How to plan your journey with the least life impact

I was panicking, fearing for my life, while cursing my own stupidity.

Lost, at minus 6 degrees. In the snow. Up a mountain. In a forest. Getting dark, and with no shelter. And nobody knew where I was.

It started innocently as a search for the tallest tree in Germany, close to where I live.

I’d had this realisation that a tree – regardless of the hardship it encounters – just keeps growing and going in any direction it can to reach its goal.

I decided it would be a fun project to share the search for the tallest tree with my Facebook fertility group, to show its amazing strength and perseverance.

So I used my phone to video my journey – till the battery ran down quicker than expected.

With no more Google Maps, I discovered I had missed a crucial piece of planning: taking a map!

Well, I never found the tree. But after much circling and backtracking — and cursing — I finally found my way back down the mountain to the road.

This got me thinking about making mistakes on a fertility health journey.

I paid for my mistake with a bad chill, and a jolly good scolding from family and friends, who were worried about where I was.

But when it comes to fixing health issues, mistakes are much more costly.

Not only does it waste your time. You also end up with a new problem: having to reverse the damage to your health. And that is always costly. In time, energy, emotion, AND money.

But there is one way you can avoid this waste: by following my sequence below when planning your journey to pregnancy.

It’s kind of obvious when you hear it. Yet people get this wrong all the time, just like I did on my tree-hunting trip, and they just think it must be too simple to be necessary.

In my previous post, we looked at the principle of Excellent Health = Excellent Fertility.

Now here’s my ideal sequence to plan for excellent health, and thus, excellent fertility:

First, find out ‘What and Why’.

Then decide ‘Which and When’. 

And only then, ‘Deliver it’.

In that order.

OK, let’s take a look at each one in more detail.

Step 1: Discover the What, and Why.

If you’ve read the other posts you’ll know by now that the root cause is the key to your entire fertility journey!

You need to find out what your body is telling you about your health balance – and do the same for your partner too. 

Start by looking at the physical balance – by doing some foundational tests* that can give clues to what is going on.

Then, once that’s done, look at the functional balance to discover why your body is not allowing conception or a healthy pregnancy – this assesses your root health balance.

We all know that when something isn’t happening as it should be, there must be a cause for it. 

What we’re looking for is the root cause – and in this case, it’s the cause of what’s stopping you getting or staying pregnant.

The goal here is to find out what the root cause of your health balance is so that you know exactly what you’re dealing with. 

Only then can you effectively address it. 

*See below for a list of tests I recommend for men and women

Step 2: Decide on the Which, When and How long.

After you’ve determined the root cause, you can choose the right treatments to help correct it. 

Every type of treatment has a different effect and each one can only treat certain types of issues. 

Acupuncture for example only increases circulation of the body’s energy (Qi) and Blood. 

It can not increase the Qi or Blood quality. 

Considering that most people with fertility issues (around 90%) need to increase their Qi and Blood quality – acupuncture cannot help with this. 

It is therefore NOT the treatment of choice when people need to increase their Qi and Blood quality and so can be ruled out.

This is how we decide on which treatments are correct for you: your health balance (too much or too little of certain things) will determine which treatments are needed, and which ones are a waste of time.

Treatment then becomes focused on your unique needs, and it is never a ‘let’s try and see’ blanket approach – as with so many other approaches in the fertility world.

Deciding which treatments are right for your root cause, along with knowing when to start or change treatments, and how long to use them for – will allow you to establish fertile health. 

Treatments can include Herbal Medicine, Diet, Lifestyle Changes, Environmental Changes, Basic Supplement Support, Acupuncture, Mindset Support, Fertility Massage, and more. 

This step also includes planning for assisted treatments to use that could help you – if you are on the assisted route path – such as: IUI, IVF or Egg Donation. 

And also how to use natural treatments to prepare for, and throughout, the assisted treatment cycles to increase your chances of it working.

Step 3: Going ahead and Delivering it.

You’ve probably already discovered an overwhelming variety of ways to “improve your fertility” through Dr. Google! 

Every fertility practitioner will tell you something different. Some of it will help, some of it will not. The things that will help are the ones that are aligned with your root health balance.

Over the last 25+ years, I’ve discovered that there are only 5 things that really impact our general and fertility health: 

1. Mindset: for mental and emotional happiness and reducing stress
2. Diet: through natural and personalised eating habits (covered in an upcoming post)
3. Treatment: for restoring balance through external methods
4. Lifestyle: to develop a naturally balanced way of life
5. Environment: to know how the environment impacts your health

If you notice yourself taking action on any of these BEFORE completing step 1 (knowing the root cause), then you may be taking a dangerous trip without a map!

So, once again, make sure you follow this sequence: 

Discover ‘What and Why’.

Then decide ‘Which and When’. 

And only then, ‘Deliver it’.

*Recommended tests for finding What and Why

Tests for women

These are the minimum tests I recommend women complete every 6 months. These are to review your physical health balance, as well as monitoring changes throughout your journey.

• Hormones
• Thyroid health
• Nutrient levels
• Adrenal Health
• Antral follicle count

There are other tests, including genetic and immune, which may apply depending on your situation. You can read the full detailed list of tests and when to do them here.

Tests for men

Men should do a full Semen Analysis every 6 months during your journey. Depending on the results, you may then need a nutrient profile or thyroid panel done too.

In addition, there are also hormone, genetic and immune test panels — depending on your unique situation. You can read the full detailed list of tests and when to do them here.

ROOT CAUSE diagnosis for men and women…

in my next post, I’ll share with you another tried and tested system, really well suited for getting to the root cause of your fertility health – though you’ll find it rarely used.

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