How Functional Hormone Testing Can Help You Get Pregnant Naturally

HOW FUNCTIONAL HORMONE TESTING CAN HELP YOUR FERTILITY 

Whether you’re looking to start trying soon or even if you’ve been struggling with infertility for years!

Have you been thinking of getting pregnant soon and you’re wondering if your hormones are at the optimal level necessary to get pregnant? 

Or, have you already been trying for a while and you’re wondering if there’s a missing hormone or piece - something deeper going on preventing you from being able to get pregnant naturally? 

Yes. Yes. Yes! If you’ve been wondering these questions, you’re in the right place - keep reading! 

Whether you’re looking to start trying soon, or you and your partner just started, or you’ve been struggling with infertility for years - my goal with is to provide you with the most up-to-date, effective, important fertility tools and strategies available - so that you can be set up for pregnancy success! 

In my experience of being a Naturopathic Doctor and helping couples to conceive - I’ve found that functional hormone lab testing is an incredibly valuable, informative tool that can help couples identify underlying fertility puzzle pieces (often that their doctor or fertility specialist is not even aware of). 

And then once they understand what’s going on with their unique fertility physiology, they can take action on that information. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, typical hormone blood tests are incredibly important and can tell us a lot of valuable information. I’m talking TSH, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc… 

But what about if those tests all come back “normal”….Then what? 

Especially if you want to really optimize your hormones and ability to get pregnant naturally? 

That’s where functional lab testings comes in. 

When I say functional lab testing, what I mean is lab testing that goes beyond your typical blood draw. We’re fortunate to live in a time where many different tests are available that can help us understand our physiology on a deeper level. 

The reason why functional hormone tests can be so beneficial is because these tests can more accurately measure your hormones through saliva or urine or blood. With these tests, your hormones are typically measured throughout the day - and this is important because your hormone levels fluctuate throughout the day. This is often why a standard blood draw doesn’t tell us the whole story. 

Fertility isn’t just about estrogen and progesterone. Yes, those hormones are incredibly important to your ability to get and stay pregnant. But, when you dig deeper, it’s also about *the other hormones* that are always affecting the production of estrogen and progesterone!

For instance, your adrenals and your stress hormones have a direct effect on your body’s ability to produce estrogen and progesterone. If you have long-term stress - say for instance chronic daily stress with a job, or over-exerting yourself with lots of diet and exercise, your body is going to pump out a lot of cortisol and other stress hormones. 

If those circumstances don’t change, your adrenals can wear down overtime. This has a domino effect on your thyroid, ovaries, estrogen, progesterone, and ultimately your ability to conceive. The same goes for the guys out there- this adrenal - hormone domino effect can also effect sperm, too! 

In the same way that your adrenals are important in your fertility, so is your thyroid. It is highly unlikely that you can get pregnant or stay pregnant if your thyroid is low functioning. Often doctors are only testing TSH. The problem is you can have a normal-ish TSH level and poor functioning active thyroid levels (T3, T4). Again, functional hormone testing can give us a better idea of how your thyroid is doing. 

Functional hormone testing can be of great benefit to you if you’re wanting to get pregnant because with the test we can have a deeper look - and overall picture - of how your endocrine system is functioning. From your adrenal function to your thyroid to estrogen progesterone, I find that saliva or urine testing is more accurate and helpful than a typical blood test. 

Once we have a better idea of how your hormones are functioning (or not) an individualized plan can be customized to you. 

These tests are not typically covered by insurance, but personally I believe the value of having this information far exceeds their costs. 

At the end of the day, you should always do what feels right to you and what is in alignment with your pregnancy goals. 

Remember, no matter your history, your fertility can change and improve. Getting pregnant naturally is still totally possible for you!