If you are reading this article you may already be worried about how your Endometriosis affects your fertility. And Endometriosis definitely has an impact on your fertility.

If you’ve been reading my articles, you’ll know that Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease. So in this article I want to delve a bit deeper into how this inflammation affects your fertility and how you can use your diet to reduce it.

So what role does inflammation play in your fertility? Well, in two roles: an indirect and direct role.

Inflammation plays an indirect role in your fertility because it drives the growth and spread of Endometriosis (if you’re not sure how inflammation is the ‘engine’ behind your Endometriosis, this article explains it) and Endometriosis reduces the quality of your eggs which can lead to chromosomal abnormalities that increase the chances of your embryo not being viable.

Endometriosis also affects your ovulation. Endometriosis on your ovaries or Fallopian tubes may block the release of an egg and make it impossible to enter the Fallopian tube. Endometriomas (or chocolate cysts) on your ovaries cause local inflammation which directly affects the quality of your eggs. They also reduce blood supply to the follicles and that reduces their growth.

Your inflammation even affects your partner’s sperm as it enters your vagina by damaging the sperm’s DNA.

Inflammation has a direct impact on your fertility as well. Recent research has shown that chronic systemic inflammation is associated with implantation failure of embryos. Women with Endometriosis have high levels of immune cells responsible for creating inflammation in their endometrium which makes it difficult for an embryo to implant.

So if you know that you have chronic, systemic inflammation, and it affects your fertility directly and indirectly, how can you use your diet to improve your chances of falling pregnant?

Well, the first step is to remove processed foods from your diet. Processed foods contain ingredients to keep them looking fresh, enhance the taste, and enhance shelf-life, and most of these ingredients are highly inflammatory. Instead, eat a wholefood diet, so fresh fruit and vegetables and meat, and cook your meals from scratch.

The second step is to remove gluten and dairy from your diet. These are the most common food intolerances I see in my clients and removing these from your diet can noticeably reduce the severity of your Endometriosis symptoms, a good sign your inflammation is reducing.

And the third step is to support your immune system. You can find out more on how to do this in this article “Your immune system: its biggest challenge and what you can do to fix it”.

If you’d like to discuss how nutrition can help you to reduce your inflammation and improve your fertility, why not book a free Endometriosis SOS Call?