Does Inflammation Impact Fertility?
It sure does. In fact, inflammation can have an effect nearly every aspect of fertility, from egg and sperm quality to uterine lining, implantation and more.
One of the biggest contributors to chronic inflammation that impacts fertility is “oxidative stress.” If you’re facing fertility challenges, odds are good oxidative stress is not helping anything— it is one of the most common fertility hurdles we see.
Oxidative stress is a term used to describe an imbalance in free radicals (little inflammatory chaos makers in the body) and antioxidants (inflammation fighting super heroes). Essentially, high levels of oxidative stress mean you don’t have enough antioxidant support in the body to quell the chaos, and inflammation rages on.
This is not great news when we’re trying to optimize fertility because both egg and sperm cells require loads of antioxidants to maintain quality, as does a healthy uterine lining and hormone balance.
Common contributors to oxidative stress include:
- Overconsumption of nutrient poor/processed foods
- Inadequate intake of a diverse range of veggies + fruit
- Not enough movement *OR* too much intense exercise
- Smoking
- Alcohol
- Air pollution
- Poor sleep
- Pesticides + industrial chemicals
Are there any changeable oxidative stress triggers in your day to day? It’s impossible to do a complete overhaul (so please don’t make yourself crazy trying), but being mindful about where there might be room to reduce oxidative stress can go a long way in your fertility journey. There are some amazing tools to assess oxidative stress with functional labs — ask us!
❤️ Your NHRH Team
