Are these “Biohacking” practices helping or hurting your fertility?
Have you been seeing content like this online?
“Stop cold plunging it’s going to destroy your hormones!”
“Don’t EVER do high intensity exercise, it will stress out your body!”
“NEVER fast if you want to get pregnant”
"These practices aren't good for female bodies"
You’ve seen the statements saying “stressors” like cold-plunging, fasting, and high-intensity exercise are going to impair your hormone vitality and fertility.
But then you hear stories of women who’ve gotten pregnant because they implemented fasting, cold exposure or exercise to their routines.
So, what’s the truth? Are these “biohacking” practices helpful or harmful to your female hormones and fertility? Let’s find out!
This holistic nutritionist’s take on Cold-plunging, fasting, and high-intensity exercise for hormone vitality and fertility.
Here’s the thing:
Do I think women should follow the exact same habits and "protocols" for fasting, exercise, cold-plunging, etc that men do? No!
But do I think these practices are inherently detrimental to women's hormones and fertility? Absolutely not.
We have different hormones and different cycles than men
Our hormones fluctuate with the infradian rhythm whereas male hormones fluctuate with the circadian rhythm- which means that habits that men can do with ease every day, women benefit most during certain phases of our cycle.
For example, fasting, cold-plunging, and high-intensity exercise are all higher stress habits that are best done in the follicular phase (after you finish bleeding, about day 5 up to day 11) when your hormones are more stress-resilient and these practices (when done in appropriate doses, at the right time of day, and for the right person) can actually promote improved hormone balance.
I've particularly found them to be extremely helpful practices for women with "aging" fertility who want to extend their reproductive longevity.
How can you get the benefits of cold-plunging, fasting and exercise with respect to your fertility?
For anyone who is going to be cold-plunging, fasting and exercising, I always encourage them to do it from a place of abundance:
Planning to fast while balancing your hormones?
Make sure you’re well-slept, you’re moving regularly, you’re getting natural sunlight and you’ve eaten sufficient calories throughout the day THEN going into an early-dinner, overnight-fast, following it up with breakfast at your normal waking time.
Planning to cold-plunge (or cold-shower) to support your hormonal vitality?
First bring up your body temperature with some sauna use, red-light therapy, aerobic exercise or simply sun-bathing (if it’s warm enough) then do your cold exposure, even a cold exposure for as little as 10 seconds can be extremely revitalizing, or life-giving as I like to say 😉.
The duration and intensity of your cold exposure can vary throughout the time in your cycle. Here’s how I do it in a way that supports my hormones:
(You may feel better with a different frequency duration! that’s totally normal- you do you!)
Period/Bleeding phase: Avoid
Follicular/Pre-ovulatory: Cold plunging ~30 seconds
Ovulatory: Cold showers ~15 seconds
Luteal/ Post-ovulatory: Cold showers ~10 seconds
Interested in living more in alignment with your cycle to optimize your fertility?
Check out meal Seasonal Meal Plans that I design with each phase of your cycle in mind so you can achieve optimal fertility!
When Cold-plunging, fasting, and high-intensity exercise can be harmful to your female hormones and fertility
But for some people who are chronically-stressed, burned out, and/or have low thyroid (or "poor vitality"), higher amounts or longer durations of these practices can be harmful to your hormonal equilibrium- but that doesn't mean that you should NEVER do ANY amount of them
Hormetic stress - a short term stress for long-term gain- requires an individualized approach and is important to start small and increase gradually as your stress-resilience and hormone vitality improves.
The best medicine could also be your greatest poison.
Exercise, food (even "superfoods" like organ meats), fasting, cold-plunging, sunlight, exposure to nature’s elements, sex and social connection can all be tools for improving, fertility, longevity, immune health, and stress resilience.
BUT
All of these tools, if practiced in excess, at the wrong timing, or with the wrong intentions and strategies, can be some of your greatest sources of weakness and can take you further from your goals of achieving ultimate wellness and optimal fertility.
Not every “medicine” is FOR everyone. But that doesn’t mean it’s not for ANYONE either.
When you shift your mindset to intuitively use these tools to serve your long-term goals, they can be some of your greatest assets and fast-track your way to hormone vitality.
Let’s remember that treatment modalities like these are not *new* trends and some "biohacking" tools are simply- healthy habits.
As Abdul-Bahá shares in the Baha’i Writings over a century ago,
"When the science of medicine reaches perfection, treatment will be given by foods, aliments, fragrant fruits and vegetables, and by various waters, hot and cold in temperature"
Interested in a no-nonsense, nuanced approach to healing your hormones and achieving optimal fertility with your WHOLE body in mind?
This is the philosophy that I teach from in Resilient Motherhood.
Throughout the entire course, I break down WHY and FOR WHO certain changes will be helpful to make and when they may not be, so you can personalize the information to meet YOUR BODY where its at.
Ready to achieve resilience on your journey to motherhood?
Join us in Resilient Motherhood today!
