Fertility Rewire Podcast

Kat Stevens is the host of the Fertility Rewire Podcast, She is a mind and body coach specialising in Fertility. This show is a place for information and discussion around topics relevant to Fertility, to break through the overwhelm of information and to look specifically at the instrinsic design of fertility and how it often fails to adapt in todays world.

How does spotting affect fertility? 07/03/2023

How does spotting affect fertility? Hello and welcome to this episode of the Fertility Rewire podcast. Now, it's been a while. Again, I've taken a break. I've actually really, I've got quite a neck injury and I've been wearing a neck brace and have had the same sort of battle with my healthcare that I know you face a lot with your fertility, but you know, I've stuck with it. I've got to the route that I need to be taking now and things are improving massively. So I'm back doing everything that I was before. So you may have seen me on TikTok more recently talking quite a lot about spotting and signs of low progesterone. And these videos have created lots of conversations with people getting in touch with me. And we are really starting, I think in the fertility community. And when I say that, I mean you guys who are trying to get pregnant really starting to try and understand, I hope, about progesterone and people are starting to see it as a potential reason why they're not falling pregnant. Now it may well be, but like all things, it's a symptom and we need to look for the cause. So if your progesterone is low, then there will be a reason for that. And the reason in itself might not only affect progesterone, but it may affect other aspects of fertility. So a sticking plaster is not necessarily what we need now. So I'm going to explore in this episode with you a little bit more about spotting because I know that you'll be told that spotting is normal potentially. And you know what? For some people it is. But we have this gauge of normal, don't we? So, if you are spotting, join me by listening into this episode listened, and think what factors might be there. If you need any more support on how to find that out, then please get in touch. You can get in touch by email kat@fertility rewire.com. You can get in touch with me via socials on Instagram and TikTok. It would be great to hear from you and also if you've got any thoughts on the podcast, you know, how are you enjoying it, what more would you like me to do? Is there anything specific you want me to cover? Then please get in touch. But as ever, take care. Use Code FERTILITYREWIRE https://www.tiktok.com/kat_fertilityrewire /episode/index/show/katstevens/id/27355068

Hope, support and saving the environment when trying to get pregnant with Lara Solomon Hoopsy 01/18/2023

How to deal with the Holidays 12/20/2022

Feeling lost when trying to get pregnant 12/09/2022

Are you motivated to get pregnant? 10/20/2022

The stress of Ovulation 07/22/2022

The stress of Ovulation Its a viscius circle, stress affects ovulation, ovulation affects stress. This is our focus isn't it when trying to get pregnant, we chart, we test, we plan and it can be a hugely stressful time. Particularly the longer you have been trying, or if you don't have a regular ovulation. In this episode I dig a little deeper, discuss the ovulation tigers, the What If's you may have and what you are doing to determine when you are ovulating. Transcript In this episode, I'm going to talk about the stress of ovulation, which if you've been trying to get pregnant, whether that be with your first, second or further children, you may well really identify with this and see this as being an issue. So my first question for you is, do you know when you ovulate, have you always known when you ovulate, are you still unsure or have you recently found out that it's not at all when you thought it was. I often talk about how, what we're taught in school. Isn't actually relevant to what we need to know when it comes to trying to get pregnant. We often have this idea that we all ovulate on day 14 in the holy grail of 28 day cycle. But actually, even if you had a 28 day cycle, it's not guaranteed that you would ovulate on day 14. I know some people have been informed from a medical professional that they will ovulate 14 days after their period starts. And other people have been told that they will ovulate 14 days before their period starts. None of which is a guarantee, none of which is true for all. I have worked with some clients over the years where the only issue in their fertility journey was that they weren't completely sure when they were ovulating. Often it's that they were ovulating a lot later than they thought. So it was when working together quite a quick win for many. And sometimes it can be as simple as that, but we know it's not, we know, as I've said many times that there are many, many factors involved. And we also know that we are not looking for further information when we're going through the doctors necessarily. Ovulation signs So do you know your signs of ovulation? Now, this is something I discussed earlier in the . So that's worth the listen, if you haven't already listened to that one where I talk about ovulation signs. So naturally, when you ovulate, think about us as animals, not as logical overthinking at times, humans, but as animals, your body tells you it's time to reproduce. So your libido will be increased and you will have changing cervical mucus that will change over this fertility window. The type of mucus varies as we get nearer to ovulation, it's very choosy early on as to which sperm it let through. And the nearer to ovulation, as I've talked about in the episode six, it's going to let anything through at this point. So it is important to know what that mucus means and what it demonstrates. Stress and Ovulation We know that stress, anxiety, worry, fear affects ovulation. It's a very natural process in the body. It's a fantastic process to keep you safe because ultimately the first job of your body is for you to stay alive. It's second job is for you to have sustenance for you to continue. So to stay alive in the moment of danger and then to stay healthy and alive. And it's third job, and this is a hierarchy is procreation. So unless those other two are in place, as I've talked about before, procreation is going to come very, very low down on the list. So at times when your body feels you are in imminent danger in the past, this would be with predators. And I talk about tigers a lot, and Tiger Taming is something I work with my clients. It's a way to address this stress, worry, anxiety, and fear, and bring your body back into balance and help your fertility. So, when you are faced with a tiger, then your body, your hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal access is working to ensure that everything is put into staying alive. And when everything is put into staying alive, then other aspects are switched down or switched off and ovulation can be one of these. Okay? So it could be that ovulation comes later, or it could be that you don't ovulate at all, as well as that, what we also know is not only can, and I hate using the word stress, but, but when your emotional health is, is, is unbalanced. When there is fear and worry and anxiety in place, it will affect ovulation, but equally ovulation can in fact be the cause of the stress, the worry and the fear. So it's in effect of, um, working with this to try and get the balance. Now, as you know, I hope you know that I will never tell you to just relax. Relaxing can be really, really difficult. So, when we look at your tigers, and again, I've talked about this many times before, but I'm going to talk specifically about your ovulation tigers and your tigers are your thoughts, your fears, and your worries. So what are the thoughts that are running through your head around the time of ovulation? What are those thoughts? What, what ifs do you have? What if I'm not ovulating? What if I don't get pregnant this month? I may never get pregnant. How do I know that this is the right time? How do I know that I'm ovulating? What if it's me? What if your partner isn't going to be around during the magic window and What is your magic window? What is the time you have put aside, or you have in your mind that is your magic window. And I hope your answer will be the period of seven days before ovulation. So that's what I work with, with my clients. And we look at that in different stages in order to maximize your chances of getting pregnant, because remember the egg lives for up to 24 hours. The sperm lives for three to five days can be up to seven. And I've repeated this time and time again. I know, but if you think about that, the design of the body is that the sperm needs to be there, ready. It needs to be there ready and waiting for when that egg is released. If you wait for ovulation, you may well miss. Also, if this is the first time you've had sex in a while at ovulation, you could be some quite dodgy sperm. That's not a medical term, but you know what I mean. There could be some dodgy sperm in that ejaculate at that point, the other thing is, what are you doing to analyze when you are ovulating? Are you using your body signs? Have you used ovulation predictor sticks before, or perhaps temperature charting?. And if you know that you're very regular and you know, when you ovulate, are you still peeing on ovation sticks around this time? Or do you have irregular periods now, or maybe even you have absent periods? I have clients who have a cycle every 28 days who aren't ovulating. So you can have anovulatory cycles and there are many things that cause this, that we can look into that we can start to learn more about. But if you are peeing on ovulation sticks every month, this in itself can cause a stress. This in a sense can cause that anxiety and switch down those natural signs of ovulation and maybe even be switching down ovulation itself, also ovulation predictor sticks. aren't always accurate. So if you have polycystic ovary syndrome, particularly you will have quite regular hormone surges potentially that don't lead to ovulation. So what can you do? What can you do to support yourself at this time to know more about ovulation and to get in a better head space for it? So rather than reading everything and sending yourself crazy with your Google searches, I would suggest that you choose some, just a few sites that you find useful to support your fertility journey. You could work with somebody like myself to support you. Of course, when you are looking on the internet, when you are looking at social media, and I've mentioned this phrase before, don't just look at what Jane did, because the factors affecting Jane might be very different to the factors affecting you and also going to be a bit controversial, but this is my message, don't just believe what your doctor is telling you. I'm sorry, but your family doctor is not a fertility expert. And when you go to the fertility clinic, what you are really looking at there are assisted methods of conception. So if you really want to get a handle on ovulation, then it's important that you truly know and understand what is going on personally for you with ovulation, that you understand your body's signs. Now I've talked about , ovulation pain is not a positive sign, always of ovulation. So don't think, oh, I get pain. So that's really good. So I know when I ovulate, we need to look a little bit further into that, especially. So when you understand your body and know the signs, you can develop a sense of trust in your body. And when you have a sense of trust that can in effect, start, start to support the reduction of the fear and the worry and anxiety, and the more understanding, and the more sound information with an action plan that you have, the more in control you can feel because let's face it. We don't feel in control of this at all. You can of course use ovulation predictor kits, but it's important to know when to use them. And it's important to identify what stress they in themselves are causing for you. So when I'm working with clients, we monitor the cycle. And I say, we, because I ask my clients to gather the data and I analyze the data because looking at that data and trying to analyze what it means can send you into anxiety, worry, stress, and fear. So whether you are doing your basal body temperature, and it's important to know the right way to do it, first thing in the morning, as soon as you wake, before you do anything else at all. And I encourage my clients to chart this on an app called fertility friend, it can be a bit overwhelming for you as an individual, but it gives me an incredible amount of detail about all parts of the cycle, not just ovation. We can see slow rises in ovulation. We can see a strength of ovulation and that's really, really key as well. And also the magical Luteal phase. If you are using a fertility analyzer, such as MIRA then you can see there, your estrogen and your lutenizing hormone to give you that picture of ovulation, but what you can also do now with their additional wands that they have is that you can measure the progesterone as well. And that's really, really powerful. And don't forget that progesterone production starts after you ovulate. So if you've had a blood test to look at your progesterone and the progesterone is low, if it's super low, that might mean you're not ovulating, or if it's low, it might mean that the ovulation isn't very strong. So there's lots that progesterone can tell us as well. It's also really, really important to look at the wider aspects affecting fertility. Remember your egg is a cell. So your cellular health is really key when it comes to nutrition and also oxidative stress can have an effect on your cellular health oxidative stress that is in the body as a result of emotional stress, as well as physical stress on the body. So it's key to look at some key deficiencies that might be affecting your cellular health as well. And of course the pelvic health itself. So is there sufficient space in your pelvis in episode nine, I chatted with Claire Mockridge about, You know, is it trying to do its job from behind a wardrobe in effect? So what is the pelvic space like? What's been affecting that particular area. What might be impacting ovulation? Have your reproductive organs got enough room in there? Is it been affected by endometriosis or possibly any adhesions or scarring? And also if you've had a previous child and you're trying to get pregnant again, there might be effects from your previous pregnancy and birth that could be having an impact as well. And we also know that ovulation and when you ovulate changes, it's not always the same as it was. It does change throughout your life cycle So there is potentially a lot, you don't know, but there is a lot you can know. So if you want to get more answers, if you want to get the answers or even find the right questions, so you can get the answers, then I can help with that. So if that's something you want to reach out, get in touch, can get me on socials at fertility, rewire or or . I hope that there is sufficient information here in this podcast. And in the podcast episodes, I've mentioned episode six and episode nine, that might give you more information and might arm you with the information to get the answers that you need, and to be able to interpret those answers as well. If you haven't heard already. I have a group program: as well as working one to one with anybody experiencing fertility issues. I have a group program that where I'm working with people who are trying to get pregnant again. So trying to extend their family and the specifics involved in that. And then also, just before I go, if you have these tigers that need taming, if you have an ovation tiger, a timing tiger, a getting pregnant tiger, a worry, you know, these tigers that are there. I do have a tiger Taming program, which is a four week online program. and if you want more information about that, then again, reach out and I’ll point you in the right direction /episode/index/show/katstevens/id/23803865

The stress of monitoring ovulation 07/22/2022

The stress of monitoring ovulation It's a viscous circle: stress affects ovulation, and as you no doubt no ovulations affects stress. As a result it can also impact other areas of your life. In this episode I discuss the stress of ovulation, why it impacts your fertility and what you can do about it. So there is potentially a lot, you don't know, but there is a lot you can know. So if you want to get more answers, if you want to get the answers or even find the right questions, so you can get the answers, then I can help with that. So if that's something you want to reach out, get in touch, can get me on socials at fertility, rewire or or . TRANSCRIPT In this episode, I'm going to talk about the stress of ovulation, which if you've been trying to get pregnant, whether that be with your first, second or further children, you may well really identify with this and see this as being an issue. So my first question for you is, do you know when you ovulate, have you always known when you ovulate, are you still unsure or have you recently found out that it's not at all when you thought it was. I often talk about how, what we're taught in school. Isn't actually relevant to what we need to know when it comes to trying to get pregnant. We often have this idea that we all ovulate on day 14 in the holy grail of 28 day cycle. But actually, even if you had a 28 day cycle, it's not guaranteed that you would ovulate on day 14. I know some people have been informed from a medical professional that they will ovulate 14 days after their period starts. And other people have been told that they will ovulate 14 days before their period starts. None of which is a guarantee, none of which is true for all. I have worked with some clients over the years where the only issue in their fertility journey was that they weren't completely sure when they were ovulating. Often it's that they were ovulating a lot later than they thought. So it was when working together quite a quick win for many. And sometimes it can be as simple as that, but we know it's not, we know, as I've said many times that there are many, many factors involved. And we also know that we are not looking for further information when we're going through the doctors necessarily. Ovulation signs So do you know your signs of ovulation? Now, this is something I discussed earlier in the . So that's worth the listen, if you haven't already listened to that one where I talk about ovulation signs. So naturally, when you ovulate, think about us as animals, not as logical overthinking at times, humans, but as animals, your body tells you it's time to reproduce. So your libido will be increased and you will have changing cervical mucus that will change over this fertility window. The type of mucus varies as we get nearer to ovulation, it's very choosy early on as to which sperm it let through. And the nearer to ovulation, as I've talked about in the episode six, it's going to let anything through at this point. So it is important to know what that mucus means and what it demonstrates. Stress and Ovulation We know that stress, anxiety, worry, fear affects ovulation. It's a very natural process in the body. It's a fantastic process to keep you safe because ultimately the first job of your body is for you to stay alive. It's second job is for you to have sustenance for you to continue. So to stay alive in the moment of danger and then to stay healthy and alive. And it's third job, and this is a hierarchy is procreation. So unless those other two are in place, as I've talked about before, procreation is going to come very, very low down on the list. So at times when your body feels you are in imminent danger in the past, this would be with predators. And I talk about tigers a lot, and Tiger Taming is something I work with my clients. It's a way to address this stress, worry, anxiety, and fear, and bring your body back into balance and help your fertility. So, when you are faced with a tiger, then your body, your hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal access is working to ensure that everything is put into staying alive. And when everything is put into staying alive, then other aspects are switched down or switched off and ovulation can be one of these. Okay? So it could be that ovulation comes later, or it could be that you don't ovulate at all, as well as that, what we also know is not only can, and I hate using the word stress, but, but when your emotional health is, is, is unbalanced. When there is fear and worry and anxiety in place, it will affect ovulation, but equally ovulation can in fact be the cause of the stress, the worry and the fear. So it's in effect of, um, working with this to try and get the balance. Now, as you know, I hope you know that I will never tell you to just relax. Relaxing can be really, really difficult. So, when we look at your tigers, and again, I've talked about this many times before, but I'm going to talk specifically about your ovulation tigers and your tigers are your thoughts, your fears, and your worries. So what are the thoughts that are running through your head around the time of ovulation? What are those thoughts? What, what ifs do you have? What if I'm not ovulating? What if I don't get pregnant this month? I may never get pregnant. How do I know that this is the right time? How do I know that I'm ovulating? What if it's me? What if your partner isn't going to be around during the magic window and What is your magic window? What is the time you have put aside, or you have in your mind that is your magic window. And I hope your answer will be the period of seven days before ovulation. So that's what I work with, with my clients. And we look at that in different stages in order to maximize your chances of getting pregnant, because remember the egg lives for up to 24 hours. The sperm lives for three to five days can be up to seven. And I've repeated this time and time again. I know, but if you think about that, the design of the body is that the sperm needs to be there, ready. It needs to be there ready and waiting for when that egg is released. If you wait for ovulation, you may well miss. Also, if this is the first time you've had sex in a while at ovulation, you could be some quite dodgy sperm. That's not a medical term, but you know what I mean. There could be some dodgy sperm in that ejaculate at that point, the other thing is, what are you doing to analyze when you are ovulating? Are you using your body signs? Have you used ovulation predictor sticks before, or perhaps temperature charting?. And if you know that you're very regular and you know, when you ovulate, are you still peeing on ovation sticks around this time? Or do you have irregular periods now, or maybe even you have absent periods? I have clients who have a cycle every 28 days who aren't ovulating. So you can have anovulatory cycles and there are many things that cause this, that we can look into that we can start to learn more about. But if you are peeing on ovulation sticks every month, this in itself can cause a stress. This in a sense can cause that anxiety and switch down those natural signs of ovulation and maybe even be switching down ovulation itself, also ovulation predictor sticks. aren't always accurate. So if you have polycystic ovary syndrome, particularly you will have quite regular hormone surges potentially that don't lead to ovulation. So what can you do? What can you do to support yourself at this time to know more about ovulation and to get in a better head space for it? So rather than reading everything and sending yourself crazy with your Google searches, I would suggest that you choose some, just a few sites that you find useful to support your fertility journey. You could work with somebody like myself to support you. Of course, when you are looking on the internet, when you are looking at social media, and I've mentioned this phrase before, don't just look at what Jane did, because the factors affecting Jane might be very different to the factors affecting you and also going to be a bit controversial, but this is my message, don't just believe what your doctor is telling you. I'm sorry, but your family doctor is not a fertility expert. And when you go to the fertility clinic, what you are really looking at there are assisted methods of conception. So if you really want to get a handle on ovulation, then it's important that you truly know and understand what is going on personally for you with ovulation, that you understand your body's signs. Now I've talked about , ovulation pain is not a positive sign, always of ovulation. So don't think, oh, I get pain. So that's really good. So I know when I ovulate, we need to look a little bit further into that, especially. So when you understand your body and know the signs, you can develop a sense of trust in your body. And when you have a sense of trust that can in effect, start, start to support the reduction of the fear and the worry and anxiety, and the more understanding, and the more sound information with an action plan that you have, the more in control you can feel because let's face it. We don't feel in control of this at all. You can of course use ovulation predictor kits, but it's important to know when to use them. And it's important to identify what stress they in themselves are causing for you. So when I'm working with clients, we monitor the cycle. And I say, we, because I ask my clients to gather the data and I analyse the data because looking at that data and trying to analyse what it means can send you into anxiety, worry, stress, and fear. So whether you are doing your basal body temperature, and it's important to know the right way to do it, first thing in the morning, as soon as you wake, before you do anything else at all. And I encourage my clients to chart this on an app called fertility friend, it can be a bit overwhelming for you as an individual, but it gives me an incredible amount of detail about all parts of the cycle, not just ovation. We can see slow rises in ovulation. We can see a strength of ovulation and that's really, really key as well. And also the magical Luteal phase. If you are using a fertility analyser, such as MIRA then you can see there, your oestrogen and your lutenising hormone to give you that picture of ovulation, but what you can also do now with their additional wands that they have is that you can measure the progesterone as well. And that's really, really powerful. And don't forget that progesterone production starts after you ovulate. So if you've had a blood test to look at your progesterone and the progesterone is low, if it's super low, that might mean you're not ovulating, or if it's low, it might mean that the ovulation isn't very strong. So there's lots that progesterone can tell us as well. It's also really, really important to look at the wider aspects affecting fertility. Remember your egg is a cell. So your cellular health is really key when it comes to nutrition and also oxidative stress can have an effect on your cellular health oxidative stress that is in the body as a result of emotional stress, as well as physical stress on the body. So it's key to look at some key deficiencies that might be affecting your cellular health as well. And of course the pelvic health itself. So is there sufficient space in your pelvis in episode nine, I chatted with Claire Mockridge about, You know, is it trying to do its job from behind a wardrobe in effect? So what is the pelvic space like? What's been affecting that particular area. What might be impacting ovulation? Have your reproductive organs got enough room in there? Is it been affected by endometriosis or possibly any adhesions or scarring? And also if you've had a previous child and you're trying to get pregnant again, there might be effects from your previous pregnancy and birth that could be having an impact as well. And we also know that ovulation and when you ovulate changes, it's not always the same as it was. It does change throughout your life cycle So there is potentially a lot, you don't know, but there is a lot you can know. So if you want to get more answers, if you want to get the answers or even find the right questions, so you can get the answers, then I can help with that. So if that's something you want to reach out, get in touch, can get me on socials at fertility, rewire or or . I hope that there is sufficient information here in this podcast. And in the podcast episodes, I've mentioned episode six and episode nine, that might give you more information and might arm you with the information to get the answers that you need, and to be able to interpret those answers as well. If you haven't heard already. I have a group program: as well as working one to one with anybody experiencing fertility issues. I have a group program that where I'm working with people who are trying to get pregnant again. So trying to extend their family and the specifics involved in that. And then also, just before I go, if you have these tigers that need taming, if you have an ovation tiger, a timing tiger, a getting pregnant tiger, a worry, you know, these tigers that are there. I do have a tiger Taming program, which is a four week online program. and if you want more information about that, then again, reach out and I’ll point you in the right direction /episode/index/show/katstevens/id/23726957

What you needed to know before trying to get pregnant 07/13/2022

What you needed to know before trying to get pregnant I ask you to imagine you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself at the point you decided to try to start or extend your family. What would have been useful and what do you wish you had been told. I also go into detail about what you should have been told and how my dream is that anyone who is thinking of starting or extending a family should be informed abut. In ancient times the elder women of the village would share key information, would have cultures in place including foods believed to support fertility. All of which has been lost to a medical model that provides no support until you are 6 months to a year down the line. Even at that point there is no real support or advice just interventions. Transcript Welcome to this episode of the fertility rewire podcast. And in this episode, I'm going talk about, well ask you really, what did you need to know really before you even started trying to conceive? When you first thought about starting a family, what did you really need to know then? And if you could travel back in time to when you first decided you wanted to start a family or to get pregnant this time, if you're looking at extending your family, what would you say to your former self, from what you've learned so far on this journey, what would that be? Are there certain actions you would've taken sooner? Would you have stood up to the medical staff sooner than perhaps you have, or, or perhaps you haven't? My dream is that anyone who is thinking about getting pregnant, whether their first or the next time, that they would get access to this information straight away, that you don't have to wait the six months, or one year before anything is even looked at, and then you get no answers. That you would be given access to testing and that you would have a pre trying checkup. A preconception checkup, a preconception MOT, if you like now, you can't have access to that, unless that is something that potentially you are paying for. And even then it doesn't necessarily fit into the medical health models, but you can do home testing. You can seek therapists or consultants in different areas that do testing. If you're going to do home testing and I talked last week about the stress of ovulation. So I do want to bear in mind about this potential stress that can be caused by the home testing too, because you do need someone to interpret it potentially because even with the home tests, the normal is not what we consider optimal actually for fertility. So you've heard me talk about the MIRA home testing, and to use their Max ones, where you're looking at the progesterone as well. You can use the code FERTILITYREWIRE at checkout to access a discount on the You can do basal body temperature yourself. So you've got an idea of what's happening in your cycle and you can use something like Ovusense, which can take the stress away from having to wake up and, and take that. If you are looking at male fertility factors and I do urge you to, from the very, very start, because all too often, I see clients where, you know, as a female you are looking at what it is wrong with you, you and generally the medical profession seems to go down that line a little bit as well. But even though you'll only get basic sperm test results from a home test, I do think it's worthwhile still looking at that. And you can use a company called ExSeed and there are others available, of course, but this is one that, that I've come across recently. You can use code FERTILITYREWIRE to get a 15% discount. And I'm hoping to do an interview actually with somebody from ExSeed soon so we can explain a little bit more about that. So you're looking at basic information for sure and what I would say in any home tests, if it's coming up as suboptimal or even outside of normal ranges, I would still urge you to take advice from elsewhere and get this looked at in more detail. Definitely. So when we're looking at home testing, you can test your hormone levels. You can test your follicle stimulating hormone now in home tests, you can test your progesterone also. You can test your estrogen and this can be in urine, or this can be with a blood test. Remember a blood test is a snapshot of that day, a urine test, you're generally looking at more regular frequency of that. So that can give you a bigger picture with those and the fluctuations, especially when it comes to progesterone. You can do home tests for thyroid and increasingly a wider panel of thyroid, and also to look for thyroid antibodies, which I've seen in quite a few clients recently. And then we have our autoimmune factors that are coming in there. So even though you wouldn't necessarily be medicated for your thyroid, you can look to natural ways to support your thyroid and to boost it because we know that an underactive thyroid, or let's not say underactive, because then we're in normal and abnormal ranges again, aren't we? A suboptimal thyroid, a thyroid that isn't functioning as you would want it to function is something that needs supporting. Vitamin D is a huge, huge factor when it comes to fertility. So that's the test you can be looking at as well. Now, how can you get these tests? Well, as I said with, you've got mirror for your, um, urine analysis of hormones. And I think I have mentioned before that you can get a discount with Mira. If you use the code fertility rewire or one word, you can look at temperature so you can look at Ovusense. You can also look at ExSeed for sperm tests here in the UK for blood tests, Medichecks is an example. There's lots of home testing, finger prick, testing services that you can use equally within Europe, the US and Australia as well. You will have your own home testing companies. You do, but I urge you to get those looked at now. That's something I do with my clients. There are other therapists that offer the similar services, but do get those looked at because of course you can just become hugely stressed by the test themselves because you haven't necessarily got that feedback from someone or to know your next steps or your proactive next steps also to give yourself some preparation. So, for some people maybe don't do tests, but just assume that there could be an issue, not in a worrying sense, not in a, oh there's something terribly wrong sense, but just assume that there could be an issue. So what could you do to counter that? So can you look at your hormonal balance? Can you see what your cycle is telling you? Remember the bleed can tell us so much about our balance of hormones, the length of your cycle, when you ovulate within the cycle, how long that follicular phase is, how long that luteal phase is, can tell us so, so, so much, but having that interpretation and I urge you not to do that in forums because when you are in a forum often, not all the time, but often you are looking at opinion of others, we're back to “what Jane did”. Whereas you want to be speaking to someone who can actually guide you and interpret these for you, and maybe even point you onto somebody else that can test at a further or deeper level or additional support that you might need. So you need to know about that hormonal balance through the whole cycle. You need to know what your period is telling you, what your strength of ovulation is and what your ovulation signs are. Also consider your own pelvic health. Now, I alluded to this again last week, when we think about pelvic congestion, any previous surgeries, if you've had a child already, if you're trying for your next child, then were there situations possibly at the birth, did you have a cesarean section? Are there impacts there physiologically that we can look at and also taking proactive steps to improve your pelvic health? There is lot you can do about that. What's your emotional level like? Where are you at with things? Are you stressed anyway, do you experience anxiety and worry? Is there a lot going in your life that could be causing your stress hormones to be switching off or down your reproductive function? Are you feeling safe? You know, and I, I don't mean that in a sense of imminent danger, but I refer to that in that, you know, design of our bodies of our brains to keep us safe about the adrenaline, about the fight or flight reaction, where is your level of worry? And increasingly when we like to have control, we can find that when we're into something like trying to get pregnant, where we seem to have no control, that can really spin us out emotionally, particularly people who are demonstrating levels of a high functioning anxiety. So often you're in a high achieving position you've always achieved. Well, you are organized, lots of very positive factors around this, but the, the downside is that you've got that constant ‘what if’ chatter going on in your brain and you might tend to catastrophize and struggle with that feeling of not being in control. And that's something I'm seeing quite a lot with clients that I'm working with at the moment also consider your cellular health. So we can look at optimizing nutrition, of course, but let's specifically as well look at that cellular health because the egg is a cell and the sperm is a cell. So that's really, really important and something that you need to add to your toolkit in terms of preparation. So we are preparing our minds and our bodies to be at that optimal level for conception and the biggest thing… And I have, I've already said this in this podcast and I, I drone on about it constantly perhaps, but do not accept normal. We want optimal, don't think about normal as being okay. And also if we can shift our focus perhaps to not to getting pregnant, but to actually having a healthy baby. And I know that can be difficult in terms of getting ahead of ourselves, but it is our ultimate aim. So it is good to see that as the top aim when we're trying to get pregnant. So I'm wondering, did you undertake any of this when you first stepped out on your journey and chances are you wouldn't because why would you? It's not something we're educated about. And even when you started to experience difficulties and you've gone to the doctors and you've had tests, these tests have never been suggested maybe the, the hormone profile, but not over a longer period of time. For sure. When you think back to ancient times, when we had more of a sense of tribe and more of a sense of community there would've been elders, you know, the wise women in the community who would've educated about fertility, you know, couples who were going to get married or were just married, were given lots of information. And there's lots of cultural diets and specific foods that would be used to enhance and encourage fertility. And there would be that preparation, that sense of preparation and education, which fertility now falls into a medical model of trying to step in when something's wrong and bypass, we’re losing that. We're certainly losing that sense of education. And in schools I've talked about before, we're not being educated about what could be an issue when it comes to getting pregnant. You know, we're told it's really easy to get pregnant, and it would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to you. We're not taught about fertility and equally, we're not taught about it in a sense that we might be able to show some understanding and empathy to those that are experiencing fertility difficulties. You know, that saying to anybody, oh, when are you having children next? You know, when they, they haven't had children in your timeframe that you're expecting or, or making assumptions, or as I mentioned before about offering platitudes, when people have miscarriage or loss, and that's something that needs to be educated about so that we have not only a wider understanding of what may potentially happen to us as individuals in the future, but also to have that understanding of what could be going on for other people, we need to be managing diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis better. We need to, you know, not be telling girls and young women when they're diagnosed that we can manage this for now, but they'll have trouble getting pregnant because that's set in an emotional barrier and block already, um, which doesn't serve to support the condition itself. And we need to see P C O S and endometriosis as symptoms. And we need to be doubling back further to look for the root cause. So is any of this resonating with you? if you think, gosh, you know, this would've been useful to be told earlier on in the journey, what would that have changed for you? And it doesn't mean that you can't have that education now, if you haven't already received it. But the medical model needs to change. There needs to be a fertility health check. It could save millions of pounds in IVF, and it could be offering IVF absolutely where it's needed. Because as I've said before, I'm not against IVF. Sometimes that is the option that, you know, clients I'm working with go with. And I support them absolutely through that, but it shouldn't be a first line treatment. It shouldn't be the first thing that's offered in terms of fertility, we should be taking a step back and actually giving this information and this education sooner. So if you haven't already looked at the things that I've suggested, if you haven't had that fuller assessment to be that fertility detective yourself, and be supported on this journey, it might be time to reach out, to look at reputable sources of information, to have someone by your side, to support you on this fertility journey, to teach you or to tell you the right questions you need to ask to get the right answers that can then lead you to the correct proactive steps you need to take. And there are many people out there in the fertility community who can help you with this. It might be that IVF is your preferred option, that it is the right option for you. I'm not the only person who supports people in fertility. Of course you can reach out to whoever speaks to you, speaks to your heart and is answering your questions about fertility. But if you did want to talk to me about it, then you can reach out to me on socials at fertility rewire, or you could drop me an email, at [email protected], . What I wanted to do in this episode is just to make you think, but hopefully wider. Think about not only what would've been helpful to you, and actually maybe if perhaps you haven't gone down those lines already, maybe it's time to look into those things. And I hope I've given you a steer on what you can do. If you want to know more about what tests you, you could do again, just drop me a line. Um, and we can chat about that. If you need more support emotionally, you know, be aware of that, be aware of your emotional health, where are you at now? What are those thoughts that go through your head and what effect do they have on you in your daily life? It's important, so important that we consider emotional health, not just before we start to try to conceive, but actually the effects of this fertility journey may have taken or are taking a huge toll on your emotional health. And if that's something that you need support with, then, you know, watch this space, I'm bringing an online resource to you soon, so if you're not on the mailing list, perhaps jump on that and you will hear about that. When I say soon, I'm recording this in July 2022, just for context. I just wanted to provoke some thought and to you to look back and maybe take a step and consider. Let's just start again. Let's really start fresh and see if we can get some answers, but I'm aware of the huge emotional toll potentially already on you. So it's important to get some support there. And if you're just starting out on your journey or, you know, anyone that's just starting out on your journey, then this is in on their journey. This is useful advice. I hope for you. So as ever take care until next time. If you wanted to chat then please . /episode/index/show/katstevens/id/23727179

When you’ll do anything to get pregnant (but not that) 06/30/2022

Should you be happy with 1 child? 06/23/2022

Miscarriage: What should we be doing to help? 06/10/2022

There could be more than 1 thing stopping you from getting pregnant 05/26/2022

Why your Fertility Tests may not be ‘Normal’ 05/20/2022

Mild and Natural IVF - A woman Centred Approach 05/14/2022

How to survive the 2 week wait 05/06/2022

Low Sperm Count 04/08/2022

Low Sperm Count Well, hello, it's been a while hasn't hit? For those of you that have listened to this podcast from the very beginning, it's been quite a gap. I'm sure for those of us that have caught up later. It may still be a gap and for that, I apologise. What happened was I decided to take a break between season one and season two and that break was going to be about a month or maybe two months. That was April 2021. It was also around tht time that the UK was to some extent re opening. I was able to open my clinic doors and see my clients on a face to face, increase my online clients as house became empty at times again. I always had the intention of starting up again but in terms and work life balance, something had to give and it was, I'm afraid the podcast. I've had lots of lovely messages from people asking where I am and if I'm okay and if I'm still working and yes, I am. I had just taken on a little bit too much. But I'm back and I'm very excited. I've got great plans for lots of new episodes. So I hope you'll stay with me. So in this episode, what I thought I'd do is catch you up on what's been happening with clients and a couple of case studies. As I'm sure you're aware, I say it's a game of two halves. Fertility issues are 50% female and 50% Male, I know the burden is generally on the females but I had two clients that started seeing me around the same time and both had come and said that there was reasons they weren't getting pregnant. One had irregular periods, with physical and emotional symptoms pre menstrually. One had a diagnosis of endometriosis. What I did with both of these clients, as I always do, is in order to get the full picture, took a full history and lifestyle of both partners and suggested that they got a sperm analysis for both male partners, which they did. Within about a week of each other these tests came back and they were incredibly similar. If you've listened to the podcast, you'll perhaps of heard me share that the WHO ( World World Health Organisation) guidelines for sperm analysis is that anything at or above 15 million is considered fertile. Anything below is considered to have some fertility issue. You'll also know from listening to me that I think we should be going well above that. If you listened to Dr Sheryl Homa speak on the podcast you'll have heard her say that 15 million is not really optimal. So,, both of them had sperm results that 0.03 million, significantly lower. We discussed lifestyle factors and changes including antioxidants, we looked at supplementation, specific fertility supplementation and reducing inflammation but also his partner told me that he had really hot baths, which he had mentioned at fertility consultations. And had been told that it wouldn't explain this this very, very low result. And the only option was ICSI. So we worked together and I said just for three months lets drop the hot baths. While taking the supplement he stopped them, but what proved difficult was the opinion of family and friends things like your 'dad had hot baths and we had you, We've always had hot baths and it's not an issue for us. Getting together with friends and going to a spa he didn't get in the hot tub, but friends said, it'll be OK. So it brings to light this aspect doesn't it about people not being supportive of things both in the medical profession and also your social circle. But anyway, they stuck to this and he didn't have hot baths for three months and he stuck to his supplement regime. There was some hand reflexology moves that I'd provided by video in their coaching support, which were being regularly every month that he was doing, or his partner was doing and after three months he has his semen tested and it went from 0.03 million to 30 million, 30 million! From being told that he would have no chance of conceiving a child naturally, making these small lifestyle changes to having absolute optimal result. And that is just incredible. But it's not surprising, not surprising to me at all. Because I've told you before I've discussed it before that this male factor is grossly overlooked, and if we could just look into this a little bit more, if we could just pay a little bit more attention to the quality and the quantity of sperm, then we will be making incredible changes to Fertility. The second couple that I worked with, had the same result of 0.03 million, they had a child already. So something had happened. When we started to look into more detailed history, if you refer back to the Sheryl Homa episode where she spoke condition called a Varicocele, it was something that just struck in my mind when we had a chat because he was getting this kind of a ache that he'd had for a while and he just put it down to something else. He assumed that it might be related to his job or related to the fact that lifting weights and it was something that he put up with. To give you more background, the doctor in this case, I have to say , his bedside manner and communication skills were horrendous. I think he said something along the lines of well you're never going to happen with a child with a result like that. And because they already had a child, the only option available was IVF, which would need to be self funded . Many questions arose such as, Would that be possible financially? Would it work? Anyway, as well as similar supplementation and hand reflexology input, I encouraged him to request or ultrasound of the testes. If it was just about fertility I'm sure the answer would have been no, but because he had a symptom, because he had this is kind of low level ache he pushed and he pushed and he pushed and he got an ultrasound. He also came to see me because he was a face to face client for a reflexology treatment and the reflex area that represents the testes on the side with the pain did feel different and now we don't diagnose with reflexology, but it did have some characteristics that had alerted me . So he had the ultrasound and yes, he had a Varicocele and he's pushed and pushed for the surgery and he has had it. When they went to do the surgery, to remind a Varicocele is a varicose vein that is supplying the testes. If you think about the heat that is generated there is going to pretty much kill the sperm, but also the blood supply is affected as well. It's not getting through this vein that was completely blocked when they did the surgery and they've had to put six stents into it. Now, we don't know what effect that's going to have. We certainly hope that the pain is going to go away. It also, as many of you, I'm sure are thinking actually provided a potential answer to the years and of trying for a second child unsuccessfully. So I think my point is that, as I've said many times and as I say to my clients, we can't just accept that this is unexplained. Or we can't just accept that if you've got a low sperm count the only option is ICSI. There is a lot that can be done to improve sperm counts. There is a lot that can be done to improve sperm quality. And again, not necessarily with everybody but unless we try unless we look into this, unless we are prepared to be that detective to look to travel upstream and get the answers we won’t get answers. It just made me reflect on so many couples over the years, even before IVF came into the world that haven't become parents and I am so incredibly passionate about this. Fertility really has to be investigated further. As a woman, you have your hormonal levels checked. You have ultrasound of uterus, and you have the potency of the fallopian tubes tested, as a man a very basic semen analysis which tells us little, purely for signposting to fertility Treatment. I've said that before and Dr Sheryl Homa said the same. It is not about identifying a cause of your fertility issues, It's about identifying which fertility treatment is going to be better. Interestingly, IVF was developed for women with missing or damaged fallopian tubes initially, a way to bypass that and now it is used much much more readily. Again, I'm not anti IVF , I’m very pro it when it's needed. I just feel we can investigate this a little bit further and also if you are having IVF taking steps that actually improve the quality of the sperm is going to be hugely beneficial. So the sperm count is an example that I've talked about but it goes a lot further. Remember I've said things will remain unexplained If we're not looking in the right places, and if we're looking in the right places, we might just be able to get an explanation. So I wanted to just bring that to your attention in this first episode in the second season. I've got exciting plans ahead, we have an interview that I've done already, that we're just editing at the moment, but I wanted to let you know that the podcast is back. I work with people one to one face to face in Nottingham or online all over the world, One to one is not always the right option for everyone whether that's a financial option or not, but what I am working on right developing a group programme. In it you will be able to access me and to the coaching material on a group level and al have people with you in that group. Now you can get as involved in that group as suits you and discussions and support as you want. But that is something that's coming so I will open a waiting list for that and if its something that you are interested in you will be able to find If you want to get in touch you can get in touch with me at Kat at fertility rewired.com. The podcast is also on YouTube. And you can access that you can subscribe to the channel fertility rewire where you can have you can pop comments in there to me directly. You can contact me by email [email protected] or you could find me on social media which I've been not been very present again, but will be popping in. Well thanks for your patience. I'm excited to bring more information to you in the future. Take care now. Relevant podcast links Dr Sheryl Homa Sperm - more than just a number Male factors in fertility /episode/index/show/katstevens/id/22699235