Cold and Fertility

If you are too cold you may have trouble conceiving.  Being too cold can affect digestive enzyme and hormone production to affect fertility.  Also, a cold uterus does not encourage the formation of new life.

How do you know if you are too cold?

If you feel cold (ie. nobody other than you is wearing a jumper, you hate cold weather, or you simply feel cold all the time) then you are probably too cold.

If your waking oral temperature is less than 36.4 degrees then you are too cold.  To do this you need to buy an oral thermometer (one you put under your tongue) and take your temperature when you wake – but before you get out of bed.  If your temperature is under 36.0 degrees then you are getting very cold (if you are this cold you really need to visit us).

Feel the temperature of your lower abdomen.  If it feels colder than your upper abdomen then you likely have a cold uterus.

What to Do If You Are Too Cold

You need to warm up!  Here’s some strategies you can follow yourself.

• Don’t eat much cold food or drink – it will only make you colder.  Eat mainly cooked food.  Still eat some raw foods but add ginger or cinnamon to it.  The warmth of these foods helps to offset the cold of the food.
• Eat warming foods – warming foods gently warm your interior to help fill your ‘Fertility Cup’.  This includes cooked food, but also includes spices that warm you even when eaten raw like ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, turmeric and mild chilli (don’t go crazy with chilli as it can heat you up too much to cause the opposite problem).
• Routinely use a hot water bottle on your lower back and your lower abdomen – these physically heat up these problem areas.
• Don’t walk around in bare feet – the cold from the floor can transfer cold to your Kidneys as there is a Kidney acupuncture point on the bottom of your feet. Cold Kidneys are no good for fertility.
• Cover your mid-drift – don’t wear clothes that reveal your lower back or your abdomen.  It’s too easy for them to get cold.
• Don’t work in a cold environment – such as a butcher shop, office with airconditioning turned up too high or outside in winter without the proper clothing.

You can also get specific herbs and acupuncture to more quickly bring your body temperature back into balance at our Moonee Ponds Clinic.