EP 63: Chemical Pregnancy: What It Is, Why It Happens, and How to Move Forward on Your Fertility Journey

October 10, 2026

Are you staring at a positive test one moment, only to have it disappear before five weeks and wonder if what you experienced even counts as a loss? It does. And if nobody has told you that yet, I am telling you now. Chemical pregnancies are one of the most quietly heartbreaking parts of this journey, and they deserve way more conversation than they get.

In this episode, I am breaking down exactly what a chemical pregnancy is, why it happens, and the specific things I look at with my clients to help them move from repeated loss to a sustained pregnancy. We are talking progesterone, thyroid health, sperm DNA fragmentation, and uterine environment. My goal is to give you a real checklist you can take to your doctor so you stop guessing and start getting answers.

Timestamp:

[00:00:00] What is a chemical pregnancy and why it matters
[00:01:00] Where chemical pregnancies fit in the three stages of getting pregnant
[00:02:00] New research: the role of sperm DNA fragmentation in 50% of chemicals
[00:03:00] Step one: checking progesterone at 7 DPO
[00:03:30] The luteal phase, thyroid health, and why both matter for implantation
[00:04:00] Uterine environment and inflammation: cysts, fibroids, polyps, and bacteria
[00:05:00] You are not broken: finding the missing piece and moving forward

Episode Takeaway:

A Chemical Pregnancy Is a Real Loss: Your body registered the pregnancy. The egg fertilized. You deserve to grieve it, full stop. Please do not let anyone minimize what you went through.
Check Sperm DNA Fragmentation: New research shows 50% of chemical pregnancies are linked to sperm health, specifically DNA fragmentation. If you have had more than one chemical, get a full sperm analysis done. Knowledge is power, and this is a fixable thing.
Test Progesterone at 7 DPO: A dip in progesterone or not having enough of it can prevent a pregnancy from sustaining. A simple blood test at 7 days past ovulation can tell you so much about what is happening in your luteal phase.
Optimize Your Thyroid: Your thyroid being too high or too low can directly impact implantation. Make sure your levels are in the optimal range for fertility, not just the "normal" range on a standard lab report.
Clean Up the Uterine Environment: Fibroids, polyps, cysts, infections, and overall inflammation in the body can all block your embryo from implanting successfully. This is worth investigating, especially after repeated chemicals.

Resources

You are not broken, and you are not alone in this. If this episode resonated with you, save it, bring the checklist to your next appointment, and come find your people inside the Heal to Conceive Tribe. There is a whole community of women walking this road with you, and we are cheering you all the way home. Baby dust to all!

Episode Transcript

Podcast EP 63
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[00:00:00] Chemical pregnancies. Chemical pregnancies is one of those things that we don't really talk about. Some people even question if it's a loss. In today's episode, we'll be diving into what chemical pregnancies are, what happens when you experience them, and how to avoid them in the future. And most importantly, I want you to know if you've had a chemical, it's not your fault, you're not broken, and you're gonna bring your baby home.

Let's dive in.

Hi, I'm Sophie Byfield and when I decided I was ready to be a mama, I thought it would be so easy. Get off birth control. Baby dance, like no one's watching. And poof, I was pregnant. But like many of you, that wasn't my story. After months of negative tests, endless treatments, and more supplements than you can count, I realized that getting pregnant isn't about fixing one piece of your fertility puzzle. It's about bringing your whole body. Back into balance so it feels safe enough to conceive. And this is where we focus on what really matters. Healing your whole body so that you can see those two pink lines. Welcome to the Heal to Conceive podcast.

If you've been following me for a minute, you know that I say there's three stages to getting pregnant. Stage number one is, are you dropping an egg stage? Number two is, is that egg fertilizing and implanting? And stage number three is carrying the term. Chemical pregnancies are a stage number two [00:01:00] challenge.

A chemical pregnancy is considered an early loss, usually earlier than five weeks. What it means is that the egg has fertilized. As turned into an embryo burrowed into the lining enough that your body starts to recognize that you are pregnant and produce higher amounts of HCG. However, it does not show up on an ultrasound or make it past five weeks.

Chemicals are hard because they give you the hope that you've finally seen the two pink lines, and then that hope is lost. When it doesn't make it past five weeks, if you have experienced a chemical, I am sending you love. Please don't ever feel like it's not a true loss because it's your body registered, the pregnancy, the egg did fertilize you were just unable to carry to term.

New [00:02:00] research has come out that 50% of chemical pregnancies, 50% are due to the sperm and more specifically the DNA fragmentation. So as I suggest with most of my clients, make sure you get a sperm analysis done and the DNA fragmentation to get a deeper look at what is going on with the sperm health, especially if you've had repeated chemicals.

Now, I don't say this for you to go and blame your partner and say 50% of the chemicals are your fault. I say this because knowledge is power, and by figuring out what is going on with the sperm, we can get on the right supplements to make it healthier and stronger and have better quality so we can decrease the number of chemicals that we have.

When someone comes to me who's had more than one chemical, there are a few things that I look at to help them on their journey [00:03:00] to sustaining pregnancy. The very first thing we wanna do is look at their progesterone on seven days. DPO Done by blood work, a dip in progesterone, or not having enough progesterone can cause a chemical to happen.

The second thing we wanna look for is that that luteal phase is long enough for that ache to burrow into the uterine lining before it starts to shed. The next thing we wanna do is look at your thyroid and your overall health. Make sure that it's in the optimal zone for fertility and not either too high or too low.

Both of the extremes can affect your body's ability to implant. And last but not least, we do wanna look at inflammation and the uterine environment. Cysts, if we have any bacteria, infections, fibroids, polyps, all of those can play a major factor in your ex's [00:04:00] ability to implant or your embryo's ability to implant.

We wanna make sure we are creating the healthiest environment possible, and that also means looking at overall inflammation within the body. I have worked with women who have had one or two, maybe even three or four chemical pregnancies, and it doesn't get any easier. The waiting, the heartbreak, the wondering if this is the one that's gonna stick.

Yeah. But I want you to know it's not your fault. When we start to dissect what's going on with your progesterone, your thyroid, inflammation in your body, the health of the sperm and your overall health, we can start to make sense of what is going on and get clear next steps. If you had a chemical and you've got a thousand questions, why?

What is going on with my body? I want you to take this video and save it. Look at the checklist, and take it [00:05:00] to your doctor to see if you can get some additional testing. Also, I want you to know you're not broken. You're not broken. We are just gonna find the missing piece or the thing that takes us from chemical to caring, deter.

And sometimes that could be a small shift in supplements for you or your partner in your diet, decreasing stress and exercise. Maybe it's even getting on thyroid medication. There is a way through this, but I want you to know you're not alone. You're not the only one that has experienced a chemical, but there is hope on the other side.

As always, I am here for you and you've got this, and when you don't got this, I've got you baby dust for [00:06:00] all.

EP 63: Chemical Pregnancy: What It Is, Why It Happens, and How to Move Forward on Your Fertility Journey

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