A Cornucopia of Fertile Energy

I love the word Cornucopia; it literally means a horn of plenty.  The word cornucopia seemed very fitting for this blog post title because fertility is, by definition, simply an expression of surplus energy.

Your body needs plenty of energy to maintain every single bodily process.  This bounty of energy allows your body to do what it wants when it wants.  If it needs to produce more of a hormone, it can do.  If it wants to push more blood to a certain area of the body, it can access the energy needed to do those things too.

Your body will always prioritise your survival first, and only when it knows you are ok will it devote the energy and resources to the survival and growth of a baby inside you.

Therefore a 21-year-old will conceive and birth a healthy baby even if she is severely abusing her body with recreational drugs and a poor diet.  Despite all the damage, her body has so much surplus energy it conceives with ease.

The problem comes when your body doesn’t have access to enough energy.  This results in your body not being able to do what it wants to do when it wants to, so it must prioritise things and reproduction will always be at the bottom of your bodies priority list.

This becomes really important when we think about egg quality because the body will divert resources away from the egg-building process in order to serve a more important survival need like maintaining good blood pressure, establishing mental focus, fighting off nasty infections etc.. during times of stress.

It’s the adrenal glands job to manage and coordinate your energy reserves.  The adrenal glands play a huge role in your circadian rhythm, so if this goes out of sync every other hormonal system will start to shift out of balance as well, including oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone as well as growth hormone.

The adrenal / energy reserves also impact the immune system.  If your adrenal system is depleted you can experience immune-related issues like chronic inflammation, delayed or insufficient tissue repair and frequent colds.

Your adrenal system also regulates your blood sugar levels between meals, keeping them balanced.  If this function starts to go wrong, you can experience weight gain, constant or intermittent bouts of fatigue and poor sleep.

You need a good reserve of energy to stay asleep.  That’s because while you sleep, you can’t eat, so your body draws upon the energy reserve system to fuel all its growth and healing processes during your resting hours.

WHY is enough energy so critical for your fertility?

• Growth factors released ONLY during sleep are essential for proper egg maturation and growth, as well as repair and maintenance of the tiny capillaries that supply blood to your eggs.  Without those growth factors egg quality and circulation suffer.
• The hormone precursors such as DHEA, pregnenolone, and cortisol secreted by the adrenals are essential for both egg maturation and function of the uterine lining.  Without those precursors it’s more difficult for your body to create the hormones needed to stimulate follicle, egg and tissue growth.
• The cortisol-immune axis is essential to support a calm and well-regulated inflammatory response.  This ensures the eggs and lining aren’t exposed to and damaged by excessive inflammation.  Without stable, healthy cortisol levels your body more easily loses the ability to regulate inflammation and hence create a receptive environment for egg, embryo, and foetus.
• Stable blood sugar between meals – regulated primarily by cortisol – supplies the ovaries, follicle, uterus, and egg with consistent energy.  If your blood sugar starts wavering too much, there will be gaps in the developmental process of your eggs and lining.
• During early pregnancy your body undergoes some very dramatic shifts, and these shifts require extra energy, above and beyond your normal everyday levels.  If the reserve energy isn’t quite there to support these processes, your body is going to have a much more difficult time building the foundation needed to support full-term pregnancy. 

How do you know if your energy levels are under par for your fertility?

Typical symptoms of depleted energy levels include 2 or more of the following:

• Always or easily feeling tired
• A pronounced dip in energy around 3-4pm
• Waking up feeling tired and or sluggish
• Frequently catching mild colds
• Waking frequently though the night and often having difficulty falling back asleep
• A persistent feeling of low or depressed mood

What can you do to improve your energy levels?

• Get more sleep! Try getting to bed by 10pm every night.  Ideally have a good bedtime routine that eliminates all screens and devices for the last 15-30 mins before bed.

• Cut back on anything in your life that you suspect may be draining your energy.  Only you know in your heart of hearts what this may be.  It could be a difficult commute, poor eating habits, long working hours, toxic relationships, even worrying about your fertility etc…  listen to your internal nudges about what feels ok for you in your life and what doesn’t, then do something about changing it! Seek professional help if you need to get a new perspective on things.
• Take Individualised homeopathic treatment prescribed by a homeopath.  Homeopathic remedies can give your body such a good energy boost.  Just like giving your body an MOT as you would for your car, so your body returns to a much more balanced state, re-energising the body so it runs at its optimal level.

To arrange a free 30-minute zoom call with me to discuss your fertility in more detail please click here.