Natural Fertility Boosters: Food and Lifestyle Strategies for Women

Fertility, or the ability to conceive, is a key reflection of overall health, regardless of a woman’s desire to become pregnant. In the U.S. among women ages 15 to 49 who have not previously been pregnant, about 1 in 5 struggle with infertility (inability to get pregnant after one year of trying). Even more women, about 1 in 4, struggle with carrying a pregnancy to term. 

Fertility goes beyond whether you are getting a regular period. It’s important to consider a variety of natural fertility boosting food and lifestyle factors to ensure you are setting the stage for thriving ovarian and reproductive health. In this article we will touch on hormone balance, metabolic considerations, food as medicine for fertility, and so much more!

Understanding Fertility Challenges

A variety of root causes exist that may result in fertility challenges in women. For example, someone with hypothalamic amenorrhea who is not currently menstruating and whose hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) axis is suppressed is not going to be producing the hormones required for ovulation, conception, and pregnancy. 

Luteal phase defect is another common cause of fertility challenges. It occurs when progesterone levels do not remain elevated sufficiently in the luteal phase after conception. Progesterone is needed in adequate amounts to support fetal development. Luteal phase defect is common in hypothyroidism or in women with low thyroid hormone levels. 

Each of these conditions have their own root causes. Hormones such as progesterone, cortisol (our primary stress hormone), as well as thyroid hormones, may all be implicated in fertility challenges. 

Beyond the hormonal piece, nutrition and lifestyle factors can also impact fertility. The proper nutrition for your body provides the micronutrients to support ovarian and egg health. Meal balance and nutrition strategies help ensure blood sugar is balanced and support insulin sensitivity. Supporting your body’s natural detoxification pathways helps protect both mom and baby.

The Role of Nutrition in Ovarian Health

Beyond hormone balance, it’s important to consider the health of our ovaries, eggs (also known as oocytes), and follicles. Egg cells have the greatest concentration of mitochondria compared to other cell types, making mitochondrial health of key importance for fertility. Follicles, where the eggs are housed within the ovaries, rely on antioxidants to protect the egg. 

Through proper nutrition, we can support mitochondrial health by providing enough energy input as well as micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) cofactors. These cofactors are essential for all chemical reactions in the body, allowing our cells to utilize the food we consume for energy – energy needed for egg maturation and follicle development, for example. 

While particular micronutrients are especially important for fertility and by themselves may be considered natural fertility boosters, let’s zoom out to consider how nutrition influences metabolic health and detoxification, and how both of these markers of health influence fertility and reproductive health. 

The Importance of Metabolic Health

Metabolic health refers to our body’s ability to breakdown nutrients that we eat and turn that food energy into chemical energy that the body can use to carry out a variety of essential processes. One key marker of metabolic health is blood sugar regulation, or insulin sensitivity. 

Insulin sensitivity refers to the body’s ability to mobilize glucose and transfer it from the bloodstream to other body tissues for utilization or storage. Helpful indicators of insulin sensitivity include fasting insulin, fasting glucose, and hemoglobin A1c, all of which can be tested in the blood.

When our cells’ insulin receptors are not efficiently able to uptake and mobilize glucose from the blood, we begin to develop insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can lead to inflammation, inhibit ovulation, diminish egg quality, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes, among other conditions and health challenges.

Regardless of whether or not you are trying to conceive, we can all support our blood sugar balance using various nutrition and lifestyle strategies. Consuming enough protein with your meals is an essential first step toward optimizing your blood sugar, as well as not consuming carb-rich foods in isolation. You may consider ensuring you are consuming at least 25-30 grams of protein with each meal, opting for fiber-rich carb sources, and pairing carbs with a source of protein and/or fat.

The Importance of Optimal Detoxification

Another underrated natural fertility boosting strategy is to support optimal detoxification. Our liver is primarily responsible for detoxification, which occurs in three phases. The liver, with the help of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other chemicals converts fat-soluble toxins into water-soluble waste products to be excreted from the body. This is no small feat!

Our bodies require liver-supportive nutrients, such as B vitamins, sulfur, and glutathione, to support the removal of environmental toxins, excess hormones, digestive waste products, and more. If the liver is overburdened, we aren’t sweating regularly, or we aren’t eliminating effectively (aka if you aren’t having 1-2 bowel movements each day), we can begin to reabsorb these toxins and substances that our body is trying to get rid of.

Food as Medicine for Fertility

Now that we have a better understanding of the importance of supporting the frameworks of blood sugar balance and optimized detoxification, we can harness the power of food as medicine by including certain foods that are rich in natural fertility boosting nutrients.

Here are some of our favorite natural fertility boosters to incorporate into your diet, whether trying to conceive, improve egg quality, or simply optimize your reproductive health.

• Eggs: Eggs are a nutritional powerhouse, rich in choline, a nutrient essential for fetal brain development. Choline is also critical for the integrity of each of our cell membranes, as well as the function of our brain and nervous system.
• Liver: Liver, whether consumed in whole-food or supplement form, is rich in B vitamins, essential for liver detoxification and nutrient metabolism, as well as choline. Liver is also a great source of iron, and is among the best food sources of bioavailable vitamin A.
• Salmon: Salmon is another favorite protein source, rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids, DHA in particular, plays a critical role in fetal neurodevelopment.
• Antioxidants: Antioxidants are essential for follicular protection of the egg within the ovary and support egg quality and development. Antioxidants also support the body’s natural liver detoxification and protect against cellular exposure to oxidative stress, which can damage cells and cause inflammation. Some of our favorite sources of antioxidants include dark berries, leafy greens, green tea, citrus fruits, cold-extracted olive oil, and camu camu powder.

Lifestyle and Therapeutic Considerations

Additional factors to consider that can influence fertility include exercise and stress management. Nourishing movement with the right exercise plan is a powerful way to help regulate blood sugar levels and support hormone balance. Stress management is critical for supporting our adrenal glands, where both sex hormones and stress hormones are produced, to communicate to the body that it is a safe place to reproduce.

Another lifestyle consideration is the collection of products you are using in and around your home, as well as in and on your body. Minimizing the amount of endocrine disrupting chemicals you are exposed to helps decrease the toxic burden on your liver, and effectively helps protect you, your ovarian health, and the health of current or future baby.

Other therapeutic modalities can be utilized in conjunction with nutrition to support reproductive health and fertility. Fertility acupuncture, for example, has been shown to help nourish the brain-ovary connection (recall the HPO axis!) and increase uterine circulation or blood flow to stimulate the ovulatory process and regulate menstrual cycles. Pelvic floor physical therapy is another option that is tremendously impactful both prenatal and postpartum. 

Conclusion

Even if you are not trying to conceive, fertility is an important marker of overall health, and these natural fertility boosting strategies are for everyone! We must go beyond only considering hormone levels. Metabolic health and detoxification support are often overlooked factors that play a large role in reproductive health, in addition to individual foods that contain key fertility boosting nutrients.

Unsure where to even start on your journey toward flourishing reproductive health? Working with a practitioner 1:1 can provide the support and personalized guidance for your fertility journey, whether considering coming off of birth control or actively trying to grow your family.