The Fertility Fitness Podcast

Fertility Focus on Dopamine

Episode Summary

This weeks Fertility Focus is on dopamine and its role in supporting fertility.

Episode Notes

This weeks Fertility Focus is on dopamine and its role in supporting fertility. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that allows you to feel pleasure, satisfaction, optimism, and reward. It can also support fertility by restraining prolactin levels. High prolactin levels can interfere with ovulation and cause other symptoms such as irregular menstrual periods and milk discharge from breasts. A blood test can assess prolactin levels, and dopamine agonist medications can be prescribed to increase dopamine levels. Exercise can also naturally increase dopamine levels too!!

Maria, is a PT who specialises in helping women have babies.

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Episode Transcription

Welcome to Fertility Focus, this weekly minisode is designed to help you improve your fertility. Every Tuesday I will be focusing on actionable steps to help you take control of your own ttc journey.

I’m Maria, I’m a personal trainer specialising in fertility. Whether you are preparing for IVF, managing your BMI or ready to throw everything you have at your own trying to conceive journey, tune in each week to hear more.

In this week’s episode I am focusing on the fabulous neurotransmitter that is Dopamine.

Dopamine is one of my favourite chemicals in the brain (and yes, I do have favourites). Dopamine is the chemical that allows you to feel pleasure, satisfaction, optimism and reward. It is linked to motivation and generally feeling great. The good news is that dopamine can not only support your fertility, but it can make your brain more sensitive to joy, something we all need from time to time, but especially when going through infertility and trying to conceive.

So, how does Dopamine support your fertility? Well, what many people don’t know is that if levels of another chemical, called Prolactin, are too high, this can interfere with your ovulation. Guess what? Dopamine restrains Prolactin levels, so the higher your Dopamine levels, the lower your prolactin.

So, how do you know if your Prolactin levels are too high, how do you test for Prolactin levels and how do you then increase Dopamine levels if need be?

I’ll start with the first question and go from there.

How do you know if your Prolactin levels are too high? There are a number of symptoms to look out for, including: irregular or absent menstrual periods,menopausal hot flashes, vaginal dryness, osteoporosis (thinning and weakening of the bones). High prolactin levels can also cause milk discharge from the breasts outside of pregnancy. There are of course other reasons for these symptoms, but as always these are things to pay attention to should you notice them.
How would you get tested if you thought you had issues with your Prolactin levels? The good news is a simple blood test can be done to assess if you have abnormal levels of Prolactin. If necessary you can also have brain imaging scans and vision tests, as Prolactinoma (high levels of Prolactin) can also affect your eye sight. So if you are worried, speak to your GP, your clinic or your doctor and ask them for a blood test to test your Prolactin levels.
If your Prolactin levels came back as too high, what happens next? You need to increase dopamine levels, like I said earlier, Dopamine levels keep Prolactin levels in check. The good news is you can increase dopamine levels through medication and lifestyle changes. These medications are called Dopamine agonists as they increase the levels of dopamine in your brain. The two most commonly prescribed drugs include cabergoline and bromocriptine (Cycloset, Parlodel). As always, medications may come with side effects so look out for nausea and vomiting, dizziness, nasal stuffiness, and headache so it is important that your doctor starts you on a low dose and then works up wherever possible.
How do you increase dopamine levels more naturally? You’ve guessed it! Exercise! Over time, regular exercise can actually change your brain; your brain is not static, which means that due to something known as plasticity, the way your brain works and even the structures within your brain can change. Exercise can gradually change the way your brain works meaning you end up higher levels of circulating dopamine.
Just as a recap, why are we talking about Dopamine? Well, dopamine not only helps us feel awesome, experience joy and pleasure and help us feel closer to others, it keeps your levels of another chemical called Prolactin in check. If your Prolactin levels are too high, you can experience a number of side effects including issues with fertility, in particular ovulation. If you are not ovulating, you are not going to get pregnant naturally, so this is why we are talking about the fabulous neurotransmitter that is Dopamine.

Outro

If you want to get fitter for your own ttc journey, head over to fitnessfertility.com and sign up for my awesome free workouts. Also, follow me on instagram at fitness_fertility, where you will find a fabulous community of other women who are also trying to conceive.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Fitness Fertility Podcast, and tune in every Friday to hear interviews with fertility experts and in-depth discussions on all aspects of fitness and fertility.

And one more thing, please share the show, because you never know who is struggling and may need that little bit of extra help.