Reducing Toxic Exposure and Supporting Natural Detoxification
If you're trying to get pregnant, one of the biggest obstacles you might be facing is toxic exposure. Chemicals used in everyday products can have effects ranging from skin irritation to DNA damage. While small, infrequent exposures can be easily overcome by your body’s protective and regenerative capabilities, the near constant exposure to the huge number of commonly used harmful chemicals you’re exposed to on a daily basis can have far reaching effects on your health and your fertility.
These chemicals are everywhere from the furniture in your home to the food you buy, and all the packaging that comes with it. It’s a sad fact that most manufacturers are less concerned with the cumulative and long term effects of the chemicals they use in their products on you and your family, and more about finding the cheapest way to produce a product while maintaining their profits.
The resulting truth is that you, as the consumer, are responsible for protecting yourself as best you can. It’s an uphill battle for sure, but it doesn’t have to be all consuming. You don’t have to go full crunchy to have a serious impact on your exposure levels. You can start by identifying where your greatest exposures are, making reasonable replacements where you can, and taking steps to support your body’s natural ability to block and detox the exposures you can’t avoid.
The Dose Makes the Poison
It’s wild to think that these chemicals - that have known detrimental effects - are allowed in consumer products at all. How are companies allowed to use chemicals that are known to cause predictable and damaging effects on your health? The short, and somewhat disturbing, answer is because the amount of toxicity in any single product or application isn’t enough to harm you outright. The dose of the offending ingredient is small enough, that if this were the only point of exposure that a healthy body encountered, it would be negligible. Unfortunately, because there are so many points of exposure that they’re practically impossible to avoid, these small ‘negligible’ exposures add up and up and up until they do make an impact - on the your endocrine system, your metabolism, and you’re ability to conceive and grow a healthy baby.
Eliminating every source of toxic exposure is impractical and impossible. So start with the swaps that are easiest and most impactful for you. Don’t get overwhelmed or feel like suffering the loss of your favorite products is the only way forward. It’s important to remember that the reason we’re not all dropping dead in the face of all this chemical exposure is because humans are resilient AF and your body is capable of dealing with smaller amounts of toxicity.
Start with the products you use most frequently, have the most questionable ingredients, or make the most contact with your skin, food, or air. Prioritize improving the products you use in your kitchen, on your body, and the foods you eat over things like organic toilet bowl cleaner which hardly makes contact with you at all.
Reducing Your Toxic Load To Improve Your Fertility
Unless you’re already being very intentional with your lifestyle, evaluating the products you use most frequently is the key first step in minimizing your exposure. By choosing products that are free of harmful chemicals and being mindful about the way you use electronics and social media, you’re taking a huge burden off your body and mind.
Without the added burden of excess chemical, EMF and emotionally toxic exposure, your body more easily fulfills the primary role of synthesizing and metabolizing your naturally occurring hormones, sequestering add excreting metabolic wastes products of normal body functions, regulating an appropriate inflammation response, and balancing your nervous system out of a chronic stress response state. This can help balance hormones, improve egg quality, and make your body a healthier environment for conception and pregnancy.
Listed below are the major categories of chemicals that are commonly used in everyday products, the effects that these chemicals can have on your fertility, and suggestions on how to limit your exposure.
Remember, it’s the little but frequent exposures that add up to larger problems. Start by making a list of the products you use everyday or most frequently and checking the ingredients of each. Here’s a template you can use to take inventory.
What products are you putting on your skin everyday?
What type of cookware are you using to prepare and store your meals?
What fragrances and cleaning products are you using to maintain your home?
What fabrics are spending the most time against your skin? Consider both clothing and bedding.
Once you know what products you’re using most often and which have the most direct contact with your body, you can evaluate them for your risk of exposure and then replace them with less harmful alternatives. Keep in mind that this doesn’t have to be a total and complete overhaul all at once. Be reasonable in your replacements. Small sustainable changes will go a long way. Especially when paired with the detox supporting strategies covered below.
Toxins That Affect Fertility
Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) are natural or human-made chemicals that interfere with the functioning of your endocrine system and in turn the production, balance, and detoxification of your naturally occurring hormones. EDCs are commonly found in, well pretty much all mainstream consumer products.
Major Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals:
Bisphenols (BPA, BPS, BPF) – A class of plastics used to make food storage and to-go containers, plastic water bottles, canned food linings, receipts, and plastic coated cookware.
Phthalates – A group of chemicals used to make plastics more flexible and to stabilize other chemicals in cosmetics, fragrances, and personal care products.
Parabens – A family of antimicrobial chemicals that are used as preservatives in lotions, shampoos, deodorants, cosmetics, and foods including beer, sauces, desserts, soft drinks, jams, pickles, frozen dairy products, processed vegetables and flavoring syrups.
Triclosan – An antimicrobial compound used in antibacterial soaps, toothpaste, and cleaning products.
Oxybenzone & Avobenzone – Ultra violet light filtering compounds used in sunscreens, plastics, toys, furniture finishes, and other products to limit sun damage.
Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, aka "Forever Chemicals") – a group of synthetic chemicals that are resistant to heat, water, oil, and grease that are used to make non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics - both in clothing and home furnishings, and some food packaging.
Dioxins: Primarily a byproduct of herbicide manufacturing and fires (wildfires, structure fires, garbage burning) that contaminate air and water but also the chlorine bleaching f paper and cotton products (like tampons!).
Reducing Your Exposure:
Stop storing and heating food in all types of plastics. Switch to heat-safe, glass containers for storing and reheating food.
Replace non-stick cookware with pots and pans made from cast iron, stainless steel, carbon steel, and/or have ceramic/enamel coating. The trick to making these types of pans non-stick is proper heating. Check out this video.
Switch to paraben and phthalate free skin, body, and hair care products. There are tons of great brands out there making safer products without suffering quality and performance ShopGood is an excellent place to start.
Use sunscreens that contain physical/mineral UV blockers instead of chemical UV blockers.
Avoid antibacterial soaps and triclosan based hand-sanitizers. Washing your hands with regular soap and warm water is highly effective.
When shopping for new clothes, stick to natural fibers (organic cotton, wool, silk, linen, hemp, and tencel). Avoid polyester, acrylic, nylon, rayon, and conventional cotton (which is heavily treated with pesticides and often treated with formaldehyde-based wrinkle-resistant finishes and toxic dyes. Quince, Pact, MATE the Label, Organic Basics, and No Nasties are some good options to check out for clothes that won’t make you feel like your headed to a 2006 Phish concert.
Consider thrifting/second hand for furniture and clothing. Time reduces the concentration of flame retardants and quality natural options can be found at a fraction of their original retail prices. Check out ThredUp, Poshmark, AptDeco, and your local Nextdoor and Marketplace.
Pesticides & Herbicides
Sure bugs are gross and weeds are annoying, but is their absence worth poisoning you’re environment and food supply? Pesticides and herbicides are widely used in conventional agriculture, while organic farms have more stringent requirements for the chemicals that they can use in crop production. But keep in mind that large scale organic farms are likely using some forms of weed and pest control and in an ideal world, we would all have affordable access to smaller scale, locally grown and raised food. If you can, supporting a local farms through a Farmer’s Market or CSA is a great way to support your local economy, sustainable agriculture practices, and access fresh, seasonal foods. If organic food is less accessible to you, eating as much fresh and minimally processed meats, whole grains, and vegetables is still much better than relying on heavily processed foods.
Organophosphates – A class of chemicals used in herbicides, pesticides, and product manufacturing that interferes with nervous system signalling, causes abnormal muscle contractions, and disrupts placental gene networks that can impact fetal neurodevelopment.
Atrazine – a widely used herbicide that disrupts hormone balance and potentially causes birth defects and impaired fetal growth.
Glyphosate – The active ingredient in the commonly used weed-killer Roundup, that is one of the most widely used herbicides in the US. It’s routinely applied to agricultural crops and residential landscapes alike and is linked to hormone disruption, nervous system damage, and cancer.
Reducing Your Exposure:
As mentioned above, opt for organic foods as much as you can and otherwise prioritize fresh, whole foods that provide your body with the nutrients you need to maintain proper cell function and detoxification.
If you use a landscape or pest control service that routinely uses herbicides and pesticides, consider suspending your service or asking your technician about safer options.
Be aware that public spaces are likely going to be managed with pesticides and herbicides. If you’re involved in sports that are played on grass fields. You may be able to access the treatment schedule and avoid the area on treatment days. Try to keep your body as covered as possible to protect your skin from direct contact and change your clothes and shower as soon as you can.
Food Additives & Preservatives
These chemicals that are commonly added to highly processed foods and packaged convenience foods can mimic or block hormones, leading to fertility issues.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) – A flavor enhancer found in processed foods that can affect hormone balance and both male and female fertility.
Artificial Sweeteners (Aspartame, Sucralose, Saccharin) – Non-sugar sweeteners found diet sodas, and other sugar-free and zero-calorie products that are linked to neurological disorders, menstrual imbalances, and impotence, as well as developmental issues in embryos and negative impacts on fetal brain development.
Artificial Colorings: food dyes such as Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Green 3, and Caramel coloring can trigger hormone imbalances, contribute to estrogen dominance, interfere with testosterone reproduction , lower sperm count, contribute to ovulation irregularities and are linked to certain cancers.
High Fructose Corn Syrup: This ubiquitous sweetener is found in many packaged foods. It increases inflammation, disrupts insulin regulation and contributes to hormone imbalances affecting ovulation and sperm quality. This sneaky sweetener may also be listed as fructose, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, corn sweetener, maize syrup, glucose/fructose syrup, or isolated fructose.
BHT & BHA: These preservatives commonly found in chips, cereals, granola, bars, butter substitutes and packaged baked goods mimic estrogen and disrupt hormone balance.
Reducing Your Exposure:
Choose fresh, whole foods as often as possible to avoid synthetic additives.
Read labels of packaged foods and try your best to avoid any of the above ingredients.
Limit your intake of artificially sweetened, no sugar added, and zero calorie beverages.
Look for healthier alternatives of packaged snake foods. Check out Thrive Marketplace and other alternative food vendors.
Labels like “All Natural,” “No Trans Fats,” and “Made with Whole Grains,” don’t always paint a representative picture of the health value of a food. Be wary of these ‘Healthwashing’ tactics and be sure to read the labels.
The Yuka App can quickly scan your foods and summarize any potentially problematic ingredients.
Medications & Pharmaceutical Compounds
Several commonly used medications can impact fertility in both men and women. Obviously, medications are sometimes necessary and severe pain, depression, and avoiding unintended pregnancies are all valid reasons for taking pharmaceuticals. However, if you're struggling to get pregnant and have addressed most of the other areas in your life that could be impacting your fertility, looking for alternatives to these medications may warrant some investigation.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – NSAIDs (including Advil, Motrin, Aleve, Midol, and Celebrex) are widely used for pain and inflammation including, headaches, period cramps, and other common pain complaints. These types of painkillers can interfere with ovulation by preventing the rupture of mature follicles which in turn leads to insufficient progesterone production.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) – antidepressant medications like Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft can affect may decrease sperm count, motility, and increase DNA fragmentation and interfere with ovulation and raise prolactin levels.
Hormonal contraceptives – Birth control pills and other hormonal forms of birth control are obviously designed to inhibit fertility, but it’s important to know that it may take time for your body to regain normal hormone functioning after stopping them - especially if you went on them to ‘regulate your period’ and not solely for preventing pregnancy.
Reducing Your Exposure:
If you’re regularly taking NSAID pain medications, look for treatments and therapies that get to the root cause of your symptoms and address them.
Give yourself adequate time for your cycle to regulate after coming off hormonal birth control, especially if you went on it to ‘regulate’ your period or if you’ve been on it since you were a young teenager.
Traditional East Asian Medicine is an excellent option for addressing pain, depression, anxiety, and of course hormonal issues. Because the entire focus of treatment is based on restoring optimum function to your body, many symptoms, even those unrelated to fertility, will improve as you move through your treatment plan.
Radiation, Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), & Other Digital Bad Vibes
Although research is ongoing, some studies suggest potential fertility effects from persistent exposure to electromagnetic radiation coming from all manner of electronic devices we encounter on a daily basis.
Radiofrequency radiation (RF-EMFs) – These electromagnetic frequencies come from cell phones, WiFi routers and smart devices, computer screens and other display devices, bluetooth devices, and smart meters. EMFs can affect folliculogenesis, potentially reducing the ovarian reserve and fertility, and negatively impact sperm quality, including count, motility, and morphology.
Digital Bad Vibes – What started out as a novel way to keep up with your friends and families, has morphed into what on a good day could be considered a fun way to get some #mealprepinspo and on a bad day, a cesspool of content designed to grab your attention by whatever means possible. Whatever social media channels you use, the effects on your mental and physical health can be significant. Social media can increase stress and anxiety by exposing you to a curated version of someone else’s #fertilityjourney, subjecting you to fear-based calls-to-action, and less than reputable influencers pushing supplements based on their commission percentage and not their clinical expertise. Aside from the actual content, more social media means more time on your phone getting exposed to the literal (and I mean literal in the literal sense) bad vibes of increased EMF exposure, and less time spending quality face to face time with the one you’re trying to make a baby with.
Reducing Your Exposure:
Use your phone in airplane mode when not in use.
Carry your phone in your purse and off your body as much as possible.
Avoid sleeping with your phone near your head or under your pillow.
If practicable, turn off your WiFi at night and keep your routers as far away from areas you frequently spend time in as possible.
Avoid content that is triggering, makes you feel less than, or is generally the equivalent of junk food for your eyes and ears.
Unfollow accounts that don’t inspire or add value to your perspective and state of mind.
Supporting Your Body’s Natural Detox Pathways
Detoxification isn’t something special that you need to do seasonally or after an episode of extra indulgence. It’s a process that’s happening all the time via your organs of elimination—the liver, kidneys, and intestines. The goal isn’t to aggressively "flush" toxins from the body, but to gently strengthen these organs so they can do their normal jobs of processing and eliminating harmful substances - both those that your body makes as a normal part of cellular metabolism and those that you’re exposed to from your personal choices and environment. An overly aggressive detox can actually deplete your body’s energy, but supporting these organs in a balanced, sustainable way will improve your overall health and by extension, your fertility.
Herbs That Support Detoxification
Herbal teas are a safe and gentle way to support the elimination and excretion of metabolic wastes and environmental toxins through your intrinsic detox pathways. The herbs listed below are food-grade herbs that have a wide safe dosage range. Like most foods that you would commonly eat, it would take a huge quantity of these herbs to cause any adverse reaction. Taken in the normal dosage of 1-3 teaspoons of herb per cup of water, you’ll receive the detox supporting benefits with little to no risk.
Dandelion Root:
Dandelion root is a blood cleanser meaning it supports your detox pathways in removing metabolic wastes and environmental toxins from your blood stream. Dandelion root works on your stomach, liver, and gallbladder to stimulate and protect your upper digestive tract, insuring that metabolized toxins can be properly eliminated through regular bowel movements. If you’re not pooping regularly, even if your other organs of elimination are working properly, toxins can potentially be reabsorbed through your digestive tract if you don’t get them out in a timely manner.
Nettle:
Nettles work on the kidney and bladder to help metabolize and excrete metabolic wastes and toxins via urination. Nettles is especially high in vitamins and minerals that provide necessary nutrients for optimum functioning of cellular metabolism.
Red Clover:
Red clover is another blood cleanser, working primarily on the endocrine, circulatory, urinary, and immune systems. It’s high content of phytoestrogens make it useful in addressing some hormonal imbalances, especially those associated with low estrogen and menopause. It should be used with caution in cases of estrogen dominant conditions, such as endometriosis.
Calendula:
Calendula works on the bowels, skin, liver, and lymph systems to help clear swollen sluggish lymph flow and swollen nodes, clear inflammation, and heal damaged tissues.
Foods That Aid Detoxification
A nourishing diet can also help support your natural detox pathways, both by lightening the impact of food additives on your system and providing the nutrients necessary for supporting proper metabolism and detoxification. Focus on warming, nutrient-dense foods that include the following:
Cooked Leafy Greens & Cruciferous Vegetables: These foods support liver function and help remove toxins. Try kale, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower. But always be sure to cook these veggies to make them easier to digest.
Beets: Beets are rich in antioxidants and help stimulate liver function.
Bone Broth: Rich in collagen and amino acids, bone broth nourishes the spleen and supports digestion.
Spices like Ginger & Turmeric: These warming spices support digestion, reduce inflammation, and help with detox.
Avoid raw, cold, or overly processed foods that weaken digestion and stress your body’s ability to detox effectively.
Lifestyle Practices for Detox Support
Incorporating the following practices into your routine can help the body’s detoxification process:
Hydration: Drink plenty of water throughout the day, and consider adding lemon or cucumber for extra detox benefits.
Movement: Gentle exercise like walking, yoga, or swimming promotes circulation and lymphatic drainage, which are essential for toxin elimination.
Sweating: Sweating through activities like sauna use, warm baths, or even exercise helps the body release toxins through the skin.
Breathwork: Deep breathing exercises can calm the nervous system and increase oxygen flow to the organs responsible for detoxification.
Building Habits for Long-Term Wellness
Small Steps, Big Impact
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when thinking about detoxifying your entire life, but remember, it’s the small, consistent changes that lead to the biggest impact. Don’t try to make all the changes at once. Start with one area—like switching to natural skincare or cutting out plastic in the kitchen —and build from there. Over time, these habits will become second nature, and you’ll be setting up yourself and your future baby for a healthy low tox lifestyle.
Looking for more?
Understanding what your period says about your fertility is a powerful step in optimizing reproductive health. By decoding your body’s signals and making targeted changes, you can support your fertility and overall health with targeted treatment strategies. If you’re looking for more specific guidance, be sure to sign up for my weekly emails in the box below. When you do, you’ll gain access to my free Acupressure Guide, be notified when new articles are published to my website, and be the first to know when my online workshop From Frustrated to Fertile with TEAM launches.