Erica Hoke shares how childhood sexual trauma affected her fertility and the therapies that helped her conceive. She connects chronic stress and elevated cortisol from trauma to conditions like PCOS, fibroids, and endometriosis, and describes how processing recovered memories led to pregnancy.
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Happy Wednesday. It's hard to believe that the week has been progressing so quickly. We are talking today about how past trauma affects your fertility and why and what you can even do about it. So the reason that I'm talking to you about this is because, um, a couple of reasons. One, I am a trauma survivor. I have a history. Sorry, it's hard for me to spit out. Um, I have a history of sexual abuse, childhood sexual abuse, and it's one of the things that was key in my healing. Uh, addressing these problems from my past was key in my healing and key in getting, um, on the right infertility path. Um, I did a few different things to to heal from my trauma, one of them being traditional talk therapy. That was very helpful in resolving some trauma. I also did acupuncture to help not only me physically, but acupuncture is very balancing emotionally as well. And I really contribute acupuncture to— I really credit acupuncture with contributing to me being able to get pregnant. So how past trauma affects your fertility, one, uh, one way is with cortisol. So it creates a continuous state of fight or flight, right? So if you're in a continued state of fight or flight, whether you know it or not, it's kind of your baseline. If you're a trauma survivor, it might just be your baseline and you don't even know it. You don't even know that you're in this high state of anxiety because it's your normal. From the trauma that you endured, whether that was, um, you know, assault or whatever. We know statistically that the numbers line up for women who have been, uh, somehow assaulted, um, and infertility. They're about 6 to 1 for both of them. So there is definitely a correlation there, and the statistics show that women going through infertility have a pretty high percentage of of trauma overall. So what are some ways that we can deal with that? Some of— what are some of the ways that I dealt with that? I dealt with it with talk therapy. I dealt with it with acupuncture. Eventually, I did do some Reiki, although I went into it kind of not understanding what was going on. I know some people get a little bit weirded out about that if you're a person of faith and what that actually means. But I will tell you that Reiki actually— I didn't put a lot of stock into it. I kind of just went for the massage, and it actually was something that was pivotal in my, in my journey to recognize that for years I had actually spent mentally suppressing the ability to get pregnant. Right, because of my, my abuse. So I had spent a lot of time praying and suppressing my ability to get pregnant for fear of getting pregnant, right? So if you take that into consideration, you can definitely see how those things affect your reproductive cycles and things like that. And we know that the cortisol, you know, the, the issues with, uh, trauma have to do with cortisol and PCOS, which I also had as well. And then it's a cascade effect, right? So sorry, I'm getting a little bit off topic, but I'm just going to finish this thought. So the cortisol leads to PCOS, and then the PCOS leads to fibroids and endometriosis, and then you have a really, um, dysfunctional, uh, and disease-ridden reproductive system. So you can see how all these things come into play. How they came into play for myself. And so what I would say to you is if you have a history of trauma in your life, if you, um, if you suspect— I had a friend who wrote for Infertility Success who actually didn't know until she was going through infertility. She had no memories, but she went through some processing at a deeper level. I can't remember if it was EMDR or if it was some hypnosis, but the end result was that she uncovered that she had been abused as a child by a babysitter, and she had no recollection, but it was definitely being stored in her system. And she resolved that through the process that she was going through, and she ended up getting pregnant on the other end of that. So that's just one example. I'm another example, clearly. Of how things can come, come out that way. So if you have some suspicion, or if you know, you know, that you experience trauma, it definitely is not something that you can continue to sweep under the rug or not address if you're going through infertility. So if you would like some resources, I have an event coming up in my group that I've dropped the link here below It's Infertility Empowered, and we have an amazing licensed mental health counselor who's fertility informed, and she's going to come talk to us about how past trauma affects your fertility and also some coping skills for dealing with the big pregnancy announcement onslaught that— if you're watching right now in real time, it's March, so it's pregnancy season announcement. We know that. So she's gonna come talk to us about that. So I will drop the link for my group in the comment, and if you want an invite specifically to that event, just let me know. Health and blessings to you guys. Bye-bye.
