Uncover Fascia Health’s Role In Boosting Fertility

Deanna Hansen

Thank you so much, Dr. Aumatma, for having me here. First of all, this is a wonderful question, especially as it relates to fertility. This is such a fascinating conversation. Fascia is like the skin on the body. Fascia is skin to the cell. Every single one of the trillions of cells in our body is interconnected through this beautiful system of communication. It provides both stability and mobility for the body. In my view, the real goal of it is to maintain proper cell alignment. The beauty of having our cells positioned exactly where they’re supposed to be is that there’s going to be optimal space in and around every single cell. What space does it allow for ease of absorption of nutrients into the cell, as well as ease of removal of toxins away from the cell? As long as cells are properly fed and kept clean, there aren’t any struggles or diseases in the body. From a fascia perspective, that’s ultimately the goal of what this beautiful system is designed to do, and from the perspective of fertility, it ultimately allows, again, ease of flow. Every single system in the body can work optimally when the fascia is doing its job.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Amazing. Am I correct in remembering that the fascia is one unit throughout our entire body? It’s not like, this has its fascia and this has its fascia, but it’s all connected.

Deanna Hansen

Absolutely. There are different layers to the fascia. However, it is this beautiful system that connects everything. Whether we’re talking bone or organ, muscle, ligaments, or skin, all of it is interconnected through this beautiful extracellular matrix.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Then, to me, it’s almost this magnificent system. That is the reason why something that’s happening on this side of our body is affecting something way down the line related to fertility, for example.

Deanna Hansen

Yes, absolutely. We discuss all the time that there are caused sites and pain or issue sites. That’s exactly it.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

That’s amazing. I saw you freeze again.

Deanna Hansen

You froze again, too, on my end. It doesn’t say that my Internet is unstable. Did that pop up for you?

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

No, it has a.

Deanna Hansen

You.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Okay. We try this again. What it sounds like and what’s so fascinating to me is just how everything is interconnected, which we often say, but we don’t realize that truly everything is interconnected. That’s how something happening over here can trigger a domino effect or have a reaction over here that’s more directly related to fertility.

Deanna Hansen

Yes. Whenever we’re looking at the body as a whole, we always look at what is an anchor or causing that area of concern to be under tension, because those cause sites act as anchors in the body, drawing the body away from proper alignment, and then the fascia in its beautiful attempt to keep us upright and maintain our stability. It develops adhesions throughout, so adhesions riddle throughout, and adhesions act as concrete blocks in the fascia. It’s the moving of the collagen away from the balance into specific spaces to create platforms and prevent the body from tipping. But this is at the expense of flow. Wherever in the body this is happening, it’s going to create blockage and prevent cells from being properly fed and cleaned.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I feel that with fertility, we often see these blockages, adhesions, or things specifically postpartum. A lot of times, women will come in. They’ve already had one birth and had a C-section, which is like, maybe we can get into what that does to the fascia. But then it will also affect future fertility. Their body may have had some significant level of dysfunction, to begin with. They got pregnant, had a baby, and now they’re dealing with secondary infertility, which I think often has to do with these blockages that weren’t cleared; maybe they should have been cleared the first time around, but now they’re more prominent. The second piece is that someone new on the fertility journey could even be experiencing these blockages, because, at least to me, I’m like, we spend so much of our day sitting, and it’s essentially the L-shaped sit that’s affecting our pelvic ball. I’m curious what your thoughts are on those things.

Deanna Hansen

To answer the second question, people are struggling in the beginning stages. It comes down to posture and breath because we have foundations in the body that are designed to support proper cell alignment. Especially with the youth today; they grew up in front of technology. We do live in a very different world. I’m 54. Then, when I was a kid, we were hanging from trees and playing outside, and our bodies were moving in a very different way than what’s typical today. By the time the young mother is ready to have her first child, her body is already in a very different cellular alignment due to a whole bunch of reasons. But I do see technology and just the world we live in today being so very different. Whenever I look at a body as a whole, I focus on the foundation first because the fascia will grip and adhere to the bone with a force of up to 2,000 pounds per square inch. I mean, that in itself is a hard number to even grasp that we have this pressure inside the body. But it is the most significant at the extremities. 

The calves and the feet are furthest from the engine in the body, which we’ll talk about soon as it relates to proper diaphragmatic breathing. But because the calves and the feet are the furthest from the engine, this is how the fascia will manipulate the legs and hold us in this holding pattern. Can you see my arms and my forearms here? Okay. If this represents the feet and this is the correct alignment, then we have the hip joints positioned in the pelvis where they should be. But what happens is that we always have one foot that acts like a flat tire. If my foot is that flat tire, often it’s pronating and pulling away from the body. It starts dragging over here. As the fascia is designed to support our uprightness, the left side of the body will then become an anchor. Now we have the left side getting manipulated and anchored. 

Now inside the pelvis, we have these hip joints that aren’t positioned where they should be. They move inside there, and they become very compressed and dense. This is going to manipulate the organs inside the pelvis. Then all these adhesions are being created because, again, the body is saying, Wait a sec, I don’t want to fall away. Adhesions get built up, and it’s concrete. This is happening inside the pelvis. Whether you are somebody who has had a child and is attempting to get pregnant again or it’s your first time, essentially what is going on in that lower body is going to be extremely impactful on your ability to conceive, whether it is the first, second, third, or fourth time.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Is there a way to tell if we have these adhesions? Like, would we have some symptoms or signs or something that can be a little blinking, blinking light, maybe I should pay attention to this.

Deanna Hansen

Absolutely. That’s such a great question because, in general, pain has a language. The cell has several different sensations that it will share with us to let us know that it needs attention. Pain is a great one. Pain is the baby crying. It’s the cell saying, Hey, Mom or Dad, you’re not giving me the space that I need to perform my job fully and completely. I’m letting myself need a little bit of energy or attention so that pain could be anywhere in the pelvis. It can be in the legs, the knees, or the feet. All of this is going to impact what’s happening in the pelvis. Pain is a great one as well. 

Painful periods. If we’re having painful periods when we are properly aligned, gravity will assist us. Every month when we’re sloughing off that lining, it should be complete with the removal, and it shouldn’t be painful. If we’re having cramping, it’s because the body is saying, Okay, we’re having a little bit of trouble getting all of this out of the way to prepare for the next round. The body is having to work harder. That cramping is an indicator as well that we’ve got adhesions happening in this space. Those are two examples of symptoms that you may feel. Then there’s a whole raft of other things. If we have cysts or fibroids, all of those things are also indicators that the body doesn’t have optimal space for ease of flow.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

That’s how it covers a lot of ground, because that’s why so many women are struggling with these symptoms, and of course, as a doctor, my brain goes to hormones, and what are the other things, and what’s your diet, and what’s your lifestyle? I think it’s important to realize that it could be a physical alignment issue that is contributing to or at the root of some of these other downstream effects.

Deanna Hansen

Absolutely. They all work together. Let’s just say we’re eating an unhealthy diet. If we’re eating an unhealthy diet, then all of those toxins in the food are going to get trapped in the layers of the adhesion, creating more problems. But those adhesions can be there, even if we have a clean, healthy diet. That’s the thing about the mechanical aspect of our body, no matter what we’re doing. Of course, all those other things matter immensely. But no matter what, if we have incorrect alignment and a weak breath, that is going to create the scenario for collapse into the space in our body, as well as the building of those adhesions that are going to trap a whole bunch of stuff inside, even cells. Even if you’re eating this perfect organic, clean diet, your cell exhaust in a car is still going to eliminate waste from cellular function. If that doesn’t get taken away through the process of slowing, then that also gets trapped and can become a problem down the road. If it’s been trapped for years or decades, which is the case for the majority of people because we all have adhesions, none of us have perfect cellular alignment. None of us are breathing completely and fully, as we should be, to keep the body properly fed and clean.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Let’s move on to, what can we do. I know you’re amazing at teaching how we can get some of this movement happening relatively quickly, efficiently, and easily. If you would like to share with us some tips, and I know you’ve mentioned proper breathing a few times, I’m curious how we know if we’re breathing properly or not. Then what are some ways to do that?

Deanna Hansen

When it comes to the fascia, what we have to understand is that gravity is this constant force pulling us down, and we’re dominant on one side of the body. We don’t just collapse linearly. We spiral in one direction or another. Then, over life, I mean, our body is constantly going through these counterbalancing efforts to maintain us because we have injuries, surgeries, and toxic relationships. All of this impacts the fascia. But gravity is the driver. Essentially, we compress. The system that we have decompressed is fascia, and there are three pillars to that. The first pillar is creating space. If I’ve, for example, been sitting in front of my computer for a couple of decades and I’m collapsed in this forward slump, as we tend to see in most people, I’ve developed a whole bunch of adhesions in my body. Again, the buildup of collagen creates stability in the body. This is where the tissue will feel dense. It will feel cold because it lacks flow. We want to apply conscious pressure to this area, which is why we use tools. But you can also use your hands, where when you apply pressure over time, that creates heat that increases blood and oxygen flow to an area, and that heat melts the adhesions. 

Adhesions and scar tissue act the same in the body. They both block blood and oxygen flow to cells, but adhesions are created over time through the layers of fascia. Then they will almost spin a spider web to create that stability. They grip onto a bone with that 2,000 pounds per square inch force. The seal is magnetic. How do we release magnets? If you had two magnets far enough apart, they would have no attraction toward each other. Get them close enough together. They seal with force. If I wanted to pull these magnets apart, I couldn’t just pull them apart because of that force. But I can turn, and I could slide them apart. When we’re working through the layers of fascia, we follow the spiral pattern in the way that we teach you. You’re laying on a tool or using your hands, but we use a tool called the Block Body. We lay on this for a minimum of 3 minutes, and then we guide you to search for pain because pain equals adhesion. It’s not negative pain. It’s pain that’s already existing in your body because, again, that cell is going to give you that signal. I don’t have enough space to do the job you want me to do. I’m going to give you a little bit of pain to let you know that it’s there, so it’s riddled throughout the body. We teach you to tap into the fascia to search for pain, and then the second pillar is teaching you proper diaphragmatic breathing. This is where the magic happens. This is exciting because we have this beautiful muscle, the diaphragm, that is the foundation of the rib cage, and it is designed for us to breathe. 

The challenge with this breath, though, is that pain, fear, and stress cause us to reactively hold our breath. If we’re not conscious diaphragmatic breathers, over time, we become upper chest breathers. This creates an incredibly different dynamic in the body than if we’re diaphragmatic breathers. When we breathe diaphragmatic, which is belly breath, we feed the body up to six times the oxygen. This is important to pull in and understand 600% more oxygen. The disease is present in deoxygenated areas. When we have oxygen-rich blood and our body is working as it should be, we have optimal function. When that breath becomes weak, as it does for the majority of us, I just want to pull my computer down for a second here because I want to show you that when we’re breathing dramatically, it’s a plate. When we move, when we inhale, this plate moves down. When we exhale, it moves up. If it’s working properly, it’s moving, keeping this whole area beautifully heated and warm. If this becomes weak because we’re breathing through the muscles of the upper chest, this is what happens. We fell in. We fall into this core space and we balloon outward, and then all of the organs in here become colder because they don’t have that mechanical aspect of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is the body’s furnace. When we’re breathing through the muscles of the upper chest, it’s a space heater. I live in a 30-story building in the winter here. It can be -35 Celsius, which is freezing. If my window breaks and I can’t heat myself, I’m going to die. The container, which is the fascia, is the key to understanding. We want to maintain this integrity. 

If we’re breathing through the muscles of the upper chest with a space heater in my apartment, I can only heat one of the two rooms in my apartment, whereas if I turn on the building’s furnace, I can heat the entire building. Whenever we’re talking about tissue temperature, it’s all about flow. We want to make sure that it flows from the top of the head to the tip of the toes. We want to make sure that blood is getting to all of those cells in the body. That’s one of the functions of the diaphragm, which is to move the fluids to all of those cells. That upper chest breath happens because pain, fear, and stress cause us to reactively hold it. It limits our body’s ability to absorb oxygen as well as detoxify the body. In 2014, they did a study proving that 84% of weight loss comes through proper exhalation. I loved it when that came out because that just helped my cause so much. Explaining that it’s because of detoxification. We become toxic; fibroids and cysts; all of that is because we’ve got this dirt trapped in the body. If we’ve turned on this beautiful system and now we’re feeding our cells properly and keeping them clean, we have a system that has optimal flow. That’s the second pillar. I just want to show you one more analogy. 

Think of blowing up a balloon. When a balloon is fully blown up, it almost defies gravity. It’s round; it glows but takes out half the air from the balloon. Now it’s denser, it’s wrinkly, and it attracts dirt and dust in the creases. That’s what happens to cells that aren’t receiving optimal amounts of oxygen. The first two pillars are amazing because we create the space that’s been lost over time. We pump that blood and oxygen into that space so that space becomes filled with life. Then the third pillar is maintaining that space through understanding proper postural foundations. When we’re discussing the lower body, we teach you how to sit properly, how to stand properly, and how to support that cell alignment so that we can keep those cells positioned where they’re supposed to be. Then if that’s the case, there’s an ease of flow and the body’s happy.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I just want to go back to number two. You said something that triggered an aha for me, which was that there’s a Chinese medicine thing that’s called a cold womb or uterus. A lot of couples who are struggling with fertility will get this diagnosis from their acupuncturist. It’s essentially because they’re not breathing deeply enough; there’s not enough blood flow to that area, the uterus, and hence, it’s going to be colder.

Deanna Hansen

Exactly. That’s awesome. I’m so happy. I didn’t know that. Now, that’s another thing that I can share as well. Yes.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes, it’s the Chinese medicine diagnosis called cold uterus. The idea is essentially that, blood flow and circulation. There’s some even in our practice; we don’t do acupuncture here, but we’ll do Mark. It helps to circulate the blood, which is a better thing than those little tools that people can have in their homes. But to me, it’s this: dial it back even more; you could just breathe better, and that will help support the blood flow.

Deanna Hansen

Absolutely. I mean, that just made me think about how, in Winnipeg, when it’s -30 and your car is sitting outside, you can’t just go and start it and drive away. You have to keep your car with the electricity going so that it’s warm enough. Then you have to let it run for probably 20 or 30 minutes before you can drive it. That’s the same thing. If you have anything cold, everything slows down and doesn’t function as it should.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

That makes so much sense. I’m curious. I know we’ve talked a lot about women, and I want to try and balance this with things for men as well. I mean, our systems are the same. The fashion is the same, and all of the downstream effects are going to be similar. Do you find that there is an equal amount of impact for women as there is for men? Is it more? Is it less?

Deanna Hansen

That’s such a great question. I would say that women are more impacted because of our Q angle. So, men are more linear. They’re faster. I mean, this is generally speaking, of course, but they’re faster runners because they are a more efficient machine where we have this greater Q angle so we can give birth, which is this beautiful thing. But because of that, we have more space to fall into. So, you see, I mean, yes, women also have more fat tissue, but that’s why I would say that women have more issues with cellulite because of this angling. It’s again, it’s that mechanical collapsing that occurs. We’re not as stable in our lower body for that purpose. Having said that, though, absolutely, this impacts men, and of course, to have a good erection, it all comes down to blood flow. If you have adhesions riddled throughout as well, similar things are going to happen. You’re going to have that inability to perform, and your sperm count may be a lot lower or slower. All of these things can impact conception.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Amazing. We talked about creating space, breathing and.

Deanna Hansen

Maintaining and postural alignment. Yes.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Relying on that. Are there any ways that we can incorporate some of this into our lives today?

Deanna Hansen

Yes, absolutely. The first thing that we can do is understand where the brush should come from. Just when you’re lying on your back and placing your hands on your belly, when you inhale, your belly should become big. I was a dancer, and when I was young, I was told, Hold your belly. So if you’re holding your belly all the time, you’re going to force this up in your upper chest, which is not the goal. We want there to be that ability to move those muscles in and out through the abdominal wall. When we’re lying on our backs and placing our hands there, you want to think about your pregnant belly and make your belly nice and big. Then with the exhale, exhale, that’s when we want to squeeze the belly small. Now, this isn’t forceful, but it’s complete. That’s the key. The first thing is that we want to learn where the breath should come from. An easy thing to do, too, is if you happen to have a hardcover book, you can place that book on your belly button and lie on it. That gives you a little bit of a prompt, just as our tool would. Then that’s also going to create a little bit more space in there. You’re going to have a longer abdominal area because, again, we compress, we get all congested, and everything inside of us gets all mangled and chaotic. We want everything to be positioned where it should be. 

We always teach people that we’re going to be in a position for a minimum of 3 minutes because we’re melting through adhesion. Simply doing that as an exercise will be very helpful in creating that. We also have a gift where we teach people to do this so you can use a rolled-up towel, and we have a whole system for you, so you can dive into that and experience the amazing benefits. But when you’re standing, what you can do is look at where your feet are. We’re a building, so we want our feet to be positioned underneath the hip joints and the hips. Want the outside of the pelvis? They’re inside the pelvis. Most people are standing with one foot splayed away and/or standing with their feet too wide. Simply understanding where things should be positioned and making that your habit is a huge thing to do. The majority of people, when I see them standing, hyperextend their knees, and in my view, this is one of the worst things to do to manipulate our overall alignment. The knees are the levers of the body, so when we hyperextend, we’re not using our muscles to support our body, which is what we’re supposed to do. We give in, and we start twisting. I call it luck and talk, especially when people are talking to each other. They forget about their bodies, and then we fall into these habits of whatever we’re doing because, again, we’re dominant on one side. We shift our bodies from the center. We do all these interesting things. 

But just becoming aware of how you stand is one thing, as is how you sit. Because when you’re sitting, the same thing can happen. We want the knees to be 90 degrees. We want to have the feet planted on the ground. I often see people who will hook their feet under their chairs, and again, it’s manipulating their entire body. When you’re sitting, you want to feel equal pressure on both of those hip bones. If everybody listening just takes a moment to say, Okay, where is that extra pressure? You’ll probably feel that there’s more pressure on one hip bone than the other. The goal is balance and symmetry, which we should have when we’re standing with 60% of our body weight on our heels. The average person has about 80% of their body weight on the balls of their feet, and that’s before a high-heeled shoe comes into the equation. I don’t even own heels, so there are several things we can do immediately to make some simple changes that will be super impactful because that’s what we do all the time that matters most and adds up to create the situation that we have tomorrow. It’s the habits—the breathing habit and the posture habit. Those, in my opinion, are the two most important things that we can do. You can start at this very moment to make positive changes in your life.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I’m already feeling a shift in my pelvis. I think we will link in our video here where they can get your gift. Because I think I’m like, Can I get this now? I need to do this because I sit all day and I’m at my computer. Worst posture ever. Then, my back hurts. I should sit up straight, but that conscious awareness of breath at all times, I think, is a challenge even for me.

Deanna Hansen

Well, and if I may just quickly add, it’s a challenge partly because of the rib cage, so again, we’ve got this plate of muscle that supports everything up the chain. If we’ve been upper-chest breathers for a long time, that foundation has become weak. That’s what manipulates and pulls us in. Even the rib cage is sealed up to that 2,000 pounds per square inch seal. This work helps to release the diaphragm, bringing the breath to the forefront far more easily. That’s the beautiful thing about this gift. In the first three days of doing this simple work, you’re going to feel the change. You’re going to feel a lift in the rib cage and a greater ease of breath. That alone is going to start to oxygenate you more and more effectively. It’s going to make you feel lighter, and you’re going to also be detoxing much more effectively. Every step of the way, you’re going to start to say, I’m feeling some change, and it doesn’t take much. That’s the beautiful thing. It’s also done lying down on the floor. It’s not that you’re working out, sweating, and having to work hard. This is much more of a restorative practice but ultimately becomes an exercise, a therapy, and a meditation. All are built into this one simple system.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes, sign me up to give me whatever this is.

Deanna Hansen

Absolutely.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I think I’m partly joking, partly not because I am seeing what you’re saying and just thinking, all of our clients need this. We need to build this into some practice that they’re doing regularly because it’s not something that’s focused on very often, yet it’s something so vital to how our body heals, whether it has circulation or not, whether it has the space to make a baby or not. 

Deanna Hansen

For all of those people who have been trying for so long, I mean, it’s defeating. You’re trying and trying. That in itself is going to create more problems in the body because, again, pain, fear, and stress cause us to reactively hold our breath. The more we limit that breath, the less oxygen there is in the body. Even the best efforts can cause you to spiral into a less positive scenario. That’s just it. I mean, it helps to move the trauma out of the body because emotions are stuck and stored in the tissue as well. By opening things up and exhaling all of the past, we have this fresh start in our body, and it’s a game changer. What’s lovely is that it doesn’t matter what other modalities or treatments you are utilizing; this is a complement to all of them.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes, I love it. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for sharing all of your amazing tips and wonderful insights into how people can improve their fertility. I appreciate you being here.

Deanna Hansen

Thank you so much. It’s been an absolute pleasure to be here.