Image symbolising Hormone disruptors and fertility

Hormone Disruptors and Fertility

When you’re focusing on your health and well-being, leading to conception or with a focus to improve fertility, one aspect that often gets overlooked is the presence of hormone disruptors in our daily environment. These sneaky chemicals can interfere with your body’s natural hormone balance, potentially affecting your fertility.

In this post, we’ll dive into what hormone disruptors are, where they hide, and, more importantly, what you can do to protect yourself and the future baby while trying to conceive.

What Are Hormone Disruptors?

Hormones act as the body’s messengers, helping everything from your metabolism to your reproductive system run smoothly. Hormone disruptors, however, are chemicals that can mess with this delicate system. They mimic or block natural hormones, causing your body to react in ways it wasn’t designed to.

For anyone trying to conceive, this can spell trouble. Hormone disruptors may interfere with ovulation, sperm quality, or even the embryo’s ability to implant. So, where do these disruptors come from? One surprising source is the microplastics in our everyday environment.

Common Sources of Hormone Disruptors

You might be surprised by just how many everyday items contain hormone disruptors. They can sneak into your life through the products you use, the food you eat, and even the air you breathe. Some of the most common culprits include:

  • Plastics: Many types of plastic, especially those containing BPA (Bisphenol A) and phthalates, can leach chemicals that disrupt your hormones. Due to increased public awareness and negative publicity, many manufacturers are now shifting away from BPA. But here’s the catch—BPA replacements, like BPS (Bisphenol S), may be just as harmful, if not worse. While BPA-free labels might seem reassuring, it’s essential to remember that alternative chemicals can still disrupt your hormone balance.
  • Personal care products: Perfumes, lotions, shampoos, tanning products and cosmetics can contain chemicals like parabens and synthetic fragrances, which can mimic or block hormones.
  • Cleaning products: Household cleaning sprays, detergents, and air fresheners can contain hormone-disrupting chemicals that linger on surfaces and in the air.
  • Pesticides and herbicides: Fresh fruits and vegetables is likely the healthiest and safest option, but if they’ve been treated with pesticides, you could be consuming hormone disruptors without realising it. Soaking fruits in a baking soda solution for 2 minutes removes more pesticides than rinsing under tap water.
  • Canned foods: Metal cans are often lined with BPA-containing resin, which can leach into the food you eat. Opt for glass jars or fresh alternatives when possible.
  • Sunscreen: while protecting your skin from the sun is essential, many sunscreens contain chemical ingredients like oxybenzone and octinoxate, which are known to disrupt hormones.

By being aware of these sources, you can take steps to reduce exposure. Even small changes in your daily routine, like switching to glass containers or natural cleaning products, can make a difference.

The Role of Microplastics

Now, let’s talk about microplastics—tiny plastic particles that are practically everywhere. You may have heard about their impact on the environment, but they can also affect your body. Microplastics are a particularly worrying source of hormone disruptors because they contain chemicals like BPA and phthalates, both of which can mess with your hormones.

These tiny particles can find their way into our bodies through food (especially seafood), water, and even the air. Once inside, they can act as hormone disruptors, affecting fertility by interfering with the body’s natural hormonal balance. Microplastics can mimic oestrogen, leading to reproductive issues for both men and women.

Do Not Heat Up Plastics

One crucial thing to remember is that heat can both significantly increase the release of harmful chemicals from plastics and make them shed microplastics. For instance, baby bottles made from PP plastic shed microplastics when heated up. And the bottles made from polycarbonate plastic, can release bisphenol A (BPA) much faster when exposed to hot liquids. A study by scientists from the University of Cincinnati found that when plastic bottles were filled with boiling water, BPA was released up to 55 times more quickly than with cooler liquids. If a plastic container has been heated up even once, such as washing in a dishwasher, can increase risk that chemicals will leach form them into your food.

Even Touching Contaminated Surfaces May Matter

Hormone disruptors, such as bisphenol A (BPA), can also be absorbed through your skin. Even the simple act of handling thermal receipts can lead to detectable exposure. A study conducted in 2023 revealed that 60% of thermal paper receipt samples contained BPA levels exceeding the acceptable limits set by the EU​. This is especially concerning for individuals whose occupations require frequent handling of receipts, such as cashiers, who may be at higher risk of cumulative exposure. In any case, don’t play with your receipts and examine your life for any potential sources of hormone disrupting chemicals.

Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference

While it might feel overwhelming to consider all the sources of hormone disruptors around you, there are practical steps you can take to reduce your exposure and protect your fertility and the health of your baby. Small changes in your daily habits can go a long way. For example:

  • Switch to glass, ceramic or stainless steel containers for food and drinks, especially when heating.
  • Opt for natural cleaning products that are free from synthetic chemicals.
  • Be mindful of personal care products, opting for those that avoid parabens, phthalates, and synthetic fragrances.
  • Choose fresh or frozen produce over canned goods, and when you can, go organic to avoid pesticide residues.
  • Reduce use of sunscreen by wearing protective clothing. If you need to use sunscreen, opt for mineral-based sunscreens containing magnesium oxide or zinc oxide, which act as physical barriers and are much safer alternatives. These options sit on the surface of the skin rather than being absorbed, making them a better choice both when TTC and in pregnancy.

By making these small, manageable adjustments, you’ll be taking positive steps toward safeguarding not only your reproductive health but your overall well-being.

 

 

Sustainable lifestyle changes for fertility: moving beyond willpower

When considering lifestyle changes, it’s tempting to think of them as temporary. And the lasting change is it’s hard to achieve through sheer willpower alone. Over time, enforcing rigid ‘rules’ often leads to slip-ups, frustration and return to your old habits.

We want you to step away from the willpower paradigm and consider our alternative plan. Knowledge, understanding and education are true foundations to life-long changes.

Rather than prescribing a set of strict rules, we explain how specific lifestyle changes influence your health. Here you will find a balanced and flexible approach to help you to make an educated choice.

We want you to discover nutrition and lifestyle changes that work long-term. Implement what you can joyfully live with. Because your newly discovered habits need not stop when you fall pregnant. They need not stop when you have a baby.

If you find your chosen path difficult to maintain, return here for renewed inspiration or try out another healthy alternative that fits your evolving needs.

Does acupuncture support weight loss? - illustration

Can fertility acupuncture support weight loss?

Weight gain is a complex, multi-factorial issue. Losing excess kilos can be hard even when your diet is perfect and you get sufficient exercise. And when facing the pressures of trying to conceive it can become overwhelmingly challenging.

Some of the less known factors contributing to weight gain include hormonal changes, certain medical conditions like PCOS and insulin resistance, hormonal changes, stress, and poor sleep.

Your weight plays a critical role in fertility and pregnancy outcomes. When trying to conceive, whether naturally or through assisted reproductive technologies like IVF, maintaining a healthy weight is essential. Both being underweight and overweight can disrupt hormone levels, affect ovulation, and complicate pregnancy. But can fertility acupuncture help with weight loss, especially when fertility is a concern? Let’s take a closer look.

Can fertility acupuncture support weight loss?

Acupuncture improves sleep, reduces stress and anxiety

Have you ever noticed how after a bad night’s sleep, you tend to overeat or make less healthy food choices? This is because sleep deprivation directly affects appetite-regulating hormones, making it harder to resist cravings.

Additionally, poor sleep can disrupt hormones contributing to fat deposition around your vital organs—also known as visceral fat. When you’re chronically sleep-deprived, your motivation to exercise also dwindles, creating a cycle of weight gain that’s hard to break. The stress associated with trying to conceive, on top of sleep issues, can also trigger overeating and disrupt hormones, further contributing to weight gain.

Acupuncture is an excellent tool for for addressing both sleep issues and stress eating. It reduces stress and anxiety and improves sleep.  Consequently, a rested mind gives you better control over what and how much you eat. In addition, acupuncture will help heal the harm caused by sleep deprivation.

Acupuncture reduces appetite

Acupuncture also influences the brain centers that regulate appetite, helping to control food cravings and improve satiety. By stimulating the auricular branch of the vagus nerve, acupuncture can raise serotonin levels, a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate mood and appetite.

Increased serotonin levels have the following effects:

  • Increases the tone of the smooth muscle of the stomach suppressing appetite
  • Enhances intestinal motility
  • Helps to control stress, improves mood, and eases depression.

Acupuncture regulates weight-controlling hormones

Hormones play a crucial role in regulating body weight, and acupuncture can help balance these hormones to support weight loss. Studies have shown that acupuncture increases beta-endorphins. These feel-good hormones optimise how you use energy during fasting or exercise, further promoting weight loss.

In this study overweight women, who had regular acupuncture for three months, had healthier levels of leptin, a hormone that controls hunger and metabolism. Additionally, their fasting blood glucose and insulin levels all improved, highlighting acupuncture’s positive impact on metabolic health.

To sum it up, acupuncture tackles weight gain from multiple angles including regulating hormones, optimising sleep, reducing appetite and reducing stress. Multiple studies have shown that acupuncture can be an effective tool helping you to optimise fertility though weight management. For the best results, we recommend a tailored approach to acupuncture – combined with individualised nutrition, regular exercise, and proper medical care.

If you’re struggling to lose weight while trying to conceive, a personalised acupuncture treatment plan, along with lifestyle changes and nutritional support, can set you on the path to success. You may also benefit from a thyroid check-up and a consultation with a specialised dietitian to ensure you’re addressing all factors that could impact your weight and fertility.