Episode 91- Why Healing Before Getting Pregnant is Best!

But then also the thousands of clients that I've, dealt with, and why I say what I say in terms of the ever presence, the ever need of healing is so critical. And for those of you who do want to have children who are, gearing up for that, just like I was yeah, at the same time of wanting to heal, but then also have children and start this new chapter of life. I see that it's so critical to heal for many reasons.

First, because when you have an autoimmune disease, those antibodies are in you, they're alive, it's like an open wound. And, for those of you who've had children, who've already been there, done that, you know that anything creates more susceptibility while pregnant. For example, if you happen to have the herpes virus, then you want to make sure that herpes virus is not in bloom while you are giving birth. Why? Because if the baby were to go down the canal and you happen to have genital herpes, then guess what? That baby is going to get the genital herpes.

So in many ways, it's the same correlation. It's an open wound. And so when you have the antibodies for it that are alive and well, then your baby is more susceptible to getting it. And it's no surprise when I have a mom who comes to me and she also has one child, two children, three children with alopecia as well. And it's not a genetic thing. It's because she passed it on to them.

And for example, I had alopecia, I had the autoimmune alopecia, I healed it and then I got pregnant. What's the difference? The difference is those antibodies are not there. So my baby is less susceptible to having alopecia later on in life. That doesn't mean 100% he won't get it, just like the mom who has genital warts or genital herpes in this case. If she doesn't give it to her child during the labor, so let's say instead of having a natural birth through the vaginal canal, she decides to do a C section. So this way the baby is not getting any herpes or any warts or anything, right?

So let's say she decides to do that. So then, that's an option, right? She gets that, and this baby no longer has the susceptibility to getting the warts and the herpes or anything else immediately, correct? But at the same time, that doesn't mean that later on in life, He could not get warts or not get genitals or herpes. It wouldn't necessarily be from the mother. It would have been from another partner. Does that make sense?

In this case with alopecia, the critical point of healing you, the mom, or the potential mom, at this point, is because you would want to create less susceptibility for your child to get it. That's what I've done. I healed myself first and then I had a baby and then, there's less antibodies, therefore the baby whether you go through the vaginal canal or whether you have to have a C section, is still protected from that. And it's still not necessarily instantly susceptible to it.

Because that's what I've seen. I've seen moms who come to me who've never healed who lo and behold have children and lo and behold those children also have alopecia. Is immediate, maybe not, but it creates more susceptibility and not necessarily through the genetic situation, but just because of the high levels of antibodies that you have when you have an autoimmune disease. So that's first and foremost.

Second of all, I've also seen where the moms never had alopecia or the children never had alopecia, right? And then after giving birth is when the hair loss started after giving birth is when the alopecia started, whether it was autoimmune or whether it was a different type of alopecia, not necessarily postpartum, which, by the way, I can firmly attest that even with postpartum there's ways to control that, there's ways to mitigate that so that you don't have to just sit there and wait for all the hair to come down and for your hormones to bounce. You can balance them out quickly and a lot sooner so that you can avoid postpartum hair loss. I can show you pictures of myself at three months, at six months, at nine months at 12 months at 18 months of when my child was born all through those stages in my hair was as thick as ever, and I never had postpartum hair loss.

So that's something that you can avoid so don't immediately think that's the only route after baby is postpartum hair loss. You can actually avoid it. You can mitigate that and you can lessen that a lot, and I can show you how inside the Hair N’ Heal program. But beyond that, when it comes to hair loss, autoimmune infertility, for those of you who are looking to be a mom looking to be a parent in the next 6-12 months and potentially are considering IVF also know that IVF treatments many times cause hair loss. And it's the direct effect because you have to take drugs, you have to take hormones, you have to take a lot of things to prep your body and boost it, so to speak, so that they can go in there and grab a lot of and harvest the eggs, right?

So this is part of the situation that I wanted to also talk about is that when you are undergoing IVF, understand that many times there are side effects, many times there are risks and ramifications, just like anything else, and that potentially can also cause hair loss. So that's one thing, but the critical side of healing your autoimmune alopecia before giving birth is a) to heal yourself, and b) so that you don't pass on the antibodies to your baby. But c) it's because many times people think: Oh well, you know, I'm just going to get pregnant and my hair will just grow back even when I'm pregnant. That's not the case. I've actually seen it reversed. And I've seen it reversed many times.

So let's say you, the mom, have alopecia, autoimmune alopecia, and you go on to get pregnant. I've seen where it's gotten worse for them where they actually lose all their hair and what's going on? You're pregnant now and there's a baby and guess what all the nutrients all everything all the energy is going towards the baby It's not going towards you anymore. And so this is the situation where your body has to choose in many ways where the nutrients go to and it goes to the fetus, you actually have no choice in that. It just goes straight to the baby. So because of this, you are not healing, there's no energy for you to heal, so to speak. Therefore, your situation, becomes more grave and becomes worse and worsens in general over the course of your pregnancy.

And now I've seen hundreds of cases where this has happened where the mom has alopecia, she all of a sudden is pregnant and her alopecia gets worse, so much worse where she's going not just from alopecia areata and now she's alopecia universalis, or she's upgraded to alopecia totalis or universalis, one of the two, and she's losing tons and tons of hair. When just the opposite normally during a normal pregnancy, you should be growing tons of hair.

So those are the two main reasons as to why you should be healing your alopecia before getting pregnant, if at all possible. And another tip, once you give birth, Don't go on birth control, you need to like, let your body process this. You need to support the hormones, you need to support your body. And once you stop breastfeeding, if you choose to breastfeed, then you can start healing, and even before then you can start healing. I've actually had clients of mine who are pregnant or in the middle of a pregnancy. And they're able to do 99.9% of the program.

So whether you're looking to get pregnant, about to get pregnant, or are pregnant, you can still do the program. The best case scenario, though, is to heal before you get pregnant. That's the best case scenario. Why? Because you're doing yourself a favor, but then, bigger yet, you're doing a huge favor to your child, so that the susceptibility isn't there. Yeah, it's heartbreaking for me when I see a mom and then, she comes to me for the program with two kids, three kids, and all of them have alopecia and the mom's had it for, 10 plus years and hasn't healed, it hasn't really done anything for herself.

But yet it's a little different when you're a mom and it's your babies who, who have the alopecia and who are suffering and going through this and maybe going through the teasing and going through all this other ancillary situations that can be avoided. And so I think this is the biggest takeaway, is that you can avoid alopecia for your children by healing yourself first before getting pregnant. And then also, you do yourself a favor because you're healed and then you also already know the pathway on how to continue to thrive and continue to be your best throughout.

So those are the two reasons as to why it's critical to heal. Now, again, with IVF, if you choose to do that route, understand that potentially can cause hair loss. Also the stress of IVF, the stress of going through harvesting eggs and and just the process of it can be a big emotional toll as well. So that's something also to consider. Outside of that though is that healing now is your best bet always because it's never going to get better on its

own. It never will. And this is just the fact, it's like having a leak in your roof and all of a sudden it's a small leak, but do you think it's going to get better on its own?

No, it's only just going to get worse and it's only going to have more of a prominence in your home, and it's only going to spread and the damage is going to spread. And so this is where we also open up the door for that 25% of people who do go on to acquire a second and a third autoimmune disease.

And you can be any age and have three autoimmune diseases. I've seen it in six years old. I've seen it in children, I've seen it in adults. You shouldn't be waiting for this to go away on its own because it won't. So the urgency here is a) to heal as soon as possible, but b) especially before getting pregnant, if at all possible. Now, if you are pregnant, let's say, and you do have alopecia then I would say get the education needed so that you can do as much as possible during this time and mitigate any more hair loss and mitigate anything else. And then on top of it, you would be already ahead of the curve.

So let's say tomorrow you give birth, but then we can also help your hormones so that they can regulate quickly. You stop losing the hair loss, right? Cause the hair loss it's going to continue happening right now, and then we also set up your child for the best health possible because with changes and with some, new learnings and implementing the new learnings, you can course correct the future of your child, but then also of course, correct your future. So that you can start the healing process as soon as possible.

So even if you're in the middle of this right now, don't lose hope. You can still mitigate it, but the key here at any stage of life, whether it's been 50 years and you're already in your seventies or whether it's been, two months and you just got diagnosed, and potentially maybe you're already pregnant or maybe you're not, or, but maybe you're thinking about it, is that the key to all this is taking action, the quicker, the better.

And I will say from my own experience, having had my first baby at 40 is that the ones I healed my alopecia, my whole health in general, in all areas shot through the roof like never before. So my fertility was on point, my brain health was on point, my, cardiovascular, my just everything was on point. And it was incredible how one thing that was dragging it, which was the alopecia. Just once it healed, it allowed my body to really take flight and to be its best. So good where I got pregnant on the first try, so good where I didn't need thankfully any interventions and thankfully there was no second or third autoimmune disease.

And so again, it's taking action so that these things don't have to happen to us, but then also we can get ahead of it. And I think that's the key. Once you get ahead of it, then you set yourself up for success, you set yourself up for that next chapter in your life, whether it is to be a mom, like I am now, or to just have your hair and to live your best life ever, or, whatever that may be and whatever that may look like. But healing now. Is your best bet instead of waiting because what are you waiting for? You're waiting for things just to go away on its own? Because that's not going to happen. Are you waiting for things to get better on its own? It can only get worse, and it normally it does, whether

it's the vicious cycles that come and go or whether it's you know, the health that you think maybe is improving but then all of a sudden it takes a nosedive and now all of a sudden you have a second autoimmune disease.

For those of you who maybe alopecia is your third or your second autoimmune disease because maybe you started off with something else and but that autoimmune disease is already telling you something it was already telling you were on the wrong path and you needed to course correct. But now, because that second or third autoimmune disease is affecting your physical appearance, your hair, which is so important to you, because I get it. It's so important to me too, now we're doing something about it, maybe much more. But this is where, our bodies are like already waving the white flag like I give up. We need to do something.

So at the end of the day, it's never too late to heal. At the end of the day. It's never too late to course correct, but the sooner the better. There's a Chinese proverb that says the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is today. And so this is the same scenario that I'm seeing when it comes to alopecia, especially if you want to be a mom, especially if you want to have children, especially if you want to do that next stage in life. Healing now is so much fruitful for you and for your baby, healing now versus later.

So just something to consider something for you to chew on something for you to grasp and to acknowledge a little bit because one thing is seeing reports of how certain autoimmune diseases do affect fertility, because I actually just saw another one come out from the UK today that named a bunch of other autoimmune diseases, not necessarily alopecia, but thyroiditis, lupus and antiphospholipid and a bunch of other ones. But at the same time, healing is never going to set you back. Healing is only going to propel you further and it's going to put you at where you need to be at optimized health at optimized life. Living your best life.

So that's the key takeaway to do things sooner rather than later, so you can create a better future for you and for that future baby or future children that you choose to have. So I hope this helps and I look forward to seeing all your questions and comments. If you have anything that you'd like to share with me, please send us an email at [email protected]

We're here to serve you and the alopecia community. Take care. Bye bye.