I realize that my office is a single isolated system and by no means does it reflect the entire picture of what happens outside of my office. With this in mind, I can honestly say that I have never had a patient who went through “fertility treatment” and fertility was actually addressed.
We need to understand that, when boiled down to an organism level, our body’s only goal is to reproduce and propagate the species (forget arguments about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs here). So if a couple cannot get pregnant and do the ONE thing it is supposed to do, this is a massive red warning light that something is not right.
So, one would think that a fertility “expert” would then dig into the more common reasons why infertility can occur. Sadly, the couples that I have come across over the years have not had this experience. Instead, some bloodwork is taken and they are usually given a course of Clomid or Metformin or IVF, spending thousands of dollars. Sometimes it’s successful, sometimes not.
But, if the physiology of the couple is screaming that something is wrong, shouldn’t we pay attention to that FIRST? Society is paying the price for forced fertility in preterm births, multiple births, obese infants and children and, in the years to come, increased rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
Instead, a full evaluation should include looking at prediabetes (a major cause of infertility in women and almost completely lifestyle-mediated via polycystic ovarian syndrome), prenatal vitamins (almost all of the prescription ones are of very low quality and really, really expensive!) and toxic exposure.
The last one can be a toughie. A detailed look at what a couple may be exposed to should be undertaken, from pesticides to fertilizers to flame retardants to BPA from plastic water bottles. The couple should be counseled to avoid as many chemical exposures as is feasibly possible as well as recommendations on detoxification programs to help the body clear out the toxins we are exposed to that we cannot reasonably avoid.
THIS is infertility treatment.
