What is Functional Fertility?

Functional fertility adopts an integrative approach to optimizing both male and female fertility by addressing nutritional, lifestyle, and psychological factors that can correct or improve underlying imbalances to prevent or drastically reduce infertility.

This strategy, used to complement conventional fertility study and treatment methods, offers numerous benefits to your chances of having a child and positively impacts your health and that of your future baby.

Why is this approach necessary?

The problem is that the conventional medical care model is not designed to provide the type of attention many patients require. Generally, healthcare professionals, although highly trained and capable, work under immense pressure with very limited time and resources. This often only allows them to treat symptoms without the ability to delve deeply to find the root causes of patients’ health problems. Under these circumstances, practicing a comprehensive care model is nearly impossible.

Unknown-Origin Infertility: When Everything Seems “Normal”

According to the criteria of the Spanish Fertility Society, a diagnosis of unknown-origin reproductive dysfunction is made when bilateral tubal patency, normal ovulatory function, and a normal semen analysis are confirmed after one year of sterility. The prognosis is closely related to age and years of infertility and affects 16% of couples with fertility problems .

This situation can be disconcerting and frustrating for both professionals and patients. Despite the prognosis being closely linked to non-modifiable factors like age and years of infertility, it is highly relevant in these cases to evaluate modifiable factors such as lifestyle and diet and to focus on these to optimize health and the chances of success, whether a natural pregnancy is achieved or an ART is required.

Many couples at the start of their family planning journey are also very busy in other areas of life: demanding professional careers, packed schedules, and endless tasks and commitments. This creates both conscious and unconscious stress, and when the body perceives this stress, it sends hormonal messages through the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis to the reproductive organs indicating that it is not a good time to reproduce.

This is just one example of the modifiable factors that impact fertility and which a couple can actively work on to improve their chances of natural conception or success with assisted reproductive techniques if necessary.

Incredible health improvements can be achieved in a few months with the right interventions, yet many couples are unaware of the impact these strategies can have on their health and that of their future family.

The Standard Approach to Fertility

In a society where immediacy prevails and with a health system oriented towards intervention rather than prevention, there is no time or space to delve into areas such as hormonal balance, gut health, thyroid support, or stress management, among others.

Addressing some causes of infertility, such as a short luteal phase, low progesterone, polycystic ovary syndrome, hypothyroidism, autoimmune diseases, poor sleep hygiene, or intestinal dysbiosis, is often undervalued and overlooked by the use of treatments that, in some cases, could be avoided and in others, whose results could be optimized with the right lifestyle and dietary interventions.

A Functional Approach to Fertility

For couples who want to address the underlying causes of their conception difficulties, who understand that intervention strategies will require lifestyle and dietary changes and that results are not immediate, a functional approach may be the best option.

The functional approach to fertility allows us to make changes to optimize our future fertility.

The fact that there are lifestyle and dietary factors that can be improved to increase the chances of pregnancy does not exclude the possibility of other causes of infertility, and therefore, these should be studied and treated.

To optimize time and results, the ideal approach is to tackle the situation in parallel: on one hand, from a classical reproductive medicine perspective, performing all necessary tests for a thorough diagnosis; and simultaneously, from a functional fertility perspective, examining all modifiable lifestyle and dietary factors and underlying pathologies in detail to improve the situation. This way, all necessary therapeutic strategies can be assessed and implemented to enhance your fertility and chances of pregnancy.

Who is Functional Fertility for?

The study and treatment of fertility from a functional approach is indicated in all the following cases:

– If you are having difficulty achieving a pregnancy**. With the help of appropriate tests, an accurate diagnosis, and a personalized fertility plan tailored to your needs and priorities, we can rewrite your fertility story.

– If you are attempting to conceive through Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART)**. Functional fertility strategies such as minimizing toxin exposure, implementing appropriate dietary changes, and adding specific supplements you need will help improve your treatment success rates and the health of your future baby.

– If you experience recurrent miscarriages**. Most spontaneous abortions occur due to chromosomal abnormalities in the embryos. However, adopting a lifestyle to optimize egg and sperm quality, assessing thyroid health and immune function, and evaluating progesterone levels through timely testing are strategies that could prevent a miscarriage. Studies have shown that women with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (an underdiagnosed autoimmune thyroid disorder in women) can reduce miscarriage rates by 50% when thyroid antibodies are reduced through dietary changes and additional levothyroxine treatment, which decreases the antibodies attacking the thyroid .

– If you are considering having children and want to achieve optimal health**. It always amazes me how we prepare months in advance for events we consider important in our lives, such as a birthday or a wedding, yet we do not prepare for something as crucial as becoming parents. Conducting a health review from a functional perspective to optimize it and performing a basic fertility study provide us with valuable information to plan the strategies we should adopt to improve the situation and achieve the desired pregnancy.

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