PCOS and Inferility:
Natural Therapies and How to Get Pregnant
Infertility is the failure to get pregnant after a year of unprotected intercourse. Women with polycystic ovarian syndrome often are infertile because they don't ovulate. There are a number of natural things you can do to improve ovulation and improve your chances of becoming pregnant.
How to Help Yourself Get Pregnant
Natural Therapies for Infertility
Naturopathic physicians and acupuncturists who specialize in helping infertile couples have reported increased success for couples who have had failed attempts with fertility technology. Natural medicine and acupuncture have helped a significant number of women have their babies. These are anecdotal reports and the causes for the infertility are not exclusively due to PCOS.
However, the support that natural medicines provide to reproductive function and basic health will inevitably help restore fertility in some women.
For example, researchers at the University of Surrey followed 367 couples for 3 years. 37% of these couples had a history of infertility and 38% of the women had previous miscarriages. They were put on a program consisting of organic foods, an individualized vitamin supplement, and alcohol and tobacco avoidance. At the end of the study, 89% of the couples had given birth to healthy babies, and none had a miscarriage. Although this study was flawed in some respects, it does suggest that a healthy diet and lifestyle increases the probability of pregnancy and reduces the chances of miscarriage.(4) We look forward to more research to confirm this common-sense approach.
Other than the University of Surrey study, we don't have specific statistics about natural therapies for PCOS or their impact on fertility. However, common sense as well as the clinical experience of naturopathic physicians and acupuncturists indicates that improving your health will increase your chances for conception.
Safe, nontoxic and effective natural therapies, over time, can shift you into regular ovulatory cycles that will produce thriving eggs. Some of these approaches are described in the next section.
According to a recent study, acupuncture timed with in-vitro fertilization increased conception rates. The group receiving acupuncture had a success rate of 43% vs. only 26% for the control group.(5)
Whatever method you choose to achieve pregnancy, building and maintaining your well-being all the way through to motherhood is essential for having a successful pregnancy and healthy baby.
We also recommend you find or create an infertility support
group. A recent Harvard study showed that women who participated
in an infertility support group had a 25% increase in their
success rate over women who just got the usual infertility clinic
care. (6) An excellent resource for PCOS support groups is the
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Association: www.pcosupport.org
How to Help Yourself Get Pregnant
1. Get the "big picture". Your first step is to find a qualified, experienced physician to work with. You will need to be thoroughly evaluated to determine the probable causes of your infertility, and what can be done about it.
This doctor should do a complete medical history, physical examinations as indicated, and laboratory testing as indicated by your health status, physical findings, and medical history.
You will need an accurate and complete diagnosis so that you can, in partnership with your physician, outline the best plan of action to help you get pregnant.
2. Eat a Healthy Diet. A healthy diet means eating foods that are whole, fresh, and organic. Minimize consumption of refined, processed or fabricated foods. Minimize fast foods. Eat foods with a lower glycemic index. Emphasize vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and legumes. Preferred animal proteins are fish and poultry. What you eat has a profound effect on the hormones that govern your fertility.
3. Exercise and be physically active. Exercise helps you to lose weight and balance your insulin and testosterone levels, thus improving your odds of ovulating and getting pregnant.
4. Clean up your insides. Consider a physician-supervised cleansing diet or other procedures designed to remove any accumulated toxic material from your body. Naturopathic physicians specialize in safe, effective detoxification protocols.
You've probably been exposed to all sorts of petrochemicals, heavy metals and other contaminants over your lifetime. Bear in mind that some of these substances can reside in your body for a long time, and some of them act as hormone mimics or disrupters. Most of the chemicals you've been exposed to have not been evaluated for their effect on fertility. It's conceivable some of them may be influencing your fertility.
Other accumulated but undesirable materials may include pathogenic microorganisms, inflammatory food particles, or various byproducts of normal metabolism.
To further explore the issue of removing toxic substances from your body, consult with a licensed naturopathic or other qualified physician.
5. Clean up your environment. Do what you can to remove toxic materials from your personal and work environment. Environmental pollution and workplace exposure to chemicals adversely affects your fertility and your health. For more details on this topic, read "Our Stolen Future" by Theo Colborn, PhD. For details on how to improve your personal environment, read "Home Safe Home" by Debra Dadd.
6. Find ways to deal with stress. Chronic stress increases cortisol, which is a stress-response hormone. Elevated cortisol is associated with insulin resistance and increased abdominal fat. Weight loss improves your fertility. In contrast, weight gain due to cortisol reduces your fertility.
7. Use nutritional supplements. Food surveys conducted by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and other agencies consistently show that Americans consume a diet that is deficient in essential nutrients. Therefore, nutritional supplementation is indicated. Supplementation should contribute to your overall health, help you to balance your hormones, and to have a healthier baby if you become pregnant.
8. Use herbal medicines. Herbal medicines have been used for centuries to enhance fertility. For example, chasteberry has been used to normalize menstrual cycles and improve fertility. However, we do not recommend that you self-prescribe herbal medicines. You will get better results if you consult with a licensed naturopathic physician or other certified health practitioner who is trained in herbal medicine.
9. Educate yourself about how to optimize conception. You're more likely to become pregnant if you know exactly when you are ovulating and when you should have intercourse. Your best resource in this area is "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler.
Our Recommendations
If you are not ovulating, or are having infertility problems for other reasons, we recommend that you take all possible steps to improve your health and the health of your partner.
We also recommend that you consult with a knowledgeable physician or other licensed health practitioner about natural therapies that will reduce the factors contributing to your infertility.
If better diet, improved lifestyle, increased exercise, supplementation, natural therapies and herbal medicine do not cause you to ovulate or get pregnant within six months, then consider resorting to "high-tech" methods for achieving your pregnancy such as in-vitro fertilization.
More Information about PCOS and Infertility
Conventional Treatment - Drugs to Induce Ovulation
Conventional Treatment - Assisted Reproduction
Click here for article footnotes.
PCOS Health Review
This free newsletter gives you original and immediately usable information to help you deal with PCOS.
Get the latest research, tips for improving your health, answers to questions, success stories, and more!
Your e-mail address is totally secure. We will never misuse or sell your information.
