Egg Meets Sperm, the podcast dedicated to empowering your fertility journey—holistically and effectively! 🌱✨

In this episode, we uncover the surprising connection between gut health and fertility for both women and men. From hormone imbalances to nutrient absorption, gut inflammation can wreak havoc on your reproductive health. But don’t worry—In this episode, I will share actionable tips and insights to restore balance and boost your chances of conception.

Hi! I'm Dr Aumatma, I'm;

• A licensed Naturopathic Doctor for 15 years, with additional board certification in Naturopathic Endocrinology
• Creator of The Restorative Fertility Method
• Host of Egg Meets Sperm Podcast, a Top 5% podcast
• 2x Best-selling author: Fertility Secrets and (in)Fertility: Struggles, Secrets, & Successes
• Awards: Best Naturopathic Medicine Doctor (2015, 2020) and Top Women in Medicine Doctor (2020, 2021), Berkeley Hall of Fame (2022)
• Interviewed on 100+ podcasts about fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum
• Featured as the Holistic Fertility Expert on ABC, FOX, CBS, KTLA, MindBodyGreen, The Bump 
• Has trained hundreds of practitioners around the world in holistic approaches to fertility, and has certified top doctors in the Fertile Foundations™ system 
• Founder of Madre Fertility, with a free Smart Fertility Analysis, to help you better understand blocks to fertility, and create a customized roadmap for the journey.
• Medical Advisor for Mira Fertility, Element, and Feminade - three awesome leaders in fertility & women’s health 

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How gut inflammation impacts hormone regulation and fertility.
• The role of gut health in conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, and Hashimoto’s.
• Practical steps to heal your gut through an anti-inflammatory diet, stress management, and targeted supplements.
• Why men’s fertility also depends on a healthy gut (hello, better sperm quality!).
• Plus, discover why high-achieving professionals often miss the early signs of gut issues and how addressing them can improve not just fertility but overall well-being.

Don't miss out on this in-depth episode filled with practical advice and inspiration to help you on your fertility journey.

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Hey, it's Dr. Obama, host of Egg Me Sperm. And this is the best podcast to get all of the vital information that you need to support your fertility journey holistically for you and your partner, because fertility takes two.

is and how it can wreak havoc on your overall health, including your fertility. Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria known as the microbiome, which plays a vital role in digestion, immune function, and even hormone production.(...) When the gut lining becomes inflamed due to factors like poor diet stress or infections, it disrupts the delicate balance. Gut inflammation damages the protective barrier in your intestines, leading to a condition that's often referred to as leaky gut. This allows for toxins, undigested food particles, and harmful bacteria to enter into your bloodstream, which triggers widespread inflammation.(...) This chronic inflammation doesn't just stay in the gut. It affects your entire body, including your reproductive

Now let's talk about how gut inflammation directly impacts female fertility. It's not just about bloating or digestive discomfort. Gut health plays a critical role in your hormone regulation and fertility and bonus in your pregnancy outcome. So I've seen a lot of women with recurrent pregnancy loss who actually have root cause issue of gut inflammation impacting their pregnancies.

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So hormone imbalances are one of the key areas that we focus on when it comes to fertility and your gut microbiome is responsible for metabolizing hormones like estrogen.(...) When your gut is inflamed, it can lead to estrogen dominance, which can be linked to conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, irregular menstrual cycles. Even some degree of thyroid immelons can relate back to how well your gut function.(...) Estrogen dominance can make it difficult to conceive and can lead to an increased risk of

miscarriage.

absorption issues. Gut inflammation impairs your body's ability to absorb key nutrients that are essential for fertility like zinc, magnesium, folate. Without these nutrients, your body may struggle to support ovulation, egg quality, and overall reproductive health. So if you are having absorption issues, you can take all of the supplements in the world and still you wouldn't be able to absorb the nutrients from the supplements and essentially make very expensive urine and poop.(...) Not a good thing. But more so, the most important piece of this is, whether it's through food or supplements, not absorbing the nutrients means that you're not having adequate nutrition for supporting the essential aspects of fertility in order to conceive.

system dysregulation. Since 70 to 80 percent of your immune system actually resides in the gut, inflammation there can lead to autoimmune conditions that attack reproductive organs or the thyroid. For example, Hashimoto's, which are very common in women and often are triggered by gut issues and often are connected to the inability to conceive or making it way, way, way harder to conceive, as well as the inability to carry to term.

Increased inflammation throughout the body can affect your ovaries, making it harder for them to release healthy eggs. This can reduce your chances of conception

turn increase the risk of early pregnancy

but not least, let's not forget about the men. Gut inflammation affects male fertility as well. Sperm quality can be impacted by gut inflammation because this inflammation can lead to oxidative stress, which makes the sperm way more(...) liable to damage. Poor sperm motility and morphology are common in men with inflammation issues and this can make conception more difficult. It can also impact the quality of the embryo and hence the ability to carry to term.

Hormone imbalances in men are also possible. Gut inflammation can cause hormone imbalances the same way as women in men, specifically causing lower testosterone levels. Low testosterone leads to low sperm count and poor sperm quality, directly impacting fertility and of course it affects sex drive, erectile dysfunction is a possible cause of that and

impact of low testosterone in a male body is

increase systemic inflammation. Inflammation doesn't just stay in the gut, it spreads throughout the body, leading to systemic issues that can affect sperm DNA as well as overall reproductive health.(...)

why is this so relevant to fertility, especially as a CEO entrepreneur badass woman that is doing amazing things in the world, making a difference, yet struggling with fertility?

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High stress levels, poor sleep, and often a diet that's more about convenience rather than nutrition can contribute to gut inflammation. Stress in particular is always a major factor but in specific it will disrupt gut health. When you're constantly under pressure your body releases cortisol, a stress hormone that negatively impacts the lining of the gut and negatively impacts the gut microbiome.

And let's face it, as high achieving women, we tend to push through discomfort. We ignore the signs of gut issues, whether it's bloating, fatigue,(...) or brain fog because you've got too much going on. Trust me, I completely understand because about a year before I started to try to conceive,(...) I literally was in pain every single night, doubled over in pain, about an eight out of ten level of pain in my gut. And it took me six months to finally do a test to figure out what that pain was caused by, why it was happening, and how to address it so that I could potentially support my fertility when I was ready.

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So gut health is foundational to fertility and if it's out of balance it will show up in other areas of health, especially your reproductive system, but the reproductive health is much later and harder to see. So you really want to look for signs like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, the alternating of

constipation, and diarrhea as well.(...) Sometimes you may even notice joint pains which are a sign that something is happening in the gut, especially if that joint pain is not necessarily from overuse of a joint. For example, if you run and you get knee pain, that's pretty common, but if you run you have gut symptoms and then your wrist hurts out of nowhere on random days, you may actually link that back to the gut rather than your running, which has nothing to do with your wrist. I hope that makes sense. We really want to start highlighting some of these things that you are experiencing and often pushing through because I know as a high achieving woman, I have been there, I do this all the time, I kind of find that women like me that I'm talking to right now are often going to push themselves beyond their discomfort and keep going and often that leads to a crash that you may not expect. Another symptom to watch out for is brain fog and brain fog is not necessarily so common that you start noticing it right away, but it happens with a slow decline. You might feel like, "Oh, every now and then I'm starting to need more coffee, I'm drinking two cups, then I'm drinking three cups, I can't get past

the brain fog, I just need that little jump in the middle of the afternoon." If that sounds like you, start thinking about when that was triggered and how long it's been going on because more likely than not those triggers are happening

such a nuanced way that you often miss it when it first starts because you're like, "Oh, maybe I just didn't get enough sleep." Don't pass things off,(...) make a little journal,(...) write stuff down so that you remember what you're experiencing in your body on a day-to-day basis, especially if fertility is your primary focus right now.

this sounds like a bleak picture, but there is good news here. A functional approach to fertility doesn't just mean we treat symptoms, it addresses the root cause, especially the gut health, which is a huge part of fertility. And a lot of times I've heard women say, "Oh, we'll work with you after I deal with my gut thing." Like, well, your gut thing is so much the reason why you have fertility issues, but often if you're not approaching it from the fertility angle or you're not working with a proficient practitioner for fertility, they don't necessarily know how to support that healing of the gut even to directly improve your fertility. So, here are some things that you can do on your own to get

anti-inflammatory diet can be a really great starting point because it's basic, it's going to support your fertility regardless, and it can support and help

your gut

start by incorporating

anti-inflammatory foods into your diet. Think leafy greens, berries, fatty fish, fermented foods like sauerkraut, natto,

tempeh, kefir. I would opt for a coconut kefir if you're going to do that. These foods really help to repair the gut lining. They also are supporting a healthy microbiome, which in and of itself is going to help heal the gut lining. So, especially fermented foods, things that are high in probiotics are going to support the healing of your

eliminate trigger foods.(...) Common culprits of gut inflammation include gluten, dairy, sugar, and processed foods. So, considering eliminating those and often(...) eliminating those will quickly help support the healing of your gut.

you eliminate those foods for about, wait about six to eight weeks after you eliminate those foods, and notice if your symptoms have improved or if they've completely gone away. If they've completely gone away, you've nailed it. Good job.(...) If they are not completely gone, but you feel somewhat better, this is the point at which you may consider functional testing to really understand what's happening, what is the dynamic that is playing a role in your triggers, as well as what's causing the gut inflammation.

type of testing can also help to identify the presence of bad bacteria, yeast, or canada, which can be causing so many of your symptoms.

this information, you can target these specific issues and begin to heal your gut, which in turn will support your fertility. Additionally, I would say food testing, like

something called a mediated response test, is actually testing the immune system against the specific foods that we are testing. And it can highlight exactly which foods are causing the triggers to your immune system.

high quality probiotic and prebiotic can support the gut.

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With the right probiotics and prebiotics, you can help restore the balance of your microbiome. And a well-balanced microbiome is key to regulating hormones and reducing systemic inflammation.

Last but not least, managing stress is always so helpful in so many ways. Stress is one of the biggest disruptors of gut health, incorporating some stress management techniques like meditation or yoga or even daily deep breathing exercises is a really great way to lower the high cortisol level and heal your gut inflammation by lowering the chronic stress.

Now, remember, your gut health is directly connected to your reproductive health. Healing your gut can help restore hormone balance, improve egg and sperm quality, and increase your chances of conceiving. So don't ignore the signs of gut inflammation, especially if you're struggling with fertility. As busy professionals, it's easy to overlook these issues, but investing in your gut health and overall health will pay off not just for your fertility journey, but in your overall well-being. Your body needs to be in balance to support a healthy pregnancy and it all starts with the

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