Hormones Need Balance to Bring a Baby
What Hormones Help You Get Pregnant?
Hormones are produced in our bodies and carry messages in the blood to other parts of the body to coordinate function and help things work correctly.
There are three classes of hormones.
- Steroidal Hormones (made from cholesterol and produced by the ovaries, adrenals, and testes)
- Androgens
- Estrogen (Produced in ovaries and elsewhere. Is proliferative – creates growth/endometrial lining)
- Progesterone (Produced in ovaries. Maintains – glues endometrial lining/normalizes blood sugar)
- Testosterone (Produced in ovaries and elsewhere. Helps with follicle development and libido)
- Glucocorticoids
- Cortisol (Produced in adrenals. If this stress hormone is too high it will be hard to have a baby)
- Mineralcorticoids
- Androgens
- Amino Acid Hormones (made from one amino acid – the building block of protein)
- Thyroxine (Thyroid hormone T4)
- Triiodothyronine (Thyroid hormone T3)
- Peptide Hormones (made from a chain of amino acids or small proteins)
- Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) (Produced in the ovary . Measures ovarian researve.)Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) (Produced in the pituitary in brain and tells ovary to get the egg ready for ovulation)
- Insulin (Produced in pancreas. Carries glucose into cells for fuel. If you have insulin resistance, it will be hard to have a baby)
- Luteinizing Hormone (LH) (Produced by pituitary. In the first half of cycle tells ovary to produce more estrogen. Mid cycle tells ovary to release egg)
- Prolactin (Produced in the pituitary. If high, it will be hard to get pregnant)
- Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) (Produced by the pituitary and tells the thyroid how much hormone T4/T3 to produce)
What Lab Work Do I Need to Help Me Have a Baby?
Hormonal balance is necessary for having a baby.
One of the first things we will do is check your hormones.
If you have already done that recently, you will upload what you have to your chart.
The lab I like to see are:
Day 3 of your cycle:
- FSH
- Total estrogen
- Estradiol (E2)
- Total and free testosterone
- Prolactin
- Anti Mullerian Hormone (AMH)
- Complete Blood Count with differential
- Complete Metabolic Panel
- Ferritin
- Homocysteine
- Lipids
- TSH
- Total and free T4
- Total and free T3
- Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies
- Thyroglobulin antibodies (TGA)
- INR (International Normalized Ratio – measures clotting)
- B12
- RBC Folate
- Methymelonic acid
- Vitamin D3
Day 21 (or 7-9 days after ovulation)
- Progesterone
SALIVARY LAB
Adrenal Stress Index – 4 samples of saliva to determine cortisol, DHEA levels over the course of a day
You can order this yourself, but it is cheaper if I order it
DRIED URINE SPOTS
Sometimes we still need more detailed information about the levels of hormones throughout the cycle.
For this I use the Dutch test, which is a home test.
You can order it yourself, but it is cheaper if I order it.
How to Know if You Are Ovulating
Most women now use ovulation sticks that check for luteinizing hormone in your pee to determine ovulation.
Luteinizing hormone increases to tell the ovary to release the egg.
The body also give clues to let you know you are ovulating.
How to Balance Hormones Naturally
Dr. Caroline Peterson uses a combination of diet, lifestyle, and supplements to help you balance your hormones.
Many women have a high level of inflammation in their bodies caused by diet and lifestyle.
Moving to a simple, wholesome diet with daily movement helps to bring down inflammation.
Removing sugar, refined carbohydrates and alcohol go a long way to decreasing inflammation.
Decreasing stress lowers inflammation.
Thyroid
Subclinical thyroid problems are one of the big reasons for unexplained infertility.
Subclinical means your thyroid values are within the normal lab range, but outside of our ideal functional medicine range.
The lab range is the average range of everyone who came in to the lab last year.
That’s why the ranges change from year to year and lab to lab.
In functional medicine we use a more narrow range when we look at your lab results.
That is because we are thinking of ideal, instead of average.
Sometimes idealizing levels are what it takes to have a baby.
Ovaries
The ovaries produce estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone.
These are steroidal hormones.
That means they are make out of cholesterol.
You need plenty of cholesterol to be able to manufacture these hormones.
If these hormone values are off, we
- Nourish the ovaries
- Work with the liver and GI to be sure hormones are not only made, but eliminated
- Make sure that too much progesterone is not being converted to cortisol, and too much estrogen is not being converted to testosterone
- Make sure that estrogen doesn’t stay high throughout the cycle. It needs to decrease to be able to ovulate.
- Make sure the ratio of progesterone to estrogen is appropriate. Low progesterone doesn’t allow you to have a baby.
Brain
Fertility is controlled in the brain.
The hypothalamus is the master director of the body.
It regulates the thyroid, the ovaries, the adrenals and many other processes.
If the brain is inflamed or stressed, it will not prioritize having a baby.
Visceral Manipulation & Hormones
In a vitalistic model of health, we believe the body has the ability to function well if we remove the road blocks.
One of the road blocks to producing hormones could be structural.
If there are adhesions and restrictions of the ovaries, perhaps it causes stress and they are expending their energy feeling constrained instead of making hormones.
If there is restriction in the cranium, perhaps the hypothalamus is impacted and cannot give its best signals.
Visceral manipulation, craniosacral therapy, and other forms of manual therapy are important to add in to optimize fertility.