Aromatherapy while trying to conceive
Essential oils can be a wonderful way of supporting yourself physically and emotionally while trying to conceive. If you’re using medicated fertility treatments to conceive, read this article here for more information about aromatherapy during fertility treatments.
However, while essential oils are natural they are also highly concentrated and they need to be used with caution especially while trying to conceive and in the early stages of pregnancy. In this article, I share how I use essential oils safely in my treatments supporting women who are trying to conceive and ways to use essential oils at home while you are trying to get pregnant.
How do essential oils support fertility and conception?
There are so many factors that affect your ability to get pregnant from your physical and emotional health to whether you know when is the best time in your cycle to conceive. Stress, getting enough sleep and your weight and overall health can all impact on your ability to conceive.
Essential oils can help reduce stress, regulate your hormonal cycle, improve your overall health and increase your libido.
How I use essential oils professionally with fertility clients:
When I am working with clients who are trying to conceive I choose oils mainly to help support you where you are in your cycle and provide emotional support.
Some of my favourite oils to use to improve your fertility:
Geranium: In addition to it’s uplifting scent, geranium helps balance your hormones. If you’re experiencing irregular cycles or irregular ovulation, geranium is a great oil to add to a massage blend and to use regularly because it helps balance estrogen and progesterone production, two of the most important hormones in your menstrual cycle.
Frankincense: encourages you to take a slow, deep breath and to calm down. It also assists in balancing hormones, promoting digestion, and increasing libido which can sometimes be affected while trying to conceive.
Juniper: is a calming and relaxing oil that blends well with other oils. It also reduces bloating and inflammation, improves digestion and helps regulate your menstrual cycle. Juniper has warming properties so I like to use it when clients have poor circulation and suffer from the cold.
Lavender: has a beautiful floral fragrance that is relaxing, calming and soothing. Isn’t that exactly what you need when trying to conceive? In addition to it’s calming properties, lavender essential oil helps to relax tense muscles and has skin healing properties.
Ylang Ylang: has a rich floral scent and is a very important essential oil in the perfumery industry. It’s very helpful in slowing down your breathing, reducing nervous depression and feelings of anger and frustration as well as being an aprodisiac! I like Ylang Ylang for it’s ability to reduce PMS, especially mood swings and how it helps you get in touch with your feminine side.
Rose: possibly the essential oil that is most closely associated with women, Rose has a heady scent that can improve your mood and overall motivation. Rose has a powerful effect on women’s reproductive system – balancing hormones and toning your uterus, regulating menstruation and reducing excessive menstrual bleeding. I find it very useful for women with irregular cycles.
Clary sage: can have a powerful effect on balancing your reproductive hormones by regulating estrogen production but it’s also well known for it’s effect on your emotions and is a particularly calming oil with sedative effects. Clary Sage has a strong scent so I use it sparingly in blends.
For home use of essential oils while you’re trying conceive:
Essential oils for stress management
We have enough stress in our modern lives before you add in the stress of trying to get pregnant. We’ve all heard that if we could just relax, we’d be able to get pregnant. While it’s a bit of a cliche that stress affects fertility, like many cliches there is an element of truth.
Lowering your stress levels can improve your chances of conceiving and at the very least make the experience more pleasant.
Use a room spray or essential oil vaporiser with your favourite calming essential oils or make up a relaxing massage blend to benefit direct absorption of the oils into your skin.
Massage blend:
Mix 50 ml carrier oil (almond, grapeseed, coconut, olive, etc) with the following oils:
8 drops Lavender
8 drops frankincense
2 drop Ylang Ylang
Massage about a tablespoon of your massage blend over your body after a bath or before you go to bed to relax you and lower stress levels. Keep the rest of the massage blend in a dark glass bottle stored in a cool place.
Calming oils for your vaporiser: choose 3-6 drops of any combination of the following essential oils: lavender, frankincense, ylang ylang, grapefruit, lemon, orange, lavender.
Regulate your menstrual cycle and balance your hormones with essential oils
Hormones control almost everything in our body including digestion, sleep pattern, blood sugar levels, growth and repair of cells and also your menstrual cycle. Improving your menstrual cycle BEFORE you conceive is important because your cycle reflects your overall health and a healthy cycle improves your chances of conceiving a healthy pregnancy and baby. You can read more about what a normal cycle should look like here.
You can use essential oils to balance your menstrual cycle. My favourite essential oil for balancing the menstrual cycle is geranium because it helps balance the production of oestregen and progesterone. In addition, it’s a calming oil that soothes your nerves.
Essential oil massage blend to regular your hormones:
Mix 50 ml carrier oil (almond, grapeseed, coconut, olive, etc) with the following oils:
4 drops Lavender
10 drops Geranium
4 drop Frankincense
Massage this blend into your belly and lower back once a day. Keep the rest of the massage blend in a dark glass bottle stored in a cool place.
Increase in libido
Timing sex around ovulation and the general stress of trying to conceive can reduce your desire for sex. If you really feel like you don’t have any interest in sex, it’s worth speaking to a health professional because there can be an underlying cause. However, if you feel like you just need a bit of a boost to feel interested again, essential oils may be able to offer some support. Scents are powerful and essential oils may help get you in the mood or have aphrodisiac qualities.
Choose oils with your partner because the scents we like are highly personal. He can use the massage blend, too so it’s preferable that he also likes how it smells.
Use a room spray or essential oil vaporiser with some of the essential oils below or make up a relaxing massage blend to benefit direct absorption of the oils into your skin.
Aphrodisiac oils for your vaporiser: choose 3-6 drops of any combination of the following essential oils: sandalwood, frankincense, ylang ylang, geranium.
Massage blend:
Mix 50 ml carrier oil (almond, grapeseed, coconut, olive, etc) with the following oils:
8 drops sandalwood
6 drops orange or mandarin
6 drop Ylang Ylang
Massage this blend into your belly and lower back once a day. Keep the rest of the massage blend in a dark glass bottle stored in a cool place.
Essential oils for your mood while trying to conceive:
I highly recommend vaporising oils during this time to help yourself to feel calmer and more relaxed during a stressful process.
- If you want to relax: Oils like lavender, frankincense, geranium and citrus oils like lemon, orange and grapefruit can be very helpful used in an essential oil vaporiser.
- If you need a pick me up: Vaporising a drop of spearmint or peppermint oil with lemon can be stimulating and refreshing.
- While waiting: A drop of lavender or frankincense on a tissue tucked into your bra while waiting your turn for medical tests and procedures can be calming and relaxing.
I’m a holistic therapist and I am here to help you!
I love helping women to overcome their fertility challenges and other issues related to your cycles, pregnancy, periods and/or anxiety.
I treat women with abdominal and womb massage techniques known as Sobada (formally the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage) and reflexology.
I’m also an Advanced EFT Tapping practitioner and I work with women in particular issues around anxiety, depression, stress levels.
I teach Fertility Awareness to help women better know their bodies and improve their chances of conceiving or prevent pregnancy naturally.
I live in Modi’in, Israel and that’s where I spend my days helping women during their fertile years, pregnancy, menopause and other hormonal conditions. Bodywork sessions (massage and reflexology take place in my clinic in Modi’in but EFT Tapping sessions and Fertility Awareness education can take place online or in person).
Learn more about working with me here.
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