Secondary Infertility: The Myths and the Truth

not Monday. Everyone is confused today because of Erica Hoke, but nevertheless, it is Tuesday. I'm still going to talk about Mythbusting Monday. I did a little bit yesterday, and I want to really talk to you about what I was focused on in my slides yesterday, which is Mythbusting Monday. So if you don't know me, I'm Erica Hoke, I'm coach, and the story that I want to tell you today is about secondary infertility. It's about a woman, Cardol. You can catch the whole story on, on my YouTube channel, just search the video. But the story that I want to tell you is one of advocating for herself. So secondary is confusing to people because they've had a baby and now they can't have another baby. And some people don't even really even recognize secondary infertility as a problem. They don't know that it's a thing. And it's a really big problem, just like, just like regular infertility is. So Cassie's starts after her via C-section. So for a long period of time, almost 2 years, around to different doctors, she was talking to them about pain and symptoms that she was having. And she was told she was crazy. It was all in her head. There was nothing that they could do for that for her. That she was just gonna have to live with this pain to having urinary tract infections and things like that. It turns out, it turns out, you guys, Cassie's bladder was sewn into her uterus during her C-section. So if she hadn't made it for herself, if she had not, she would have lived with those kind of symptoms for the rest of her life. So this story I'm telling you to lead off, just so that you know that secondary infertility sometimes has really dramatic physical causes and sources. Okay, so Cassie's very dramatic. Um, you can see the whole story in an interview I did for Hope for Healing Talks. On YouTube. All that to say, traumatic doesn't mean that secondary infertility in other ways, um, is not as dramatic too. So one of the things that I see a lot with clients is secondary infertility. My video here, secondary infertility— as being— good, I've had some audio problems— infertility as being foundationally caused by thyroid. So there's a lot of thyroid dysfunction after pregnancy. Your hormones are disrupted and your thyroid sometimes gets really affected by the pregnancy process. And so what I strongly encourage you to do is if you're experiencing this for you to go back to that pre-pregnancy number. Okay, just a brief, brief overview of thyroid. Thyroid, the range is huge. I'm not a doctor, but I know the thyroid levels, your normal is very, very broad. So your normal might be way over here, here, and you're still— so I always, uh, counsel people to talk to their doctor about what their pre-pregnancy, for their first pregnancy, thyroid levels were, because sometimes this is a big indicator that there's been a big shift in your body. Um, and by the way, you're not gonna track that for you. They're just gonna see mostly most of the time. Some, some doctors do this, but most of the time they're in range and that's it, and they're going to send you on your way. So you can be asymptomatic, meaning you're not having a lot of dry hair, dizziness, weight gain, things like that, and your thyroid still being way off base from where it was when you got pregnant the first time, which is a good indicator of health, right? So overall health is the goal, pregnancy is the outcome. That's what I like to say. Um, so the other thing, so complications from a previous pregnancy, okay, so physi— physiological complications from a previous pregnancy, hormonal changes or thyroid changes from a previous pregnancy. So some have secondary and go down the path of having their thyroid levels checked. They don't even, um, go down the path of help from a fertility specialist because they're like, well, I did it once, we got pregnant once, like, we should figure this out on our own. As you age, your body deals less well with hormones, which brings me to my next one, is being tested for other complicating factors like Factor V Leiden. Factor 5 lightness of love. It's a bugger. Now people say, how can I have had one pregnancy successfully, or even two pregnancies depending on your age and how far spaced out the pregnancies were, and now I can't get pregnant? Well, as your body ages, less estrogen, so pregnancy 20s, mid-20s, second one in early 30s. Now you're going for that third pregnancy and you're 35 or 34, like you're on that cusp of advancement. Your body might not be able to deal with the hormones produced in pregnancy, and you have repeat miscarriage or you have repeat chemical pregnancies, which I had. And I, I had no idea that I had these for a long time. So you want to get tested for that, um, and it's a simple test that you can do. All right, you guys, I was a little late this morning, but this is my new schedule. I'll be here Monday, Wednesday, and Eastern Standard Time, um, talking about topics like this. If you're more about, uh, people's success and overcoming infertility, secondary infertility, My book is available on Amazon. Health and blessings to you. I will see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.