I’ve been excited to write this post, but also have been putting it off because I know it’s a sensitive topic. I want anyone reading this to know this post comes from a place of love and compassion. I’ve been where you are. 

This isn’t in any way meant to be a one size fits all. It’s meant to be a “take a look at your lifestyle and see if any of this applies to you. See if this information might encourage you to make a lifestyle change,” type of post. If it doesn’t apply to you, or doesn’t inspire you to make a lifestyle change, then that is okay. Your journey is yours and yours alone. No one can or should tell you how to walk your path. I say to all of my clients, my job is not to convince you to do something, it’s not to convince you to “come to my side.” My job is to meet you where you are, give you information, and walk with you as best as I can down your path–together.

I also know in our allopathic society, people want a quick easy fix. Just give us a pill to fix our problems, and this post and my research on the subject isn’t that. It might not be what you want to hear, but I ask you to keep something in mind:

I’ve been where you are. I know your hurt. I know your struggle. I know your overwhelming desire. 

And I know that if someone came to me and said, would you do everything it took to have this? I’d say “yes” without a second thought.  What about you? Would you say yes in a heartbeat?

What are my qualifications for posting this? First and foremost I have a passion for a healthy diet when it promotes better health. Secondly, and maybe what you’re looking for, I have a certification in plant based nutrition. 

Fertility. 

Female fertility to be exact. I will delve more into male fertility at a later date (though this does mention a bit on male fertility), but I want to focus on my women out there. Women I know personally. Women I’ve seen struggle and suffer. This is because of you. This research happened because of you, my friends. 

Again this isn’t a one size fits all, but it’s a starting point. It’s things YOU can control. Things you can change and do. We can’t control our genes, we can’t completely control environmental factors, but we can control some things. That tiny bit of control can be so encouraging.
One of the feelings I always remember feeling is total helplessness. “I have no control over this. This is just the hand I’m dealt.”

 And let me tell you, that’s a horrible feeling. 

There are so many things that affect female fertility. And I’m going to be focusing on the “easy” stuff. There are genetic and biological issues that may be at play as well, which I won’t be diving into and really should be discussed with a fertility specialist that has your best interest at heart. 

A little backstory on me, growing up I constantly had irregular periods. Sexual/reproductive health just wasn’t discussed in my home and whilst I knew irregular periods weren’t normal, I was too scared to bring it up to my mom. 

Those irregular periods continued into adulthood and when My husband and I started trying to conceive we had a heck of a time. So much so, we were one week away from a fertility appointment when I got a positive test, bless the universe. 

After my LO was born we dove into researching a more natural and healthy lifestyle. We felt obligated to. We had this beautiful little human. How in the world could we not take better care of ourselves? Especially when the proof was staring at us in the face. 

We’re not the most natural or healthy family, but certainly moreso than the “typical American.” That’s not to boast, that’s to simply show you, you don’t have to go full crunchy granola to be successful in your life goals. 

As I said before there are SO many things that can affect your fertility. Being a clinical herbalist and birth worker I often have people come to me and say, “do you have something I can take to boost my fertility?”

And I have a hard time saying “yes” full stop. I always have this hesitant, “yes, but” pull in my soul. 

I can give you every tea blend, yoni steam, tincture, capsule, whatever, in the world and yes, it might help, but more often than not it’s like sticking your hand in a fire, asking for burn salve, and then continuing to stick your hand in the fire wondering why the salve isn’t working. 

Yes, there are herbs I can give you and recommend, but your womb, that’s your life force. That’s where our souls split into tiny new souls that grow inside of us and are nourished by us and become beautiful little human beings. That is where the creation of the universe is, really, think about it… without our womb life could not happen. 

So why are we treating her like crap? Why aren’t we nourishing her, celebrating her, treating her, and in turn ourselves, like incredible goddesses? 

Where does that start? Where does any positive health aspect, where does life start? 

With food. 

One of the most beautiful, insightful quotes I’ve ever read is from Hippocrates, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” 

Something people are often surprised about is, doctors don’t have a huge education on nutrition. It’s maybe a few hours that they are taught anything about nutrition. That education is also about the same information that has been around since the 40’s and 50’s. It’s extremely biased and outdated.

When one of the most outstanding physicians of all time, Hippocrates, says that food should be your medicine, I think we should pay more attention to what we’re putting into our bodies. 

Let me pause for a second because if you know me, you probably already know where this is going. If you don’t know me personally, hi, I’m Kaylan and I’m “vegan.” I’m putting that in quotes because people get mad when you say you’re vegan, but you’re not vegan because of animal rights. 

I’m sure you might be thinking, “Ugh another weirdo vegan trying to save animals and push their diet on me *insert eye roll*”

Which is so far from the truth. Writing this post and encouraging you to change your diet does not benefit me in any type of way. I don’t make money off of you (unlike the dairy, meat, medical, and pharmaceutical industries. All of which are intertwined).  Also, unlike other “professionals” in the field who would make a blog post encouraging you to buy their book, or their meal plan, or to have a consultation with them, I’m not doing that at all here. As stated before, I could easily say, “everything you’re doing is wrong. Simply buy this tincture from me and all of your problems will be fixed.” I’m not here for that. That is so out of my realm of proper ethics. Also as stated before, yes I can give things to help support your journey, but this isn’t the space for that.

You thinking I’m a lunatic whilst eating a bacon cheeseburger with a side of chili cheese fries doesn’t hurt me or my fertility.  

So yeah, this post will provide evidence and scientific proof that an animal-less diet is the best for your health and fertility. And if you have already decided this isn’t for you, that’s one 1000% fine! However, I want you to remember your answer to the question I asked at the beginning of this post… “if someone came to you  and said, “would you do everything it took to have this?”” If you said yes, you need to keep reading.  Literally, what have you got to lose? Nothing, but you have the entire world to gain!

If you said yes, but now have realized you’re not ready to do *everything* it takes because you love McDonald’s too much, my dear soul that is fine! You have more you need to work on than you realize, do some soul searching, find out why a diet is more important to you than your ultimate dreams. That’s okay! We all have some soul searching we need to do, all of us myself included, and we need to trust and know that when we’re ready, truly ready, everything will fall into place. 

Also before we deep dive, I obviously have to make this disclaimer. Though I feel it is clear, I’m going to make it blatant. I am not a PhD. I did not conduct any of these studies or tests myself. All of this information is for educational use only and is not meant to replace the advice of a properly trained and knowledgeable medical professional. Please, as always, continue doing research for yourself. Do not take anything told to you (whether by myself or a doctor) at face value. Ask questions, do your own deep dive, research research research! This post was born out of the love for my personal friends who I have seen suffer and ache for a baby. Friends who have come to me in tears, in anger, in strife. I felt compelled to do something, real. I knew my own lifestyle change has helped me immensely and I knew this could possibly be something they could control in such a difficult situation.
Again, I am not a PhD.
If you disagree with anything in this post, I welcome that, but disagree respectfully.

If you’re still here, let’s jump in! 
_________________________________

Dairy

Dairy is possibly the biggest culprit when it comes to female reproductive health! It’s not surprising though if you think about it logically. 

What is dairy?

It is the breast milk of another species. What is in breast milk? Hormones. 

What throws our fertility out of whack? Hormone levels. 

Let’s break that down.
Imagine your glass of milk, instead of “oh it’s milk” let’s think of it as a glass of hormones. You’re taking in excessive hormones in that glass (on top of every other animal product you ingest). No wonder your hormone levels are all over the place, right?

Here’s something else I need you to know about dairy. When I read this I was absolutely shocked and appalled. 

“Dairy consumption is associated with years of advanced ovarian aging.” (1)

What does that mean? Simply put, if you’re a 25 year old woman drinking and eating dairy, your ovaries are aging decades older than your actual age. 

Why does that matter? 

Well, how many 80 year old women do you know that are having babies? (To be fair, I have indeed heard of 60 and 70 year old women having children. Please note these incredible women are the exception to the rule).

“Researchers found that women who ate yogurt or cream had about twice the risk of sporadic anovulation.” (1)

Anovulation is basically when you don’t ovulate, you don’t release an egg, there is no chance you’re going to get pregnant if you don’t release an egg. 

Women, unlike men, don’t have a replenishing amount of eggs. When we have a period or an anovulatory month, that egg doesn’t get replace by another and it doesn’t just stock up for next time. It is a missed chance we don’t get back.
We lose eggs over time, they die. Which means our fertility rate declines naturally as we age (this is biologically normal. Not including the affects of diet). This decline starts naturally in our 20’s—unfortunately. That does not mean that we should encourage women to get pregnant in their teens and early 20’s when they mightn’t be ready emotionally, physically, financially, etc. It means we need to properly educate women on reproductive health and what they can do to safe guard theirs. 

One Harvard study showed that higher dairy protein intake was associated with lower antral follicle counts, in other words: accelerated ovarian aging. (1)

In their study it showed that the lowest dairy intake (we’re talking only 3 oz of dairy) had the ovarian age of a 36-37 year old whilst the higher dairy intake diet had the ovarian age of a 50 year old. (1)

Therefore, if you have a typical American diet, you’re most likely getting more than 3 oz of dairy, aging your ovaries significantly. 

This part doesn’t have to do with diet, exactly, but I’m sure some people might be thinking, “okay, so? That’s why there are fertility drugs.”
Ignoring the fact that there is so much wrong with that thought process, there are actually quite a few studies showing that fertility drugs may be associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer. Furthermore, infertile women have increased risk for ovarian malignancies, as it is. (7)

Mammalian estrogen is very easily absorbed and converted between other mammals. I say that because people think “we’ll it’s a cow, their hormones aren’t the same as mine.” Whilst there are differences, a mammal is a mammal is a mammal. 

“Once inside the human body, these bovine hormones get converted to estrone and estradiol, the main active human estrogens. And following absorption, bovine steroids may then affect reproductive outcomes.” (1)

Meat

A Japanese study showed higher meat intake was associated significantly with an increased prevalence of disease. (2) This includes decreased fertility (among other diseases like cancers, diabetes, decreased sperm count, early breast development in girls, neurobehavioural disorders in children etc etc).

Why is this? Meat, first of all, is an inflammatory substance. Furthermore, cooked meats contain chemicals like: heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and nitrosamines.

Those are big fancy words for carcinogens and we all know what that means. 

What does this have to do with fertility? A new study showed another industrial pollutant contaminating meat products called alkylphenols. Alkylphenols are also called xenoesteogens and are a well known endocrine disrupter… they mimic estrogen. 

(Sorry for all of the big obnoxious words, but they’re extremely important when it comes to health).

These xenoesterogens get into our bodies via contaminated meats. 

So, just don’t eat contaminated meat right? Well, not easy. There are still many areas of farm land that are contaminated with Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or as you might know it : DDT. 

DDT was an insecticide used in the 40’s and in 1972 was banned because studies showed it to be carcinogenic and to cause reproductive issues among humans.

Because of this there is really no way to know if your steak is contaminated with reproductive harming DDT. 

Still with me? Great! Let’s keep going! 

Another study of meat showed that it is so packed with sex hormones that pregnant women who ate meat had a higher chance of it affecting the development of their sons’ genital organs while still in the womb—such that when they grow up, they have decreased fertility. (3)

And it’s not just our little boys. Ingesting meat affects us, women, too! A Harvard study followed 18,000 women trying to conceive and found that meat intake was absolutely associated with infertility. (3)

But that has to be massive amounts of meat right? One little burger or chicken breast isn’t going to be a big deal right?

Wrong. The study showed that as little as ONE serving of meat per day was associated with a 30% greater risk of anovulatory infertility. (3)

Remember we talked about anovulatory periods at the beginning. Dairy ages our ovaries, killing our eggs, causing us to have the ovaries of a premenopausal woman and now one little serving of meat is increasing our chances of an anovulatory cycle by at least  30%. 

Here are more in depth numbers about that because I find it fascinating and horrendous all at once. 

“Eat a single serving of any meat, and you increase your infertility risk 30%. Red meat increases infertility risk 40%. But just a single serving of chicken—half a chicken breast a day—and women increase their infertility risk more than 50%.” (3)

Fifty per cent! Please take a moment to let that sink in.

“Animal protein intake increases the levels of a growth hormone called IGF-1, which has been linked not only to infertility, but to cancer—whereas eating veggie protein doesn’t seem to have that adverse effect.” (3) 

In fact, studies show that not only do protein from plant based sources not cause fertility issues (and cancer), they actually protect and improve fertility. (3)

More on meat, studies show consumption of animal-based products have also been implicated in earlier onset of puberty for girls…and increased risk of infertility. (4)

PCOS

One of the most common causes of infertility in women is PCOS or Polycystic ovary syndrome. PCOS affects fertility because most women with PCOS have a lower FSH (follicle stimulating hormone. This is what tells your ovaries to release an egg to be fertilize). (6)

PCOS is also affected by diet. On a typical American diet, it consists of meat, dairy, eggs etc. All of these things are high in AGEs (Advanced glycation end products). 

AGEs are very well known to cause and worsen many degenerative diseases.

Furthermore, elevation in bodily AGEs is further exaggerated in women with PCOS and is associated with ovulatory dysfunction. Additionally, increased expression of AGEs as pro-inflammatory receptors in the ovarian tissue has been observed in women with PCOS. (5) 

Diet with high advanced glycation end products (AGEs) content represents one of the environmental factors that are related to both the metabolic and reproductive alterations observed in PCOS. (5)

All of this medical, hard to understand lingo, is basically saying the higher your diet is in AGEs the worse off your PCOS will be, thus affecting your fertility. 

This source (5) gives an entire list of what foods are high and lower in AGEs. Note that all of the foods listed are animal products, whilst plant based foods have the absolute lowest. 

Are you seeing how a diet consisting of animal products is stacking the odds against you when it comes to fertility, let alone other health issues like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol etc etc. 

Closing

This is why I made this post and spent weeks researching. Yes, you might have genetic reasons to cause infertility. Yes, you might have environmental factors that affect your fertility. However, your diet is absolutely not helping you. Where you might have a little harder of a chance conceiving because of things outside of your control, your diet (something you can control) is making it even harder if not impossible for you to conceive.

I’m not here to make a buck off of you. I could easily do that by giving in to the requests I get for herbal fertility “treatments.”

I could easily say, “Yes! Buy this tea, and tincture, and salve, and blah blah blah from me. That’ll cost $2000.” Pocket the money and walk away knowing those products aren’t going to fully help your bottom line. 

Do herbs and the like work? Abso-freaking-lutely. However, if the house is already on fire, installing a fire alarm isn’t going to do much. It might alert you and maybe you’ll get out safely, but your house is still on fire. 

I’m also not here to force anyone to go plant based, your choice doesn’t affect me.
I’m 100% not here to judge a person’s dietary choice. Again, what you put into your body does not affect me. Though, I might send this blog post to anyone asking me for fertility herbs and oils before offering a consult.

I am here solely for my friends who I love dearly, who I have watched have miscarriage after miscarriage, heartbreak after heartbreak. I’m here for the women I don’t know, who like me, felt 100% helpless every month they didn’t ovulate, every month a test came back negative, every month they were so positive they conceived only to be met with a period a month or two later. 

I get nothing but sleepless nights researching and typing. Aching hands and fingers from spilling my heart into this. Tired eyes from staring at a screen for hours. Anxiety about the keyboard warriors and carnivore diet supporters that will be banging on my computer door trashing my blog, my name, my character because they disagree (and that’s fine to disagree, but negativity and hate is not welcome or necessary).

You’ve made it this far. 

I’m proud of you! 

I have nothing to gain… but you, my beautiful dear soul, have everything to gain. 

I encourage you to sit with this information. Don’t make rash decisions! Think on it.
I encourage you to check the sources linked and to click around more, read what else is available. 

Sit with the information, sit with your partner, sit with your higher power and decide what is right for you, right now in this moment, in this season of your life.

With so much love my beautiful friends, I send you all of the lovely baby dust I have. I send you all of the healing and encouraging vibes. I send you comfort, I send you warm hugs. I send you hope and patience.
What ever path you decide to take, I support you and I send you so much love and encouragement to walk your path.
-Kaylan

Make sure you follow me on all social media!

Facebook I have options for ya 😉
– Birth and Postpartum specifically
– The Apothecary (all about herbs and oils)
– Oakborn in general.
Instagram one and done easy easy 😉