In this solo episode, I explore how autoimmune disease can quietly disrupt your fertility and what it really means when your immune system isn’t functioning properly. I share how to approach it naturally - what tests to run and how to support your body to create the healthiest foundation for pregnancy. Tune in to learn more.

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Takeaways

Autoimmune conditions can significantly impact fertility.

The immune system plays a crucial role in conception and pregnancy.

Personalized treatment is essential for addressing autoimmune diseases.

Nutrition and gut health are vital for immune function.

Emotional and mental health are interconnected with physical health.

Setting boundaries is important for overall well-being.

Pregnancy involves complex immune responses that must be managed.

Understanding the root causes of autoimmune conditions is key to treatment.

Holistic approaches can lead to successful outcomes in fertility.

The body has an innate ability to heal when given the right tools.

Chapters

00:00 Understanding Autoimmune Disease and Infertility

05:10 The Role of the Immune System in Fertility

10:03 Personalization in Treatment Approaches

15:10 Physical and Emotional Aspects of Autoimmune Conditions

19:49 The Importance of Boundaries and Safety in Healing

23:27 Holistic Approaches to Autoimmune Disease and Fertility

Connect with Dr. Jane Levesque

Website - https://www.drjanelevesque.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drjanelevesque/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DrJaneLevesque/

Hey, thanks so much for tuning into another episode of natural fertility with Dr. Jane. I of course am Dr. Jane. And today I want to talk to you about autoimmune disease. To be honest, I'm still shocked how many women come to me and message, whether it's through Instagram or we get it through our emails and they say that I have an explained infertility, but I have this autoimmune condition, which in my mind is you don't have unexplained infertility. You have an autoimmune condition that's preventing you from getting pregnant. Now, whether that's

Hashimoto's or Graves or Type 1 Diabetes or literally any other autoimmune condition like endometriosis. And I know you're like, is endometriosis an autoimmune condition? Yes, watch it catch up and research in the next five to 10 years because I'm going to break down what autoimmune disease is. And of course, every autoimmune disease has its nuances. So how I approach Hashimoto's is going to be slightly different than how I approach Graves or how I approach, you know, Type 1 Diabetes. But...

the principles are going to stay the same. And so I'm going to share an overview of the principles of how we want to approach it and why it's the thing that's preventing you from getting pregnant or staying pregnant. And then what, how we want to go in terms of approaching and understanding why you have this certain autoimmune condition. And then obviously the steps that we want to take to reverse it. So autoimmune disease, what it means, and I'm going to give you kind of the conventional perspective and then the holistic perspective.

From the conventional standpoint, the body is no longer recognizing what's its own in what is a pathogen or what is a foreign body. And so it ends up creating a response against itself. So when we have something like Hashimoto's and we're producing thyroid antibodies, that means that the thyroid is starting to produce antibodies against our own thyroid, which is obviously destroying its function. That

is the premise of what is going on with autoimmune disease. Now, when you ask a conventional doctor, why would the body do that? For the most part, your answer is going to be it's genetics. Some people just have it. The body is just no longer, it's confused and it's not recognizing its own cells and therefore it's attacking it. Why I don't like that explanation is it assumes that the body is stupid, that the body has no idea what it's doing and it's going.

Is it my cells? Is it not my cells? Is this a pathogen? I'm just gonna go ahead and create this inflammatory response and create antibodies against my own self. On the holistic side, my question is why would the body do that? So if my belief is that the body is the smartest machine, the smartest mechanism and organism that is on this planet, and it doesn't do anything without a reason, there's always, always a reason for our symptoms.

and that it's actually a way that the body is messaging us and letting us know that something is off. We're doing something, we're missing something. And whether that's a vitamin or a mineral or an antioxidant, or there's a pathogen that's causing a deficiency and causing dysregulation. And that's why there is an inflammatory response. There's absolutely genetics that are involved because let's face it, we all have inflammation. We all have some...

kind of pathogenic load or some microbial imbalance in our day and age, we all have some nutrient deficiencies, but not everybody is going to have autoimmune disease or not everyone is going to have the same autoimmune disease. So of course there's genetics that are involved in every disease process, but we have to look at why is the body doing what it's doing? And as a, you know, a naturopathic doctor and a natural fertility expert, I would love to say that here is what everybody should be doing. And there's,

of course, some general aspects of health that I'm sure if this is not your first episode that you've listened to me talk, that I talk about, let's clean up your water, let's clean up your diet, let's clean up your environment, let's make sure you're sleeping well and let's regulate your nervous system. Those things will stay true, but the nuances in terms of your own genetic and your own nutrient deficiency and which pathogen is triggering your immune system, this is where the personalization comes into play. And I think

medicine is just so, so, so individualized. And the fact that we have tried to make it not so I think is really just behind whether it's the big pharma or any other big businesses where it's like, just want to systemize it and we just want to make it easy for people to get better. The general generalities are only going to get you so far. So we have to get down into the personalization and you have to understand and learn how your own body works and why it's doing what it's doing.

So I believe that the body is the smartest machine. And so if it's starting to attack itself, AKA we have an autoimmune reaction, I want to know why. And whether it's attacking its own pancreas or its own thyroid or its own joints or its own, its own reproductive system, whatever it is, we have to understand why is the body doing that? Keeping in mind that genetics are going to play a role, but also keeping in mind that the environment is going to play a bigger role than

the genetics. So the reason that autoimmune disease is the reason why you're not conceiving or you're not able to stay pregnant is because immune system function is arguably the most important system throughout pregnancy. And I'll tell you why. So the first reaction between the egg and the sperm is that of the immune system. And if we look at our immune system is really our microbiome

diversity. So the more diversity we have within our microbiome, within the gut, within the reproductive system, within our skin, the stronger our immune system tends to be. And so if we break it down, there's certain microbes that are associated like the lactobacillus species, the bifidose species that are associated with strong immune systems. And then there is certain bacterial microbiota that are associated with weakened immune system.

So if we break it down to just the microbiome and then we look at the fact that while the white cervical fluid has its own microbiome, the semen has its own microbiome, the uterus, the fallopian tubes, the ovaries, there are all differences and nuances within each microbiome. And when the egg is starting to put out its signals, when it's ready to ovulate and it's choosing the sperm, it's putting signals out to

get the sperm to start moving. And that signaling has actually been connected to the different types of microbes. So certain microbes are going to make that signaling more efficient and it will allow the sperm to get to the egg in a more efficient way and actually get there or less efficient way, depending on the microbes. So I don't want to take you down too many rabbit holes, but the point is that the first reaction of the egg in the sperm is that of the immune system.

this egg has to accept the sperm and there's vitamin D receptors on the egg and on the sperm and those interact and there's a lot of other nutrients like calcium and zinc and sodium and potassium and you know, EFAs, so short chain fatty acids, like so many nutrients that are really, really important for that reaction to occur and for that fertilization to occur. So the egg has to accept the sperm.

And then once the fertilization happens, the body, the female body has to accept the foreign object that is now the zygote, the blastocyst and therefore the embryo and then the fetus. And so a beautiful thing that has to happen for females, and this is what happens at recycle for us ladies, is in the second half of the cycle, progesterone rises and estrogen rises as well, but progesterone should be the dominant hormone.

And that down regulates the immune system in preparation for implantation. So that happens regardless if there is a fertilized egg or not that's coming to implant, but that progesterone comes in and there's a immune system down regulation. There's a lot of other things that's happening in terms of preparing the uterine lining and thickening and all that jazz. But if we look at it from just the immune system perspective, cause we're talking about autoimmune disease, it's so important for the immune system to be able to down regulate so we can.

our bodies can accept this foreign object. And I'm taking a course with Dr. Leah Hetchman right now on integrative obstetrics. And she's literally breaking it down week by week and when implantation happens and how it happens. And there's some beautiful studies and research where it literally shows this tiny little cluster of cells just burrowing itself into the uterus. And I mean, literally like it's burrowing, it's a mass and we often look at it as if it's a cancer. Now, obviously it's not a cancer, but if you think about

The embryo, it's a foreign object. It's multiplying and replicating on itself. It has its own little DNA code and genetic code and everything else. It's doing its replication on its own outside of the female body, but it's doing it within the female body. so the communication between the uterus and the embryo starts very, it's like five days, right? The blastocyst is five days post ovulation that communication starts. And so if that immune system,

is super dysregulated and it's already having a really hard time recognizing what its own versus what's not its own. The problem becomes is that it's just going to reject. So the hot topic in the fertility space is this endometrial receptivity, meaning is the endometrium receptive to the embryo or is it closed off because there's so many pathogens and therefore pathogens or other infections, inflammation,

toxins that are built up, that essentially it is a hostile environment. And as soon as the embryo tries to interact with a uterus, the microbes within the endometrium are not allowing it to do that. And it actually is throwing an inflammatory response. It's, it's exaggerating the inflammatory response because let's be honest, pregnancy is an inflammatory condition and

it maybe this is the first time you hear about it like that, but it is, it, there's so much inflammation that happens. That's why we want women's inflammation to be really under control before they get pregnant, because it's not a matter of if they're going to be inflamed. It's a matter of how is their body going to be able to handle that inflammation and do they have the right nutrients? Their drainage pathways open the nervous system regulation to essentially manage that inflammation as best as we can, as that baby continues to grow and burrow itself. So if

I hope by now we are like, okay, that makes sense. If you have an auto immune condition, I literally just had someone in the chat being like, I haven't explained infertility and I have Hashimoto's and I'm like, wait a minute, you have Hashimoto's. That's the reason why you can't get pregnant. And she's like, well, my doctor said it doesn't matter, but I thought maybe would. The beautiful thing here is that most of you are already recognizing that you're like, I wonder if this is the thing that's preventing me from getting pregnant. And I want to tell you that you're right. It is whatever your.

hunches of like, wonder if this has something to do with it. You're 100 % right. It probably has something to do with it. Is it the only thing? Unlikely, but doesn't have something to do with it? 100%. I think we need to learn to trust that intuition and then we just need to find and seek information that will help us feel more validated through our journey. And then somebody that obviously is going to guide you through this because it is very, very complex.

And if I had to think about fertility as like, what are the most important systems that are involved in fertility? A conventional doctor is just going to look at the ovaries and the uterus. But we know like on the holistic side, as a natural fertility doctor, the uterus and the ovaries are very much connected. And we'll see an embryologist or if we see IVF specialist, they literally will look even at the ovaries and the uterus, a separate compartments.

So if there's an infection in the uterus, they're like, yeah, that's fine. We can still do the retrieval. It won't impact it. And it seems silly to say, well, how come, what do mean it's not going to impact it? The uterus is inflamed. There's oxidative stress. It's of course the eggs are going to shut down. They don't feel safe. There's inflammation. So we have to start looking at the systems as a whole. So yes, obviously infertility, the reproductive system is really important, but what is...

governing the function of the reproductive system. Well, you have to look at the gut, you have to look at the liver, you have to look at the endocrine system, so your hormones and your brain function, because let's face it, it's your brain that tells the body to start to ovulate. It's your brain that dictates and assesses how much stress your system is under. And if we're gonna produce cortisol versus we're gonna keep it around, progesterone around because...

That's we have, we don't, we're not constantly stressed and what about the blood sugar and what about inflammation? And then the immune system is really high up there in terms of you have to have a resilient immune system and you have to have an adaptable immune system. So if you feel like you're constantly getting sick, my question is what's going on with your resiliency? Is it a nutrient deficiency? Is there a pathogen? Is there a toxin?

that's literally leaking all these nutrients from your body. And so you don't have this energy and vitality that you want to have, which of course is going to have a trickle effect on every other system, including how much stress your brain perceives, how inflamed you are, what's happening with your blood sugars, what's happening with your reproductive organs, what's happening with your gut, all of it is connected. And so immune system function.

Like I said, and hopefully by the end of this podcast, you're going to like truly believe that and know that it is the foundation in your fertility journey because it is the first reaction of the egg in the sperm. And then the communication between the embryo and the uterus is dependent on the flexibility, adaptability and the function of the woman's immune system. So when someone tells me they have an autoimmune condition, that is the reason you're not getting pregnant. Now, what I want to know,

is why do you have that autoimmune condition in the first place? Why is the body so overwhelmed, so confused? And what do we need to do to help reverse it? Because it's absolutely possible, but we have to understand what's causing it in the first place. And this is where the personalization and individualization is important because I tell you, I've had so many patients with autoimmune conditions and not a single one of them had the same reason of why.

they were struggling with their autoimmune condition. So I'll tell you some of the physical aspects and then I'll tell you some of the mental and emotional and kind of spiritual aspects that I see as a pattern in my practice. And again, what I will say is hopefully it just gives you a little bit of a light bulb and go, my God, no one has ever really explored this for me as opposed to like, you know, this is the reason that I have my autoimmune condition. I don't know. I'm just going to share from my experience. So from the physical standpoint,

your immune system needs nutrients, vitamin A, C, E, selenium, zinc. We need protein amino acids. literally, it's immunoglobulins build from chains of proteins and peptides. So that's why having good muscle mass is really important for good immune system function. There's research that's showing and shows, and we could see this in practice as well, where if...

somebody has more muscle mass, they tend to get sick less often and they get to overcome that sickness a little bit faster when they do get sick. And that is because their muscle is literally this reserve of protein that can be used whenever they need it. So when the immune system is shot and it needs immunoglobulins, which are made out of peptides, amino acids, the body can go and break down muscle and have this extra reserve. That's why you will lose muscle mass if you've been sick.

for a long time, but essentially the more muscle mass that you have, the less frequently you're going to get sick and the quicker you're going to overcome those issues for the most part, because of course there is the people who overdo it and they're over training and they're actually breaking themselves down. So even though they look muscular, they're actually quite depleted. That's a podcast, you know, that's another podcast, but if you need these nutrients and so if the body doesn't have

these nutrients, vitamin C, A, C, selenium, zinc, the protein, then the question is, well, are you absorbing it? Are you actually getting it in? Are you absorbing it? So when you eat those things, is your body able to break it down and use it in the appropriate way? Or is it being used up too quickly? So let's say there's inflammation, there's autoimmune disease, there is a pathogen, there is a toxin that the body is desperately trying to...

keep up with the demand of the pathogen, of the toxin, of the leaky gut. And so you just need so many more nutrients. And this is where in the functional medicine world, you know, if you're only addressing the nutrient deficiencies, you're probably missing 50 if not 75 or 85 % of the equation because the nutrient deficiencies are usually caused by some kind of a toxicity, some kind of pathogen, some kind of nutrient deficiency. And sometimes it's mental and emotional. talk about that in a second.

So as we are looking every person, the theme with autoimmune disease, when I know someone has it, this is what I'm looking for and this is what I see in practice, is I know that there's going to be a high pathogenic load or environmental toxic load. So I know that the immune system is overloaded. I am going to also see some kind of a leaky gut or gut issue, meaning something that is supposed to be a barrier.

is not only a barrier and a boundary now, but it's actually a source of inflammation and infection. And you're not absorbing nutrients as well. So the body's definitely in fight or fight mode trying to survive. And then the third thing is high stress or some kind of trigger. Now you might, I used to say like, when did this happen? When did you have a diagnosis? And I've met a lot of people, my patients who have had a diag,

all of sudden they had a diagnosis like two or three years ago of Hashimoto's or they didn't even know they had it to be honest. They only found out because they started trying to conceive and they began some thorough lab work and was like, I guess I have Hashimoto's or worse. They've had two or three miscarriages or four or five miscarriages. then it's like, do you know that you have these elevated antibodies or do you know that you have these issues? So a lot of the times we don't actually know when the disease started. So I kind of say, what is the overarching

theme of this person's life in terms of the level of stress that they have been under and their nervous system regulation or dysregulation. So what we tend to see is that the person is, has had either a stressful upbringing or a stressful period in their teenage years or in their twenties or something that has just accumulated over time where the nervous system has continued to felt more and more and more overwhelmed.

And then you add the pathogens and you add the leaky gut and the body goes, I don't know what's what I'm freaking out. And so even when the body is quote unquote attacking itself, it's still, it's still desperately trying, trying to self-correct. It just can't because it doesn't have the tools that it needs. So that's why I say the symptoms are always telling me like, what's going on here? You know, why is the body, does the body not have the tools that it needs in order to be able to essentially.

heal because it has this capacity to heal. And so there's a lot of testing that we do. We have to identify what's the toxin, what's the pathogen, what's the nutrient deficiency. So from the physical standpoint, we're always going to address the leaky gut. We're going to address the nutrient deficiencies. And while we're addressing those, we're going to address the pathogen. So whether it's something like a urea plasma on the vaginal microbiome or a parasite on the stool microbiome or whatever bacterial overgrowth.

on the stool microbiome that we're seeing, or even in the blood when we're testing and we're looking at EBV or CMV or HSV, like all of these, you know, or even long COVID now. The point is that there is pathogenic load that's really high and the body's not managing and it needs help. And so we need to know what the pathogen is so we can actually treat it. But the body needs to have enough energy to overcome the pathogen. And this is where you got to, you got to know what nutrients you need. You got to heal the gut.

So you got to support methylation. So then the body has the energy to actually overcome the pathogen. If I take you over to the mental, emotional and kind of spiritual side, if I think about the function of the immune system, what does the immune system do for us? It's our barrier, right? It's the boundaries. It's something that either allows information in or doesn't. It accepts it as its own or it doesn't. And I find that women and yes, there's men who struggle with.

autoimmune disease as well. But of course there's a lot more women, the women who are struggling with autoimmune disease. And even if the men, can put them in this category as well. There has been a lot of breaking of their boundaries and a lack of being able to therefore set it. And so whether that's when they were a kid and you could look at and say there's something like sexual abuse, but it could be as simple as there was very little boundaries in the family. They didn't really know.

who they were, what their function was. There was a lot of stress. Nobody really recognized or saw them for who they were. And again, this is where I think the genetics is gonna come into play. And if you're someone who was essentially born with type one diabetes or some kind of autoimmune condition, now I'm very much looking at what was going on during pregnancy, what was going on in those first few years of development, what was mom's health like, what was dad's health like looking into the history because

When someone is born with it, it's very much what has been passed down. And so that very much, yes, there's probably a toxic load. Yes, there's still inflammation. Yes. But they're programming in the methylation and the genetics. There'll be a lot more self-correcting of the actual genetics as opposed to, you know, just cleaning up the pathogens.

And so the reason that I like to bring up the mental and emotional and spiritual component is honestly, one of the things that I think makes me really successful in my practice is when someone sits down in front of me, I'm not just going to look at their physical body and I'm not just going to take their history down for the last five years. But what I want to know as a practitioner and just as a human being is like, what has this person really been through and what are their struggles physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually? And then when I take a look at the

history of the pregnancy for the mom and just the health of the mom and the child history that's zero to five, then it gives me an opportunity to also understand what were they given to start with? Like what was their starting point? Because I'll tell you, I have patients who have been exposed in utero, they've been exposed to drugs and alcohol and smoking and like it's amazing the fact that they're here because now that I know

everything that needs to happen in order for pregnancy to be successful. It's really incredible that despite the fact that they had these really harsh exposures, they're still here and they're still quote unquote thriving. But I also know that that person is going to have very different issues from somebody who was, you know, born into a family that thought about eating organic and didn't put environmental, like really thought about cleaning up their environmental toxic load and let their children play outside.

or grow their own food, so on and so forth. So that foundation that the person start with, I do really genuinely, not only just believe, but I see it in my practice, how much impact it has and how hard it is to essentially rebuild the person because let's face it, our cells are constantly dividing and we're constantly rebuilding ourselves. So if the body isn't changing, that means like you're doing, you're putting a lot of effort, but the body isn't changing. It's likely that you're...

maybe you're not noticing the changes or you're actually doing something that the body doesn't need at this moment in time. Point being is if I know when somebody has like a high toxic load from birth or they just, you know, the mom was really depleted and the pregnancy didn't go so well or the postpartum period or they were, you know, on formula versus breastfed and all that jazz. And again, no disrespect because I just think everybody has their own journey and we can learn, we can all learn from

it learned something from everyone. The point being is how I approach that case is going to change because then I'm looking at what are the mitochondrial DNA? What are the genetic things that got downloaded that we now that we do have influence over versus we no longer have influence over. And I do think that we have influence of a lot more than we think. And I've seen some incredible things.

So I'm never going to disregard the body. And I've seen people who were told they have ulcerative colitis and they'll have it for the rest of their life. And literally we're off medications within six months and completely brand new person. So I've seen a lot of really wonderful things. How far the body will go, I think will highly dictate on your, your own belief into your system and how far you want to deep down into traumas and

understanding your family past and genetic rewiring. And there's all sorts of kind of therapies around that. And then obviously just the physical aspect of it all from the supplements, the lab testing, working with a practitioner, not giving up, so on and so forth. So I bring it up because I think we cannot just acknowledge the physical body with any disease and with autoimmune disease, if you think about the function of the immune system. And when someone doesn't have that good

boundaries or those boundaries have constantly been broken and they don't actually know who they are. They or they've been broken down. And so that resiliency is really, sometimes we just call them people pleasers, but it's like, are you a people pleaser or you have no idea who you are. And so you just don't mind doing whatever everyone else is doing. Cause you're just easygoing, right? It's like, are you easygoing or are you lost? There's two different, there's kind of two different schools of thought. Cause you could genuinely be easygoing, but I do.

see a lot of people who are actually just lost and confused and they don't know who they are and they don't have very good boundaries. And so that ends up in showing up in the body in different ways. So I hope that is making sense to you all in terms of why the immune system is really, really important for just the, not the health of the pregnancy even, but just for your own health and how you're going to experience the world. And

the overview for you to understand that we gotta do lab testing. We have to understand what the pathogen, the toxin, whatever it is, like what is causing the issue? And then I typically start with the physical body and then as the physical body starts to get strong, then we can start to dig into some of the mental and emotional, but I have people who are, they've been carrying so much trauma that they're like, I just need a way to release it and so we need to make the physical body strong and then.

We're figuring out the right therapy and whether that's talk therapy or meditation or breath work or whatever it is, essentially to help the body integrate and release, you know, in process some of the traumas so they can step into the new version of the selves and feel safe. I think with autoimmune disease, when we're looking at it from the conventional standpoint, it's like my body's stupid. I don't trust it. It doesn't do what it's supposed to do.

that creates a very negative relationship with your body. get goosebumps just saying that. And so if you, is how you talk to yourself and this is that your belief, and I'm not saying it's your belief is likely. I don't think that's your belief. That wasn't your belief when you were a baby, but you were told this so many times that you started to believe that and your conventional doctor did a very good job of convincing you that, yeah, your body is just like that. There's nothing you can do about it. Which what that really means is I'm broken.

and I'm not safe and my body is stupid and it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. If that's the language that you're using, then how is this tiny little soul supposed to come in and say, yeah, this is a safe home for me. This is where I want to grow. And so I think part of healing, have to bring this spiritual component into it because if we just think about the soul that's trying to come in and make it its home, you have to feel the safety within your body first. So then something else can come in and say, this is safe.

I can be here, I can thrive, I can burrow into this uterus and I'm not going to get kicked out. So there is the huge lack of safety within the body for the woman usually will then reflect in the lack of safety for the embryo to develop, to grow and to thrive. So that's my two cents on the autoimmune conditions. Like I said, depending on which autoimmune condition you have,

there will be nuances like if it's type two diabetes, we need to focus a lot more on blood sugar regulation. If it's ulcerative colitis, we need to focus a lot more on gut healing and gut lining and mucosa versus rheumatoid arthritis or antibodies. Then we're focusing on each individual organ. But at the end of the day, you got to get the inflammation down. You got to get the pathogens out. You have to regulate the nervous system so it starts to feel safe and you can rest and you can enjoy life and you can set boundaries and you don't just become this leaky bucket that says

Yes to everything. So then you can actually keep some of that energy for yourself and then therefore eventually have so much energy and so much abundance that you have nowhere for it to go but to this tiny little soul that's been waiting to meet you. So thank you so much for tuning in and I hope I'll see you next week.