As a chiropractor with a focus on pediatric and maternity care, I don’t often get a chance to talk about probably the most heartbreaking issue in parenting. Infertility affects 1 in 10 couples in the United States, but why? What causes infertility?
The most common causes of infertility come from improper nervous system functioning, poor diet, and stress. Often times trying to conceive becomes a job which carries a lot of stress. The universe made your body very smart and it knows that carrying a baby for nine months will require all of your nutrients, and attention. Without those proper building blocks the body won’t allow pregnancy to occur. So how do we improve nervous system functioning? Diet? Stress?
The nervous system controls every organ in our bodies including those responsible for reproduction. Those nerves shoot off of the spinal cord between the vertebrae of the spine like tree branches. When misalignment of those vertebrae occurs, it puts stress on the nerves causing a “slight” malfunctioning. This affects the way our hormones are released, how our blood vessels dilate, and even how we digest our food. All of those play a part in the movement of an egg into the fallopian tubes. A twisted pelvis can also place stress directly on the organs causing a mechanical issue for implantation as the uterus is directly connected to the sacrum via the sacrouterine ligament.
Diet plays a huge roll in one’s ability to conceive a child, but sometimes it’s not enough to simply change what you’re eating. Not to mention all of the conflicting information in the world regarding our diets and how we “should” eat. Often times the gut needs to be healed before a person can even begin to eat the right foods without reaction (gas, inflammation, etc). Next month I’m going to address gut healing in my blog because that would be too much for one quick blog.
Stress. We all have it. No one likes that word, but it gets a bad rap. There is nothing wrong with stress. Humans thrive on stress, but what happens when a person can no longer carry their load? They become distressed. We know to use lavender, get plenty of sleep, and if you read my blog post last month you know that chiropractic can also help decrease the release of stress hormones.
Does chiropractic cure infertility? No. Chiropractic reduces distress in the body and allows the body to function more optimally, which may increase one’s ability to become pregnant. If a couple is struggling with infertility, it would be beneficial for both the man and woman to see a chiropractor as the man is 40% likely to be either a contributing factor, or sole factor in the infertility issue. Chiropractic is more cost effective than IVF, so if you or a loved one are struggling to conceive give your chiropractor a call first!