There is a reason your body is growing endometrial tissue outside of the uterus - high estrogen, high histamine and dysregulated immune response is all part of the picture. In this episode, I dive into my most recent cases and the resemblance that I’m seeing with certain infections popping up. Tune in to learn more.

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Key Takeways

5:36 Simplistic approach to treating endometriosis

11:12 Importance of proper lab test interpretation

16:18 Energetic component of infections and suppression

21:24 Treating both partners for infections

Memorable Quotes

"Endometriosis, for the most important thing that I want you to understand about endometriosis and adenomyosis, is that there is a root cause, and the root cause is going to be driven by some kind of an infection."

"If you're listening to this and you have endometriosis or you have candida overgrowth, and you've done Candida cleanses and it did nothing for you, it's because you didn't go deep enough. It's not that it wasn't the right thing. It's that your practitioner didn't guide you to go deep enough and to look at all the pathogens that are involved."

"There is an energetic component to each infection. So there's physical, mental, emotional component to every bug. There's a reason that bugs are this certain bug, whether it's Candida, whether it's parasites, whether it's bacteria, whether it's a virus that is living in your organism that you've made home."

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There is the endometriosis that's growing. So if someone tells me that, oh, just lower her estrogen without looking at the thing that's actually driving it, I know it's not going to work. And I hope that you, by now listening to this episode, know that. Huh? Maybe I shouldn't listen to that advice either, because it sounds like that doctor is not up to date on research. And that's okay. We just need to make sure that we're speaking up for ourselves. And as professionals, like, I hold myself to a high standard, and I'm not here saying that I know everything, but if something doesn't seem right, I want to research that and I want to look into that, because I think it's so simplistic to just say, oh, just take this supplement or just take this drug and this whole thing will go away. Pregnancy is a natural process. So if it's not happening or if it's not sticking, something is missing. After having a family member go through infertility and experiencing a miscarriage myself, I realized how little support and education women have around infertility. I want to Change that. I'm Dr. Jane Levesque. I'm a naturopathic doctor and a natural fertility expert. Tune in every Tuesday at 9am for insightful case studies, expert interviews, and practical tips on how you can optimize fertility naturally. If you've been struggling with infertility, pregnancy loss, women's health issues, or you just want to be proactive and prepare yourself for the next big chapter in your life, this show is for you. All right, ladies, Today I want to talk to you about endometriosis and the root cause of endometriosis and some clinical things that I'm seeing that are very interesting. And I want to share kind of my approach and how I connect the dots between what I think is actually driving the endometriosis and driving the inflammation. And I'm seeing some very interesting patterns. At first, I was just going to make a quick post or a quick story on it, and then I'm like, I'm going to need to ramble about this one. So I apologize, but it's very fascinating. Basically, I think this is my fifth case in a row that I got who has endometriosis. And when we look at the stool analysis, she has significant candida overgrowth. Like, significant candida overgrowth. Now, it's the last test. I literally just checked last night. And because I'm like a big kid when the testing results come in and when I get that Notification in my email, I'm like, oh, my God, I wonder what it is for them. It's always very, very exciting. And she was my fifth case, and she has endometriosis. And I look at it and I'm like, oh, my God. She Candida, too. So I'm not sure if that's. The universe is trying to teach me a little bit more about Candida and treating or if there's something that you guys need to know. So this is why I'm recording this podcast, because endometriosis, for, like, the most important thing that I want you to understand about endometriosis and adenomyosis, because, let's face it, adenomyosis is just a more developed endometriosis. Further developed along is that there is a root cause, and the root cause is going to be driven by some kind of an infection. If I talked about the triad of endometriosis, and this is something that I got from my mentor, Dr. Leah Hetchman, who is a phenomenal practitioner and researcher, the triad is that there is estrogen dominance or estrogen disregularity, let's say, because sometimes it's not necessarily dominance, but it's the way that you're breaking down the estrogen that's the issue. And then it's histamine, and histamine and estrogen have a dance. And so histamine can look like allergies, but it can look like water retention. It can, you know, look like fatigue and brain fog and bloating and just slow digestion. And then there is disregulated immune system. So that's our triad. Estrogen, histamine, and disregulated immune system. And I hope that in the next five years, maybe 10 years, however long it's going to take for people to get there, is that we actually start classifying endometriosis as an autoimmune condition, because it is. Let's think about the endometrial tissue growing outside of the uterus. That's a. Not a normal thing. That's something that your immune system should recognize. Red flags should go up for the immune system, and they should go to the area and clean up all that endometrial tissue. That's not supposed to be there. That's not happening. That's why it's a disregulated immune system. Your immune system is not recognizing tissue that's growing outside of the uterus and, and essentially invading this peritoneal cavity. So the abdomen, the intestines, the, you know, the liver, the Uterus, like, it's all connected in there. And there's a fluid that's wonderful, the peritoneal cavity fluid. That's amaz amazing for communication and transfer of nutrients. But it's also a thing that allows for pathogens to transfer really easily and, of course, can cause issues. So there is absolutely a root cause to endometriosis. And I had a patient. This is a true story. She's in the Fertility 101 membership, and we have our group calls once a week, and she goes to the doctor, and she comes in and she's like, I want to get your opinion on this. My doctor went in, he told me I have endometriosis. She's 40 years old. She's been trying to conceive for the last couple of years, I think. And he just wants to give me Orissa Elix.

I think IX is the name, but Orissa is the brand name, which essentially what it does is kill your estrogen. And they'll say, hey, you might break bones more easily or you might have mood disorders, or you might have. And I look at her and I'm like, well, do you want to go into menopause? Like, that's crazy. It's so naive for a doctor to go, hey, you have endometriosis. Let me give you this drug. And it will just clear it right up. That tells me he doesn't understand the complexity of the disease in any way, shape, or form. I'm also glad that she was there because we could talk her through it and help her understand the decision that she actually needs to make to help her body heal and see if she does need surgery, like cosmic surgery, to essentially clean up the endometrial tissue. But it's so, so, so simplistic to say it's caused by estrogen. Go ahead and take this drug that lowers estrogen, and then you're going to be all good. If your doctor said that to you and then your gut, you were like, that doesn't sound right. Listen to your gut. Like, I can't tell you. My first time I had that reaction. And I still. I talk about it to this day, is when I was 16 years old and I decided to go on birth control because I became sexually active. And I remember I sat at the doctor's office and he told me that I can be on birth control for the rest of my life. And then when I'm done, my period, I can just go on hrt. And there's absolutely zero issues with that. This is like a 30 year old man at the time telling a 16 year old girl that she there is no concerns going on birth control for the rest of my life. And at 16 years old I sat there and I went, I don't think that's right. Like, I didn't say that to him because I'm 16 years old. But in my head I was like, that doesn't sound right. Like, I'm just going to be on this for now and then I'll figure it out later. You know, like, I want to have kids and I want to do those things. I just want to have kids right now. Anyways, I think it's overly simplistic and does not capture the complexity of this disease. And like I said, I hope that we start actually looking at it as an autoimmune condition because we know that autoimmune conditions are driven by high amounts of inflammation. We also know that autoimmune conditions are driven by high levels of toxicity and microbial imbalances and infections. So the thing that's driving the angiogenesis, the formation of new blood cells, is this inflammation. And the inflammation is being driven by an infection. So when I look, when I test all my people, I test most of my people, I test all of the stuff, right? The stool, the urine, the vaginal microbiome, the dutch, all the blood work, the methylation panel, the nutrient panel, you name it. The thing that I don't know is what is going to come up because for everybody it's different. It's different what is causing your endometriosis. So for these last five cases, and I haven't had the five cases in a pro, meaning I have other cases, but it's just the endometriosis cases are all coming up with Candida and East. And some of my patients have done Candida cleanses and they're like, well, I've done the Candida cleanse. How is this Candida still here? And my hope is to help you explain how I approach pathogens. And again, something that I've learned through clinic and with my mentors. So then we can help point you in the right direction and, you know, veer off any in the wrong direction. We don't want you to go in places where I've done the Candida cleanses for the six weeks and the eight weeks and then Candida just comes back. But I put all this work in. I know, but believe it or not, Candida is not the root cause. So when I see Candida, I need to get it out of the way. Because Candida, it's east. And think about that yeast and how heavy it is and how hard it is for the body to do what it's supposed to do because it's just overgrown by this fungal, you know, fungal, I don't even know what to call it, but just by this fungus. And if you think about where mold grows, more mold grows in, like warm, moist environments that don't have very good ventilation. If you think about us as humans, we are very warm and voiced environments. And if we don't have very good ventilation, meaning we're not moving, digestion congestion isn't moving. We don't. The drainage is clogged. It makes this perfect environment for east to grow and to thrive. And so east, when I see it, it's not the root cause, but I know I need to get it out of the way so I can get to the root cause. Because Candida usually comes with heavy metals, environmental toxic load, like other glyphosate, pesticides, herbicides, all that stuff. It usually comes with parasites, it usually comes with other bacterial infections. And if it's naive to say, if I get rid of this Candida, all of your symptoms are going to go away. Some of your symptoms are going to go away. But Candida is usually there because there is lack of good bacteria. The bad guys are overgrowing because there's not enough good guys, but the good guys are in there is because there's more bad guys. They're causing the Candida to grow. And so if you're listening to this and you have endometriosis or you have candida overgrowth, and you're like, oh, my God, I've done Candida cleanses and it did nothing for me. It's because you didn't go deep enough. It's not that it wasn't the right thing. It's that your practitioner didn't guide you to go deep enough and to look at all the pathogens that are involved as opposed to just this east and fungal overgrowth. So for these patients, and this is what I want you guys to know, like, I love testing, but you, your testing is only as good as the interpreter. And you still have to understand that you're taking one stool analysis. If ideally I'd love to take like five or seven stool analysis in a row so we could see what your body is breaking down, we could see the patterns. Because I bet there's stool. So many people who, like, they have parasites, but they're not showing up on the stool analysis. Like, you can't see parasites, but you see other markers that indicate parasites or symptoms or how they describe how they're feeling. You're like, I know this person has parasites. You know, so it's. You're still only getting one stool sample. And so when I'm interpreting that, I very much keep that in mind. And I keep in mind all of the things that we talked about during our initial consultation and how the person described their symptoms and the issues that they're struggling with. Because. Because that's going to also help me create that protocol. Not just short term, but long term, right? Candida, you can dry up in a couple of months. But, you know, parasites and other infections that come up out of that, they might need a little bit longer. They might need another couple of months. And so there's an art, right, to creating this, the candida. Like, that's what I wanted to say about labs, because everybody is like, oh, but nothing showed up on my stool analysis. I don't see anything. I've have never seen anyone not show anything up on stool analysis. Let's just say that. And I've had patients bring their labs to me. So during the initial consult, I'm always like, bring all your labs, because I want to review them and I want to understand what you understand about your health issue.

And most people are like, nobody has ever talked to me about this. And when I look at the labs, like, one of my patients, she didn't have anything show up that was bad, but she had no good flora left. There wasn't anything, quote, unquote bad, very minor. And then her immune system was super suppressed. And I'm like, well, that's not right. That tells me there is a pathogen. We just don't see it on this stool test, but there is a pathogen. And so we start working on stuff. And depending on, you know, her symptoms and how she spread, she had a lot of mold and fungus. Just the way that she was talking and the way that she was feeling and the heaviness and how slow things are moving, and my metabolism is slow, and I'm so cold all the time, and I'm brain foggy. Like, mold makes you feel heavy versus bacteria, will help, will make you feel really anxious and overwhelmed, and some of you feel all of those things. I feel heavy and I'm overwhelmed. And that's because the microbiome is a bit of a mess, right? Especially. And, like, that's why the immune system is so dysregulated. That's why there's so much inflammation. And that's why there is the endometriosis that's growing. So if someone tells me that, oh, just lower her estrogen without looking at the thing that's actually driving it, I know it's not going to work. And I hope that you by now listening to this episode, know that. Huh? Maybe I shouldn't listen to that advice either because it sounds like that doctor is not up to date on research. And that's okay. We just need to make sure that we're speaking up for ourselves. And as professionals, like, I hold myself to a high standard and I'm not here saying that I know everything, but if something doesn't seem right, I want to research that and I want to look, look into that. Because I think it's so simplistic to just say, oh, just take this supplement or just take this drug and this whole thing will go away. It's our bodies and the human being is way too complex for that. The last layer that I want to put in here on treating infections is that there is an energetic component to each infection. So there's physical, mental, emotional component to every bug. There's a reason that bugs are this certain bug, whether it's Candida, whether it's parasites, whether it's bacteria, whether it's a virus that is living in your organism that you've made home. And if we separate the energetics and the like, why are the bugs there in the first place? Well, the bugs are there because we haven't processed something energetically. And so when you process it energetically and whether that's, you know, a trauma and you're becoming aware of your emotions, of what you're holding on to and literally becoming a different person. Because now you're setting boundaries or now you've decided that you don't want to work 20 hour days or 12 hour days and you want to spend. That's an energetic shift where you realize that I don't want to do things a certain way or I'm going to voice my concerns or I'm going to go start going to the gym and doing things for myself. There is an energetic shift that happens. And when we're doing the killing protocol, it essentially helps you make that energetic shift. And so sometimes people make the energetic shift first and then the bugs go. Sometimes the bugs have to go and then the energetic shift happens. I've seen both in my practice. I don't think that there is a right or wrong. I think that there's just an intention when I meet with my people that there is A spirit. There is a soul that I'm talking to that's struggling, that's trying to figure out how to live in this body. And so I know that the body is the smartest machine in this world, and it doesn't do anything without a reason. And so if my intention is to help this soul figure out how to live in its body and to help it thrive and to make that connection, then my approach is going to be very different than, oh, you have Candida. Let's just get rid of it. I want to know why your body made it a home. And so if I talk about some energetics here, Candida or Easter fungus is all about suppression. And so if you suppress yourself a lot, and you might not even realize that you do that, and you learn how to do that as a child, as a baby, as whatever it's you're suppressing, you're suppressing, you're suppressing. And then this bug is just part of who you are. And for the. Some of these women that I've had who've had Candida overgrowth in the last, you know, in the last six months, what happens as soon as I lay that foundation, I'm like, hey, this bug usually grows when we suppress. Are you suppressing yourself a lot? And I'll. They're like, I'm not sure. I don't think so. I'm like, okay, let's just. I'm gonna. Because I meet my people every two weeks. So I say, like, hey, why don't you just pay attention to how much you suppress versus how much you express? And they always come back and they go, I am suppressing all day long. All day long. There is a reaction that I want to. Or something I want to say or do, and I don't do it. Whether it's because I'm afraid of being judged. I don't want to start a fight. I don't want it. Like, I already. Whatever.

And they're just going suppressing themselves all day long. And so as we start to get these bugs out and we're moving energy, they're gonna feel maybe irritated, maybe they're gonna have an outburst where they actually express themselves. And the goal is to teach them how to do it in a way that's safe, that doesn't blow up their life, and in a way that helps them understand their own emotions and how their body processes. And where did they learn that in the first place? Where did they learn to suppress it? For example, if you grew up with a parent that was an alcoholic, or, you know, drug abuse, or just like an emotionally unavailable parent, let's say, then you had to learn to suppress yourself so then you wouldn't get in trouble, you wouldn't be a thing that caused issues, right? And there's a lot of pain in that. There's a lot of trauma, there's a lot of grief, there's a lot of sadness. But you learned that skill to suppress yourself because you needed to for survival. Now you're no longer five years old, you're no longer seven years old. So you have to learn how to be able to express yourself and know that it is okay to have your needs met and it is okay to ask for things. And this affects both men and women. I used to see a lot more mold and fungus in men, but I actually see it pretty evenly now. So I think suppression is a thing that happens all the time. And so treating the energetics component here, you guys, is really, really important. With endometriosis, I always see multiple traumas that are involved. And whether it's losing your parent or having an abusive parent, or losing a sibling, a grandparent, like big moves, like lots of stress, there's something that is dysregulating the nervous system, which then leads to this higher cortisol levels, which leads to higher inflammation levels. And then the environmental toxic load is just so, so high right now in the world that most people are not aware of it. And then we don't know how the body works. We don't know how to detox it, we don't know how we're supposed to eat. We don't know the levels of nutrients that we're getting or not getting. And like I said, this is where the testing comes into play because you can actually see it. People are like, oh, I eat well. Well, your nutrient panel shows otherwise, you know, and it's not that you're not eating well or your efforts don't count, but it's like, well, something is not communicating. So it's a really big deal to make sure you understand everything that's involved in the infection and inflammation and immune system disregulation. And then having that step by step depth approach to like, that is the first thing that I treat. I will treat the candida because it's there. But I'm also very much looking out for the other infections and you. And when I treat, when I look at the partner, you have to look at what the partner is struggling with because you are sharing microbiome. So when people live together and even when you do have kids, or maybe some of you already have kids. You're sharing a microbiome and there's a dominant microbiome that tends to be in the household that kind of sets it. They used to say it was the men, but I actually think it's anybody who cooks the most because you have such a direct connection to the food and you're literally passing on your microbiome. Like when someone cooks the same meal, but it turns out differently with the same ingredients, it's our microbiome that dictates that, you know. So, yeah, I think that when I look at the male and sometimes I don't see yeast in the mail at all. I see symptoms of yeast, but I'll see parasites or I'll see bacterial infections. We have to treat all of that for both partners, but one partner will have, I don't want to say like difficulty, but like the essence of that bug will be more difficult to overcome for certain people. So for like, if you have a lot of yeast and fungus overgrowing, that's the thing that you're going to have to focus on the most. But we still have to get the parasites because they're the largest, the biggest because of the environmental toxic load. Everybody has parasites. We have to get them out of the way. But you might not need to spend nine months cleansing them. You might just need a month or two and then you can go into a deeper east fungal protocol versus, you know, for someone who's stuck in the fungal section or in the parasites, they might spend a little bit more time clearing out parasites.

So everybody is different. And my hope is that you guys kind of understand that the complexity of endometriosis is not as simple. It's just high estrogen or it's just this infection, it's uroplasma. And so I'm going to get it. It's understanding when to test, how to retest and what it actually the protocol needs to look like in order to be able to overcome disinfection. The body needs energy to overcome the infection, which means the nutrients need to be there, methylation needs to be functioning. You need to be drinking clean water, eating high quality food, prioritizing your sleep, and treating the partner at the same time. If you've treated Candida, but your partner has never done anything, even if he's not the source, you're still passing it back and forth. And so what happens is he's a carrier, you're trying to get rid of it, he doesn't do anything. And then intimacy of Any kind from holding hands to breathing, to kissing, to obviously intercourse. And you know, that bug is making it way to you again. So always in any infections, we want to be treating the whole family, the partners. And that's actually going to be my next episode, is how I help women to get the male partner on board and why it's important, because I think there is a lot of women who think it's a you problem. Like they think it's a them problem for fertility and his sperm is fine. And some, there's a lot of women who know that the male, they're concerned about their male partner, but they just don't know how to get him, you know, on board with everything that you're doing. And so I want to share that with you on the next episode. But I hope you guys find this helpful. I just thought it was very interesting that so many of my women are showing up with Candida right now. And I think that Candida there is for sure it's an infection. It's not supposed to be there. And I don't think it's the only infection. But seeing it on tests over and over again, again, I'm not sure if it's something that you guys need to hear or something that I need to learn about. I always think my cases, when they come to me and the things that I found, they're either going to help me heal or they're going to help and help my patients heal, but help you guys, my listeners. So then we can help you move in the right direction. And if you have done some Candida cleanses and they didn't work, I hope that it helps you understand why. Because it's not that your effort didn't count. You actually just stopped, you know, a quarter into the journey. And so a lot of the times it's the follow through. And I don't blame you and I will blame the practitioners, but I don't want to say, like, I blame the practitioners because I made those mistakes also. It's just if you're a practitioner listening to this and you're like, oh man, I do that, but I don't really know what else to do. This is when we seek out mentorship, because if your patients are not really getting better or they're coming back with Candida just the year after and the year after and the year thereafter, we're not treating the root cause. And we need to look at the mental, emotional, energetic component of these bugs. And we need to understand how to physically get them out. Because I'll tell you I underestimated the dosages of some stuff that I had to and like my husband has had fungus basically since we met and we've gotten his fungus level down to really good level, but there's still some stubborn stuff left over and I've just underestimated how much we have to do how many doses of what supplements and how many killing things at the same time time, especially for something that's stubborn, the bug and my husband. And it's when we underestimate that, then obviously the results don't aren't there. So if you're a practitioner and you're like, I'm just not getting the results that I want, this is the time to seek out mentorship. If you're working with a practitioner, that's a cue for you to find another practitioner. If you're putting time, energy and money and something isn't working, then it's just time to move on. All right, you guys, I hope you find this helpful. I'd love for you to rate this episode and share it with somebody that you think will find it helpful. Otherwise, I'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening. To read the full show notes of this episode, including summary, timestamps, guest quotes, and any resources that were mentioned on the episode. Visit drjanelevesque.com podcast and if you're getting value from these episodes, I'd love it if you took 2 minutes to share it with a friend. Rate and leave me a review at ratethispodcast.com forward/doctorjane. The reviews will help with the discoverability of the show. And who knows, I might share your review on my next episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. And let's make your fertility journey your healing journey.