Twelve years ago, Erica Hoke was told that she would never have children. Now she has 4. Complete Miracles! She had every infertility issue that you can name. Including stage 4 Endometriosis fibroids, PCOS and factor V Leiden. Just to name a few. Get the picture? And, although she didn’t know it at the time a double mutation of both genes of MTHFR. She and her husband wanted a baby more than anything in the world.
At 35, she was NOT a candidate for IVF and had less than 1% chance of conceiving naturally. So, she opted for aggressive surgery and started researching on how to boost your fertility naturally, and what affects your fertility. What she found would be the beginning of a lifelong passion.
What she found was everything affects your fertility. The food you eat, the products you use on your skin, the laundry detergent, your make-up. Everything. So, she started finding healthier chemical free solutions. She started acupuncture for fertility three times a week. Her symptoms lessened. Then one day she got a positive test.
Now she’s committed to helping other women and families do the same. Teaching them how to advocate for themselves, educate themselves and take a path that is less sure, but feels better. She teaches them how to REBEL against a system that promotes sick care and recognize ways that they can restore their power and health.
Key Points from the Episode with Eric Hoke
Erica found herself in her early 30s married, and wanting to start a family
She was also one of the 1 in 6 women who suffers from infertility
As she and her husband looked into their options, they found that Erica’s case was more extreme than for some, making IVF and other fertility treatments not options for her
This inspired Erica’s work today, helping empower and education women about their infertility to help inform those who may be getting mis- or insufficient information about what they can do
In Erica’s case, she had been diagnosed with almost every infertility issue know, including Stage 4 Endometriosis, PCOS, Uterine Fibroids, Thyroid Diseases, and a double-mutation of MTHFR and Factor 5 Leiden and Epstein-Barr.
She addressed what she could, like removing fibroids, but the doctors said she was not a candidate for IVF due to her age and other issues
IVF is often people’s backup plan if they are having struggles with fertility without knowing that it isn’t always an option
IVF is also extremely expensive, and people put themselves in difficult financial positions when there may be other paths they could take if they knew about them
Erica felt something deep inside of her that she was meant to have kids and to give birth to them, and decided not to give up when she was told IVF wasn’t an option
So she dug deep into other paths to work on, including acupuncture, meditation, therapy, visualization, changing her diet and nutrition
These are all things that are worth doing regardless, but were especially valuable in Erica’s case
Part of Erica’s back story, that is very common amongst women with fertility issues, is trauma, often including sexual abuse
This can show up in so many different ways, including eating disorders, poor lifestyles and more
This means addressing the mindset and emotional side of the equation is so critical
Erica was determined to leave no stone unturned, and that was the reason she was able to make progress and go on to give birth to four healthy kids
One thing she found was the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org), to find sources of chemicals that could be impacting her fertility and overall wellness
One particular thing she mentioned was The Clean 15 and The Dirty Dozen from EWG, which is an annual list of 15 fruits and vegetables that you can eat non-organic without concern, and 12 that you should not eat if you can’t eat organic (things like potatoes, tomatoes, grapes and strawberries)
She moved from what she was putting in her body to what she was putting on her body, like lotions, bug spray, hand sanitizer, soap and shampoo
Things put on the skin are in your blood stream within 2 minutes, and in every cell in your body within 20 minutes
Erica shared a startling fact - the average woman puts about 300 chemicals in her body daily, and the average man puts about 80 - most of them are hormone and/or endocrine disrupters
The one thing she said we can all change out that would be so helpful would be laundry detergent (and dryer sheets, fabric softener, etc) because we’re in our clothes or in our clothes 23.5 hours a day
We talked about why visualization helps, and Erica gave the answer clearly - if, in your mind, you don’t see something as possible, then it won’t be
It took about 9 months of work across the board to see a change and to feel better
She still wasn’t quite where she expected to be for a 35 year old woman in terms of energy levels and feeling well, so she went back to her doctor to ask to go deeper on her thyroid function despite her thyroid numbers looking ok
She specifically changed things in her diet and lifestyle to support her thyroid and started to see progress on her energy and overall feeling of wellness
Erica had her first child, and then had twins 27 months later, meaning she had three kids under 3
That made things very intense, plus her husband traveled for business, putting more strain on her, putting her PTSD on fire, as she put it
She had already been a Type A, intense, driven person, but having the three little kids to care for triggered her emotions, stress and anxiety in a whole new way that she had to work to manage and manage the impact of
One thing she learned through all the “bad” things she removed from her diet was that she also needed to look at what “good” things to add, which was the next part of her self-work and a major part of the work she does with her clients
For example, if you eat food with pesticides on it, those chemicals kill off your gut flora, meaning you need to look at how to support your microbiome so that gut health-related issues don’t arise
We talked about CBD, how it works, what role THC plays in it and what it takes to remove the THC and keeping the CBD functional in your body
You don’t want the THC in there because that’s the part that makes the drug a drug, but you can’t simply remove it as the CBD no longer can affect your cells positively, so Erica solved for that with her own CBD product that replaced the THC with essential oils so it is healthy, safe and can still work
We talked about how it can seem “hard” to be healthy, but often this is about our not realizing the time and cost we put into the “easy” way we’ve been doing things
Erica’s Factor 5 Leiden issue lead to having a DVT (deep vein thrombosis or blood clot) when she was 33, and then lead to pregnancies not taking
She shared that some women will suffer multiple miscarriages before their doctor thinks about checking for something like a clotting disease
Because it is easy to check for and do something about, Erica tries to raise awareness to safe women from having to go through repeated loss like this
She also talked about how we can start to work on the things Erica helps people with bit by bit, and don’t have to hit the hardest things first. We can work into being better and getting better
Erica shared her top 5 recommendations for supporting those struggling with infertility Test for Factor 5 Leiden
Add a Probiotic
Change out your laundry detergent
Pick a category and clean up the inputs, whether food or personal care
Engage in mental health work
Links:
Website: http://www.ericahoke.com
Facebook:Woke to Wellness
Instagram: @woke.to.wellness
Subscribe to The Do a Day Podcast
Keep Growing with Do a Day Get Bryan's best-selling first book,Do a Day, which is the inspiration for this show and can help you overcome your greatest challenges and achieve in life.
Read Bryan's best-selling second book, The 50 75 100 Solution: Build Better Relationships, to tap into the power we all have to improve our relationships – even the tough ones we feel have no hope of getting better.
Get started on your journey to Better with the Big Goal Exercise
Take your growth into your own hands with the Do a Day Masterclass
Work with Bryan as your coach, or hire him to speak at your next event
Comentarios