Ep 355 The Truth About ‘Ozempic Pregnancies’ No One’s Talking About
In today’s episode, I dive into the rising phenomenon of so-called “Ozempic pregnancies” and uncover what’s really happening behind the headlines. GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic and Wegovy were originally developed for type 2 diabetes, but are now being used by many women with PCOS, insulin resistance, or weight challenges to support fertility.
I’ll break down how these medications work, why they may help some women conceive, and the important risks and limitations you need to know. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, we’ll explore why simply taking a drug isn’t enough to address the root cause, and how digestive health, spleen qi, and lifestyle habits hold the key to lasting fertility and hormone balance.
I’ll also share practical strategies you can start today, like mindful eating, warming your digestive fire, and syncing with your circadian rhythm, that can naturally support your fertility journey.
Key Takeaways:
GLP-1 medications like Ozempic can temporarily improve insulin sensitivity but don’t resolve the root causes of infertility.
Insulin resistance impacts ovulation, egg quality, and hormone balance, especially in women with PCOS.
TCM approaches fertility by strengthening the digestive system and restoring balance, rather than suppressing symptoms.
Mindful eating, warm digestion-supporting practices, and aligning meals with the body’s circadian rhythm are powerful fertility boosters.
Sustainable lifestyle changes are essential for lasting fertility health, beyond short-term medication use.
Links mentioned:
📕Fertility Diet eBook
Disclaimer: The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult with your healthcare provider before making any changes to your health or fertility care.
For more information about Michelle, visit: www.michelleoravitz.com
Check out Michelle’s Latest Book: The Way of Fertility!
https://www.michelleoravitz.com/thewayoffertility
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Michelle: Episode number 3 55 of the Wholesome Fertility Podcast. Welcome to the Wholesome Fertility Podcast. I'm your host, Michelle Orbitz, and today we're diving into a very hot topic, Ozempic and Fertility. You may have heard the phrase, Ozempic Babies referring to women who became pregnant unexpectedly while on these drugs.
Michelle: But what's really going on in this episode, we'll talk about what GLP one medications like Ozempic and Wego v. Actually do how they affect insulin resistance and the role that insulin resistance plays in fertility. And then I'll of course show you how we look at this through the lens of traditional Chinese medicine where the focus is always addressing the root cause.
Michelle: This is gonna be a really interesting topic, so stay tuned.
[00:01:00]
Michelle: GLP one. Drugs like ozempic and wegovy are what's called GLP receptor agonists. GLP one stands for glucagon like peptide one a hormone your body naturally produces in response to eating. So these drugs work. By slowing how fast your stomach empties out food. And they also improve how your body responds to insulin while lowering blood sugar.
Michelle: And what they do is they reduce a person's appetite and they also promote weight loss. So originally these drugs were made for type two diabetes where people begin to have insulin resistance. So their body produces too much insulin and their cells eventually get [00:02:00] resistant to it. But now over time, people have started using these drugs for weight loss and now many women with insulin resistance or people who are overweight and trying to conceive, or people who have PCOS and tend to have a little bit more insulin resistance in general, have been using these drugs to help them conceive.
Michelle: What happens is many women take these drugs. And then they eventually lose weight or it increases their insulin receptivity and therefore it helps them conceive and the lower a woman's insulin resistance is. The more healthy and regulated her cycles are, the less inflammation she has in her body. And it can also increase egg quality as well.
Michelle: So for many women with PCOS, these shifts can be really dramatic and sometimes lead to pregnancies after years of struggle. So let's talk about insulin resistance. 'cause I know that is by itself a very hot topic. It's something that we often hear, especially [00:03:00] for women who have PCOS. So insulin resistance happens when your body's cells and many different types of cells stop responding properly to insulin.
Michelle: So insulin moves sugar from your blood into your cells for more energy. And when insulin is not able to do its job properly, over time, the cells are not gonna get the sugar they need, and then the sugar in the blood will increase. And then what happens is the pancreas tries to increase its production of insulin to balance this out and over time, this increases insulin in the bloodstream and this leads to high insulin as well as high blood sugar levels eventually, when the pancreas cannot keep up.
Michelle: This can lead to something called type two diabetes, which increases inflammation in the body as well. So how this impacts fertility health is multifold. It can really disrupt hormone balance, and excess [00:04:00] insulin can cause the ovaries to make more testosterone and less estrogen. And this can cause an issue with ovulation.
Michelle: And this is one of the reasons why women who have PCOS. Have the type of PCOS that is insulin resistance, because not all PCOS looks the same, but the majority does tend to have insulin resistance. This is one of the reasons why you'll find a lot of high androgens in cases of PCOS, and you'll also find that a lot of people with PCOS have irregular cycles or aren't even ovulating.
Michelle: High insulin can also cause the ovaries not to respond as well to hormones that trigger the release of the egg, which is why it can also cause issues with ovulation. Insulin resistance also causes cells to not get the energy they need because eggs are cells. It's. The largest cell in a woman's body, it's not going to get the energy production that it needs to increase the quality.
Michelle: Polycystic poly, [00:05:00] meaning many is actually referring to not cysts, but follicles that are growing, but they're not fully maturing the way they're supposed to because they don't have the right type of energy. So this actually leads to lower quality eggs, and you'll find that a lot of. Women with PCOS that do IVF may have a lot of eggs extracted, but ultimately not that many will end up being healthy embryos.
Michelle: And this is because the quality is not as high. And not only that being insulin resistance can increase a lot of inflammation in the body, which can cause so many issues. It can also impact equality, but it can also impact digestion and how women are really processing food and nutrients into their body.
Michelle: So as you can see, it can cause a whole host of impacts on fertility health. So I did mention PCOS, however. Insulin resistance can also occur in women that do not have PCOS. So it's not just something that you'll find [00:06:00] with PCOS, and unfortunately, we're living at a time where we have lots of different aspects and contributors in our environment that can cause issues with insulin resistance.
Michelle: So this can be very much environmental as well. So ultimately. It all comes down to insulin and really getting that in check. But here is the thing, even though many women can have a temporary impact of insulin sensitivity due to taking these drugs, this is not a permanent thing. So once they get off of it, their body is automatically gonna go back to its original state, and we haven't really addressed the root issue.
Michelle: And can that cause any future? Impacts, we don't really know. There are also certain risks that can be involved. It's not really recommended to take when you're pregnant, so you could get to a certain healthy level. And then once you get pregnant, there's no guarantee that your insulin sensitivity is gonna stay the same unless you make some other impacts and lifestyle [00:07:00] changes.
Michelle: So another thing to consider is because your digestive system is being slowed down. This can impact how your body is absorbing nutrients. And of course, those nutrients are really important for your egg quality. So while this impact could be temporary, where your body loses weight and your body's able to process energy, is this something that you wanna do long term and at what point?
Michelle: Can this get really expensive and also not really help your body's overall balance? There's just not a lot of information either on how GLP one drugs can impact embryo quality or the child's health. There's also a dependency factor because once people stop GLP one drugs. If they're gonna go back to the same pattern before where they might still have that insulin resistance rising, unless again, they're changing something in their lifestyle.
Michelle: So from A TCM perspective, traditional [00:08:00] Chinese medicine, and this is kind of my. Thing we look at really the root cause. We don't really treat symptoms, and what that means is five different people can come with the same symptom, but each person might have a different reason for why that symptom is emerging.
Michelle: So this is the reason we cannot really be treating the symptom, but we wanna look at the underlying cause. So a person can come in for a headache and that can be because they have too much cold in their system. Another person can have headaches. From blood deficiency, another person can have headaches from blood stagnation and so on.
Michelle: So there's so many different things. But if I'm treating somebody with blood stagnation as if they're blood deficient and I'm tonifying that blood, that can actually cause an adverse effect. So ultimately, we're looking at the whole person and the root cause in order to create a harmony in their body so that their body is able to self-heal.
Michelle: And many times in cases of PCOS. There are certain patterns that we'll see, and one of them [00:09:00] is being spleen sheet deficient. So when you have any kind of digestive issues and you're getting excess, what we call excess damp, so fat is considered a damp substance and that can accumulate when your spleen sheet is deficient.
Michelle: Now what does that mean? Your spleen and stomach working as a pair are really in charge of your digestive health, and if they're not doing their job. Properly. Then there's an accumulation happening. And that can be looked at as really that lagging of spleen. They're not able to really process nutrients and take from food what can ultimately be translated into the body as chi and blood.
Michelle: And think about it, you know, it's basically saying that your cells are not gonna get the energy they need from the food, which ultimately is describing what happens when a person is insulin resistant. They are not able to process and take the sugar into the cells. So from [00:10:00] a Chinese medicine perspective, they see it as the body's digestive system is just not functioning properly.
Michelle: And so we need to tonify and support that rather than actually depleting a person and getting them to lose weight. Forcefully, what they do is actually work on the digestive system and improve it, increase it, support it, and ultimately just. By strengthening the digestive system in the spleen and stomach, you're helping the spleen and stomach to process and translate energy from food.
Michelle: So here's a few things that you could be doing to support your spleen and stomach. Ideally, you go to an acupuncturist and the acupuncturist can give you acupuncture and herbs to support your spleen and stomach, and they many times will suggest some foods that you can take to support your digestion as well.
Michelle: But here are some things that you can do. Right away. And I always suggest in the beginning to become more mindful, to really increase that mindfulness around [00:11:00] eating. Because you have this amazing body that is very intelligent and it loves to communicate with you. However, many times we ignore this communication, but once you become mindful, you'll notice that your body's going to communicate more and you're gonna start to really understand what it's saying.
Michelle: And especially when it comes to food, which is one of the reasons why I really highly suggest. Starting a food diary. So basically writing down everything that you're eating. And it's not so hard nowadays. You can find even apps that you can put it on your phone. 'cause we have our phones next to us twenty four seven these days.
Michelle: So you can have something where you're writing things down. On what you're eating, but then also noting how do you feel after you eat? Do you feel any changes? Do you feel any difference? So those are things that you can kind of pay attention to. And one of the things you can do too, is a warm water with lemon in the morning.
Michelle: And I also highly suggest adding cinnamon to it because cinnamon can help with blood sugar. So those are things that [00:12:00] you can actually do to support your digestive system. And in Ayurvedic medicine, which is an ancient Indian medicine, is very much related to Chinese medicine. They often suggest kindling the Agni of your stomach.
Michelle: So the Agni is considered your digestive fire and that is able to really transform nutrients into the body. And many times we have diluted. Our digestive fire by eating too many colds in the form of ice drinks or even ice smoothies in the morning, first thing. And our digestive system really needs to be warm.
Michelle: It wants to be warm because it's cooking our food. So when we're constantly giving it cold foods or cold. Drinks, then it can really impact its ability to digest. And you really wanna look at your digestive system from the beginning to the end. So another thing that I highly suggest, which many people do not do, is really spend time looking at your food.
Michelle: [00:13:00] So you start really with your eyes, looking at your food before you eat, becoming mindful with your food. And then secondly, when you do actually start eating, chew your food, use your teeth. Your teeth are the first things that you have. Mastication. And what this does is it actually prepares your whole body to digest the food properly.
Michelle: And then what happens is you masticate with your teeth, the food, and then you mix the food with your saliva. And the saliva starts by your vision. When you're looking at food and you're hungry, it will actually make you salivate. So all of this is preparing you to create these enzymes, to mix those enzymes with your saliva.
Michelle: And really prepare the food for digestion. If you can do this every day, it's going to be a game changer. So also prepping your nervous system for proper digestion. So you've probably heard about the rest and digest mode, and why is it called [00:14:00] rest and digest? This is because it is a nervous system state that is more primed for digestion versus a nervous system state that is more fight or flight.
Michelle: And being in sympathetic or fight and flight is not necessarily always so extreme. So you could be in fight or flight or even. Sympathetic when you're driving a car and you're constantly aware of what's coming at you. So you have to be ultra conscious, which is one of the reasons why, and for many other good reasons for safety, you really shouldn't be eating while you're driving.
Michelle: So ultimately, you want your mind and your consciousness to be on the food. So even watching things while you're eating. Means you're multitasking and you're not really able to relax and calm down and be present with your food. So you really want to have a very calm state so that your body is in this rest and digest [00:15:00] parasympathetic mode, which is optimal for digestion.
Michelle: Something else that I highly recommend is really using nature and the circadian rhythm, and it's interesting because in PCOS, which happens to have a lot of insulin resistance patterns. There's a link that shows that a lot of people with PCOS have circadian rhythm imbalances, which is interesting to me because that's, uh, something that we want to regulate in our body is related to how the sun is during the day.
Michelle: And so the circadian rhythm is our 24 hour clock, and that can impact our sleep wake cycle. But not just that, it also impacts our digestion. Ayurvedic medicine teaches that the best time to have the largest meal. Really shouldn't be at sundown, which is what most of us do. It should be when the sun is highest, which is 12 to two, that's the best time to have the biggest meals.
Michelle: Protein rich, really difficult to digest proteins, and then coupling that with. Things that are [00:16:00] high in fiber, like vegetables and healthy fats. So this is a time where our Agni is at its peak and we're really using and borrowing from what nature's doing and the nature's clock. So my suggestion is if you do have insulin resistance, look into possibly not doing intermittent fasting where you're skipping breakfast, but actually.
Michelle: Doing it the opposite, having a good breakfast, having a really great lunch, and then a smaller meal at the end of the day as the sun is going down, and then not having any food for the rest of the night. So maybe a couple of hours, at least three before you go to sleep. So you are having this fasting window, but it's not in the morning first thing, when your body's primed to digest.
Michelle: It's actually at the end of the day, this will help you with sleep and it also has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity. So these are just a couple of things that I suggest, but also you can work on stress and really priming that [00:17:00] nervous system so that it is much more receptive to digestion. That being said, GLP one medications may be something that can benefit you.
Michelle: I don't know. My suggestion is always speak to a doctor. Also do your own research. So I hope this answered a lot of questions that you might have. And if you'd like, I have my fertility diet ebook, and you can find that in the show notes. And in this ebook, I share a lot of great tips on how to support your fertility through food.
Michelle: So thank you so much for tuning in today, and I hope you have a beautiful day. [00:18:00] [00:19:00]