Before we dive in: if you want a real read on where your hormones are at right now, take my free Cycle Audit Quiz and Hormone Health Scorecard. Each takes about 3 minutes and will make everything below much more personal.
I first published a version of this piece earlier this year.
I’m updating it because the data has gotten worse.
Not slightly worse.
Consecutively, predictably, record-breakingly worse.
The fertility crisis isn’t coming.
It’s already here.
In April, the CDC released its provisional 2025 birth data: the U.S. general fertility rate fell to 53.1 births per 1,000 women — another record low, down 1% from 2024, and down roughly 23% since 2007.
Just 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. last year.
The total fertility rate now sits below 1.6 children per woman.
Population stability requires about 2.1.
And, it’s not just an American issue.
The UN has confirmed it’s global: from the U.S. to India, Italy to South Korea, people across income levels and geographies are having fewer children than they want to.
Two more numbers from the new data are worth sitting with:
63% of women ages 25–29 are now childless, up from about 50% just a decade ago.
Male reproductive potential continues to decline by about 1.4% per year in Western populations.
So, the question remains…
Why?
The Usual Suspects
When fertility decline comes up, we tend to hear the same explanations:
Financial insecurity
Rising housing, education, and healthcare costs
Lack of affordable childcare
Delay in marriage and family planning
Long work hours and burnout
Chronic stress
All of these are valid.
All of them play a role.
In fact, in a 2025 national survey, 71% of adults said having children simply isn’t affordable for most people.
But, they’re not the whole story.
Because, here’s what the economic explanation can’t account for: unexplained infertility among people who are actively trying.
Couples with resources, stability, “perfect” labs, clean diets, and full supplement cabinets…still struggling to conceive.
There’s another layer we simply don’t talk about enough.
The Missing Link: Toxic Load
When the body is overloaded with toxins, it doesn’t feel safe enough to reproduce.
And, right now, we’re living in a time of unprecedented toxic exposure:
PFAS (”forever chemicals”)
Micro- and nanoplastics
Endocrine disruptors
Heavy metals
Pesticides and industrial chemicals
Synthetic additives and preservatives
Mold and mycotoxins
Parasites, pathogens, and hidden infections
EMFs and blue-light overload
Deeply stored emotional trauma
These exposures accumulate in the body, burden detox organs, disrupt hormones, impair mitochondrial function, and dysregulate the nervous system.
The body is not broken.
It’s burdened.
And, it’s highly intelligent.
If there is chronic inflammation, poor gut health, hormonal chaos, metabolic dysfunction, and nervous system overload, the body sends a clear signal and says:
“Now is not the time.”
It’s not just about age.
Or timing.
Or money.
At a cellular level, the body is stuck in survival mode, not creation mode.
And, you cannot optimize your way out of a toxic terrain.
You have to clean it up.
Netflix Just Made the Case
This isn’t just theory anymore.
Earlier this year, The Plastic Detox followed six couples with unexplained infertility as they spent 90 days dramatically reducing their exposure to plastics and the endocrine-disrupting chemicals in them, like phthalates, BPA, synthetic fragrances, under the guidance of reproductive epidemiologist Dr. Shanna Swan.
No IVF, and no medication.
Just cleaning up their inputs.
By the end, BPA dropped to undetectable levels for many participants, several of the men showed measurable improvements in sperm count and concentration, and three of the six couples became pregnant.
Half the group…in 90 days.
There were zero interventions beyond reducing toxic exposure.
Was it a formal clinical trial? No.
It was a small pilot, and no one can claim causation from six couples. The results are now being used to support funding for a larger study.
But when couples who have spent years trying everything conceive after simply lowering their toxic load…
It seems like the terrain is trying to tell us something.
How To Support Fertility Naturally
Here’s what I’ve seen work, again and again, across genders and age groups.
1. Clean Up Your Inputs
Eat organic, seasonal, whole foods
Filter your water (from chlorine, fluoride, heavy metals, PFAS, and other toxins)
Avoid plastics and synthetic fragrances
Choose non-toxic products for your body and home (especially in your kitchen and bathroom)
2. Heal the Gut
Prioritize daily, complete bowel movements
Eat fiber-rich fruits and vegetables
Incorporate fermented foods
Consider colonics or enemas if elimination is sluggish
Address bacterial infections, parasites, pathogens, and microbial imbalances
3. Support Drainage + Detox Pathways
Open the liver: lemon water, bitter greens, liver-cleansing herbs, coffee enemas, castor oil packs
Move the lymph: sauna, movement, rebounding, dry brushing, breathwork
Hydrate deeply with mineral-rich water
Turn off Wi-Fi at night
Use airplane mode and wired accessories
Don’t sleep next to your phone
Get morning sunlight to reset your circadian rhythm
Stabilize blood sugar (limit refined sugar, refined carbs, alcohol, seed oils)
Prioritize rest, pleasure, play, and nervous system regulation
Support your liver daily and consider periodic deep liver cleanses for proper hormone clearance
6. Regulate Your Nervous System
Engage in breathwork, somatic release, and gentle movement
Do meditation or other spiritual practices that restore safety
Reduce stimulants and constant overstimulation
7. Go Deeper — In the Right Order
Beyond the daily foundations, there’s a deeper layer of work: clearing the colon, cleansing the liver, and addressing parasites, pathogens, mold, and heavy metals at the root.
But, this is not a checklist to attack all at once. It’s sequenced work — drainage first, always — and the order matters as much as the interventions themselves. Done out of sequence, deeper detox can burden the very pathways you’re trying to protect. This is exactly what I map with clients in my 1:1 work.
The Bigger Picture
Policy changes, financial incentives, and IVF access may help on the surface.
But, until we address toxic load and terrain, fertility challenges will continue to rise, even among the most “healthy” individuals.
If we want to shift the fertility conversation, we must go deeper.
We must reduce toxic burden.
We must restore safety in the body — physically, mentally, hormonally, emotionally, spiritually, and energetically.
Because when the terrain is restored, fertility often returns.
Naturally.
If you want to find out where your own hormones and terrain are right now and what to focus on first, take my free Cycle Audit Quiz and Hormone Health Scorecard.
If this resonated, I’d love to know: are you navigating fertility challenges, hormone imbalances, or feel like your body is stuck in survival mode? Let me know in the comments. I read and reply to every response.
If you’re ready to address the actual terrain rather than layer more interventions onto a system that hasn’t been cleared, I’m currently taking a very limited number of new 1:1 coaching clients heading into August. The first step is a 45-minute Client Intake call where we map your full picture and figure out together whether the work is the right fit for where you are. Book your free Client Intake call.
And, if you have any other questions or comments, don’t hesitate to ask me any time in my weekly Q&A in my paid subscriber channel. If you’re not a paid subscriber, sign up below.
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The Plastic Detox result you cited is the one that stays with me — several of the men improving sperm count in 90 days with nothing but lowered exposure. Terrain-first is hard to argue with after that. Where I see men get stuck is step 1: "choose non-toxic products" is easy to say, but decoding "fragrance," phthalates and parabens in the bathroom aisle is tedious enough that most just don't bother. (Full disclosure — I'm biased: I'm building a tool called Mangood that's trying to turn that label check into a few-second thing for men.) "You cannot optimize your way out of a toxic terrain" is a keeper of a line.