What is the Freedom  Fertility Formula?

Meet Dany Griffiths. Dany is my coach and mentor in the training I have been doing over the last year to become a Freedom Fertility Specialist. Drum roll…..I have now graduated and hopefully will make an awesome Freedom Fertility Specialist.

Dany is passionate about the emotional impact of fertility, which came about initially from her desire to support her best friend using Hypno-fertility. Dany found she had a huge interest in emotional well-being and developed the Freedom Fertility Formula to help women get to a place of strength, where they have the ability to cope with the rollercoaster of their fertility journey.

Becoming a Freedom Fertility Formula Specialist

Dany teaches her trainees to firstly listen so that the woman’s voice and pain are heard. She then provides strategies to support them to move forward and work on the mind-body connection. She recognizes that the one thing that women struggling with infertility wants -  is the ability to cope with the day-to-day.

The Emotion Module of the Freedom Fertility Formula

This module focuses on understanding your emotions and taking the right action, using your feelings, to guide you. Dany believes that taking the time to consider your feelings, consciously, means that you can then move forward in the best possible way.

Dany talks about positivity and the importance of adding back joy into your life to help them avoid putting life on hold. Maintaining an even keel, acknowledging the bad days, and having a duvet day is absolutely fine.

Imagining your Goal

At the start of the Freedom Fertility formula course, Dany very much encourages her clients and trainees to focus on the individual rather than the end goal of a baby. However, towards the end of the Freedom Fertility Formula the conversation turns to the desire to have a baby. At this point and in a safe and secure space, Dany encourages women to fully embrace what it is they want and connect fully with this desire. This can be difficult and challenging for both the specialist and client, but Dany views this as the pathway to healing.

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In the 3rd episode of our Early Years Series we chat with an old friend and colleague of Kate’s Dr. Manoj Malu who is a Consultant in Sexual Health and Clinical Director of Clarewell Clinics based in Birmingham and Leicester.

When did you last consider your sexual health? Was it something that you thought more about in your 20s but since settling down it’s not even been a passing thought? Today’s episode might just get you thinking again…….

Meet Dr. Malu we chat about the general awareness of STIs and how these infections can impact your fertility. He tells us the less common infections such as Syphilis are on the rise and explains what really is bacterial vaginosis. Dr. Malu discusses how pelvic inflammatory disease can have a devastating impact on your fertility and raises the issue of a little-known infection called mycoplasma genitalium. This infection is very common, as common as chlamydia, but it is not routinely tested for in the majority of clinics!

On the podcast, we frequently talk about how there needs to be more joined-up working among fertility doctors and urologists/andrologists, etc and Dr. Malu adds to this further discussing the importance of adding comprehensive STI investigations and examination to the mix.

Tune in next week to hear more from Dr. Malu when he talks about what on earth is a hydrosalpinx, erectile dysfunction, and the amazing advances in HIV treatment. In the meantime, you can take a look here for more information on the different STIs we’ve chatted about, including mycoplasma genitalium.

For even more online support with your fertility and exclusive content, become a Patreon today for just £11 a month, you'll get access to more Q&A's with Kate and me more regularly as well as Q&As with our expert guests.

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Understanding your genes

Meet Angela Heap, a Nutritional Therapist who is working in fertility having come to it from her own experience of PCOS and Prolactinoma as she found she wasn’t helped by conventional medicine.

Angela grew up in Hong Kong, had a very healthy lifestyle came back to the UK at 18, and started to experience migraine, it was at this point in her life she started to pay more attention to what was going on in her body.

She started to look into genetics and found out she had some of the genes such as insulin mutation genes that would predispose her to PCOS. She also has a family history of glaucoma

Angela has spoken around the world on her studies and in 2013 talking about it, in the US

and discovered people like Amy Yaskos and Dr. Ben Lynch  - epigenetic and nutrigenomics and she started looking into it more.  Angela explained how you can change things but only if they are expressed.

We spoke about the tests you can do yourself such as 23andme

and she explained how when you do these types of tests, it’s worth going through them with someone who understands, as you can get quite scared about them.  The test is telling you a predisposition, it’s not saying you're actually going to get a certain disease.

She also explained how Google heavily invested in 23andme  and is very interesting, which is something I didn’t realize. It’s important to understand the time frame involved when trying to make lifestyle changes and Angela explained

“I always say this when I speak to people - it's about a long preparation period. You wouldn't do a marathon without all the training, you wouldn't just jump into that... It's exactly the same for preparing for a baby because it's your family line. It's not just that one baby you're trying to get because you want to complete your family it's your family line and it's quite important to make them as healthy as you possibly can".

Angela has worked with people with egg health and has had some great results working with people with IVF to the point that the fertility consultant has asked the patient what they have been doing as they had expected the patient's eggs to have degenerated.

“What you do prior to conception is the most consequential thing you can do”

Angela has also been invited to Parliament to discuss Micronutrients related to how in the UK they’re going to be fortifying folic acid. She also explains about the MTHFR gene and how we ingest folate and it doesn’t just get into the cell it has to be broken down

15 or 25% have the MTHFR gene, so it’s not just a straightforward case of taking folic acid when you are trying to conceive. She has specific opinions about off-the-shelf preconception supplements. "Going along to Boots or Superdrug and just picking up, you know standard prenatal's isn't the way forward. Any medical professional would say "I'm not just going to assume - let's test and find out" and that's exactly the point I'm coming to at. Let's look at some of your genes and see if there's some variance there that may be causing some issues and then we can have that conversation”.

Angela’s advice is to always look at people who are specialists in fertility who have been trained in nutrition as she says there are a lot of doctors and nurses on Instagram who hasn’t been trained, giving advice on supplements, and they haven’t been trained. Work with someone who knows what they are talking seek out professionals who are functionally trained. For more information on Angela, You can follow her on Instagram here  

Angela made reference to the following people and organizations:

Amy Medling is on a mission to make sure her 9-year-old daughter makes good choices with her food and understands that it is a form of nourishment. Amy's mother and Grandmother had PCOS as does her sister so she has a lifetime of experience living with it and managing it.

Her new book PCOS Healing is a 21-day plan for you to follow and having flicked through the pages, there is so much information for you to work through. Knowing how many women spend years without a diagnosis, Amy's book will be welcomed by many.

Amy is a certified health coach and her book is the result of over a decade of her experience, both personal and from the women she has helped. After being told at 18 that she was going to have to 'jump through hoops' to conceive, Amy proved her doctors wrong and wants women to realize there is hope when dealing with PCOS.

With advice on how to start your day to what supplements to eat Amy's chat was a real insight into how misunderstood PCOS is. I learned that women with PCOS have a better egg reserve and can get pregnant well into their 40's well as reach menopause later.

You can follow Amy on Twitter here  and she's on all the main social platforms which you can access via her website

Amy talked about supplements and at the time of publishing I'm just waiting for some additional info from her on them, but here are the names of what she spoke about :

• Letrozole
• Peony licourice
• Ovasitol
• N-Acetyl Cysteine

Don't forget to watch our next live stream at via The Ultimate Fertility Guide Facebook page and you can join our closed Facebook group where I've invited some of my expert guests to be admins so they are available to answer your questions as well as me! It's called Talk Fertility  and if this podcast has helped you in any way and you want to help me continue to make content that matters, you can also become a Patreon of this podcast

All you need to know when trying to get in the best shape possible to have a baby. Whether you think you have a healthy diet and lifestyle or not you might be surprised to learn about toxins in your makeup or nasties in your protein shakes. You can learn how to improve egg and sperm health and track your fertile window plus get tests to do at home to put you in the most knowledgeable place possible.

In this episode we’re back with Dr. Malu Consultant in Sexual Health and Clinical Director of Clarewell Clinics based in Birmingham and Leicester, talking more about STIs and fertility.

Have you been to an STI test? How comfortable would you feel about going to an STI clinic? Does this fill you with dread?

Dr. Malu explains exactly what a hydrosalpinx is. It’s something you may have heard about or may have had diagnosed on a scan, but the name doesn’t exactly explain what’s in the tin! Hydrosalpinx refers to a fallopian tube that is blocked with ‘watery’ fluid and is typically caused by infection.

Erectile Dysfunction can have a huge impact on fertility, especially when it comes to the stress of TTC and performance anxiety. Kate asks how frequently is ED due to psychological issues and how much is in relation to physical aspects? Dr. Malu tells us that in young men, ED is predominantly due to psychological issues and also lifestyle such as alcohol intake, etc, but in older men, it may be a mixture of both the physical and psychological aspects.

Over the years with all the advances in drug treatments for HIV, men and women can now live perfectly normal lives with HIV, but what are the implications for TTC with an HIV diagnosis? Dr. Malu explains how well HIV can now be managed and that if one partner is being treated effectively and the virus is undetectable then the risks of passing on HIV to a partner are virtually zero. Similarly, if a woman becomes pregnant the risks of passing the infection to the baby are virtual zero. However, if an individual is not diagnosed and does not use a condom, then the risks of passing the infection to a partner are high, and passing the infection to the baby is 30-50%.

As a final note, Dr. Malu encourages all men and women who are trying to conceive to seek advice about STIs. Get empowered and take a test. You can take a look here for more information on the different STIs we’ve chatted about.

For even more online support with your fertility and exclusive content, become a Patreon today for just £11 a month, you'll get access to more Q&As with Kate and me more regularly as well as Q&As with our expert guests.

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We're talking periods, STIs, fertility education, miscarriage, and where to get the information you can trust when thinking about your future fertility.

Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss an episode, plus you can now sign up to become a Patreon of The Fertility Podcast. You'll be getting even more support from Kate and Natalie every month with a live get-together, have a say in who is interviewed on the podcast, and also get to chat live with experts.

Click here to join today 

THE FERTILITY PODCAST IS BACK WITH A NEW SOUND, A NEW RESIDENT EXPERT BUT THE SAME MISSION.

We’re so pleased to be back with you, having taken some time to really work out what the best future plan for The Fertility Podcast is, and it’s to clearly guide you along the way to pregnancy. We’re going through all that we think could help and sharing previous episodes to make sure you can really get stuck in. We can’t guarantee you a baby, nobody can.

But we can promise you information you can trust and a lovely community to come and be a part of.

Our first episode back is talking about what we wished we’d know before starting to conceive. To be honest it’s what we should have been taught in school.

Those teenage years and when you’re in your early 20’s can be pretty worrying if you have unprotected sex. It’s drummed into us NOT to get pregnant and what you should do to avoid getting pregnant. Sadly for so many of us, we never realised as we were never told, that our fertility is so finite.

That is what we’re here to do. Kate is SO passionate about empowering women to understand their cycle and the pair of us are talking through what you need to be thinking about.

Research shows that time to conception is reduced with fertility awareness knowledge so for the next few weeks we’re talking cycles and diets.

In this episode, we discuss how best to monitor your cycle with the different methods available and in particular what works and what doesn’t!

We’ll be talking soon with a brilliant new app available to help you that has worked with women all around the globe. We also want to be very clear on the language we use as one of Kate’s pet hates is the fact that a normal cycle is often referred to as a 28 days cycle and that you ovulate on day 14.

FACT - Women’s cycles vary hugely and can still be normal when shorter or longer than 28 days. We want to dispel this myth once and for all.

It’s also so important that if you are trying to get pregnant in a heterosexual couple both of you understand about fertility health. Since this podcast launched in 2015 we have talked a lot about men’s fertile health and we’ll be revisiting it again, don’t you worry. The good thing is there is much more awareness today about the issue, then there was 7 years ago, but it needs to be taken seriously. We discuss the issue of protein shake use and how they can affect sperm health, as can smoking, recreational drugs and too much alcohol. It's so important that if you are in a couple you both take responsibility for this and get yourselves in the best place possible to improve your chances of conceiving. Men need to realise that infertility issues are 50/50 male to female.

We’ll be talking over the coming weeks about optimising your fertility and be sure to join us to carry on this conversation in our closed facebook group where you can also submit questions to Dr James our expert for next time.

Make sure you head over to our  Instagramme  for details of our fab giveaway happening for launch week only. Closes Friday 26th Feb 11.59pm.

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Why aren't we taught to chart our fertility in school?

In my latest book review episode with my lovely guest reviewer Amber Woodward we continued our mission to review all of Amber's fertility books ahead of her mass giveaway as he hubby has said enough is enough and they have to go. 

spoke about Toni Weschler's book 'Taking Charge of your Fertility' which Amber explained helped her reach a self-diagnosis of PCOS, despite being turned away by the medical professionals. If you're keen to understand how to do fertility charting, especially if you have difficult cycles have a listen to what Amber tells you about this book and I'm hoping to get to speak with Toni on a  future podcast. Amber highlights how the book isn't diagnostic but it can give you a real insight into where your cycles might be going wrong

Next up was Zita West IVF Diet and if you don't know about Zita, her focus is on holistic treatment alongside IVF and her London clinic has very good success rates. She’s written about 9 books and this one looks into the IVF process - what to expect, how to have the right mindset, lifestyle factors that help or hinder your success then it’s nutrition-based.

 Finally, we heard about Juliet Indichova's book  Inconceivable which is about Julia's secondary infertility and Amber shared how she's only ever read two books twice... Pride and Prejudice and this one! In the book Julia talks about her diagnosis and tests and all that she tried to get pregnant throughout the two years and Amber explained how it was such a heartwarming book as Julia was struggling to find an IVF clinic to accept her, so she was left to work it out for herself after being told there was nothing that could be done about her high FSH levels and she had to accept it and donor eggs were the only way to proceed.

Amber said in her low moments,  this book helped her feel more normal. I love having Amber sharing her reviews and I hope you find them useful as well. You can follow her online here 

The episodes I mentioned  in this episode are this one about the best apps to track your cycle with  plus I mentioned One More Shot - the IVF documentary from Maya and Noah which you can hear 

The lovely Amber joined me for the first time since she became a Mum in this episode. Amber has a blog The Preggars Kitchen where she shares some of her favorite recipes as well as her own journey to overcome PCOS and have successful fertility treatment. She also shares more book reviews there. In this episode, we spoke about  the following books which Amber will be giving two of away on her Instagram 

Izzy Judd's Dare to Dream

Emma Cannon's Fertile 

Pure White and Deadline - John Yudkin 

This Sunday 21st will be Izzy's book and the following Sunday 28th October, Amber will be giving away John Yudkin's book.

My second guest was Sheila Lamb talked about her new book The  Best Fertility Jargon Buster which you can find out more about here you can find out all the meanings of all the fertility abbreviations you might have read online within the trying to conceive communities. Here and her more in-depth second book My Fertility Book should be on Amazon on Nov 1st. I'll keep you posted. Here's Sheila's Facebook group and you can follow Sheila on Twitter

Since this podcast was recorded, Sheila has written a whole series of books which you can find purchased here 

Thanks to our episode sponsor Pharmasure who create the nutritional supplement Impryl, which enables your body to maintain its natural metabolic balance and so ensures the very best chance of pregnancy - to find out more visit fertilityfamily.co.uk

In this montage, you’ll hear from  Emma Cox from Endometriosis UK about how the diagnosis of endometriosis, which all too often goes undetected for 7 years, can be made. Hear the full episode.

Plus we want to make sure you know how you can improve your Gut health and what you can do to aid your fertility as we speak to Dr. Cecilia Kitic the founder of The IVF Project and Dr. Sue Reed who is a Dietician and microbiologist. Hear the full episode.

We also spoke with Fertility Nutritionist Melanie Brown about the importance of sleep and your fertility, and how you can improve your sleep hygiene. You can listen to this episode here.

 My lovely co-host Kate explains what we need to make sure are thinking about with our menstrual cycle which you can hear in full here.

And when it comes to PCOS, we spoke with Kym Campbell about how PCOS affected her family building and what she did to overcome that. Have a listen to the full episode here.

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It's Fertility Week in the UK, and throughout the week the TTC community are talking about the many different ways we are affected when dealing with infertility.

Fertility Network UK the leading fertility support charity is focusing today on Mental Health using the hashtag MentalMatters and a former guest on this podcast Kelly Da Silva is sharing her experiences of being childless not by choice. Kelly spoke to Kate and me in a previous episode about feeling at peace with the situation and you can hear her conversation be sure to visit FNUK's website to find out more about what's happening this week.

The Agora Journals

In the fertility podcast world today I'm sharing an exclusive episode which is part of a new podcast series I have made called The Agora Journals - conversations about empowering the freedom of reproductive choice for everyone, featuring a wide range of individuals and couples on their road to parenthood with wisdom, compassion and honesty.

This first episode is a conversation with Carole Gilling-Smith. Medical Director of The Agora Gynaecology and Fertility Centre in Hove, East Sussex. The clinic specialises in diagnosing and treating the causes of infertility and welcomes people from all walks of life to support alternative parenting.

The clinic offers specialised programmes for same-sex couples and single women who wish to conceive using donor sperm. Carol talked about how she set up her clinic Agora in Surrey as a desire to create the perfect clinic to experience for patients and is interested in fertility education and believes strongly that we should be educating young people about fertility in schools but also for people in their 20s before they start thinking about making a family. She works with the LGBTQ community to help them in the different ways that can make a family and importantly get the communication right with this group of patients.

Fertility preservation and the LGBTQ community

is a key part of the clinic's work and Carol highlights that at the time when an individual is considering transitioning, is generally not the time that they are also considering their fertility? It is important to start having these discussions and consider fertility preservation before commencing hormone treatment, to avoid later regrets.

Carole explains the fertility preservation care and processes that transgender individuals receive at the Agora and that the Agora are very sensitive to their specific concerns. The Agora Clinic is leading the way in Fertility Care for the Trans community and actively celebrates alternative families. More clinics are beginning to open their doors to this community. We talk about the support that The Agora offers individuals and couples in terms of counselling and other resources they share with patients on how and when to discuss their stories with their children. Carole recommends that these discussions start with their child from a young age.

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In this episode of our Later Years series, we focus on a real-life fertility story and welcome TV personality and model Rhian Sugden to the show.

Rhian and her husband,  Coronation Street actor Oliver Mellor have been together for 8 years and a year ago after fertility tests, Rhian was told the devastating news that her ovarian reserve was very low and she would need IVF. At the time of recording, she was about to start her 3rd round of IVF. Rhian has been advised to consider a donor egg, but at the moment, she just wants to give it one more try - an emotion that we’re sure is familiar with many of you.

Both Rhian and her husband are in the public eye, and their journey so far has been all about living this experience publicly. It’s been a rocky road so far. Unfortunately, Rhian has experienced some negative comments and has been trolled on social media, but equally, Rhian has found support from women in similar situations, on Instagram, through sharing all she is going through.

During Rhian’s IVF treatment she started to notice a strange side effect – an increase in freckles! Rhian’s IVF medication caused hyperpigmentation of her skin. Hyperpigmentation is not well researched, but women do report this side effect and it is quite likely the false ‘menopausal state’ that IVF meds propel you into, could be the reason why this occurs for some women.

Rhian has looked into what’s involved with donor eggs. We chat about epigenetics and how it is possible for a woman to influence the genetic make-up of the donor egg once in utero. Rhian now feels really positive about this option and is no longer fearful of considering this option to create her family should she need to.

Sadly, since recording Rhian let us know that her 3rd IVF failed. Rhian and Oliver are very much in our thoughts and we did make sure Rhian was happy for us to still publish our conversation, which she gave us her blessing.

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To hear an interview with Dr Marilyn Glenville about how a nutrient deficiency can affect fertility please visit our Patreon site and join our amazing community 

About Guest

Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD is the UK’s leading nutritionist specialising in women’s health. She is the former President of the Food and Health Forum at the Royal Society of Medicine, a registered nutritionist, psychologist, author and popular broadcaster who obtained her doctorate from Cambridge University.

Dr Glenville is a popular international speaker. As a respected author on women’s healthcare, she gives regular talks on radio and frequently appears on television and in the press. For over thirty years Dr Glenville has studied and practised nutritional medicine specialising in the natural approach to female hormone problems.

Items mentioned in this podcast:

• Miscarriage - after natural conception and IVF, how to help women stay pregnant & and the importance of a focus on men
• How certain nutrients can have a real impact and how they can make a difference for men and women
• Lifestyle and Environmental factors
• Finding the cause for ‘unexplained infertility’
• Checking nutrient deficiency could save the NHS £’s on fertility treatment if checked
• How nutrients could improve a poor semen analysis

In this podcast you will learn:

• The Fertility Mineral deficiency test - and retesting
• How nutrient supplements can help your fertility
• Nutrients have to be taken in their most absorbable form
• How egg quality can be improved in a 3 month period
• Endocrine factors

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#Vitamins are a waste of money – true or false? #Supplements #Nutrition http://t.co/lE0zYTQ7Zo

— Dr Marilyn Glenville (@DrGlenville) January 22, 2015

We are delighted to welcome Professor Joyce Harper to this week's podcast. Joyce is a Professor of Reproductive Science at the Institute of Women’s Health at University College London and Director of the Centre for Human Reproduction. Joyce has an incredible amount of knowledge when it comes to women’s health.

With over 30 years of experience working in the field of fertility awareness education, she is so passionate.

Finally, Joyce has had the time to finish a book, she started writing 4 years ago Joyce covering the whole of a woman’s lifespan from menarche to menopause.

You can imagine how fascinating it is going to be. It comes out next year and is described as

"The only guide you'll ever need to understand how your body works, from the menstrual cycle to the menopause: no myths, no misinformation, no scare stories - just scientific evidence that shines a light on the facts you need to know. "

Finally, the book we all wish we'd read earlier.

Joyce hopes that her book and all the information it contains will help men and women have a greater understanding of their fertility so that they may avoid needing assisted conception.

A powerhouse when it comes to research, Joyce has recently completed a study on fertility apps and found that the majority,  used a calendar method using just cycle lengths which gives us very little information and using natural fertility indicators such as BBT, cervical mucus, cervix, and OPK’s (note not always reliable for women with PCOS).

She tells us about a new method that used carbon dioxide to measure fertility - fascinating eh.

We talk about how useful, but equally how misleading, social media can be when it comes to fertility information and perpetuating myths. The book looks at the scientific information and gives women the bottom line and the evidence they need. She is concerned that women can be very vulnerable when they trying to conceive and can be sucked in by bold claims on for example alternative therapies.

Joyce has been recently auditing the IVF clinic website and the IVF Add ons they offer. She found that many clinics in the UK are charging thousands of pounds for unproven treatments and that bold claims are made for many IVF Add ons, such as PGT-A, assisted hatching, and time-lapse imaging. Worryingly, it seems that the clinics are telling patients to ignore the evidence. Joyce has found it hard standing up to her colleagues on this contentious issue but is determined to get this information out to patients through her book.

Joyce talks about the Fertility Education Initiative that aims to get fertility education out to all. This initiative has now become international and all of their campaignings have, at last, got the word ‘fertility’ on the school curriculum. More work needs to be done to reach a younger community on the platforms they use.

Are we seeing a shift in Fertility education? Whilst there is so much great work being done, Joyce thinks we’re still in a bubble and hardly scratching the surface.

Please share this episode with as many people as you think may benefit from it. Let’s use our ‘bubble’ to reach other ‘bubbles’ and get talking about fertility awareness.

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In this latest episode of The Fertility Podcast, we continue to focus on 'The Later Years'.

We're in conversation with Lucy Lines,  an embryologist based in Australia. Lucy worked as a clinical embryologist for many years and following redundancy made the decision to take a different path and founded Two Lines Fertility.

It's always fascinating hearing from an embryologist and Lucy explained how early on in her career, she had to sit a personality test to see if she was the right person to take on the role. She explains how it takes a certain type of person to become an embryologist.

Just as we are, Lucy is also passionate about fertility education and talked about a recent patient that had been trying to conceive naturally and with IVF for over a year with no success. She explained how it became evident that this couple had very little knowledge of their cycle and when the woman ovulated.

Lucy was shocked that no one, had anyone talked to her about the signs of ovulation!

This is something that frustrates both Kate and Lucy  - that women and couples aren’t given this vital information, especially as research shows fertility awareness education reduces time to conception.

Lucy uses her years of experience to advise patients on the ins and outs of embryology and what it really means when an embryo is 3 cells on day 2 or 6 cells on day 3.

She helps couples understand the science behind it so they can make informed decisions. Lucy also explains the importance of carefully searching for information and guidance on the internet and always using Google Scholar for evidence-based information.

If you've ever wanted to understand the differences between egg quality and egg health, then Lucy does it perfectly.

'Egg quality is the genetic stuff and the things we can’t change like eye color, height, etc. Egg health, on the other hand, is the stuff we can change – such as improving egg health by healthy lifestyle choices and the right supplementation for you. '

Lucy recommends spending 90-120 days before conception by concentrating on these aspects to give yourself the best chances.

Like our recent guest Professor Joyce Harper, Lucy is passionate about raising awareness of your future fertile self with children and their parents. She shares an example of young people seeing their parents use synthetic fragrances and beauty products, or heating food in plastic containers, and how these chemicals are endocrine disrupters and disrupt the fine balance of both male and female hormones.

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Continuing our series of The Early Years we chat with Amone Gbedamah co-founder of We Are The Hood, a brand new journal for girls aged between 8-14, aiming to change the way young girls experience puberty. Amone and co-founder Maria Purcell’s mission is to remove the secrecy, stigma, and taboo surrounding periods and replace this with knowledge, empowerment, and ultimately….. celebration.

As women, we can probably all remember the day we got our first period. The secrecy, and often the anxiety, that having your first period induces! Who do you tell? What do you do? Pads or tampons? It’s a minefield.

Why is it that being educated about periods at school, is often shrouded in secrecy and shame? The girls are removed from the boys for these discussions, further increasing the shame felt by young girls. This first experience needs to change and this is exactly what Amone and Maria are on a mission to do.

Amone tells us how the inspiration to create the journal came about and gives us a tantalizing insight into the structure of the journal. The co-founders were careful to ensure that the journal is educational – covering the basics such as anatomy, periods, nutrition, myth-busting, and also advice on the different types of sanitary protection available. However, they also wanted to provide the opportunity for creativity, mood, and period tracking, as well as real-life stories from inspirational women.

The journal also includes an all-important guide for parents, which will hopefully help parents to feel more comfortable talking about periods with their daughters. Kate is well aware that some parents prefer not to openly discuss these issues with their children, fearing that this knowledge can have negative connotations, and asks Amone if they have come across any negativity from parents.

The journal is available as a hard copy and as a digital copy. Parents can preview the content before purchasing the book, by purchasing the digital content to look through this first before deciding to share it with their daughter.

Excitingly, going forward, We Are The Hood has plans to create journals for other age groups, ultimately spanning the lifespan of the woman.

The journal is available to purchase via their website - but also on amazon, Etsy and Instagram.

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Professor Adam Balen talked through the new PCOS guidelines, with regards to diet and also the issues around Clomid, explaining he prefers to use Letrozole.  One of the most common misconceptions he says he still hears is women who have been told they won't get pregnant because they have PCOS.

When it comes to being overweight it, most women can improve their fertility by a 5-10% reduction in body weight.

Adam talked about how a lot of women end up having IVF when they have PCOS and don't need it. He spoke about Ovulation Induction kits as well as explaining more about a Laparoscopy and thankfully we've moved on from Ovarian drilling - which you will also hear him and Kate discuss.

Adam also talked about the downside of Metformin being used by women with PCOS and he explained how GPs don't understand what PCOS is and mistakenly think you have to have severe symptoms however we recognize it is a spectrum.  You don't need all of them just 2 - such as menstrual disturbance and the Rotterdam Criteria 

We also touched on the ethical issues - which we will aim to discuss more in a future episode.

Things to consider: PCOS runs in the family - 1st-degree relatives so there's a 50% of your mother's sister's daughter having it. Talk to your sister. Get screened.

We need to understand normal! Adam mentioned the videos from Fertility Forum which you can view here 

You can also watch some animations from the Fertility Education Initiative here 

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I wanted to give you a really clear overview of some of the issues affecting Intended Parents (IPs). This episode is UK-focused as I was talking to a British Lawyer about UK law, however, there will still be issues discussed that are relevant to you wherever you are.

Sadly in the UK, we are still waiting for reforms in the laws around parental orders, which any Intended Parent has to apply for within six months of a child being born.

Unfortunately, the current law means that unless you are married or in a civil partnership, this isn't possible which is causing all sorts of 'limbo periods' for IP's

I spoke to Rose-Marie Drury, a family lawyer at Mills & Reeve in Manchester   Rose specializes in helping people understand their legal rights, if they are considering having a child through surrogacy, using donor sperm, or through a co-parenting arrangement

We spoke about surrogacy agreements and how in the UK, they aren’t legally binding, they can’t be legally enforced, also lawyers can’t charge to draft them. 

Rose explained the importance of highlighting to all parties what going into the process means, what might issue might come up, and then people can go and have those discussions… and come up with an agreement themselves. 

There are a number of scenarios to be thought through, which we spoke about. Including the implications of using a sperm donor at home. If you're not married or in a civil partnership your partner won’t be the legal parent, the sperm donor will be. 

We also talked about the significance of being married or in a civil part when going through this process, as that will ensure both of you are the legal parents, otherwise the child can be adopted. However, the parental order rewrites the birth certificate. Children who are adopted are on the adoption register.

We also spoke about 'Carpark handovers' and Rose explained how the Department of Health has now devised guidelines for IPs and medical professionals and midwives, saying carpark handovers aren’t appropriate - thank goodness for that!!

Her advice however is still to make sure you get your hospital and midwife team on board with the arrangements as with IPs being at the birth and being involved a lot of perceptions are being kicked into changing.

We discussed the legalities of Surrogacy in the UK and how it varies around the world. 

Do also have a listen to my chat with Donor Concierge 

If you are using a known sperm donor there needs to be a discussion about what everyone’s intending especially as it may be a family member, close friend, they may need to know the child. 

Rose spoke of situations where people haven’t talked about it and they have then fallen out because the sperm donor has thought they are going to play more of a role in the chills of life. Sperm donors can make applications to court to spend time with the child.

There are donor agreements and co-parenting agreements setting out what everyone intends and lawyers can be involved in drafting those. 

For more information about Rose-Marie and her practice visit here

This episode has a slightly unusual intro as I had to record it whilst driving, my recorder was safely stored in my glove compartment or whatever the bit in the middle is, by the handbrake.. it does affect the quality a bit, so I apologize. However, I'm just back from Fertility Fest and needed to go and pick up my son and get this episode finished.. Hence the need to multi-task. You'll hear a quick chat from Jessica Hepburn from Fertility Fest who I did an insta live with after the session today (Sunday 28th April) and I've lifted the audio, seeing Lives disappear.. again a slight quality issue. I also wanted you to get to watch the Fertility Fight Club live stream which you can do so here 

Now onto my guest.Meet Melanie Brown, a fertility nutritionist and former guest on this podcast. I wanted to speak with Mel after I saw her post this on her instagram

So I wanted to know more. Now, this chat was back in January, so Mel does refer to refers to it being dark in the afternoons and getting lighter ( don't get confused if you're listening in April when I've released it. 

Mel was keen to know about the effects of circadian rhythms on your fertility and whether they can affect it. We spoke about how it’s been known for a long time that shift workers, stewardesses, and pilots have menstrual irregularities and that there is a great deal of evidence that fertility is diminished. 

But what about the rest of us, working normal hours. Does it affect us? Well it seems it does

The luteinizing hormone that surges mid-cycle is under the 24-hour body clock control so disturbances could affect ovulation and Uterine receptivity. 

If implantation doesn't happen, despite embryos being quality and blastocyst… everything is done to receive the embryo (scratch, washes then we need to start to consider the stress  on the body from  sleep deprivation affecting uterine receptivity

There was also discussion about TNF Alpha - related to Natural killer cells being linked to sleep stress pathway. 

Mel explained how she always recommend my clients use a SAD lamp as there is evidence that getting 20 min of natural daylight in the morning before 9 am can have an extremely positive effect and can set your master clock

Did you know that IVF success rates are lower in the winter,  higher in the spring and summer?

I think it’s also to do with you get up in the dark, go to work in the dark, artificial light and she spoke about 

Mel spoke about the benefits of Melatonin and how in order to prepare to go to sleep, make sure you are not in a bright bedroom, checking your phone and then turning off the light and hoping to go to sleep

We spoke about Sleep Hygiene. Warm bed cold room… we evolved to sleep in cold temperatures having the heating on in the winter is bad for our sleep

We spoke about whether sleeping before midnight is more valuable than after and how it's the quantity of sleep. If you go after midnight you’re more likely to get less sleep

 The cut-off point for sleep damage is UNDER 6 hours

Did you know you can do SLEEP CATCH up at the weekend it’s been discovered you can… just do it for one night…  it’s quite technical so have a listen to how Mel explains it, but do remember that sleep is our wear and repair time and we try and we might get out of it… we can’t do it. Remember that the environment that interrupts our sleep, so use blackout blinds and earbuds.

Women with diminished ovarian research are 30 times more likely to have disturbed sleep? 

Mel gave great advice on how to approach...

Thank you to the British Science Museum for sharing the audio from its Late opening event to celebrate IVF is 40, where Louise Brown and Roger Gorsden a former doctoral student of IVF pioneer Robert Edwards and expert in female infertility, had a one-off in-conversation event in the IMAX Theatre, chaired by Science Museum Director of External Affairs, Roger Highfield.

The development of in vitro fertilization, or IVF, culminating in the ‘miraculous’ birth of Louise Joy Brown on 25 July 1978, was a defining moment for reproductive technology pioneered by British researchers. Louise’s birth followed ten years of experimentation, hundreds of failed attempts, and many setbacks for Robert Edwards, Patrick Steptoe, and Jean Purdy, the scientists responsible for this remarkable achievement.

This event accompanies a new exhibition, IVF: 6 Million Babies Later which you can hear from its curator Connie Orbach in a previous episode I released here 

I chatted with Louise a few years back and she talked about her life and her love of Take That 

You can also follow Louise on Twitter here

‘It’s very weird to think I started off life in that tiny dish.’ - Louise Brown.

Over on the blog, @RogerHighfield celebrates the anniversary of the birth that changed reproductive science. #IVFis40 https://t.co/FXTicwr5xm pic.twitter.com/TxD5WkSbZk

— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) July 26, 2018

Known as the Period Whisperer amongst friends, Rachel works to educate women about ways to understand their menstrual cycle, something I admit I didn't really get until I was trying to conceive.

I found Rachel really fascinating to chat to, she really knows her stuff and explains it so easily.

Sometimes I have been guilty of drifting off when trying to get my head around the complicated goings-on within our bodies - however, Rachel has earned her title for sure and I can see why her blogs and youtube channel is gaining popularity.

We spoke in a fair bit of detail about how a mission to help women understand that they don't have to endure painful periods each month. Rachel works via Skype as well as face to face and explained in our chat how taking simple measures can make a massive difference to how you're feeling. Whether you are just starting out trying to get pregnant, or have already embarked on fertility treatment.

We discussed how diet affects your period, and how tampons can cause pain. We also spoke about massage and how men can get involved. From explaining how a painful period is your body trying to tell you something, Rachel talked me through the benefits of menstrual cups and fabric pads and how the color of your period is also an indicator of your wellbeing.

From her own struggle with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), Rachel became more and more compelled to research how to overcome period pain with more holistic methods, especially as she wasn't getting the support she needed from Western medicine. From Endometriosis and PMS  as well as many other menstrual concerns Rachel offers brilliant advice via her website The Period Whisperer, she also speaks on a podcast and has a youtube channel, humorously called Womb Tube.

You can follow Rachel on Twitter here and join her Facebook group here 

Are you curious to know what your thyroid does? Maybe you feel yours isn't working optimally, or… https://t.co/ow4gLOatIa

— Rachel Eyre (@thehealthywomb) April 10, 2017

Henrietta Norton talked about how even as early as seven years old she was experiencing digestive issues and tiredness. Her periods were dreadful and as we hear all too often she just accepted this was how it was going to be. 

It wasn't until her early 20’s that she went to a nutritionist and had a light bulb moment as it was at this point that she understood how much our food and lifestyle can affect our hormone balance

Henrietta spoke about how she was diagnosed with all sorts of different conditions and each time, the common theme was extreme menstrual pain

In her work as a nutritional therapist and in her talk at The Fertility Show, Henrietta will be speaking explaining how important it is to realize, not what to cut out but that it's about what you need to put in. She describes how we are an interconnected web of systems and how you can’t treat one without looking at the others. 

We also spoke about 'Stress and mindfulness' and how whilst they can often be seen as buzz terms in today's society, stress can be more than running around, working hard as it means different things to diff people. 

Henrietta talks about the 'window of preconception health' and how important this is. She explained how 'Preconception is a hugely energetically hungry process' which I thought was such an insightful thing to share and something that a lot of us probably don't realize. 

She explained how if you don’t have enough of the nutrients to support your mitochondria you will be feeling really tired.  We also spoke about how Fertility preservation starts when we start menstruating

You will hear tips on where to start regarding supplementation and how Omega 3 is really important for Men and Women. For the man as well as it increased mobility and motility

You will also hear from  Dr. Sandeep Mane who has set up  Origin International Fertility Center in India. He was in charge of surgical skills training at the Royal College, London where he trained numerous doctors from all over the world. Dr. Mane has set up a clinic and will be speaking about the emphasis he puts on the mind and spiritual approach in his clinic. How important it is for patients to understand what is going on with them, to know what treatments and tests they have had previously and why they didn't work. 

He wants to ensure people are able to cope with every stage of their treatment, so works with the mind as well as the scientific processes needed from assisted reproduction in his practice. His talk will be explaining more about his work and how he believes this approach is a significant part of the future of fertility treatment. 

To get tickets to The Fertility Show and to find out the full speech schedule click here 

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Wild Nutrition 

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Are you thinking of having a baby on your own?

Meet Mel

Mel Johnson and I had a great chat about her decision to have fertility treatment and become a Mother on her own.

She has since created a community to support other women trying to make the decision to do it alone as well as the 35% of women who are solo mothering,  to help them feel less alone and to know there are other women out there feeling exactly the same fears and emotions.  Mel has written a great blog for me about the nuances of solo motherhood which you can read here 

Follow Mel

You can follow Mel's journey of solo motherhood on her Instagram, Facebook, visit her blog, or send her an email at mel@thestorkandi.com.

For anyone embarking on the journey of solo motherhood, you can join The Stork and I Mum Tribe, a closed Facebook group for solo mums and mums to be.

Helena Tubridy explains how she works with couples and individuals trying to conceive. She gives a brilliant insight into the pressures put on having sex and how it can implode when not given enough attention.

We talked about how to overcome the mechanical side of having sex at a certain time of the month and the emotional impact it can have. How to avoid arguments happening around the fertile window because we put a lot of emphasis on it. Helena referred to it as stingy sex…when within 10 minutes of 'doing the deed' both parties are back looking at their phones! 

We need to put the love back into it. 

Her work ranges from therapy to reflexology as she guides looking at behaviour and mindset and the importance of getting in

You can find out more about Helena here 

Do you know where to find reliable information about your fertility? Today we speak to Matt Prior a Fertility Consultant Gynaecologist in Reproductive medicine at Newcastle Fertility Centre.

As well as working at Newcastle Fertility Centre, Matt works with Kate providing consultations for Dr. Fertility. Matt is passionate about patient information and on a mission to improve the quality of patient information, founded The Big Fertility Project.

Matt talks about the different types of information available to fertility patients, whether this is patient information leaflets, patients sharing their stories, information via fertility influencers, commercial information from clinics, and other organizations and media information. Matt’s ambition is to bring this information together in a collaboration between patients and professionals to produce better quality information than we have currently available.

Matt shared with us the research he undertook into miscarriage research – The Miscarriage Priority Partnership this identified the top 10 aspects that should be researched in miscarriage. This research involved a collaboration between patients and professionals to establish what aspects were most important to patients.

Matt aims to find good sources of information and present it in a more accessible and engaging way that is more appealing to patients. We talk about the rise of fertility social media influencers and how whilst they share fantastic information and break down barriers, sometimes this information can be biased if influencers are promoting products and caution is needed.

We talk about the benefits of patients sharing their stories, but it is important to be mindful that because someone may have had a negative (or positive) experience of, for example, a procedure, it doesn’t mean to say that it will always be this way for you.

If you’re interested in getting involved with The Big Fertility Project and sharing your story – get in touch via the links below.

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Barbara Scott gives me the facts about the success rates of Reflexology

I've met Barbara a few times more and she is such a wonderfully, passionate lady. Dedicated to helping others I was really looking forward to talking more with her about her work.

About Barbara

Barbara founded Seren Reproductive Reflexology and is the Chair of the Association of Reproductive Reflexologists. For the past twenty years, Barbara has been practicing as a reflexologist and has developed successful treatment plans for enhancing and treating fertility issues. Now considered to be one of Europe’s leading fertility practitioners she has trained hundreds of reflexologists to use the methods she has developed to great effect.

In demand as a speaker on this subject, she lectured last year at the RIEN international reflexology conference held in Madeira and this year is holding a workshop at the Danish Reflexology Association’s conference.

About  Seren Natural Fertility

Seren is dedicated to tackling infertility and to enhancing fertility through reflexology, hypnotherapy, and other holistic therapies. Seren specializes in the treatment of infertility, particularly for couples undergoing assisted fertility treatments such as IUI and IVF/ICSI. Find out more about Seren Natural Fertility here and Reproductive Reflexologists here

You can also follow her on  Facebook and Twitter

In this episode, I also talked about journalist Emma Barnett and her article in The Sunday Times yesterday

which you can read via Emma's profile here

“Playing roulette with vulnerable people’s feelings is the antithesis of care.” My very personal take on private IVF clinics fleecing people with shockingly expensive unproven add-on treatments. Thank you for all of your comments & stories|@thesundaytimes https://t.co/lMtVIsGiuF pic.twitter.com/cj8sbqKPSY

— Emma Barnett (@Emmabarnett) November 18, 2018

[spp-transcript]

Please do come and join my closed Facebook group Talk Fertility or if you'd prefer to say hello on Twitter or Insta just click the top of this page.

See you soon

x

Is Egg freezing a good idea? Playwright Jemma Kennedy doesn't feel it is.

I was keen to speak to Jemma after I'd read her article 'Why I froze my eggs at such a cost?'  as previously I has assumed egg freezing was a viable option. To be honest I'd not given it that much thought. I assumed because big companies like Google were offering incentives to women to freeze their eggs then there must be data to back up the treatment. I'd even had chats with some of my single friends about it. Jemma has made me think differently and ask more questions. You can follow Jemma on Twitter here  and Jemma's play will be showing in London this summer details are here 

Before I spoke to Jemma, I'd interviewed Valerie Landis as she has set up a website called Eggsperience.com  which has made the decision to freeze her own eggs has decided to create a resource educating women in the opportunity they have. She describes her site as 'All things egg freezing and back to help inspire, teach, educate women about oocyte cryopreservation.'

You can follow Valerie on Twitter

In Allison Kasirer own words, "Through my own unexplained infertility journey, I created #FertileGirl health bars." https://t.co/FGwDBy21UE pic.twitter.com/4VbLXK4jVW

— eggsperience (@eggsperiences) June 1, 2017

My guest Naava Carman is experienced fertility, gynecological and obstetric acupuncturist, and Herbalist specializing in complex autoimmune disorders such as unexplained infertility, recurrent miscarriage, hypermobility in pregnancy, PCOS, Endometriosis, and other inflammatory conditions.

In our chat, we talk through her experience and the work she carries out within her business  The Fertility Support Company

Naava is extremely passionate about evidence-based acupuncture and spoke about  Mel Hopper Koppelman She also mentioned a really important study which has just come out by Lee Hullender Rubin which you can see here

Naava explained how she works with her clients and uses both Eastern and Western methods to ensure she has all the pieces of the puzzle. She has had amazing results, helping those needing fertility treatment have success the first time.

Naava explained the importance of time, how long she likes to work with people for and also how long is too long - and why you should consider this if you've been seeing someone for over seven months.

To find out more about where you could find a registered acupuncturist, check out the following links:

The British Acupuncture Council

The Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine

In the  UK - The Acupuncture Fertility Network

In the US/Canada: ABORM American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine:

In Australia: AACMA Australian Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Association:

To follow Naava on Twitter click here 

I was fascinated to speak to Zeynep as I wanted to know more about women who are freezing their eggs, how they feel about it and how they feel about there being a ten-year cut-off point, which is something I didn't know about. She explained how women come to the clinic for a Fertility MOT, some may be in their late 30's and have a good reserve and some may younger women who come for the check-up, pre-emptively but find their egg reserve is low… so the women who choose to freeze their eggs varies. 

Zeynep explained how they are seeing an unprecedented number of women who are in their late 30's who are involuntarily childless and feel reproductive medicine gives them some options. I feel this is the much-overlooked side of the brilliance of fertility treatment, in how it empowers women. I mentioned a video Zeynep had shared with me about a newly single woman talking about how empowering it felt to freeze her eggs. You can view it here.

Zeynep has written numerous articles about her views on egg freezing

I was interested in her views on the news in 2017 that Rita Ora froze her eggs as the British media gave it a lot of attention. Zeynep explained that the clinic received a significant increase in inquiries from women in their 20's about egg freezing after this story broke and how she had to explain to them that freezing eggs at 26 ( Rita's age) would mean using them at 36 and that they might still not be ready. Here's an article Zeynep wrote about the story

Dr Zeynep Gurtin is the Senior Research Associate at the London Women's Clinic, and Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge.

My second guest is actor and playwright Joanne Ryan who blurted out to a room full of strangers that she didn't know if she wanted to have a baby. The outcome of that revelation was for her to spend the next two years speaking to a whole host of fertility experts and medical professionals about it and wrote a play.

In our chat, she describes her motivation to go on this journey of self-discovery and what she found. The play starts its London run on Tuesday 30th January 2018 before going on tour and you can find more info out here 

Have you thought about freezing your eggs?

Welcome to our final episode of The Later Years Series. We're hoping to bring you one final episode of 2020  just before Christmas and we’re very much hoping that the two of us can get together to record in person  - Covid restrictions permitting!

This week we’re talking egg freezing with Catherine Hendy author, yoga teacher, and co-founder of Elanza Wellness, and Sophia Money-Coutts journalist and creator of the podcast Freezing Time.

So, you might have reached 35 or over and you’re thinking what next?

Catherine did after her marriage broke down at the age of 32 and found that there were so many presumptions about a life - childfree. This made her interested in finding out more and eventually made the decision to freeze her eggs.

Sophia has recently frozen her eggs and shared her egg freezing journey in her fantastically funny, informative, and emotional podcast. It is a must-listen if you’re considering freezing your eggs or even if you’re about to embark on your first round of IVF.

Catherine wanted to find out about the misconceptions of egg freezing and the questions women want to know. She found that the common questions were women considering if they’re the right age, the pros and cons, how much egg freezing costs.

We ask for Sophia and Catherine’s opinion on fertility MOT testing. Sophia found the test really useful as it helped her with decision-making going forward. Catherine made the decision to go to a clinic to have the hormone test along with the antral follicle count scan to provide more in-depth information.

Sophia talks about the importance of feeling really comfortable with your choice of clinic and doctor. She recommends attending clinic open evenings to help you make a decision on which clinic. Sophia decided on the Lister Clinic and (in her words) the ‘lovely Dr. James’.

Natalie asks whether they considered freezing embryos as well as eggs. Sophia felt that this decision was rather rushed and didn’t want to ‘panic buy sperm’, so in the end made the decision to not freeze embryos on this occasion but doesn’t rule it out for the future. Catherine was only 32 when she froze her eggs and felt as though she had enough time to meet a partner. Therefore, freezing embryos was not really on her radar at that time.

Finally, we chat about how they both feel about their decision to freeze their eggs in a Covid world. Sophia says her overriding feelings are relief, positivity, and gratefulness. She still is questioning whether or not she feels broody yet but after a year of Covid, she’s looking forward to a bit of traveling before making any more decisions. Catherine on the other hand, two days after freezing her eggs met the partner she now lives with, so time will tell….

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Just over a week ago, I was tuned into BBC 5 Live to hear my next guest, Alexia Leachman being interviewed. You will hear in the podcast what she was talking about, it was a tough interview in some respects and I know Alexia has since had a hard time from trolls on Twitter, but I think she's a pretty remarkable lady and I'm sure you'll agree.  I've decided to include Alexia in this season, and as part of National Fertility Awareness Week as I think the techniques she teaches could be really helpful to you on your fertility journey. 

About my guest:

Alexia is the host of the award-nominated Fear Free Childbirth podcast. The Fear Free Childbirth is a 9-month podcast for mums and dads who want to look forward to and prepare for a fear-free childbirth experience. In her show, Alexia shares positive birth stories, insights into the latest childbirth research, inspiring tales from birth professionals, and some tips and techniques for clearing your fears and stresses. Her second book, Fear Free Childbirth is due for launch in January 2016.

Alexia is also a coach who works with business leaders, TV personalities, creatives, entrepreneurs, and more recently, mothers on a mission who want to step up their game in their life and business.

Alexia appears regularly in the press, TV, radio, and online including the BBC and SKY, and has been featured in Huffington Post, Mail Online, Psychologies, Red, Easy Living, and Mother & Baby magazines.

Follow Alexia on Twitter @afearlessbirth

Later Motherhood is OK. How refreshing is that to hear

Meet my latest guest, Claudia Spahr an author, speaker, and coach. Claudia had her first child aged 42 and at 48 has three children.

Her book 'Right Time Baby' is written to empower women to embrace motherhood positively regardless of age. I found it so refreshing to hear Claudia's take on motherhood, rather than what we constantly hear that as a woman, after 30 your clock is ticking and at 35, well you're gonna struggle...

As a journalist by trade Claudia has written a wonderful informative take on motherhood asking a lot of questions and taking you on a journey that is entertaining for both older mothers as well as if you're in your 20's or 30's. As more and more women are waiting to have children there is a wealth of information here to help you make informed decisions and not feel pressured if you're not ready when others say you should be. 

From its 'Are you Ready' test to fertility foods as well as in-depth research on the treatment of women during childbirth over the centuries and around the world this book is a fascinating read.  

Find out more about Claudia and her work  and you can follow her on Twitter here  and join her Facebook group 

Women could be fertile all their lives. Old eggs + low egg reserve are history. Tap into your unlimited potential http://t.co/GxGrmjwh4n

— HolyMama (@ClSpahr) December 4, 2014

I've been watching Kym Campbell for some time now.. .how strange does that sound. Her presence has been growing and growing online and her awesome content just keeps coming, so I was really chuffed when we got a time in the diary to speak.

Kym talked about her life dealing with PCOS and how it affected her, from acne medication to anti-depressants, it took until Kym was in her 30's to actually get help and support that made a difference.

Kym's fertility treatment involved six rounds of Clomid, and ovulation induction cycle and she had to deal with several miscarriages and she explained how after such a lengthy difficult time she decided to stop and look at different routes to parenthood. 

Kym talks about how the good thing about PCOS is that it’s probably the most treatable infertility diagnosis as it’s completely manageable by diet and lifestyle and she explained how she stopped eating sugar. 

Don't think this was an easy thing, Kym described it as a " very slow journey to take it out of your diet"

Kym has shared lots of her content with you to help you find out more about the work she does which you can see below:

My Free 30 Day PCOS Diet Challenge (which is a live event that runs 4 times a year)

The blog post I have written that is the perfect guide for anyone wanting get started today on a PCOS diet:

The blog post I have written that is the perfect guide for anyone who

 My Beat PCOS 10 Week PCOS Program

My soon to be released Beat PCOS Supplement Guide:

 You can join Kym's Facebook group here 

I also talked about some of my other episodes discussing PCOS, which you can listen to here and here 

This week on the podcast we’re talking poo!

Well to be exact…….gut health and your fertility. Meet Dr. Cecilia Kitic the founder of The IVF Project and Dr. Sue Reed who is a Dietician and microbiologist. Both ladies join us from Australia. 

How to eat for good fertility

Sue tells us how infertility can be associated with an unhealthy gut, particularly increased inflammation and low diversity of bacteria in the gut. She recommends focusing on good whole foods and steering clear of refined and processed foods.

Whole grains are hugely important for a healthy fertility diet. They contain all our essential nutrients, antioxidants, and prebiotic fiber. Examples are whole grain pieces of bread, brown rice, and even popcorn! Sue recommends 48gs of whole grains per day. For PCOS focus on the low glycaemic index carbs.

Cecilia says that it doesn’t have to be expensive to ensure you’re getting the right good quality foods. Both Cecilia and Sue help their clients in buying the right food to optimize their fertility.

Sue says even eating frozen veg and fruit is a great way to get all your nutrients in. These foods are frozen very quickly after being picked and therefore contain an abundance of our essential nutrients. Meal planners or batch cooking is another way of keeping costs down.

What about dairy?

Sue encourages her clients to eat dairy as it is chock full of all the vitamins, minerals, and the all-important calcium, that you would miss out on if you excluded this in your diet.

How can you find out about your gut health?

It’s easy to get your gut tested by doing a simple poo test. Our feces are actually really complex but by testing you can easily see what’s in there but equally what’s not.

Sperm health and the gut

Cecilia explains that if your gut is healthy and you have a good bacterial diversity then testosterone is at an optimum level. However, a poor diet can reduce this diversity and be damaging to sperm health.

To supplement or not to supplement?

Sue feels that many women go overboard on supplements and that vitamins and minerals from our food is the best option. Clearly all women should take folic acid and vitamin D, and also Omega 3 if they don’t generally get this from eating oily fish.

The benefits of exercise over-supplementation

Cecilia firmly believes that exercise should always be used to improve energy and vitality as opposed to supplements. Exercise is the best anti-inflammatory and this is especially important for women with PCOS and to help reduce DNA damage of the egg and sperm.

SOCIAL MEDIA: 

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Their next Fertile Gut Masterclass starts 17 August 2020 

The Fertility Podcast  https://www.thefertilitypodcast.com

Natalie on Insta 

 Kate Davies 

Kate on Insta 

Do you know how to chart your cycle?

Meet Author Toni Weschler, who wrote her epic manual Taking Charge of Your Fertility over 20 years ago as she wanted to help women understand how to chart their cycles. She wanted to teach the fertility awareness method and educated women that cervical fluid is to the woman what seminal fluid is to the man

Toni spoke to me about how she got into working in women's health and when she started writing her book it became the most intellectually challenging thing she has done taking her five years to research and write, as it was for three different audiences.

Toni explained she wanted to speak to practitioners, people who are trying to get pregnant, and people who are trying to avoid getting pregnant and how that caused quite a headache with the language she would use. For example, if a woman or a couple was reading the book to understand more about natural birth control when I was discussing when a woman was fertile or infertile..I’d say it was unsafe. But if a woman was trying to get pregnant, that wasn’t a very helpful term, also for PCOS - it’s treated differently depending on whether you are trying to get pregnant or avoid pregnancy…

 Toni has also written a book called 'Cycle Savvy' - the smart teenage guide to mysteries of your body which is about being empowered and savvy about your cycle and once you understand everything about it you can use that information for a myriad of situations.

Her aim for that book is that she wants every teenager to come away with the power within their own body to utilize the information to make decisions eg. use natural birth control or use this information for pregnancy achievement and not go through years of infertility...

 Toni spoke about her mixed feelings about fertility apps expressing concern if any woman uses an app when they only fill in when they get their period and the app tells them when they will be fertile, she said to ditch them!  

She talked about the estrogen surge and how it's important to understand that once your temperature rises it’s too late and that the most imp thing to observe is your cervical fluid, which should be a slippery and clear type of substance. However, the exception of this is women with PCOS due to irregular cycles. 

Toni explained how her book came out just before the internet took off and my number was in the yellow pages and she had a woman called to say thanks for all that she had done and had Toni see the messages on the 'Message boards'.Toni had no idea what the woman was talking about, as and I had to have her explain that people had been posting comments. 

The email was barely a thing - so her PO box was flooded with letters, with every single woman saying I can’t believe I didn’t know this sooner… how is it my doctor didn’t tell me this. 

This is the episode I mentioned in my chat with Toni, where the lovely Amber aka Preggars Kitchen reviewed her book and explained how much it changed her life 

To win my copy of Toni's book visit my Instagram  for details 

It’s episode 2 of the relaunched Fertility Podcast and it has been amazing hearing what you think of our new sound. This week we’re talking about what to eat when you’re trying to conceive. It can be so overwhelming, and we want to make it easy for you to understand all you need to know.

We speak to Ro Huntriss who is a registered fertility dietician to give you the most up-to-date chat we can on what to eat.

Previously on the podcast, we’ve spoken to a fair few people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to fertility and nutrition and we'll add some other episodes you might want to check out below, but dieticians work slightly differently. Their focus is very much on evidence-based practice and their training to become a dietician involves clinical placements and training to support people with co-existing medical conditions. The way they work is to follow the medical model such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, etc.

Where do you start with nutrition when trying to conceive?

Ro recommends that you consider your own diet and look at the changes that you feel will make your diet healthier. Keeping a food diary is a great thing to do and can give you a really good picture on what kind of foods you’re eating and where you might need to make some changes.

How can I improve my egg health?

It takes around 3 months to influence the health of the egg and some of the nutrients to include are folate (folic acid) - to help reduce the risk of neural tube defect but also help to improve egg development and quality. Omega 3 - in oily fish or as a supplement can play a huge part in improving egg quality. Antioxidants – from fruits, veg, whole grains, nuts, seeds and even meat.

How can I improve Sperm health?

Ro also shares with us her recommendations for sperm health and how a Mediterranean diet and antioxidants are particularly useful such as vitamin C, E, Zinc, Selenium and folate.

Plus, we get the low down on whether you should go gluten and dairy-free – Ro makes it really clear that unless you’re a diagnosed coeliac, it is not recommended to be gluten-free to support fertility as there is no evidence to suggest that this is necessary. Wholegrain is an important part of our diet and needs to be included. If you’re worried you might be intolerant to gluten, ask your GP for a test before removing it out from your diet to be sure. With regards to dairy Ro doesn’t recommend cutting it out unless necessary and if you do, make sure you get your plant-based dairy alternatives in.

We frequently talk about the importance of weight when trying to conceive and probably focus more on being overweight, however being underweight is also a consideration when it comes to fertility. Having a low BMI can cause irregular cycles and therefore ovulatory disorders. Ro recommends that if you’re underweight include olive oil, nuts, seeds and avocado in your diet.

Is it sensible to follow a vegan diet when trying to conceive? Ro says yes but encourages you to have a review with a dietician or nutritionist if you’re struggling to conceive. What about restrictive diets? Ro discourages this as these low-calorie diets are so restrictive and research shows that people that follow these diets don’t get the best outcomes.

We’ll be catching up with Ro in the very near future to chat about preparing for IVF but in the meantime, you can find more about Ro here:

Ro Huntriss on Insta

The Fertility Food Formula

Other Nutrition chats:

Listen to...

Meet Amy Bennie, Trustee and Chair of the Daisy Network. Daisy Network is a charity dedicated to providing information and support to women diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency.

We discussed what is Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI)  -  a term used to describe where the ovaries stop working before the age of natural menopause. Some women with POI can be as young teenagers. Daisy provides support and medical advice, local support but also aims to raise awareness among medical professionals.

Sadly POI occurs in 1:100 under 40, 1:1000 under 30, and 1:10,000 under 20, however other women may also be diagnosed following cancer treatments for example.

It can be difficult to diagnose POI and may be incorrectly diagnosed initially. Symptoms include periods not starting as a teenager, periods stopping, noticing menopause symptoms such as mood swings, night sweats, anxiety, tiredness, etc. Diagnosis is obtained by taking an FSH Blood sample and repeat 4 weeks apart

Like fertility, POI or menopause is not routinely discussed in schools, and therefore there is a lack of awareness. Treatments for POI include HRT or the Combined Oral Contraceptive pill. HRT replaces the estrogen that is lacking and helps to protect bone density.

Daisy offers a variety of different support networks such as medical support, local support for meet-ups, and connecting with other women suffering from POI, a Private Facebook group. Daisy also has an annual conference called Daisy Day.

Daisy Network aims to be the first point of call for women who are diagnosed and encourage early referral from medical professionals once diagnosed.

Women who are diagnosed with POI are more likely to conceive with egg donation and IVF. All the Daisy Network team are volunteers. The charity fundraises through their annual conference and by members who do fundraising events such as climbing Kilimanjaro and 100k walks. The majority of POI is spontaneous but it can be hereditary and therefore this makes it difficult to detect and more research is needed to understand POI more.

HRT and breast cancer risk – for POI HRT replaces hormone levels that have been lost and does not increase the levels and shouldn’t increase the risk of breast cancer. Most recent studies did not consider POI and therefore do not relate to a woman suffering from POI.

SOCIAL MEDIA 

Daisy on Facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/DaisyNetwork

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Twitter

Fertility Podcast

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Kate Davies

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Unregulated Sperm Donation needs to be regulated and my guest is on a mission to raise awareness about it

Here is the adoption article I mentioned  in my slight rant at the start of this episode and my guest from last week Katy Lindemann's eloquent response I also mentioned that I'd been speaking in an episode for the BBC World Service on global infertility which you can hear here 

Meet Dr. Larisa Corda,   a fertility specialist passionate about natural care for fertility treatment which is all about the more holistic approach. She has a fab new website launching soon which she told me about and Larisa is going to be a new guest on my podcast in the coming months giving her tips and tricks to get yourself in the best place possible when trying to conceive. In this episode, we discuss Unregulated Sperm donation after Larisa was involved in a BBC documentary highlighting the issues for women using unregulated websites to find sperm donors who have been harassed and sent photos of miscarriages. 

There are strict criteria for NHS artificial insemination and many women say the private treatment is too expensive, so they turn to the internet. One woman told how a potential donor she met turned out to be married and had had a vasectomy. Dr. Larisa Corda has been calling for unregulated sites to be shut down.

Online sperm donation is not illegal but it must be provided free, although expenses can be covered. Some online donors offer artificial insemination (AI) and other natural insemination (NI) - effectively unprotected sex with a stranger. ANYONE can join a sperm donation website claiming to be a genuine sperm donor. There is a complete absence of screening. Donors do not have to prove that they have altruistic intent, they may simply be there for their own sexual gratification.

 Follow Larisa on Twitter here  and on Insta here 

I also mentioned my closed Facebook group which you can join here 

Modern Fertility offers a simple test empowering women with fertility awareness

I first read about Afton in an article in Linked In, which was talking about the funding her company Modern Fertility had secured for their work. I thought what she was doing sounded fascinating and contacted her asking if she'd like to talk more.

Delighted when she quickly replied to say she was a fan of my podcast and would love to talk, so we got something set up. Speaking to Afton and Carly, co-founders of Modern Fertility it's not only clear how passionate and smart they are, but they really can't believe the gap in the market they have found. It seems obvious that we SHOULD know this kind of information about our egg reserve and fertility health but the harsh reality is most women don't.

Afton explained how the work she had done enabled her to learn about the science and business of fertility. She was working within a fertility clinic she was able to speak to numerous women who hadn't been told that fertility declined with age or that IVF could solve everything for them. Carly has a background working with Uber and Google - creating things to help people in their everyday lives so the ladies have a really awesome combination of skills they have pooled together and the result is something very exciting.

We spoke about the FEMI the Fertility Measurement Index, which is, in essence, a score that a woman will get once she has completed the test and it's something that we can keep track of every 9-12 months to monitor our fertility health. Could we reach a point where our awareness of our FEMI is something we speak about as easily as discussing our dress size? It would be a brilliant thing if we could don't you think? 

To find out more about the test, which is currently only available in the US click here

To follow us on social media, click here

Instagram  Twitter or Facebook 

Embrace your inner flow 💆‍♀️ - and we don’t just mean yoga! As if you needed more reasons to breath, ohm, and namaste all day, doing yoga while on your period can alleviate period symptoms and give you energy when you need it. Read about it on our blog. https://t.co/a3VHvnpqPl pic.twitter.com/42XMW1mSge

— Modern Fertility (@ModernFertility) July 12, 2018

Welcome to Episode 12 of The Fertility Podcast. This is a really exciting time for me, as I'm expecting my first baby at the end of this month (Feb 2015) so we are focusing on a mindset which applies to so many different stages of our lives. Sarah is doing some really interesting work online which is detailed below and in the podcast.

About Sarah Holland:

Sarah Holland is a fertility support specialist, who uses the powerful technique of EFT to help others negotiate the emotional roller coaster of fertility issues and find a positive way forward towards creating a family. Based in the UK, Sarah supports people from all over the world via phone and Skype consultations. Having experienced fertility issues herself, and now a mum to two boys, she recognizes the importance of excellent emotional support and stress reduction during this challenging time. Sarah believes that everyone should have access to emotional support while trying to conceive through fertility issues and co-founded the fertility support community Blossom & Be.

Items mention in this podcast

• Importance of seeking emotional support
• What is EFT ( Emotional Freedom Technique)
• Reasons why EFT can be so effective

In this podcast you will learn:

• Private support group Blossom and Me
• Fertility Focus Telesummit
• Fertility Question time – online monthly event

To find out about fertility support with Sarah visit www.FertileMindset.com.

Follow on Twitter @FertilyMindset 

The next Fertility Focus Telesummit is coming soon.. and this year we are welcoming sponsors! Read more here: http://t.co/QoYElJ7hJx

— Sarah Holland (@FertileMindset) February 4, 2015

I loved Katy's description of The Notebook of Doom, even though it is tinged with sadness...

Meet the latest guest Katy has created a community called The Uber Barrens ClubKaty is working on a book, which you'll hear all about to document the struggles we go through during our infertility investigations and is looking for stories. We spoke in detail about Katy's complicated infertility struggle. 

Fertility Checks

Despite being aware something might be up with her fertility, due to irregular periods and having a fertility MOT at 28 - what happened next to Katy flummoxed leading fertility experts. 

When Katy was diagnosed with PCOS she was told her ovarian reserve was great, so whilst there was an issue it was one that the couple potentially be managed. By 33, on a visit to a gynaecologist, Katy then discovered her PCOS had gone as had all her eggs. 

Katy was told she was 'hurtling towards premature ovarian failure. We talked about how Katy found incredible support in a wide range of online forums, some of which we've listed below: 

Fertility communities

• Fertility Friends
• Mumsnet TTC Board
• Infertility Board,
• Donor Conception Board, Miscarriage Board

Some non-secret Facebook Groups:

• IVF Support Group 
• IVF with PGS/PGD Support Group
• Asherman's Syndrome Awareness & Support Group 
• The Miscarriage Association Support Group
• Recurrent Miscarriage Support Group

There are lots of groups that we've not included here and Katy is happy for you to contact her. For example, there are groups for surrogacy, donor conception, male factor, endometriosis, PCOS and these were just some of the ones Katy had found. You can contact Katy on Twitter here  and Insta here  and you can read her fab blogs here 

Find a Fertility counsellor

National Fertility Society Counsellor Directory

British Infertility Counselling Association

If you want to know more about the questionnaire for Katy's book project it's here  (anonymous questionnaires for both the female and male perspectives) Katy also wanted to share...

To mark PCOS awareness month, I wanted to share with you my PCOS bundle which is a montage of several episodes from the numerous PCOS experts I have spoken to : 

KYM CAMBELL:

I’ve been watching Kym Campbell for some time now.. .how strange does that sound. Her presence has been growing and growing online and her awesome content just keeps coming, so I was really chuffed when we got a time in the diary to speak.

Kym talked about her life dealing with PCOS and how it affected her, from acne medication to anti-depressants, it took until Kym was in her 30’s to actually get help and support that made a difference. Hear the full episode here 

ADAM BALEN: 

Professor Adam Balen is a full-time Consultant in Reproductive Medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.  For many years Adam has had a particular interest in the causes and management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

His experience covers the full spectrum of the condition including; its effects during adolescence and adult life on the menstrual cycle, fertility, body weight, cosmetic effects, as well as the issues that PCOS may have on the quality of life and long-term health.

KATE DAVIES

I also spoke with Kate Davies, who has spoken on my podcast before about her work with OvuSense and her own practice called Your Fertility journey. Kate shares how she works with women dealing with PCOS, especially those who are struggling to lose weight. You can hear this full episode here 

THE CARTOONIST

Ainsley was commissioned by the website ohjoysextoy to create a cartoon strip to raise awareness of PCOS and she talked about her own experience as well as what she hoped to achieve by making it. Here’s a link to Ainsely’s cartoon strip. Hear our chat 

How do you feel about the connection between your body and mind during your fertility treatment?

This episode is an insight into how far it can go, with my guest Russell Davies explaining the personal development work he did on himself after the eight-year struggle he and his wife had with infertility. I almost fell off my chair when he told me that nobody ever tested him! Once the pair had reached a point where his wife who had been dealing with PCOS for many years and got her cycle sorted, they thought they were ready to go. But it still wasn't happening. Only at this point was Russell tested and the results were so poor the consultant asked him whether he had been exposed to high levels of radiation!

Russell talked about how he embarked on a four-month journey to improve his result, using acupuncture, making lifestyle changes, monitoring his alcohol intake, and wearing baggy pants.. yet the next test showed an even worse result and the pair were preparing themselves for ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection)

He closed down emotionally, not wanting to burden his wife and so our chat was to highlight the importance of lifting a lid on our emotions, especially men who are all too often left to feel they need to 'be a man in these situations and don't talk.

Find out about how you can try to open up and find a place of peace without giving up on what you are wanting to achieve. We talked about accepting where you are today and how that does not mean you don’t want it to be different tomorrow.

Follow Russell on Facebook here

You can get a discount on Russell's hypnosis packages using the code FP at the checkout. Just visit his website here 

Firstly, huge apologies, if you have been wondering why this podcast is late. I moved house at the weekend and with the best will in the world couldn't find one of my cables that meant I could share this content with you.

You see, last week I hosted a panel event for Clearblue for the launch of its Ovulation Test System and spoke to Dr. Sarah Jarvis, a  GP and author of Pregnancy for Dummies, and Dr. Fiona Clancy who works for Clearblue about the issues affecting our knowledge about our menstrual cycle.

Clearblue

Had conducted a survey after a report found that the inclusion of both partners in reproductive health discussions is crucial for healthy pregnancies and positive outcomes for parents and children. Overall findings indicated that couples need to talk more when it comes to trying to conceive however what was interesting was that potential dads are listening and learning so they can be part of pregnancy conversations from the start.

Nearly a sixth (15%) of male respondents said that when it came to pregnancy planning they didn’t feel very involved, whereas 91% of women felt their partner was very much part of the conversation. The research also showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any point in their cycle, compared to only 21% of men who chose this option.

Know your cycle

The research showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any time in their cycle, compared to only 21% of men who chose this option. Perhaps even more surprisingly, nearly nine out of ten women (88%) failed to identify the most accurate description of the menstrual cycle, with 41% mistakenly believing it to be the often-quoted average length of 28-days, despite their own experiences of cycles.

However, nearly a quarter of men (23%) and women (24%) surveyed correctly identified that successful conception is most likely to occur 2-3 weeks before a woman’s period starts. How is that possible? Guys what did you learn in sex education that we didn't!

It's clear that we need to know more about our cycles.. I'm going to be chatting more with my pals Dr. Fertility about their recent cycle savvy campaign soon hopefully. In the meantime, I'd love to hear about your experience of monitoring your cycle. Is it something that you feel empowered by, does it stress you out?  Email me natalie@thefertilitypodcast.com

To find out more visit Clearblue Firstly, huge apologies, if you have been wondering why this podcast is late. I moved house at the weekend and with the best will in the world couldn't find one of my cables that meant I could share this content with you.

You see, last week I hosted a panel event for Clearblue for the launch of its Ovulation Test System and spoke to Dr. Sarah Jarvis, a  GP and author of Pregnancy for Dummies, and Dr. Fiona Clancy who works for Clearblue about the issues affecting our knowledge about our menstrual cycle.

Clearblue

Had conducted a survey after a report found that the inclusion of both partners in reproductive health discussions is crucial for healthy pregnancies and positive outcomes for parents and children. Overall findings indicated that couples need to talk more when it comes to trying to conceive however what was interesting was that potential dads are listening and learning so they can be part of pregnancy conversations from the start.

Nearly a sixth (15%) of male respondents said that when it came to pregnancy planning they didn’t feel very involved, whereas 91% of women felt their partner was very much part of the conversation. The research also showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any point...

Dr. Cecilia Kitic, an exercise physiologist explains how prescriptive exercise could help you get pregnant.

It's the same rule for women and men when it comes to fertility, and Dr. Kitic talks about multiple benefits.

Whilst this might sound obvious, Dr. Kitic went through 14 rounds of IVF treatment in Australia, before falling pregnant. As you can imagine she spent a lot of time in clinics and noticed a distinct lack of physical wellbeing and nutrition conversations taking place. Dr. Kitic explains how when appropriately prescribed exercise and diet can improve the success of fertility treatments.

She feels strongly that everyone should have access to evidence-based clinical exercise prescriptions and dietary advice to improve their chances of conception and I completely agree with her. Especially in the UK where we're in the middle of a funding crisis with our NHS. Surely if there was a stronger emphasis on wellbeing for anyone trying to conceive we'd see multiple benefits - across all sorts of issues from Obesity to Infertility.

In our chat you will hear about the evidence-based results she has based her app, The IVF Project on. A membership program, the IVF Project is the world's first online exercise prescription service for women and men undergoing fertility treatments.

It has a wealth of information as well as research papers available for you to consume and there is also a Facebook community 

What you eat also plays a big role in influencing your fertility which is why the IVF Project has a Dietitian onboard to provide scientific dietary guidance that works.

"If we had a pill that conferred all the confirmed health benefits of exercise, would we not do everything humanly possible to see to it that everyone had access to this wonder drug? Would it not be the most prescribed pill in the history of mankind?” Sallis, 2009

Exercise is Medicine

Follow Dr. Kitic on Twitter

Can you #exercise during #IVF? Yes, but make sure you get the right prescription. Are you doing too much? Not enough? The optimal duration? pic.twitter.com/34yS2LgpOt

— theivfproject (@DrKitic) August 11, 2017

Interview with Fertility coach Kate Davies, understanding natural fertility methods, and Lisa Affield the Fertility yoga expert

About the guests:

Kate Davies is a   Fertility practitioner, coach, and registered nurse with over 20 year’s experience. She has all the clinical knowledge to really understand your journey, which makes her unique, as the only fertility coach in the UK to have a clinical background and ideally placed to work with couples trying to conceive.  Read Kate's guest blog for The Fertility Podcast here 

Lisa Affield is a yoga practitioner, who researched and devised a fertility yoga program and used it before and during her own fertility treatment to keep her calm and positive throughout. After eight years of trying to conceive.  Having been told that IVF was her only option, Lisa and her husband Steve had three cycles of IVF at Exeter Fertility clinic and finally, at the age of 36, had her first baby, Josephine. After two more IVF cycles, twins, Dexter and Isabelle, were born in April 2011.

Items mentioned in this podcast:

• The link between stress and fertility
• Loss of a sense of self when trying to conceive
• Dealing with the ‘two-week wait
• The lack of men having coaching
• A closed Facebook group offering fertility support
• The risks of companies such as Apple and Facebook encouraging egg freezing
• The benefits of using yoga to ease stress before and during IVF

In this podcast you will learn:

• Research shows that time to conception with fertility knowledge is reduced
• Lifestyle tweaks can make all the difference into optimising their fertility
• There are things we can do, to really check your lifestyle and improve fertility
• Fertility preservation FB and APPLE

OFFER: Quote ‘The Fertility Podcast’ when you visit Your Fertility Journey to receive  20% off Kate Davies’s Fertility Coaching packages

Follow Kate Davies on Twitter  

We have almost 200 members in my Facebook Fertility Support Group. Come join us. http://t.co/oyvq7fAgOx

— Kate Davies (@fertjourney) December 1, 2014

Follow Lisa Affield on Twitter 

Would you use a syringe to get pregnant? As The Fertility Podcast matures, and I meet more and more people on Twitter, I'm keen to broaden the topics I cover in the podcast.  Don't get me wrong, the focus of what I'm doing still remains on infertility, however, I think it's important to consider your options if you've found you've still not gotten pregnant in the time frame you'd hoped.

Having had successful fertility treatment I can see that we did kind of rush into it pretty quickly and the more I learn from the people I speak to, I've realized there are all sorts of possibilities. I'm not naive and I know this isn't going to be for everyone, however, I was pretty fascinated when I met Marc and Maureen on Twitter - founders of Mosie baby.

The pair are married and not only have they created a product to help people get pregnant at home.. with a pretty impressive result.

As more and more CCGs in the UK withdraw their funding for IVF and the cost is still to be regulated couples need to really know what they have available to them if the money side is out of reach. I am about to release a series of episodes working with Access Fertility which is sponsoring the podcast about the clinics they work with providing finance packages for IVF treatment. However, if you are at the point where you aren't getting pregnant but you can't get your head around fertility treatment then here's something to think about.

Follow @MosieBaby

Mosie is growing up... #PressRelease #Inseminationathomehttps://t.co/fZPYSPlm8G pic.twitter.com/Kk7kpftXOh

— Mosie Baby (@mosiebaby) March 22, 2016

I've recently started following Shema one_in_seven on Instagram as I noticed a conversation about IVF treatment abroad which is something I have spoken about on this podcast before, but I'm always interested in giving more time to as I think it's a pretty daunting thing to do.

Shema told me about her #TTC journey 4 years and how she's now 42 " I always knew it might be difficult" she explained 

Shema talked about the two back-to-back cycles she went through before her 40th birthday, I know from the pressure I was putting on myself about trying to get pregnant before my 40th that it can't have been at all easy. 

 Shema didn't produce any eggs and didn't get to transfer both times. " I'd always anticipate I might need IVF because of my age, I never thought it wouldn’t work"

As a medical professional Shema talked about not being phased by the whole process but when her doctor cried in her consultation she knew something else was up.. she was going to have to use a donor egg.

Shema and her husband moved to a donor egg within weeks, however, she explained about there really being a shortage of donor eggs if you’re from a black minority, ethnic community background it’s really difficult to find a donor because culturally people don’t donate

"We really need donors from other cultural backgrounds…"

Shema is a really impressive character and talked me through how she phoned every single private clinic in London to see if they have any Asian donors. The couple had been told to expect a 2-year wait. 

Their 3rd cycle was hugely expensive at a big London clinic with big guarantees of success.. it failed. 

Their 4th cycle resulted in a pregnancy

At 21 weeks  Shema's waters broked and her son, Altair was stillborn 

"It’s the worst thing that can happen to you"

Shema talked about how she joined Instagram after the third cycle and the amazing friendships she has now made ..shout out to 'The Pineapple Queens" and Shema says a massively significant part of her healing. 

This March, the couple went to Northern Cyprus for treatment. Shema talked about how she felt a Turkish Cypriot woman would be more likely to match her coloring and how everything was being organized through their London clinic which was worth the money if you can afford to have joint care as there’s so much you have to sort out.

At the time of talking Shema was just about to test having had two embryos transferred and being at the end of her two-week wait. I've put this episode out today as Shema has shared the news that she is indeed pregnant.

Shema spoke an article a friend sent on using a donor egg which really helped her process it

I also talked about a previous episode where I was discussing secondary infertility

Do make sure you've given The Ultimate Fertility Facebook page a like as our live streams are starting on May 1st, your chance to ask experts questions about a wide range of fertility topics