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What These 3 Markers Say About Your Metabolic Health (+How That Connects to Period Loss + Infertility) · Nourished Fertility

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  Welcome back to the Nourishing Women Podcast, your go-to podcast to get
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  your peer back and get pregnant.
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  I'm your host, Victoria Myers, peer recovery specialist, fertility,
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  dietician, and owner of the virtual coaching Practice, nourishing
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  Minds Nutrition, where we work together to restore your fertility
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  . In this episode, I referenced this a couple weeks ago, but I wanna dive a
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  little bit more into metabolic health because we've been talking about
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  it quite a bit in recent episodes.
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  And I really want you to understand today, like both what metabolic health
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  does, like how that connects to period loss and infertility, but also what are
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  markers that assess your metabolic health.
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  Now these are markers that we do and assess with every client
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  we work with inside of Premier Peer recovery for fertility.
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  So I want you to know really what we look for in our clients to tell us
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  what's going on with your metabolism as we reference in an episode a couple
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  weeks ago, of the three unexpected causes of period loss, let's just do
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  a quick refresher on your metabolism.
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  I think this is always so helpful to hear, to really help
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  understand why this is important.
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  Your metabolism is the foundation of every single system in the body,
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  and I'm not just talking your like metabolism, the way we think of
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  like weight loss or like the weight.
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  It's referenced often in the weight loss world.
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  Really, you need to think even a step deeper.
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  i'm actually talking about cellular metabolism.
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  The rate at which your cells are able to take nutrients, convert them into
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  energy, and then use that energy to run all of your body's processes, hormone
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  production, digestion, detoxification, thyroid function, and just so much more.
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  So when cellular metabolism slows down or is.
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  Damage.
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  Everything else in the body also becomes slow or damaged.
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  And for the woman who's dieted or over exercised her whole life, this
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  is often the missing piece in her pure loss and infertility story.
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  Now, your body, it's metabolically adaptive.
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  This means that it adapts to the environment it's put into.
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  So if that environment has been, chronic undereating.
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  Long-term calorie deficits, low carbohydrate intake,
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  high exercise, no rest days, psychological stress, perfectionism.
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  Your body is going to adapt by conserving energy.
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  So when we work with women in fertility recovery, we know that that is happening
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  because of these three very markers that we look at to assess metabolic health.
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  So let's dig in.
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  Marker Number one is metabolic type on an htm A. We run a hair tissue mineral
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  analysis or an HMA with every client we work with in our premier program.
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  And one of the patterns we assess in this test is metabolic type.
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  Your metabolic type reflects how quickly your cells are producing energy from
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  the nutrients being delivered to them.
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  , So a slow oxidizer has a slow rate of cellular energy production, and
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  a fast oxidizer has a faster rate of cellular energy production.
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  We see both patterns show up in women with pure loss and infertility,
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  with hypothermic, amenorrhea, or even just dysfunction, but.
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  For different reasons.
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  So a slow metabolic type often is more reflective, specifically of
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  a more exhausted stress response.
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  Common characteristics with this are often like low body temperature, cold
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  hands and feet, fatigue, low blood pressure, especially when you stand up.
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  Slower digestion or constipation, bloating and lower resting heart rate.
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  From a physiological standpoint, it's a productive adaptation, right?
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  When the body has experienced long-term stress and insufficient
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  energy intake, it reduces metabolic output in order to preserve energy
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  for essential survival processes.
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  It's similar, a financial conservation model.
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  If resources are limited, you reduce spending, right?
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  In this case, the spending is metabolic energy output.
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  In contrast, there's also a fast metabolic type, which we often see a lot of times.
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  If we see a fast type.
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  Fast three or fours, which means they're in such a state of chronic stress that
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  they are getting ready to burn out.
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  , This fast type again reflects chronic sympathetic dominance being in a
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  long term state of fight or flight.
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  These are often women that present as , high achieving anxious.
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  Wired but tired over exercisers that are just like restless energy.
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  And in this pattern specifically, the adrenal glands are chronically stimulated.
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  While energy production may initially appear high, it's just not sustainable.
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  Over time, this pattern can actually suppress reproductive hormone cycling
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  because the body is just prioritizing stress, survival over reproduction.
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  So slow or fast, especially when we're on the subtypes of like three and four.
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  Of these types of metabolic health are really just indicating like a lot of
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  stress going on in the body and just adapting in different ways depending on
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  what's specifically going on in your body.
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  Just know that with both, with assessing metabolic types, specifically through
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  an HTMA, they give us insight into why ovulation your cycle and your fertility
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  we're struggling with that right now.
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  Next is marker number two.
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  Basal body temperature or BBT.
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  So your basal body temperature is one of the most underutilized
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  markers of metabolic health, and it's also the free, cheap option.
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  So maybe this is especially something you can really start to consider as
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  you begin to take action to fix your metabolic health for your period
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  recovery and fertility journey.
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  Your basal body temperature taken first thing in the morning before getting out
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  of bed actually gives us insight into thermogenesis , or heat production.
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  Right?
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  Heat production is directly tied to cellular energy production.
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  When metabolism is robust, thermogenesis is strong.
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  When metabolism is suppressed, thermogenesis decreases.
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  So if your basal body temperature is consistently in the low 90 sevens
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  or even lower than that, that may indicate reduced metabolic output.
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  Most of the women we work with describe whenever this is especially
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  going on, that they always feel cold that they need layers.
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  When other people are comfortable, they sleep with socks on, they just are cold
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  gear round, even in the summertime.
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  This is not a random them symptom.
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  These are indicators of low thermogenesis since ovulation requires significant
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  energy, it really requires a body that feels safe and in abundance.
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  Low metabolic output can impair the body's willingness to initiate and sustain the
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  hormone cascade necessary for ovulation.
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  We use basal bio temperature with our clients to not only assess fertility
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  and what's going on with, , are they ovulating, are they not?
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  How long is the luteal phase?
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  But it also helps us assess metabolic type as we just discussed in thyroid health,
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  which is what we're gonna talk about next.
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  I even love BBT so much because it helps me get that insight into like how long it
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  might take a client's peer to come back.
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  For example, if a client comes to me and their basal by temperature is in
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  the high 90 sixes, I know we've got some work to do that is unlikely that
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  they're gonna ovulate really soon.
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  Where in contrast, if have a client that comes to me, they're already
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  in the mid 90 sevens, I know that we're getting closer and closer to an
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  ovulation in period happening so soon.
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  , Next, marker.
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  Number three, a full thyroid panel to assess metabolic health.
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  Your thyroid and metabolism, they're deeply interconnected.
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  According to Ryden, your thyroid hormone is like the spark hormone that directly
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  increases the rate at which mitochondria turns food into energy and heat.
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  So you can think of it as your metabolic switch.
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  If you have low production of thyroid hormones or low conversion of T four,
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  the inactive thyroid hormone into T three, the active thyroid hormone,
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  this can impair metabolic function too.
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  When we assess thyroid health in women with pure loss, we're not
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  simply looking for just normal ranges.
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  We're looking for optimal.
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  We're looking for the full thyroid panel, and this is why we order far more than
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  just TSH or thyroid simulating hormone.
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  And this is important because thyroid hormones and reproductive
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  hormones are closely linked.
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  If thyroid function is suppressed due to chronic energy deficiency,
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  this is going to impact your thyroid, which then impacts your hormones
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  like estrogen, lh, and FSH two.
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  This is why we always emphasize in our fertility work that metabolism
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  must be addressed at a cellular level.
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  What exactly does that mean?
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  That means supporting your metabolism through testing, not guessing, right?
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  Figuring out exactly what's going on in your body, and then taking
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  action and creating custom protocols.
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  Based off of what we find in the lab work and what we find within the really
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  in-depth assessments that we do with our clients to really understand what
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  specifically is going on with their eating habits, their exercise habits, their
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  stress, their lifestyle, sleep, and more.
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  As well as what's happened through the years that led to the
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  period loss in the first place.
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  And those protocols often look like supporting the metabolism through
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  eating adequate carbohydrates, reducing exercise intensity and frequency,
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  improving mineral status and replenishing nutrient stores supporting your nervous
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  system and your circadian rhythm too.
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  When cellular energy production improves.
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  So many things.
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  Improve your thyroid health, improves your basal bio temperature is gonna increase,
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  your digestion improves reproductive hormone cycling can normalize, and
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  all of this is then what supports your fertility and your ability to get and
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  stay pregnant If you are curious and you wanna understand better what's going on
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  with your metabolic health to see if this is part of the root cause of what the
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  heck is going on with your peer loss.
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  We're regular periods or problematic periods that are causing your current
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  infertility, I would highly encourage you to apply for a premier period of recovery
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  for fertility 'cause that is exactly what we do in our practice and exactly how we
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  help our clients from a true inside out whole body approach to their fertility.
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  As of this recording, there are only two spots left for Premier Peer
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  recovery for fertility for this month.
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  If you wanna grab one of those two final spots, click the link
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  in the show notes to apply.
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  I'll see you guys back next week for a bonus episode.
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  We're gonna have a quick, short, sweet episode talking about a
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  MH because you guys had some questions about that on Instagram.
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  So we'll be back for a bonus episode next week.
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  Until then, know that a Nourish bodying is a powerful one.