When a couple finally decide to start a family, the first thing most women need to do is come off the contraceptive pill. It's an exciting time but can be a daunting one if the contraceptive pill was initially prescribed to combat skin issues or menstrual issues. Often the fear of skin break outs or terrible period pain can be concerning for when women stop the contraceptive pill.

One way to deal with this is getting treatment before you start trying and before you come off the contraceptive pill. If that ship has sailed, don't stress. Any treatment that helps to regulate the hormones and address any menstrual issues inadvertently helps the health of the skin. Over the years, so many of my patients have commented on how healthy their skin looks while coming to me for treatment of fertility issues.

Tip No. 1: Address health concerns that present when you are off the pill.

Coming off the pill is the best way to gage where your fertility is at. While you are consuming hormones (in the form of the pill), your own body’s hormonal regulation is altered due to the negative feedback system involved. So what your period is like on the pill should be vastly different off the pill.

Often women are told to wait it out and the body should bounce back. This is true for some people and this depends on several factors; age of the woman, how long she has been on the pill (uninterrupted), their current health status and their health prior to starting the pill. If time is of the essence, embarking in a natural treatment protocol such as Chinese Medicine (acupuncture and/or herbal medicine) can really speed things up. Plus, there are ways in identifying deficiencies that could impact fertility.

Tip No. 2: Eat as if you are pregnant.

Food is medicine and unhealthy food can lead to an unhealthy body. Typically avoiding alcohol, caffeinated drinks, refined sugar and highly processed food is something many women decide to do once pregnant. But these foods can really upset the balance of your hormones and contribute to menstrual issues, reproductive health concerns and overall wellbeing. Eating a clean diet, that is nutrient rich will only fuel every cell in your body and allow every system, including the reproductive system to thrive and be healthy.

Tip No. 3: Keep Calm and Stay Fertile.

Stress levels will rise when trying to conceive. If it doesn’t happen instantly, most people will start to worry. You have a friend, a sister, an aunt who struggled to conceive and now this is happening for you. First of all, falling pregnant isn’t as easy as you are led to believe. Yes, when you are in your 20s, fertility is much higher but really it generally isn’t something that happens instantly for most of the population.

So if you are starting to feel anxious or stressed, then get yourself into something that alleviates this feeling. When you are stressed, the last thing the body wants to do is conceive. In fact, being in a sympathetic way will only disrupt fertility as well as your digestion and many other systems that aren’t essential for survival. You see, when you are stressed the body thinks it is being chased by a lion and fertility is the last thing on its mind. Who cares if I get pregnant, I might be dead in 2 seconds flat. Well, not many of us are being chased by lions these days but the stress is the same and the response the body has is the same as well.

Sereni-Tea is a great way to calm the mind and help nurture adrenal health, which helps nurture hormonal health. 

Tip No. 4: Speak to the right people.

I can’t tell you the amount of misinformation I have had patients tell me their friend or relative told them about either getting pregnant or what could be ‘wrong’ with them. This can literally drive you insane. Speak to the right people, the people that actually know what is going on and what the potential issues could be. If you are worried about having a problem, see your GP and get some blood tests done, ask to have a levovist done to check if the tubes are open, get your partner to do a sperm analysis (fertility clinics do more accurate tests than andrology units) and speak to someone like me. Who can understand the hormonal changes happening, identify imbalance in the body via the signs and symptoms your body presents with and get honest clarity around your fertility.

As you can see fertility is an in-depth and complicated issue and doing it on your own will only create more angst. If you would like to chat about this further, schedule yourself in for a 15 min free health assessment with me and we can discuss your options.

Meanwhile, keep track of your menstrual cycle, your flow, the presence of any symptoms both before and during menstruation and this can get you started on the right treatment if you decide to engage in treatment with Chinese Medicine.

About the Author

Dr Irene Prantalos (Chinese Medicine) has been helping couples to conceive for over 17 years. It came as a shock when Irene herself seem to be struggling with her own fertility. Seeing specialists in the field seem to only make things worse when there was nothing wrong. This lead Irene and her husband down a path of uncovering a whole new world to understand what actually the body (both men and women) needs to be ready to conceive.