Minerals & Fertility: What You Need to Know
If you're preparing for conception or facing challenges with fertility, understanding the role of minerals is crucial. Nutrient deficiencies and mineral imbalances are often at the core of issues like hormone imbalances, thyroid dysfunction, and even poor egg or sperm quality. Here's how key minerals can influence fertility and support your journey to conception.
How Minerals Impact Fertility
Minerals play a foundational role in fertility by supporting the metabolic systems that regulate hormone balance, thyroid function, ovulation, and overall reproductive health. Proper nutrition ensures that your body has the necessary building blocks to maintain a healthy pregnancy.
Can Mineral Support Improve Your Chances of Conception?
Absolutely! However, since each woman's health history is unique, it's important to approach mineral supplementation with caution. Mineral testing can help identify specific deficiencies and imbalances that may be hindering fertility. A tailored, food-first approach, supplemented with the right nutrients for your bio-individuality, can help restore balance and enhance fertility.
Essential Minerals for Fertility and Conception
Magnesium: Support cellular energy production and proper thyroid function. Please don’t just jump on taking a random magnesium supplement, there are many kinds out there that are not supportive and do require important cofactors like sodium, potassium, and copper. Too much magnesium without these cofactors can actually deplete other minerals like sodium, add to adrenal stress, and won’t increase your magnesium reserves effectively. The best way to start integrating Magnesium safely is externally, taking magnesium Epsom salt baths (or foot baths) and using Magnesium oil.
Calcium: Crucial for bone health, orgal health, supporting the nervous system thyroid function, and reproductive health. We should only be getting calcium from whole food sources, not isolated supplements, as that can disrupt magnesium levels and cause more thyroid issues. Conventionally, calcium is generally recommended during pregnancy due to how important it is for mom and baby but it requires cofactors like phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium in order to get metabolized properly. Calcium is also essential, like zinc, for men when it comes to sperm count and quality.
Iron: Iron is probably the most misunderstood nutrient for conception as well as pregnancy where women are often told they’re low and need to increase their levels throughs supplementation. However, minerals don’t operate in a high-low model and taking an iron supplement can actually lead to major depletion of magnesium, cause calcium displacement, and add to liver stress. In order to support iron status, we need to support the iron recycling system which includes nutrients like bioavailable copper, retinol, and magnesium. Without these nutrients, iron will get stored in our tissues causing oxidative stress which appears as low iron in the blood. Iron overload in the tissues is often related to poor blood sugar regulation, hormonal conditions like PCOS, thyroid dysfunction and overall metabolic stress.
Sodium: Sodium is crucial for healthy stomach acid production that helps to break down our food and allow for proper absorption of nutrients. It also aids our adrenals in a healthy stress response. Low salt diets have been shown to contribute to insulin resistance and which can make it difficult for ovulation. Balancing sodium and potassium is key for cell permeability which allows for nutrients and hormones to move in and out of the cell to be used. Adrenal cocktails, fermented foods, trace mineral drops, and quality sea salt are best way to get in sodium. .
Potassium: Very similar to sodium, potassium also has insulin beneficial effects that help to support ovulation which again, is key for fertility and conception. Potassium also supports gut health. Getting in potassium rich requires integration of quality carbohydrates which often women are lacking or reduce in their diet. Think squash, coconut, potatoes, beans, fruit, and quality dairy for potassium rich sources. Plus of course, adrenal cocktails.
Iodine: Iodine is a key nutrient for thyroid function and therefore for fertility. Not only is it essential for thyroid health but also other glands such as ovaries, breasts, uterus, and the prostate! Iodine deficiency is a big issue in our society due to it being removed from many whole foods and synthetically added which we can’t metabolize properly. Halogens like chlorine, bromine, and fluorine will block the receptors for iodine uptake which also contributes to an iodine deficiency. Iodine is critical for fetal brain development and ensuring there are no thyroid concerns during pregnancy. Foods like quality dairy, eggs, sea vegetables, quality sea salt, and oysters are high in iodine.
Selenium: Selenium helps our bodies utilize iodine and is a powerful antioxidant that supports heavy metal detoxification. It helps support proper development of follicles that release the egg, contributes to sperm quality and motility, and ensures babies development. Selenium rich foods include oysters, organ meats, and brazil nuts.
Zinc: Zinc plays a major role for both women and male fertility. It helps to produce progesterone which is needed for conception as well as maintaining a pregnancy and for men, supports healthy sperm quality, count, and motility. Zinc also plays a critical role in healthy liver function which helps to maintain healthy hormonal balance, detoxification, and the production of ceruloplasmin (protein that makes copper bioavailable). Zinc should only ever come from whole food sources like meat, dairy, oysters, and shellfish.
Why Prenatals May Not Be the Best Solution
Prenatals are often isolated nutrients, synthetically created, with no regard for proper mineral ratios, and often have an excess amount in each pill. They can contribute to pregnancy challenges by causing further mineral dysregulation. It’s so important to individualize your mineral needs, get proper testing done to determine what you need and where to start, and ultimately focus on a food-first approach. Nowadays there are wholefood based prenatals but I would still be cautious about your bio individual needs.
The Benefits of Mineral Testing
I’ve helped tons of women get insight on their mineral status to support their thyroid, develop a healthy cycle, improve ovulation, and improve the body’s stress response through mineral testing. This provides a framework that women can feel empowered by and equips them with tools for healthy fertility, conception, pregnancy, and postpartum.
Learn more about Mineral Testing here