Helping women feel their best.
Personalized healthcare to unleash your potential.
Meet Dr. Sophia Chachula, ND
It’s time to unleash your potential.
Dr. Sophia Chachula, ND is passionate about helping women optimize their own health and wellness to become their best selves. Dr. Chachula’s, ND clinical practice focuses on women’s health and wellness, with a special interest in optimizing fertility, pregnancy and newborn care, as well as addressing hormonal dysfunctions, including: PCOS, acne, thyroid conditions, and digestive disorders.
Clinical Focus
Start your wellness journey.
Hormones & Fertility
Balancing hormones and optimizing women’s and men’s health for fertility.
Pregnancy & New Born
Supporting your pregnancy journey from prenatal to postpartum & newborn care.
Services
Healing your body. Inside. Out.
Nutritional Counselling
Finding the right foods for you. Nutritional therapies that are individualized and tailored to your personal needs. Nutritional counselling aims to optimize your nutritional status, prevent nutritional deficiencies, and reduce irritating foods that can aggravate conditions.
Learn MoreAcupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine
Acupuncture is a key practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine that involves stimulating strategic points of the body connected to body systems and diseases. Using a thin needle to penetrate the skin, acupuncture is used to alleviate pain or treat certain conditions.
Learn MoreBotanical Medicine
Botanical, or herbal, medicine uses plants and botanical extracts therapeutically to support overall wellbeing and assist in treating acute and chronic diseases. By combining evidence-based research with traditional knowledge, botanical medicine assists in the body’s natural healing process.
Learn MoreLifestyle Counselling
To optimize your health and wellness, lifestyle counselling focuses on techniques for mindfulness and stress management, improving activity levels and movement, and reducing the effects of environmental health risks.
Learn MoreLaboratory & Clinical Testing
Test, don’t guess! Using laboratory testing including blood testing and urinalysis as well as innovative clinical testing such as saliva testing, integrative stool testing, and urine testing to identify hormonal imbalances, SIBO, gut microbiome dysfunctions, and more.
Learn MoreWhat is Naturopathic Medicine?
Naturopathic medicine is a distinctive healthcare profession that combines natural and holistic treatments with modern scientific research. Naturopathic medicine supports the body by using natural therapies to promote healing and assist in disease treatment. Naturopathic doctors focus on treating the body as a whole and getting to the root cause of symptoms.
-A naturopathic doctor is a licensed healthcare professional that has completed accreditation by the Government of Ontario. Naturopathic doctors in Ontario are regulated by the College of Naturopaths of Ontario. The term “naturopathic doctor” as well as “ND” and “naturopath” are all regulated and protected titles in Ontario, meaning, that only a person who has completed appropriate designation can qualify to use these terms.
Some of the Conditions Treated
PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) is a hormonal disorder in women of reproductive age that is characterized primarily by inconsistent menstruation and excess androgen levels (male hormones). A woman with PCOS may have multiple cysts in her ovaries which are a result of numerous developed follicles that have failed to release an egg. Insulin resistance has a large role in PCOS. Symptoms of PCOS include irregular periods, infertility, excess hair growth, acne, weight gain and an inability to lose weight, increased hair loss and more.
Naturopathic doctors can promote healing of PCOS through dietary and lifestyle changes as well as many nutritional supplements that have been researched to support PCOS. Naturopaths for PCOS can help you manage the symptoms and prevent the complications.
Naturopathic doctors focus on healing the body as a whole and treating underlying conditions that would impede the success of pregnancy which include many underlying disorders connected to infertility such as PCOS and endometriosis. Consulting a Fertility Naturopath can help you with Infertility Treatments.
Naturopathic doctors can be a compliment to IVF treatment to assist in increasing your chances of success. Modalities that can be used during IVF include:
- Acupuncture: to improve quality of eggs and prepare the uterus for implantation
- Supplemental therapy: certain supplements have been researched to assist in egg quality, blood flow to the uterus, and improve nutritional status
- Dietary Counselling: to reduce inflammation and promote overall health for fertility
- Lifestyle counselling: to support the body through IVF
Hormonal imbalances can be a result of a spectrum of diseases and present as many different symptoms, some overlapping. Disorders that can cause hormonal imbalances include thyroid conditions (both hyper and hypothyroidism, PCOS, fibroids, endometriosis, hyperprolactinemia and more). Commons symptoms of hormones imbalance that may signal further investigation into hormones include: changes to menstrual cycles, weight gain, hot flashes, increased sweating, changes to sex drive, nervousness and anxiety, infertility and more.
To get to the root cause of your hormonal imbalances, naturopathic doctors will need to use further investigations, such as functional testing or serum blood testing, to determine the cause.
A women is considered to be in menopause 12 months after their last menstrual cycle. Both menopause and perimenopause (the stage leading up to menopause) can produce debilitating symptoms including mood swings, hot flashes, insomnia, physical discomfort such as vaginal dryness, low libido, and more, and can last for a while if left untreated. During menopause, natural estrogen levels drastically decrease and can put women at risk for other conditions such as osteoporosis.
Naturopathic doctors can assist women during this time to decrease symptoms associated with menopause, help decrease risk of osteoporosis and other conditions affected by low estrogen levels, and improve overall hormone function.
One of the most common reasons to seek care involves a variety of gut disorders and symptoms including chronic bloating, IBS and IBD, constipation, digestive disorder and more. Gut health is one of the most important factors in overall health and gut health is connected to many other bodily functions and systems including hormonal health, mental health, autoimmune diseases, skin, and more.
Naturopathic doctors can use functional testing or serum blood testing to get to the root cause of your gut symptoms and assist in promoting good microbiome, optimal digestive functioning, reducing inflammation in the gut, identifying food intolerances and more.
Post-Birth Control Syndrome occurs in the months after the cessation of birth control and can involve a variety of symptoms including loss of period or irregular cycles, acne and other skin concerns, migraines, mood disorders, hair loss, and more.
Working with a naturopathic doctor before or after stopping hormonal birth control methods, such as the oral contraceptive pill (OCP), can assist in the decrease of symptoms and improved hormonal health.
Postpartum is considered to be the time after childbirth and is a lifechanging time for any individual. The postpartum period comes with many challenges including, but not limited to, post-birth healing (either vaginal healing or caesarean healing), hormonal imbalance, mood disorders, postpartum disorders such as postpartum depression, postpartum PTSD, and postpartum anxiety, hair loss, nutritional deficiencies, difficulty adjusting and so much more. Each individual’s postpartum journey is unique, that’s why its especially important to work with a qualified naturopathic doctor to make this new transition into motherhood as smooth as it can be. Naturopathic doctors’postpartum treatment involves assisting in hormonal balancing and mood balancing, nutritional guidance, supplemental therapies, acupuncture and more.
Treating your skin involves treating underlying conditions that may be affecting the overall health of your skin. Skin conditions including acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, and hyperpigmentation are all connected to underlying conditions. Acne, a common skin concern, is associated with conditions such as hormonal imbalances like PCOS and thyroid conditions, gut disorders such as IBD or IBS, nutritional deficiencies such as vitamin d and iron, and so much more. Acne has also been correlated to high dairy and sugar consumption and is affected by food intolerances. A naturopathic doctor can work with you in treating your skin by determining any underlying conditions and providing nutritional, lifestyle, and supplemental guidance to promote healing.
FAQ’s
Frequently Ask Questions
Naturopathic medicine is a distinct health care profession that utilizes traditional medicines with evidence-based science to create natural and holistic solutions to disorders and diseases. Naturopathic medicine focuses heavily on disease prevention and getting to the root cause of the symptoms. Naturopathic doctors (NDs) are trained as primary care providers who manage patients with acute and chronic conditions, while addressing disease and dysfunction at the level of body, mind and spirit. In Ontario, “naturopath”, “ND”, and naturopathic doctor” are protected titles.
Infertility is defined as not being able to get pregnant after 6 months to a year of trying (depending on age).
Symptoms of an underlying issue include:
- Abnormal, irregular or painful periods
- No periods
- Skin changes, including more acne
- Changes in sex drive and desire
- Dark hair growth on the lips, chest and chin
- Loss of hair or thinning hair
- Unexplained weight gain
- Hot flashes
- Painful intercourse or inability to have intercourse
- Milky breast discharge
Yes, age can be a factor in fertility but it isn’t the only factor.