3 Functional Tests That I Give to Clients Who Are Struggling with Fertility
functional testing vs. conventional testing
If you have struggled with fertility, I bet you can relate to these two extremely frustrating experiences:
1) being told you have to try to conceive for one year before looking into your health (via lab work or imaging) to ensure your body is ready to conceive.
2) once you do get a whole panel of labs done at the doctor, you’re told everything looks fine and nothing is wrong. However, you have been trying to conceive without success, so what is that about?
Why is it that it’s not the norm to prepare for conception BEFORE trying for a baby. Why is it that we are forced to wait and wait only to find out there is nothing to be done except maybe IUI or IVF?
I believe ONE of the answers here can lie in the difference between functional versus conventional lab testing.
Conventional testing is what you are typically going to get from the doctor. Theses tests focus on one specific symptom, they help to diagnose surface-level symptoms and disease, and they have wider “normal” reference ranges that can tell you that outside of that normal range is where disease lies.
These tests can be helpful! I mainly use them as a jumping off point with patients. Can we see that disease exists? That’s helpful!
But when disease doesn’t exist and you can’t figure out why you are unable to conceive, that is where functional testing comes in.
Functional testing aims to determine how your body is functioning as a unit, it helps to look at the ROOT CAUSE of disease, and has more focused “optimal” reference ranges to assesses risk of disease before it ever even develops.
So, when clients come to me and they have been struggling to conceive, I absolutely will take into consideration what their doctor has said and the conventional labs that their doctor has done - that is what integrative means!
But, I will say that it is really hard to see WHY someone is unable to conceive without functional testing, root cause analysis, and seeing where the body is not “optimal.”
So, let’s take a look at the three most helpful tests that I run on my fertility clients:
Stress, Mood, and Metabolism Hormone Test
I recommend my clients take the Stress, Mood, and Metabolism test when they are trying to conceive, especially if they are starting to work on their health preconception or haven’t been trying for a year yet.
I would recommend this test for the male AND female partner in the relationship.
This test looks at hormones, but not just the limited view of reproductive hormones that most physicians will test. It also looks at thyroid hormone levels, adrenal hormone levels, as well as reproductive hormones.
This test has some excellent bonus biomarkers that can actually tell us how hormones are being processed in the body. These are vitamin D, insulin, A1c, etc.
Now, if you aren’t familiar with the above-mentioned hormones or the bonus biomarkers that I laid out, what you need to know is that every one of these biomarkers affects fertility health.
You know that song, “the hip bone’s connected to the leg bone. The leg bone’s connected to the foot bone…”? Well, it’s the same with these biomarker and hormones in the body. Insulin is connected to how carbs are used as energy, using carbs as energy is connected to stress (or adrenal) hormones, adrenal hormones affect thyroid hormones…
Knowing these levels can help us see what hormones are imbalanced so that we can work on getting them balanced and what the REASON FOR THE IMBALANCE MIGHT BE.
And that is really the most helpful.
Because how are you supposed to fix something when you don’t know the reason that it is broken? Right? Otherwise you are putting bandaids on or grasping at straws hoping that they make your symptoms go away for long enough to get pregnant. And that’s really not ideal for fertility health or the health of your baby once you have conceived.
example of stress, mood, and metabolism report p.1
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis
Another test I very frequently recommend to TTC couples is that Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMAA).
And not to play favorites or anything, but this is absolutely my favorite test to read, give, tell people about, etc. It is so clear and ultimately extremely helpful to anyone’s health.
This test shows us a couple of things:
1) It shows us what the body is excreting, meaning, we can see what minerals are BEING USED in the body.
2) It shows heavy metals that are unbound and being excreted from the body. So, we know if there are excess levels of heavy metals in the body and how they are affecting mineral use.
What’s cool about this test is that not only can we see when one specific mineral is out of balance, we can also see how the minerals are working together.
For example, having really high levels of multiple minerals can indicate levels of stress that are affecting fertility.
This test gives us a really good idea of nutrients that need to be supplemented in your diet or through dietary supplementation. And knowing the heavy metal levels can give us a really good idea of lifestyle habits that need to be changed to avoid building up these heavy metals in the system.
High levels of heavy metals can effect health in a lot of different ways. They can affect energy production (hello being tired all the time), they can affect thyroid hormone production (hello anovulatory cycles), and did you know that high levels of mercury can cause miscarriage?
As you can see, this test can give us a lot of insight into how to optimize your body for conception - it’s a really good one!
example of hair tissue mineral analysis p.1
Organic Acids Test
Did you know?
Gut health is absolutely crucial to reproductive health. Gut health affects inflammation, hormone regulation, nutrient absorption and stress management. All of which play a role in fertility health.
So, naturally, my other favorite test to run for fertility-related clients is called The Organic Acids Test (OAT), which looks largely at the gut, how it’s functioning, and potential bacterias that could be hindering the body’s processes.
The OAT looks at 75 biomarkers that are broken into 12 sections that tell us things like what your B-vitamin needs are, what your mineral needs are, what microbiome and digestive support you could use, and any functional imbalances (energy creation, toxic exposure…).
This test is a BEAST to read and educate clients about, but that just means that it has so much helpful information in it. When training as an Integrative Health Practitioner, I spent a lot of time learning this test because I immediately understood the help it can provide and I wanted to be extremely knowledgeable and accurate when reading it.
I believe that everyone could benefit from taking this test - it is used very much in prevention of symptoms and disease.
Symptoms you might have that this test could really help figure out include: bloating and digestive issues, gas, burping, brain fog, muscle weakness, inflammation, skin rashes, autoimmune issues, memory issues, headaches, mood imbalances, and unexplained health issues.
Every single one of the symptoms I just mentioned play a role in fertility. Like I said previously, the body works as a unit and when one this is imbalanced (like the gut), then it can create a cascade of further issues (like infertility).
example of OAT report (p.1)
So how do you get these tests done on yourself?
It can be confusing to some people that it’s not likely your regular doctor is going to have knowledge about these tests and they will likely not know how to get you these tests or how to read them once you have taken them.
Luckily, companies likely Rupa Health and Equilife are making these tests more widely available and some traditional doctors are starting to take the time to get educated on them and provide them to their patients.
But, it is likely that you will need to find someone that’s practicing in the functional or integrative health space to find them available to you.
You can definitely order each test on their own HERE and you will be given a 30 minute (per test ordered) consultation with a health coach to walk you through the results and give you some basic recommendations.
My best recommendation for preparing for pregnancy or if you are struggling to get pregnant is to hire an Integrative Health Practitioner as your coach to help you find out what tests will be most beneficial given your current symptoms, issues, and goals and that practitioner can also help you read the tests and come up with a personalized healing plan based on them.
I went over the top 3 tests I give to my fertility clients, but they can work for so much more! Think lifelong wellness!
If you’d like to discuss which tests are best for you, book a free call to do so HERE.
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