#133 | Stop Relying on Your Doctor’s Basic Fertility Labs If You Actually Want to Get Pregnant

Trying to conceive, but still no answers from labs and tests? If your only labs came from your OB or fertility specialist, you may be flying blind.

In this episode, Dr. Katie Wood shares how relying on surface-level labs from OBs and fertility clinics can quietly sabotage your chances of conceiving. You’ll hear real client stories—like the woman with “picture-perfect” hormones who still wasn’t getting pregnant, and the heartbreaking case of 5 miscarriages no doctor investigated—until now.

In this episode, you'll...

-Learn what your doctor’s labs are missing (and what they’ll never test for)

-Discover the power of functional fertility testing that uncovers your real root causes

-Get action steps to take control of your results—whether you’re dealing with PCOS, recurrent loss, or unexplained infertility, etc.

Listen now to uncover what your labs aren’t telling you and how you can finally get answers that lead to conception.

👉🏽Take the Ultimate Fertility Blueprint Quiz HERE⚡

🌟Follow and connect with me on Instagram @the_wellness_pharmacist to fast-track your fertility so you can finally get and stay pregnant naturally!⁠

Finally Get Pregnant Naturally is your go-to TTC podcast for holistic fertility support to help you get pregnant naturally by addressing the root cause of unexplained infertility, secondary infertility, and recurrent miscarriage. Hosted by Dr. Katie Wood, a pharmacist and holistic fertility practitioner, this show offers natural fertility solutions for those on a fertility journey struggling to conceive, navigating miscarriage, or dealing with endometriosis, PCOS, low sperm count, or failed IUI or failed IVF. Whether you're trying to conceive, increase egg quality, optimizing sperm health, or healing after a miscarriage, each episode delivers practical guidance to support your fertility journey. Learn how to improve fertility, balance hormones, regulate your fertile window, and conceive naturally through root cause healing, emotional wellness, and mind-body tools—because true fertility starts from within.

DISCLAIMER: By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use it as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others. This podcast offers information to help the listener cooperate with physicians, mental health professionals or other healthcare providers in a mutual quest for optimal well-being. We advise listeners to carefully review and understand the ideas presented, and to consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having. Under no circumstances shall Pharm to Wellness LLC, any guests or contributors to the Rising into Mindful Motherhood podcast, or any employees, associates, or affiliates of Pharm to Wellness LLC be responsible for damages arising from the use of the podcast. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Episode Transcript

Katie (00:00):
In this episode, we'll be talking about a fertility
saboteur that is impacting so manycouples on their fertility journey
and they don't even realize it.
Plus steps you can take so you can become
more empowered and confident on yourfertility journey and some actionable

(00:22):
steps for you to take away so youcan start working and improving your
fertility, your odds of having a healthyconception and pregnancy as well.
So let's dive in.
Welcome to the finally GetPregnant Naturally Podcast.
The podcast helping women identifythe real reasons you haven't

(00:42):
conceived or stayed pregnant, soyou and your partner can finally
grow the family of your dreams.
I'm your host, Dr.
Katie Wood.
Let's dive in, shall we?
Hello, and welcome to our Weekly Get Pregnant Now, quickie.
In this episode I'm going to be followingon the coattails of Tuesday's episode

(01:04):
with Hannah Davis, where we discussedfunctional testing and how that can
help you on your fertility journey.
So I wanna kind of dive in a littlebit deeper, share some of my.
Experiences with my clientsand how functional testing

(01:25):
has helped them get pregnant.
Okay, so the fertility saboteur ofthis episode is basically taking the.
Surface level labs that your ob,your primary care doctor or even

(01:48):
your fertility specialist are havingyou do, and you're either being told
things look normal or maybe you'rebeing diagnosed with something like
PCOS, but then they're just only givingyou fertility treatment as options.
It could be medicated cycles.

(02:08):
It could be IUI, or it couldeven be IVF, or in some extreme
cases, sperm or egg donors.
And this is not alwaysnecessary in each case.
Okay.
I think the percentage where wewould actually have to go to these
extremes is actually a lot lower.

(02:28):
It's just.
Conventional doctors are not diggingdeep enough to treat the root of the
issue of why you're not conceiving orwhy you're not carrying a pregnancy.
So I'm gonna share some insightsin terms of what you can do, what
to look out for, and how to makesure that this isn't happening

(02:51):
to you on your fertility journey.
I hear this all the time in my dms, right?
I'm having so many conversations in my dmsevery single day, and it's so prevalent
and so common where people are havinglabs or tests through their doctors and
they still don't really have any answers.

(03:12):
And even if they do maybe find out thatmale factor is an issue, maybe it's PCOS.
Or endo or low a MH, something like that.
There's really not anythingbeing done about it.
We have the surface level understanding ofwhat could be going on, or maybe we don't.
Maybe you were diagnosed with unexplainedinfertility and you have no idea, right?

(03:35):
Because everything came back asquote unquote normal, which reminder
normal does not equal optimal,especially for natural fertility and.
We need to take it a few stepsdeeper to see what is going on.
And I have two client examplesI want to share with you.

(03:56):
One client, she has worked with atleast three other practitioners to
help her, and this is even through.
Functional medicine actually, she'sworked with a couple of other functional
medicine practitioners and she stillhasn't gotten the results, so that's why,

(04:19):
listen, I am so happy if anyone is willingto go down the more holistic functional
medicine route root, but sometimes.
Functional practitioners, if they'renot focused on fertility, they may be
able to help you, but it may be onlyso much where someone who has been.

(04:44):
Certified and trained in functionalmedicine specific for fertility like that
is their expertise through and through.
Those are the types of practitionerslike myself, like my colleagues,
that I would highly recommend workingwith on your fertility journey.
But it cannot hurt to startwith functional medicine.

(05:07):
Period.
So anyways, one client had worked witha few other practitioners and did some
functional testing, but they didn'thave the foundational understanding
of fertility when interpretingsome of these functional tests.

(05:27):
So they did recommend.
Protocols and things like that,but unfortunately it did not
give them the end result, plusthe protocols and testing that.
I follow with my clients, has beentested, tried and true, and they have been

(05:48):
proven right with an 85% success rate.
So I know that Hannah, in Tuesday'sepisode, she discussed some testing that
she likes to do with her clients beingthe Dutch test, sometimes the GI map and
the HTMA and for my program, Ithought I could discuss some of

(06:08):
the testing that I do as well.
So Dutch is at the top of the list.
We definitely do Dutch onour female clients for sure,
because it gives such a deep.
Insight and understanding ofwhat is going on in the hormones.
If you wanna hear a little bit moreabout the Dutch test, go back and listen
to Tuesday's episode with Hannah Davison functional testing for fertility.

(06:33):
But Dutch test is definitelyone, but then we also do it's
basically like a micronutrientassay and an antioxidant assay
and a food intolerance test.
So this one client who has worked witha few other providers, she did have a
Dutch test which I thought was great,but we ran this micronutrient assay

(06:57):
and also the food intolerance, andshe came back as one of the most like.
Nutrient deficient clientsthat I have seen to date.
And also she had a pretty longlist of food intolerances and

(07:21):
in her previous work with otherproviders, no one really explored.
Her gut health to the depthsthat we would want to explore
to see what could be going on.
So for her, I'm recommending based onwhat we're seeing, 'cause in my mind
I'm thinking, okay, we have a lotof food intolerances that can cause

(07:45):
something that is called leaky gut.
And then also if we're nothaving the right amount of.
Stomach acid and enzymes, then you aren'twhat you eat, you are what you absorb.
And since she was so deficientin a lot of nutrients, despite
having a healthy diet and takingsupplements, quality supplements.

(08:09):
It's making me wonder is somethinggoing on in her gut wh where she's not
able to absorb what she's taking in.
So we are actually going to do a GI map.
We're gonna do a little bit moreexploring to see what could be going on.
Okay.
And these are tests that yourregular doctor, your ob your

(08:31):
fertility specialist would never.
Do for you.
And they also don't knowhow to interpret them.
It's not part of their practice,it's not part of their protocol.
It's nothing against them.
It's just not something thatthey do at their practice.
So these aren't tests that you can go toyour regular conventional doctor and ask
for, 'cause they won't do it for you.

(08:52):
And another client that I have is a womanwho has experienced five miscarriages.
And her doctor did run.
They did some sort ofvaginal swab for her.
I don't know exactly what itwas, and they just threw a Z-Pak.

(09:18):
To treat urea plasma, but they didn'teven know if she had urea plasma.
And because having a vaginal microbiomedysbiosis can cause fertility issues
and also increase your chance ofmiscarriage depending on what's going on.

(09:39):
So out of all the other functional testingthat we did, including ones I just shared
with you, we also do a vaginal microbiomeand it's very comprehensive and it
came back and she had a lot going on.
She had urea plasma, she had Gardnerella,and also no healthy lactobacillus crispus

(10:01):
available or any lactobacillus at all.
We are currently actually waiting for herrecheck results to come back, but this is
just an example of where you're being leftbehind and not being truly taken care of
in the conventional space because no onewas even really looking into why are you

(10:27):
experiencing so many miscarriages, right?
I wish that no one had to experiencea miscarriage, but five there's
something going on and we need todig deeper to see what that is.
And unfortunately that mightnot always be covered at the
regular doctor's office, so I.
Outside of the other functionaltesting that we're doing, the vaginal

(10:50):
microbiome, I think is going tobe a game changer for her because
of what we found in those results.
And I actually have one moreclient example that I wanna share
with you, and I've shared thisbefore, is a client who had.
Basically picture perfect cycle day threehormones in her serum, so a blood draw.

(11:14):
But then when we did the Dutch test,it was a completely different like
understanding of what's going on.
And in fact, yes, it showedher hormones were looking
optimal around cycle day three.
But her estrogen was actually.
Not in an optimal place at all.
And because of doing the Dutchtest, we were able to make a few

(11:38):
very simple shifts and changes.
And within that next cycle, she wasseeing abundant, fertile cervical mucus.
She had a beautiful estrogen peak.
And then her PDG using, I believe she usesa needle, was just like off the chart.
So she had a beautiful ovulation.

(12:01):
Because she was supporting her estrogen,which is imperative in the follicular
phase to support proper and optimalegg development, and that is why she
had such a nice robust progesterone.
In her luteal phase, and shewasn't currently trying because

(12:22):
we had just finished a detox.
Otherwise who knows what would'vehappened that cycle if they were trying.
But here's a recap.
One is not taking your labs thatyou get from your regular doctor at
face value and thinking that thingsare either akay and perfectly normal

(12:49):
or not digging deeper into whymaybe you have PCOS endometriosis,
mal factor infertility, right?
The list goes on and on.
Especially not digging deeperif you've been diagnosed with
unexplained infertility, right?
And how functional testing can giveyou like real time insights and

(13:17):
understanding of what is truly going on.
And a lot of times these thingsare being missed and it's really
unfortunate because once youcorrect these and it doesn't take.
Long necessarily for each case.
It might be a shorter period of timein terms of correcting the issue.
Some things might take a littlebit longer to correct the issue and

(13:39):
take some time for healing, but I.
When you have that insight,then you can find answers.
And these answers, these protocolsare specific to you instead of
trying to fit you in this box wherelike every other woman is being fit
into on their fertility journey.
And it, it might work for her,but it might not work for you.

(14:00):
This is where tailored solutions come in.
So what you can do is, i'mmore than happy to talk to you
about your fertility journey.
Take a peek at your labs,share some insights.
There's more that we can look atthan just your labs your cycle
health, your cycle charts symptomsthat you could be experiencing.

(14:21):
There's so many other things that canpaint the full picture, so please feel
free to reach out to me on Instagram.
I'd be more than happy tochat with you and or find a.
Fertility practitioner who isable to order and interpret
functional testing for you.
And ideally, they have protocolsthat have been proven to help

(14:44):
couples conceive no matter how longthey've been trying, no matter what
they've been told by their doctor.
Many times.
You can in fact absolutely get pregnantnaturally and or with the help of
fertility treatments if that is necessary.
So some action steps for you are totake a look at your labs if your doctor.

(15:07):
Our doctor's office just told you overthe phone that things look normal.
No, those labs are your property.
You paid for those either out ofpocket or through your insurance.
So I would highly recommend callingyour doctor, getting those lab
results, looking them over yourself.
I'm sure it will look like acompletely different language to you.
So if that's the case, find me onInstagram at the Wellness Pharmacist.

(15:33):
Let's chat.
You can send them over to me.
I'll take a peek, share some insights.
We can even book a freecall and go over everything.
So let this just be your reminder that.
Your doctor doesn't knoweverything, and that's okay.
Nobody knows everything.
I admittedly do not know everything.

(15:54):
If there is something that comes upfor one of my clients, I'm doing the
research, I'm trying to find thoseanswers to figure that out for them.
They are trained in what they're trainedin, and then also they have to abide by
the rules and regulations and protocolsat their practice that they work at.
Whereas.
There's a little bit moreflexibility and freedom when

(16:16):
you're working with a holistic andfunctional practitioner, right?
There's more autonomy there.
So yeah, get your lab results.
Share them with a trusted fertilitypractitioner, health professional who
can help interpret them and explain themto you because there are normal labs,

(16:37):
but then there are optimal labs andoptimal for ideally natural conception.
So I just wanna remind youthat there are more answers for
you waiting to be discovered.
And.
Waiting for you to find them.
I feel so strongly in my bones thatour struggles in life, but in this

(17:01):
particular case, fertility strugglesare here for us for a reason, so we can
heal ourselves physically, mentally,spiritually, emotionally, energetically,
to then step into the parents.
That our babies are wanting us to be.
I know for me personally, I healed somuch on my fertility journey and that was

(17:24):
just like the catalyst for my healing.
It has just been going and expanding,and I know that I've had, I.
So many clients who are open to thishealing just shift so much in so many
beautiful ways and heal themselves andaccept that yes, this journey feels really
hard and really difficult right now.

(17:44):
There's no doubting thator questioning that.
It is hard and it sucks sometimes,but when you can accept the end result
of, yes, this hurts right now, but.
My intuition is telling me thatthis is for a greater purpose.
This is for my greater evolution andhealing, and this is all available to you.

(18:10):
So thank you so much for listening.
I can't wait to see you on next Tuesday'sepisode, and I'll see you there.