Causes & Treatment
Are You Doing These 5 Things To Take Control of Your Fertility Journey?
Eloise Edington | 20 May 2022
Struggling to regain control of your fertility journey?
You’re not alone. Many in our FHH fertility community admit to feeling helpless when trying to conceive. And after repeated failure, these negative thoughts amplify.
Regaining control not only will help you feel more positive when TTC and having fertility treatment, but it can also support your chances of success.
The Seed Fertility Program (visit the profile here) empowers women and couples to navigate their fertility journey with a positive framework to boost the outcomes of fertility treatment. Click here to learn more about the fertility courses Seed offers.
Over to Seed…
Time spent trying and waiting
Most women and couples who find themselves on a fertility journey soon discover that there’s no quick path to having a baby. In fact, many will spend an average of two and a half years optimizing their bodies for a healthy pregnancy.
That can translate into at least 30 menstrual cycles…
If we can acknowledge and learn to honor the psychological impact of all that time spent trying (waiting, attending doctors’ appointments, surviving negative IVF cycle outcomes, expensive procedures, exams, multiple disappointments and losses, restarts, decisions, and more delays…), then we can claim this time as important personal growth.
And if we can see the time spent trying as a time to optimize our bodies, minds, and spirits, then we can more easily trust that our work will eventually pay off, benefit a future baby and create a more meaningful motherhood experience.
What we do with the time is important!
That’s the mission statement of The Seed Fertility Program, a collection of empowering online courses created by fertility-focused acupuncturist and author Dr. Danica Thornberry in response to the needs of her patients who were looking for more than fertility acupuncture and herbal supplements for fertility.
Seed Fertility was the first online fertility program to present the idea that the “psycho-spiritual” part of fertility treatment is equally important in family building, and yet it’s overshadowed by all the science and logistics of going through an IVF cycle.
Danica learned from healing her own infertility (diminished egg reserve, endometriosis, and a blocked fallopian tube) and by leading thousands of fertility patients to success, that there’s always something to discover when baby-making eludes us.
Frustration, loss, and disappointment – these three words can define the fertility journey when it isn’t going as planned. But they can also be a pivotal point for healing, especially when we realize that we’re ready to view what’s (not) happening in a new way.
Reframing for success
How can we teach ourselves to look at the process differently to feel better and improve our chances?
The Seed Fertility Program introduces gardening metaphors to assist women in reframing what’s happening and their connection to their fertility. For example, the idea that the womb is “a second heart and a fertile garden” implies that unresolved emotions serve as weeds and obstruct the garden’s ability to thrive. Poignant journal prompts and inspirational movies empower women to roll up their sleeves and begin the process of weeding their garden, while specific Fertile Foods recipes, proven to positively impact reproductive hormones, are offered for each day of the menstrual cycle to bolster the nutrition for both partners TTC to create new seeds capable of sprouting.
The message is fairly simple, yet powerful: Putting your energy into what you can control improves your fertility over time.
So, what are a few things you can do with the time?
1. Understand the wisdom behind your menstrual cycle. It gives you the power to know and love yourself.
There are four phases within your cycle that are aligned with hormone fluctuations, and each phase requires different foods and emotional perspectives. We teach women what to expect and embody depending on their cycle day, offering daily guidance in the form of patient education and empowerment tools.
2. Use food as fertile medicine.
Based on where you are in your cycle, your body is either focused on releasing (menstruation), nurturing healthy egg cells (approaching ovulation), supporting implantation (the two week wait), and/or balancing hormones (all month long). Using food that supports your estrogen and progesterone levels allows food to serve as medicine – that means what you consume, and when, has the power to help or hurt your chances of getting pregnant.
3. Embrace the emotional work offered in each cycle.
Fluctuating hormones impact your mood. When you’re prepared mentally for these fluctuations, you realize that it’s totally normal to feel empty and down during your period, more open and relaxed as you approach ovulation, vulnerable during the week following ovulation, and more on edge in the pre-menstrual window before you test for pregnancy. In normalizing the emotional ups and downs and working through the disappointments to find inner strength, you will come to know that there’s something right with you. Reframes, grief recovery tools, and awareness exercises to get in touch with your emotional system help you feel better in the day-to-day.
4. Affirm, visualize, meditate, journal, and route your neurons to new places in your brain.
Your brain and your reproductive system are in constant communication via the HPO axis. Using affirmations, guided meditations, and what we call Fertile Thoughts teachings, you have the tools necessary to create an action plan that uses your brain to positively impact your fertility. Put another way, your egg cells are listening to your thoughts and following the direction of your beliefs – what you’re transmitting all day makes a difference!
5. Remember – If she can do it, so can you.
Women using Seed Fertility have access to real-life, honest stories created by women who have been where you are. These women provided testimonial videos intended to inspire and help you remember that you won’t be on this journey forever. Their recorded fertility journeys are there to remind you that when you put your energy towards changing things, things will eventually change.
It’s in your court
Whether you’re having fertility treatment such as IVF or TTC naturally, you alone make the choice to start doing something different when your path isn’t working.
With The Seed Fertility Program offering inspirational and empowering courses such as Guided Fertility Meditations, A Holistic Guide to Healing Endometriosis, Healing After Loss, and Egg Freezing Preparation, there really is more you can do with this time spent while waiting.
FHH readers can benefit from 20% off The Seed Fertility Masterclass by using code FHH22 at checkout.
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