’s warm.

One of the most common problems we see in women who struggle with infertility is that they are just too cold.

There are many reasons why women are too cold including eating too much cold food/drink, not wearing appropriately warm clothing (particularly around the mid-drift), living or working in cold conditions or simply being born that way and their body temperatures have never normalised.

If you are too cold your body may have trouble producing all of the digestive enzymes required (affecting your digestion) and all of the hormones required (affecting your fertility).

Are you too cold? The easy way to find out is to take your oral temperature (under your tongue) first thing in the morning before you get out of bed. This is called your Basal Body Temperature (BBT). If it is below 36.5 degrees you are too cold. If it is below 36.0 degrees you are very cold.

There are ways to help warm yourself up.

Not Achieving the Required Temperatures During Your Cycle to Conceive

Your BBT should change during the different phases of your cycle. In fact, your changing BBT can help you identify the specific days of the different phases of your cycle.

In the first half of your cycle (follicular phase) you will typically have lower temperatures and in the second stage (luteal phase) you will typically have higher temperatures. This is largely influenced by the different hormones that are produced at different stages of your cycle.

See a ‘normal’ BBT chart below and notice the distinct shift in temperatures between the first half and the second half of the cycle.

Your BBT should rise after ovulation due to the increased amount of progesterone secreted by the corpus luteum. Progesterone produces heat and prepares the lining of the uterus for the implantation of a fertilised ovum. To know exactly when you began ovulating, it was the day immediately before your temperature started to rise.

You’ll see in the chart below that there are lower temperatures BEFORE ovulation and higher temperatures AFTER ovulation. Your temperature should typically rise by a definite 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius during ovulation.

Your temperature should remain elevated for 10-16 days until the corpus luteum regresses. If you are not pregnant your temperature will drop again. If you are pregnant your temperature will stay elevated.

Charting your BBT can also help you inform you when you are ovulating for better timing of intercourse. Knowing when your most fertile window is takes the pressure off having to try all of the time!

Note that the chart image is courtesy of www.fertilityfriend.com This is a great free app to track your temperatures and other signs. We recommend you start doing this straight away.

How to Take Your Basal Body Temperature (BBT)

Take your oral temperature (under your tongue) using a digital thermometer (get one for about $10 from Chemist Warehouse) when you wake in the morning but BEFORE you get out of bed. This is your BBT. The other rules you must follow are no food or water before taking your temp, no speaking or movement (other than putting the thermometer in your mouth) and you must have had a minimum of three hours sleep.

And you need to do this every single day.

BBT fertility

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The Importance of Practitioner Experience

Good Health is the Absence of Symptoms

Are We There Yet? (how long does treatment take?)

How Your Organ Health Affects Your Emotions

For Beauty – Inside & Out

Chinese Medicine for Stress

What Your Tongue Says About Your Health

Medicinal Herbs & Western Medications

What Do We Do with the Acupuncture Needles After Using Them?

The Difference Between Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine