Fertility coach Erica Hoke shares how she became a mother of four despite a 1% chance of pregnancy at 35, without reproductive medicine. She covers stress management through essential oils, the gut-brain connection, and how diet and pesticides affect fertility.
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joining me today. Happy Monday to you guys. Uh, if you don't know me and you just stumbled across my page, I'm Erica Hoke. I'm a fertility coach, and I was given a 1% chance of getting pregnant at 35, and now I have 4 children, um, all without the help of reproductive medicine because I couldn't do that, um, because I didn't have enough eggs. So the thing that we're talking about, the title of our talk this morning is how I managed stress and anxiety when, when I was facing infertility. And this is a really important topic because if you have been going through infertility for even a small amount of time, you will get that eye-rolling phrase, right? That just relax, just relax and it will happen, right? And that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about intentionally Managing the stress that comes with going from month to month and having infertility problems, right? So this isn't that, oh, just relax, just take a vacation, just do this, just do that, and everything will work out. This is acknowledging that this is an extremely stressful situation. Some would even say, psychologists would even say that this is a PTSD-inducing situation going through infertility. And so we know that there are physical implications of that on our bodies and on our reproductive system and on our gut health. And so we definitely want to make sure that we do everything that we can that's within our power to help manage, mitigate, lessen that level of stress, cope. Because if you can't cope, you can't continue, right? That's the thing that I see with people over and over again is that they just get worn out with it. And they could be oh so close to finding the answers that they're looking for, but they just can't go through another cycle. Okay, I'm getting along on time already, so I'm going to keep this short. The thing that I utilized the most when I was going through infertility was, um, essential oils. Now again, this might be an eye roll moment for you. I'm not trying to sell you oils. I'm sure— I'm 100% sure that you have an aunt, cousin, sister, somebody that sells essential oils. Find a reputable brand, um, that you can source the oils back to the farm. I use Young Living for that reason. Otherwise, it's basically like taking all the benefits of essential oils out. I'm not going to do a deep dive into that, but you wouldn't take a, um, you wouldn't take a prescription medicine that somebody just mixed up with a mortar and pestle on their kitchen counter because, um, in order for that to have effectiveness, it has to be treated right, right? It's the same with essential oils. So they have to be distilled at the right temperature for the right amount of time to have good impact on our bodies and on our stress levels. And you're not going to get that at, um, from Walmart oils or from gas station oils, okay? From junk oils. So utilizing essential oils for stress relief is not only safe, um, it's effective, it's easy. You can do it in your car, you can do it at your desk, you can do it in the bathroom. And it accesses a part of your brain that stores memory. So that's always important too, because that limbic system, that amygdala cannot be accessed any other way. So we want to manage that. So the second thing that I will tell you that I dramatically— that dramatically affects my anxiety, and I'm feeling probably the most normal that I felt in 2 weeks, and I'll tell you why. And the reason is, is because I was out of my probiotic for about a week. Now normally I would just go to Whole Foods. There's another brand that I like. This is a mail-order probiotic that I use. Called Life 9. I've used a lot of different probiotics. This is the one that I noticed the most psychological, emotional results with, with me feeling better, which means that it's helping my serotonin in my gut, right? Because that's where all those natural anti-anxiety hormones start is in your gut. So anyway, I was out for a week and I kept thinking, it's gonna come, it's gonna come, it's gonna come. So I didn't replace it. I didn't, I didn't make it a priority to replace it. So I went like a good, probably a little bit more than a week, and by the time that it got here, my anxiety was through the roof. Um, so if you suffer from anxiety and if you're going through infertility and you're not taking a probiotic, I strongly recommend that you, one, look, look for one with multiple strains. Um, two, find one that is refrigerated, at least refrigerated after opening, so that those strains stay active. Um, brands like Culturelle that are like a single strand that you would get in a yogurt or something like that, it's not going to produce and provide enough probiotic in your gut to be helpful. So, why do I think that everybody needs probiotics and why do I feel like so passionately about taking a probiotic? Well, and I'm over time, but I just want to say this one last thing. We all eat, we can't eat a perfect diet. So, if you're eating conventional non-organic products, even some, you Even organics have some trace amounts of glycosphate pesticides. Well, not glycosphate, but pesticides on them can contain that. But they act as an antibiotic in your gut, and they're killing off your gut microbiome. So we have to counterbalance that, right? We have to do our best to counterbalance that through our diet, through our food choices, and then by adding a probiotic in. All right, you guys. Um, my schedule is changing a little bit for the next few weeks. I'm going to be live here Monday because we're going to be traveling and having some family time, but I will see you, um, I will see you here regularly Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Health and blessings to you. Bye-bye.
