Natural Fertility Over 35: Unexplained Infertility Solutions & IVF Alternatives | Erica Hoke

There is no doubt infertility leads to significant distress, but one woman in Tampa is giving couples hope. Joining me now is the fertility coach and the author of her Infertility Success series, Erica Hoke. Erica, welcome. Welcome back to Bloom. It is always such a pleasure to see you.

Thank you so much for having me back, Gayle. I'm excited to talk to the viewers today.

And I, and I know your series really resonates because in addition to so many other stories, you share your own personal struggles that you went through, and you truly beat all the odds.

Yeah, absolutely. Would have been voted dead last to get pregnant. Uh, not just a few odds, not just infertile, but 7 diagnoses that could have prevented me from getting pregnant. And on On top of that, I was over 35. But what I want the listeners to hear the most today is that whether you're doing IVF or whether you're going a more natural route, there's quite a bit that's in your control. You know, I was told at 35 that I needed donor eggs and that I was never gonna be a mom without them. And we, we decided to explore all opportunities before we went that route and were able to, you know, greatly affect my health by by doing some of the diet lifestyle changes that I talk about in my book.

You had a 1% chance, if I'm not mistaken, of conceiving naturally, and you had 4 children.

Yes, yes.

So I just want to kind of, you know, paint the perspective here of you and your beautiful family, something that doctor after doctor after doctor told you would never happen.

Yeah, that's right, and I think it's important to point out not only was I told that, but many of the Authors in my book collaborations were told the same thing, had to get a lot of second opinions and a lot of, do a lot of self-advocacy and create their own path to motherhood. And it's really why I'm here today. It's why I'm so passionate because there's someone out there today getting that news and they have to know that there is hope for them. And that's not what the infertility community tells them.

And so what are some of the things that you did to get on a fertility journey?

Well, the first thing is, is I say toxins testing and taking action, right? So eliminating toxins in all areas of my life, food, personal care products are a huge source of toxins, which they're considered endocrine disruptors or hormone disruptors. So it's pretty easy to see how that's affecting your fertility, right? Right. And then, so eliminating toxins, and then what I call testing, taking control of your testing. So many times women come to me and they say, "I've been tested for everything. All of the things I've been tested for." And there's been very few cases where that's actually true. There's a lot of gap in, in care between your OB-GYN and your reproductive endocrinologist. And so I really advocate for my third T, which is taking control of your own, your own health, your own testing, really checking in with your body and seeing if you're symptomatic or not. In my case, I had been being treated with a thyroid, for a thyroid condition, which is super common, you know, preventing infertility, but I was still symptomatic. I still didn't feel my best. And so I had to advocate for myself to have my medicine increased a little bit, get me into a, say, a pre-infertility range. What historically was normal for me and not just in the normal range, which is what we hear all the time. I'm in normal range, everything is, everything's normal and that's how you end up with an unexplained infertility diagnosis.

Yeah, I don't think this should come as a big surprise to everyone because we have doctors come on this show that are not talking about infertility but that will tell you that We aren't getting the thorough blood panels that we need. We're not getting the screenings that we need in general. So it would make sense that the same holds true when you're dealing with infertility issues.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that there's a big myth in the infertility world, right? The myth is, is that you're going to get personalized care and that very seldom happens. Normally put on a protocol, whatever that doctor decides is their protocol for infertility. Maybe that means that it's going to help your ovulation, maybe ovulate earlier, maybe thicken your lining. But all of this is manipulated with, manipulated with hormones, right? And in between that, there is testing that is not done until after the fact, meaning after you've had an unsuccessful IVF transfer, after you've had several unsuccessful IUI transfers, and we see this in the book. You know, there are authors that went to 7 different doctors before they could figure out why they were having UTI symptoms, and come to find out their UTI symptoms were linked to their infertility. They had gotten pregnant once and they had some secondary infertility, but then they couldn't get pregnant again, and it was all wrapped up together. So really Checking in with yourself, advocating for yourself, taking control of your own testing is so important.

Well, this is all great information, um, and I appreciate you coming back on Bloom again. We're going to share everything that you need to know on bloomtampabay.com, and we are thrilled Erica Hoke joined us on our podcast, the Bloom Health Club, in the WFLA Now streaming center to continue this incredible conversation. You can stream the full episode anytime, wherever you go for podcasts. We We will be back with more Bloom right after this, so don't go away.