WHERE'S YOUR BUMP AT: HOW TO TRACK YOUR CYCLE

Welcome to episode 2 of WYBA! I hope you enjoyed hearing all about how we got to being pregnant. Now it’s time to give you an episode that I wish I could’ve listened to a very long time ago. Nat Kringoudis is a womens health expert who specializes in fertily. She will explain how to track your cycle - whether you’re looking to get pregnant or prevent pregnancy. We find out all about our cervical mucus & what it means and what it says about your fertility. So get ready to be schooled on your cycle!

All my love, 
Anna x

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This episode is not intended to substitute medical advice. Commentary from guests are from their expert advice and should not be followed in lieu of medical advice.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wanting to have kids is a huge life decision. But
once you're ready to embark on that journey, what do
you actually need to know? This podcast is the community
you never knew you needed from mums and mums to be.
We're about to embark on this learning journey together and
it's going.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
To be real.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's going to be raw and a completely non judgmental space.
You're listening to Where's your Bump At? And this is
Anna macavoy Staples. I'm going to be interviewing experts in
the field so that all of our burning questions can
be answered, from understanding our cycle, to knowing what is

(00:41):
the best time to conceive, and so much more. We'll
get into the difference between natural verse c section births,
strange pregnancy symptoms and everything in between. Welcome back to
another episode of Where's your Bump At. My name is
Anna McAvoy Staples and on today's episode, we have the

(01:02):
best chat with women's health practitioner nat Kring Goodis. She
taught me so much about my cycle, how my body works.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
If you're looking to get pregnant, she tells you exactly
how to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
This chat actually blew me away. It was so informative
and so incredibly interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
So buckle up, this one is a good ease. Hello
and welcome. Nah, thank you so much for having me.
This so exciting. I know, I'm so excited to have you.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
I actually, just for context for everyone, I was on
NAT's podcast a few months back, and on the very
day that I went on to your podcast, I had
just found out that I was pregnant, me and Michael.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Which I'm so blue that you never told me, like
sou because also full disclosure, Like I knew that you
were trying at that point in tech, and so I
was like, oh my gosh. She would have been great
because we could have just sat there with this excellent secret,
smiling from ear to ear, and Michael and I like
literally got into the studio. We were so nervous. We
kind of, I think looked a bit like deer in

(02:09):
headlights because we're going to get found out this is
a very new secret. Is going to ask me are
you pregnant? Yeah, That's what I said to you, just
a question you never ask anybody. Yes, But because you're
a women's health practitioner, I was like, you know, like
you know, we're trying. Maybe I could eat in your eyes. Yeah,
I was like, she can tell don't look don't look

(02:30):
at that. No, I can't tell it in your eyes.
But it was very exciting news to find out when
you did tell me, and like I said, I was like,
oh my gosh, I wish I had a known that
would have been so good to celebrate that. We can
celebrate now we are. We're celebrating. Now you're on Where's
your Bump Out?

Speaker 1 (02:46):
This is a passion project of mine, and I knew
as soon as I started kind of brewing up this
idea that I needed to have you on the podcast.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Because you are a wealth of knowledge just for everyone listening.
Do you want to talk us through what you do
being a women's health practitioner thing? So, I mean, I've
been in the industry for a long time, and I
started out when there was not many alternative practitioners helping
women with their fertility, and women had questions. They were like,

(03:17):
why am I falling pregnant? Why by my ovulating late?
Why is my period a certain way? And I'm talking
like twenty years ago, there was nobody exploring that for them.
Gynecology even was very much like women menstright. They have pain,
you have sex when you're ovulating, and we've come a
long way over twenty years. I can definitely say that, However,

(03:37):
our bodies haven't changed in twenty years, and what has
changed is our stress levels and the way we live
our lives. So I very quickly could draw that correlation
with patients and really started treating that, and we started
to get these amazing outcomes when it specifically came to fertility.
So really found our mark with fertility. I didn't actually
really want to treat any women's hormones, hormonal women. I

(04:02):
was like, anyone want to go to work every day
and treat hormonal women? Like no, but it's a delight
when women are feeling better, and that's ob city aim.
So just more of that over many many years and
it's sort of evolved. But that was really how we
found our mark, and we got busy. We were inundated.
Actually I had no structure, no strategy. We just had
a lot of patience, which was a lovely problem to

(04:23):
haveeah and so that let me write books on fertility
and help women further to really just understand their bodies
more than anything, because I actually think that was the
missing peace all.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Along absolutely, And I've spoke about this on the first
episode of this podcast, where I just felt very clueless.
I had no idea how to track my cycle. I
was thinking I was pregnant even though I was not
having sex in my window, like I was convinced. I
think I was very delusional, but I wanted to confer

(04:54):
that it wasn't just me, So I did ask my audience,
and ninety seven percent of people actually said that they
felt like they had no idea about tracking their cycle
and they were completely under educated. Why is this not
taught at schools? Why is it not taught at schools?
So I'll tell you a couple of reasons why it's
not taught at schools. Actually, it is getting better, I

(05:15):
have to say it is getting better. And I've got
a teenager, and what they're taught is worlds apart from
what we got taught, Like we got a banana and
a condom, you got to roll it on there, and
it was like, if you have sex, you will fall.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Pregnant, so don't do it. Like that was basically the
education that we had. And I went to a Catholic school,
so you didn't even get that. You were just don't
get that right. I didn't even get the condom on
the banana. We got the condo, but we had the
fear put in us from a really young age that
if you have sex, then you're going to get pregnant,
and as you found out, that's not Actually it's not
that straightforward. Yes, you do have to have sex to

(05:46):
fall pregnant, but it doesn't always result in a pregnancy.
And I think that's part of the reason is the
education is not there. But I also think that we
were the generation where it wasn't even really okay, you
didn't your mum sort of talked about it with you,
but she wasn't confident and it was still a bit taboo,
and it was very much, oh, she's about to hit puberty.

(06:06):
We better have this conversation. And I now say, we
really need to have the conversation, an ongoing, rolling conversation,
from when our kids are little and they start to
ask questions and they say, Mum, how did I get
And you're tummy, and you're like, you don't say the
stalk brought you because that's horrendous, Like really, you're flying
through the air and then get delivered on someone's doorstep. Like,
we don't do that. You just have truthful, age appropriate conversation.

(06:29):
So actually starts at a young age. And then I
think also it's the education system does need a bit
of an overhaul. I really do think that we're getting there,
but it really is about conversation and then conversations as
we get older. Was talking to a patient a little
while ago, and I said to her, she's talking about
a period pain, and I said, oh, is it a
burning hot sensation when you get your period? And she's like, yeah,

(06:51):
isn't everybody's And I said, no, not everybody has burning
pain with their period. Some will have sharp, stabbing pain.
Some pain's better for cold, some meane's better for warmth.
And then I thought, why would you know, is if
you're actually going to that degree of a conversation with
a friend or a circle of girls going, do you
have burning period pain? Like you're not doing that. So

(07:11):
we are not having conversations either. I think as women,
we don't tell people when we're trying. We think it's
a big secret. We don't tell people when we're first pregnant. Again,
what if something bad happens. We're just approaching it very
negatively and a little bit with a little bit blindfolded.
So there's a few parts to answer that, but I
think it's conversation education and just taking out the taboo

(07:34):
of how our bodies work. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
I think, like you said, there's a lot of secrecy
around women's health, and I think this generation coming up
are going to almost be hopefully the first generation where
people can talk freely about it and there will be
open conversations and we won't think that someone miraculously dropped
off the baby at the door in the middle of

(07:58):
the night.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
You know, there's they're still teaching that you can fall
pregnant without having sex, because Mary felt pregnant like cheaper
is you know, it's kind of like and so I
mean this is I had a conversation one day as
well when I wrote Beautiful You, which is no longer
in print and we're trying, but that's what that was about.
It was about educating teens about their body. And what

(08:22):
was funny was if someone said to me, I would
love this to be in my daughter's school, and I said,
you know, I'm rallying for this, like I tried really
hard to put this in the education system, and she said,
but my daughter goes to a Catholic school and I said,
I didn't realize the anatomy of a Catholic school girl
and the rest of the school girls was different. She's
like that, stupid. I'm like, you know, this is why
we're in this position. We're still not there yet, but

(08:45):
this is why we have these conversations as well.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
And I think the fact that we're having this conversation
is so powerful and exciting. Just like I said, the
fact that ninety seven percent of my audience that they
still have no idea or did have no idea, weren't educated.
I think this episode is going to be so valuable.
So let's get into talking about cycles. Let's all learn
about our cycles together, Let's learn about when we're ovulating,

(09:11):
and let's feel empowered about amazing.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
I love this, It's my favorite thing to talk about.
By the way, we could be here for a while.
I'll try and keep it short. Okay, So first question,
what does an average or healthy cycle actually look like?
So we are taught that a cycle is twenty eight days,

(09:37):
which may or may not be true. A lot of
women do have a four weekly cycle a twenty eight
day cycle, but not everyone does. And what is considered
a regular cycle is anything from roughly twenty six to
thirty four days consistently, So that could mean one month
it's twenty six, the next month it's thirty one, the
next month it's twenty eight. Like that's still considered regular. Now,

(09:57):
if you're used to a twenty eight day cycle and
you get your period on day thirty two, you're probably
freaking out at this point because you've never been taught
how to understand what a circle looks like and what
the phases of the cycle are and how to calculate
that properly. So just by knowing that, you can take
so much fear out of the cycle itself, and we
can talk about that as well, of course. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
I think that's something that I learned when tracking my cycle,
is that my cycle is actually all over the place,
and there's not actually a twenty eight days or twenty
seven days.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
It's literally all different. I think women think it's twenty
eight days because they're not tracking it. And I think
if the only thing you ever do when it comes
to your cycle is at least put in your calendar
when day one is, which is the first day of bleeding,
which I know that's a question you're going to ask
me period, But the first day of bleeding is the
first day of the cycle, the first day of flow,
so not even spotting, you're not counting. If you get
spotting beforehand, that's not what we're counting. That first day

(10:50):
that you need a paddle, tampon, or some women use
a cup, then you're not going to get lost. But
I think women think they have a twenty eight day
cycle because they're not actually tracking it. And I can't
tell you how many women say to me at my
period at the end of every month, and I'm like,
that doesn't even make sense, Like that doesn't actually add
up because no month is twenty eight days except February.
So just like we're out of touch with it.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, I'm so out of touch that even on this
podcast when we Michael and I were recording back in August,
I was saying, we've been trying for three months or
four months, but I hadn't. I'd been trying for four cycles, right,
which is different.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
To four months. So it's just it is. I think
it's a.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Learning curve and we're all learning together in saying that,
what does an irregular cycle look like? Then if the
regular ones are so vast.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
I mean, irregular is anything outside of those dates. So
it could be consistently early or consistently late, or either
or outside of a twenty six to thirty four days.
So you know, having said that, that's the definition. But
you might have a regular, let's say, thirty eight day
cycle regularly. If you know that about yourself, there's nothing
wrong with that. Yeah. Again, this information becomes really important

(12:02):
for so many reasons. One being able to track your circle,
one being able to predict your fertility, being able to
predict when your period's due, and then not freaking out
when you know you think you're pregnant but you actually
haven't been intimate in your fertile window. Yeah, that was me,
guilty as charge. I think that's most people, right. I
think it's most people, honestly. And it's again because I

(12:24):
haven't learnt how to understand when I'm fertile and when
I'm not. And we've also been told that that's not
really a reliable thing to do. Yeah, if you said
to your health provider, often they'll say, oh, don't do that,
that's not reliable. I'm here to say I've practiced that
method for all of time and start of practicing, it
can vouch right right. It's like you know when you

(12:45):
I mean don't know about you because now obviously it's
different when you're pregnant. But I look and go, how
do people not know when they're fertile? It's so obvious.
I would have to crawl on myself and blind drunk
to get myself pregnant, do you know what I mean?
It's just not gonna happen because I know, and and
so I just think, gosh, you know, if we pay attention,

(13:08):
the signs are there. It's not wishwashy. It's actually very clear.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
I think some of the issues as to why we
don't really realize that, you know, we're potentially ovulating or
whatever it might be, is because of potentially contraception that
we've been on or the pill and it kind of
can mask those symptoms. Because I think for me, it
was a real learning curve when I came off of
the marina and also was on the pill for ten

(13:32):
years and came off of that and then started having
all of these interesting symptoms and I was like, Okay,
what's this. There's a bit of discharge here that I
haven't really seen before. So should we talk about discharge.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
You should definitely talk about discharge, but let's talk about
contraception for a second place. Depends on what you're taking
and how your body responds to that. So a marina,
you'll for some women they'll still continue to ovulate, and
for others they won't. But for birth oral birth control,
so the pill, let's just call it the pills easier,
you won't ovulate. If it's working effectively, you won't be ovulating.
And there's reasons why it fails a lot of women

(14:03):
as well, which we don't need to get into, but
I think the main thing to understand is that the
birth control will flat line your hormones, so you're not ovulating.
It also degenerates the cryps that the discharge, or cervical
mucus I like to call it, just sounds a bit
cervical fluid sounds a bit more like refined because it
kind of grows. It degenerates the cryps that that's secreted from.

(14:25):
Now that cervical fluid is essential for conception. Without it,
you won't conceive. So this is also depending on your
body and how long you've been on birth control. It
takes time for them to actually regenerate after coming off
birth control, which is another reason why you kind of
want to give yourself some time when coming off. But
your cervical fluid never lies, and fertile cervical fluid is

(14:49):
different to any other discharge or fluid that you see.
So the difference being is when you're not fertile, the
discharge often it looks like clag glue, you know, clag
that you p used in like kindergarten. It's usually white
and cloudy, and it has no sensation around the opening
of the vagina or the cervix. You can't feel it.
So when you go to the bathroom and you wipe,

(15:11):
it might be in your undies and you might see
it on the toilet paper, but you can't actually have
a sensation of like, oh, it feels a bit like
something's down there, whereas fertile mucus is usually it has
a sensation that it feels wet and it feels cold.
So even though it might look it also does generally
look like egg raw egg white, so it's like clear,

(15:31):
so it's not the other one remembering being it's cloudy,
so now it's clear, but the other one doesn't have
that sensation has no sensation, whereas fertile mucus is clear
and it feels wet and cold. Interesting. And so women
I say this to them, they're like, I don't know
what you're talking about. I'll say, if that is you,
I promise you your next circle it rolls around and

(15:51):
you're ovulating, you are going to know this now because
I've just connected that part of your brain to go
searching for this. And it's that wet, cold sensation that
I get to look out for, because that's never wrong.
But when we're studying it, and when we are especially
when we're trying to conceive, we're really getting the weeds
of it and we're looking for it and we're digging
for it and we're trying to find it. If it's
not there, it's not there, yeah, and that we can

(16:12):
talk about other things that you can do if it's
not there. But this is the clearest sign that you
will get that you're ovulating, is that cold, wet sensation.
And it usually only lasts for a few days, and
it's always the last day that's ovulation, which if you're
not tracking it can be very tricky. But if you
are consistently tracking it you'll work out how many days
you generally have it for, and you can figure that

(16:33):
out in terms of ovulation. Is the ovulation cervical mucare
sticky as well. Yeah, it kind of looks like it
looks like egg white, so yeah, not cooked egg white.
It looks like raw white. You know the clear when
looks like snot Yeah, because you know when you have
a cold and it's clear, it looks like that. It
has not spin. It's not green, it's clear. If you

(16:56):
have a cervical fluid it's any other color than white
or maybe gray, then you should have a visit to
your doctor to test that because any other version green, yellow, smelly, itchy,
any of that is something to explore. But a healthy
cervical fluid and it is healthy, I want to say,
is supposed to secrete this And a lot of women

(17:17):
are grossed out bite because maybe they've been on birth
control and they've just never seen it before. It shows
signs of a healthy it shows signs of a healthy
reproductive system, but also healthy hormones as well, So it's important.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
On the month that we got pregnant, I specifically remember
seeing the sticky Sorry this is m I but the sticky, clear,
white mucus, and I was like, I think this is.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
The fertile one. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, like I said, if
you're confused by it, focus on the sensation, not what
it visually looks like, because not all women get the clearness. Okay,
especially when we're with pcos, it's often a bit mixed
in with other discharged. The other thing I do want
to say is that if I was teaching you how
to use this to your advantage, obviously the the last

(18:00):
day of cervical fluid is the fertile the most fertile day,
not the peak day that you see the most amount
of discharge. So this is where we often go wrong
as well. Say you have discharge normally for three days,
and your day one is the day you have the most,
but then you still have it on day two, when
you still have a little bit on the third day,
and then it's gone. It's actually still the third day
that's ovulation. Again, you're not going to know this unless

(18:22):
you've been tracking it, but it is important to understand
that and then knowing that you can still fall pregnant.
I teach patients that you can still fall pregnant after
that day. We don't know exactly when the egg's released.
We know sperm lasts for up to five days, so
that window after around ten percent of women actually ovulate
after the fact that you see that. So it's important

(18:45):
to keep on being intimate if you are trying to conceive,
which I know for women after all and men for
a point of time they're like, oh my god, this
is such a chore now, But I think it is
important to be intimate continually because it does other things
for the benefit the uterus as well, so and the wombs.
So if I was teaching you this to prevent pregnancy,
I would say that last day that you have cervical fluid,

(19:08):
you would wait three days to have unprojected sex, to
be outside of the fertile window. Right, So, anytime that
there's fertile secretions, fluids, whatever you want to call it,
anytime you have that wet sensation, you are fertile. And
once it's gone, you would still wait three days to
avoid and you would you would be very careful in
practicing this. You wouldn't just wing it. You would have

(19:28):
to watch it over several months to be confident in practicing.
That's called fertility awareness.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, So with the because I think I don't know
if I made this up in my head or how
we were trying, or if this is factually in some
way correct. But is the cervical mucus sticky and cold
in that time to help the sperm gave?

Speaker 2 (19:50):
So this is so fascinating to me. So you know,
I mentioned the crips, that the cervical fluid is secreted
from there in the cervix. The sperm will swim up
to the crips and take a rest in there. Isn't
this so typically the most masculine thing. So the ejaculation happens,

(20:11):
the sperm can't travel without that mucus because under the
microscope it's like tiny channels that take the sperm to
the egg, right, I know, right, So that any other
cervical fluid, So that claggy kind of cervical discharge we're
talking about under a microscope looks like criss crosses, like
nothing's getting through that. It's not. It's actually a mechanism.
It's preventive, so that that slippery clear the one that

(20:36):
you're talking about, or I call it cold and wet.
The first one is actually on the microscript channels and
takes the sperm to the egg. That the sperm first
takes the rest in the cervical crips and then it's
carried up to the egg. And without it, you don't
have that motor transport. So this is for people that
don't necessarily see the wet or get the sensation of
the wet cold mucus, or don't see it is you

(20:57):
can use fertility friendly lubricants to mimic that channel that
actually helps to take it. Yeah, because if you've for
whatever reason, your cervix, maybe you've had some type of
treatment on the cervix, you might have had some laser,
if you've had a history of any type of civical
issues abnormal perhaps smears. This is often when there's been
some treatment and that can degenerate them as well, So

(21:18):
you might need to use something that helps to aid that.
This is so interesting. I'm so fascinated by all. I
love talking about these. Literally eyes lighted up. I'm like, Okay,
what else do we need to all learning so much?
And I love it. Okay, let's talk about the four

(21:40):
stages of a cycle and what each of those mean. Yeah,
So I think most people are very aware of the
period phase, which is the bleeding phase, and that can last.
It doesn't really matter how long it lasts. For as
we get older, it does get shorter, and no one
talks about that. So typically when it's probably for a

(22:02):
lot of women in their twenties, it's sort of five
to seven days. In our thirties, it definitely gets shorter
three to five days, and then beyond that it'll change again,
but it does change, and it is that actually, but
it's like that thing that you said, like you only
connect it when someone says it. Yeah, So it's very
normal for that to happen, and there's nothing to worry about.
I think the main thing is the period's arriving. That's
the As long as you're getting a period and you

(22:24):
are working towards a regular cycle, that's really important. So
there's the period or the bleeding phase, and then outside
of that, the next phase that we move into is
the you're moving into the ovulation phase, but you're not
there yet, so we call it the folecular phase. So
the follow pool is that they're maturing on the ovaries
ready for ovulation to happen. Then we have the ovulation phase,

(22:45):
which is obviously when we ovulate, and then we move
into the postovulation phase, or the lutel phase it's called,
and that's the two week wait that a lot of
people talk about. That's a random bo such a page,
so just typically to understand, you know, in a perfect world,
they'll be like seven days each when we talk about
twenty eight day cycles, and that's textbook case, but nobody's is.

(23:05):
I think only around fourteen percent of women actually ovulate
on day fourteen, So the chances of you ovulating on
the day you think you're ovulating are very unlikely to
be honest, that's why you need to watch your body's
cues to help you know. What you do want to
watch out for is if a felecular phase, So we
just blanket the felecular phase actually from day one, which
is the first day of bleeding to ovulation. We do

(23:28):
want that to be at least eleven to twelve days
for it to be a robust cycle hormonily, that tells
us if it's any shorter. It's something that we would
work on if you're a patient, and there's some simple
things you can generally do to work on that as well,
but you do want it to be at least twelve days,
so if you are starting to track this, it's really
useful information. A lot of women's felecular phase is longer.

(23:48):
It's usually longer because of stress, and we should talk
about how stress delays ovulation, but typically it's around fourteen days.
And then the same goes for the lutell phase. So
from ovulation to when the period comes again, you typically
want that to be at least twelve days as well,
and really pinpointing when that's happening, when ovulation's happening gives
you so many clues. If it's happening too early usually

(24:10):
indicates not enough hormones. If it's happening too late, usually
indicates something's disrupting ovulation, usually stress. And with the lute
your phase, I always was taught when I was doing
my training in fertility awareness, it couldn't be longer than
eighteen days. So for the person that's listening, it's been
trying to conceive for a long time, Like I'm sick
of peeing on sticks. This is so stressful. Wait eighteen

(24:30):
days from ovulation and then test and it might just
take some of the stress out of it. Not pregnancy
tests don't work for everyone. Either. They never worked for me. Well.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Interestingly enough, when I first found out that I was pregnant,
I took a test. It was pretty early, granted, because
why not when you're in the middlet say that you're
like lots test test test and I could see the
faintest of faintest lines, and I was saying to Michael,
I was like, I can see this line, and he's like,

(25:01):
it's really hard to see, but I can.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
Kind of see it too. So anyway, I did a
blood test and it actually came back negative. They were like,
you're not pregnant. Two days later, I just I don't
know if you just felt pregnant or I have never
been pregnant, but I just kind of felt pregnant.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
I took it again and the LAMB was extremely strong.
So I was like, how on earth?

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Hcg's wild? It just went on its own journey and
then shut up. And that's what I used to have
in both pregnancies of mine. By the second pregnancy, I
knew to wait because they want to test and they're like, oh,
it's a really slow hCG rise, and I was like,
that's just what my body does, and it can be
stressful if you don't know that really stressful if you
don't know that. Again, also, it's important to know when

(25:43):
you ovulate again, especially if your cycles aren't twenty eight days,
because you can go to the doctor and you can say, well,
they based it on the last period. They don't base
it on when you ovulated. Let's say you ovulated later
in that cycle. So you know, let's say you ovulated
on day twenty one days later than what the average is.
If you go for your blood test a week later,

(26:04):
you're not even actually you're technically only just you for
a period. So I think this is again whereas if
you're taking it from the first day of the cycle,
you would have been due at that seven day after market.
It's confusing, I know, but this is why you need
to do the math. Yeah, And I think that's such
an interesting point because I think a lot of us
ovulate earlier or later. And I think two months before

(26:28):
we fell pregnant, I realized that I actually ovulated later
or was ovulating later. And that's because I did the
ovulation stick kind of tests, and I was like, oh,
why may not ovulating this.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is meant to be the time? This is what this
is what it's telling me, and it was completely off,
So I think it is worth.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Being on top of that OPK so ovulation predicted kits
are useful, but they aren't They can't confirm ovulation. They
just tell you that the hormones have changed, and that
doesn't necessarily mean that you've ovulated. It's because you can
attempt to ovulate several times in a circle. So back
to the cervical fluid. If you, in a perfect world

(27:04):
ovulated or showed signs of ovulation on day fourteen, you
had cervical fluid, it was the last wet day, and
you had sex and you timed it and it was
all great, and then you went away and you were
living your business. And then five days later you're like,
hang on a minute, that's back again. There's that wet
sensation back again. You could confidently say that was actually
an attempt of ovulation on day fourteen. My body's trying again, ah,

(27:28):
and it will try until it actually follows through. So
the last attempt or try of ovulation will always be ovulation,
but you don't know that until after the fact. So
when stress is probably the main reason I see women
ovulate later or have multiple attempts of ovulation, and if
you're watching your cycle you'll know this. But it also

(27:48):
means that you'll never get caught out with a late
period again because you can kind of go hang on.
I had wet mucus on day fourteen, then it was
there on day nineteen, and then I didn't see it again.
I ovulated day nineteen, or it could be multiple times.
But as long as you can know that, then you
don't have to be worried. You know that your period
should arrive within two weeks of that last wet day.

(28:08):
But so to the point of the OPK, A lot
of people will use a digital OPK and they'll get
that surge day fourteen. You can't keep using them obviously,
once it's told you you've ovulated and it's a peak
day or you get smiley faces or whichever one you're using,
you can't keep peeing on that. It's saying, I'm confirming
there's the lutinizing hormone surges happened. Looks like you're ovulating.

(28:28):
Go and have don be intimate, go and have sex.
I get patients to keep peeing on cheap sticks, just
to see whether or not that is actually ovulation, or
whether their body tries again later and I go, just
get the cheap ones. It doesn't really matter, and just
keep peeing. And I cannot tell you how many patients go, Oh,
my goodness, I actually ovulated a few days after that,

(28:49):
even though the test was telling me. It's like, yeah,
because your body is literally looking for the perfect time
to ovulate, and if its senses that something's not quite right,
you haven't any change. You've flown on a plane, you've
taken medications, you haven't slept enough, you haven't eaten enough,
you've changed your exercise regime. Like anything that it perceives
as a short term stress, it will go, oh, hang

(29:09):
on a minute, No, no, no, this is not this is
not the best environment. Let's just wait and it'll come
back and try again. It's so interesting to me.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
I never knew that your body could try to ovulate
and then it doesn't work, and then it tries again.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
I think that's just it's our bodies are literally as women,
we are literally set up every month to full pregnant.
Like that's that's your body's main aim in life, whether
you like it or not. That's what it's doing, whether
or not you're aware, but if you think about it right,
you're lining shed in preparation for the next month. Ovulation

(29:43):
happens and egg is released for it to be fertilized.
If it's not fertilized, it literally repeats the process, gets
ready to shed, the lining, repeat the process like it's
it's scouting that out for you constantly, and when we
are in our best state, it will just happen with ease.
It's not like you can make it happen. You can't.

(30:03):
Well you can if you were to use IVF, but
you can't make it happen. The best thing you can
do is start to track your cycle from as early
as possible when you're not on contraception. It's not an
accurate representation if you're using birth control, but if you're
not on birth control or you want to try to
have a baby, start tracking now so by the time
that you are ready to conceive, you're not stressed learning

(30:26):
about what your cycle's trying to tell you. Because that's
what happens. When women decide they want to start trying
and they're really fixated on ovulation, they get these attempts
of ovulation and then once they go I think of've ovulated,
we timed it right, so great, and then they get
on living their best life and they actually come back
and ovulate a few days later. So it is important
to track it, and it is important to keep on

(30:47):
being intimate so you don't miss that out on those things.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
It's so interesting because I feel like as women we
do when we decide that we want to potentially have
a baby and we're trying to conceive, there's a lot
of pressure and there can be a lot of stress.
So it's almost counterintuitive to that because then essentially we're
pushing back our ovulation. What else affects ovulation, like diet or.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
All of that, So anything that the body perceives as stress.
Like I said, so flying in a plane changes in nutrition.
Weight loss can definitely a lot of women all say
I lost weight, my period went missing. It's like it's
your body just trying to recalibrate. It'll come back unless
you've lost extreme amounts of weight. When it comes to
fertility to it, I should mention the difference of four
kilos can make a difference. Now that might be forour

(31:32):
kilo's loss or four kilo's gained our fertile weight and
our ideal weight might be Weld's apart, like our ultimate
what we think we want to look like, and where
our fertile weight is. And this is just a guide.
But I get patiently and people will get upset with this,
but it is just a guide. I get patients to
subtract one hundred off their height and turn that into

(31:53):
kilos to figure out roughly what their ideal fertile weight
would be. It's just a guide, but it helps you
understand if you're underweight, you may need to gain a
few kilos, or if you're overweight, you might need to
lose a few kilos. But research suggests it's usually just
around four kilos that can make a really big difference.
Isn't that fascinating.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
I do think that's fascinating, And I think that's I
kind of did the mass and that kind of total sense,
and I think, yeah, it's it's interesting because yeah, I
was intuitively eating, so just like when I felt like it,
I would eat.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
I was not stopping myself. I was not restricting myself
obviously trying to eat as healthy as I can, but
if I wanted to have a pizza, I was definitely
having that. Being right totally. So weight is another thing
I should keep talking here. Sleep. So shift workers often
have a lot of challenges because it really really upset
the ovulation patterns. Over exercising, under exercising medications. They're the

(32:47):
main ones to think about that can delay ovulation. And
the other thing that can really help to support ovulation,
which surprise surprise, is actually being intimate at all stages
of the cycle because think about what's happening. You're exercising
the reproductive organs, you're encouraging blood flow to the uterus.
It's great for implantation as well. There's some suggestions that

(33:10):
the ejaculatory fluid is supportive of keeping the environment as
it should be. So many reasons why we just need
to actually also be intimate to help to encourage a
healthy cycle as well.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Absolutely, so ovulation, We've been talking a lot about it.
How long are we actually populating for?

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah, so we say, we say, whoever, we is that
an he class around twenty four to forty eight hours,
And I guess that must be true. But you don't
know when that happens. So really I think, like I said,
judging that fertile window and looking at the cervical fluid

(33:56):
is very accurate and it doesn't mean so. So ten
percent of women ovulate before the peak of or the
last day of the cervical fluid, eighty percent ovulate on
that last day, and ten percent ovulate after. So it's
not really about how long it lasts, like where are
you in that spectrum? And that's why I think just

(34:17):
being having sex across that window is very important and
not just doing it once. That is the biggest mistake
people make. They just go, oh, I ovulated today, Let's
have sex, like, have sex before, have sex during, have
sex after. Also have sex because you like your partner,
not just because you're trying to make a baby, which
I know is easier said than done. If it's been
more than three months, it becomes a bit like okay,

(34:38):
here we go. But at the end of the day,
if there was and I'm not saying or ever wishing
that people can't fall pregnant, but if there was not
to be a baby, you have a relationship, and that's
the main thing that really needs to be worked on,
because yeah, of so many reasons. Yeah, absolutely, Okay.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
So if you have two women coming to you and
one is saying to you, okay, I've just had my period.
When should I start having sex? Like, is it immediately
or when? In that cycle versus the woman who is like,
I definitely don't want to get pregnant. What's your advice
of as to when they should have sex?

Speaker 2 (35:12):
So obviously the woman who doesn't want to fall pregnant,
we want to teach her fertility awareness, which is understanding
either both women need to understand fertility when yes, actually
they just use it to different in different ways. The
woman that doesn't want to fall pregnant from I would say,
the minute that she feels the change from nothing down
there to a wet, cold sensation, you potentially a fertile

(35:35):
You would start to count that as a wet day,
which sounds disgusting, doesn't it? Did you wet your pants today?
So she would stop at that point from having unprotected sex.
She can still have protected sex, yeah, or withdrawal, and
some would I You know, you get a lot of
slack for talking about withdrawal. It's around ninety four percent

(35:55):
effective if practice properly. Okay, it's just that it's got
to be practiced properly. And that means also just as
a side note, it means if you were to be intimate,
your partner needs to pee in between being intimate again
if you were to like be able to like have
that much sex, and they need to make sure that
they pee again. But also I wouldn't I mean, don't
test it. Don't test it if you don't know cycle.

(36:18):
That's the other thing I would say, So she would
avoid unprotected intimacy from that day she sees the first
cervical fluid until three days after the last. It's usually
a wind of about six days roughly. Can she fall
pregnant across all those six days, Probably not, But we
also aren't going to test that. For the woman trying

(36:39):
to conceive, if she's watching her cycle, she I mean
being intimate throughout that whole phase is probably what she's
going to do. But I teach patients to wait till
they really see clear signs of ovulation, and that for me,
the most important time is the day after. You're going
to get taught all sorts of different things with that. Yeah,
based on anecdotal evidence, that's what I find works about

(37:00):
for my patients. It also takes the pressure off, so
the day after you see the mucus, the day after
it's gone the last day. So after the last day,
which is ovulation the day after that, I go, you've
got a great chance, please still have sex. So post period,
you don't need to be having sex. That kind of
not five but well if you are you and some

(37:21):
women would say I felt pregnant, then it's not impossible,
but it's not likely. It's less like, it's very unlikely.
And also it probably means that you actually ovulation was
some it's something weird happened, Okay, because if you think hormonally,
remember I said, you really want your felecular phase to
be at least twelve days for the hormones to be
robust enough to support a mature follicle being released. If

(37:46):
anything is short, it means you're releasing an immature follic a.
It will never result well very unlike should never say never,
very unlikely to result in a vible pregnancy. Right, So
that's another thing that happens with women. If they're not
falling pregnant, and we discovered ovulating early every circle, it's
not going to be viable. That's your body again protecting you.
It's like, this is not the wrong environment. So the

(38:08):
person that would be trying to conceive, can have sex
unprotected at any time, but the time that's really important
is that that last wet day in the day after.
Is there a specific method of sex that you would
recommend that's the best to conceive, Like, no, if that
thing's gonna stay, it's gonna stay whatever. I think, whatever

(38:31):
you're most comfortable with is going to be the best. Whatever.
It doesn't cause any discomfort, It shouldn't be uncomfortable. A
lot of women with endometrious or scarring will have pain
with intercourse, So it's going to be whatever. The most
comfortable method, sorry, the most comfortable position. I should say,
an environment for you, but there's no like women's all
the time. Should I lie with my legs up the

(38:52):
wall down for it? It's like, you know, I don't know.
Should you if it makes you feel better? It feels
like you're actually doing something, but it's not that. It's like,
once the sperm is there, you're not getting like you know,
there's so much of it. I don't think that's necessary,
but you know, if you think it's going to help,
then go for it.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah, So no lying legs are I don't think that's
I never did that.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
But people were asking me if I was doing it,
and I was like, should I be doing so? The
one most common question I get asked is how often
should we be having sex? And I always just go, yes, lots.
I mean it takes one. It only takes one to
fall pregnant one one time that you're intimate to full pregnant.
It's obviously needs to just be at the right time.
What I will say one more thing, just so women

(39:36):
don't get confused. If you start to track your cycle
and you notice that about seven days after ovulation you
get a little a little amount of discharge that is
similar to that cold, wet, and fertile looking. It doesn't
necessarily mean you're ovulating again. Once you start to notice this,
you'll just know. But you do get another estrogen surge
around seven days later, and sometimes you get a little

(39:58):
bit of fluid with that, which is very normal. But
it's just something to note.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
So as this seven days pass when you're supposed to
be ovulating, that you should get it.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
You get another surge, right. One thing I'll also say
is for the woman that's listening, going, I don't relate
to that wet, cold feeling like I don't know what
you're talking about most women will relate to when they
get their period. They get a wet, warm sensation down there.
They're like, ah, I think I've got my period. You've
got thousands of nerve endings down there that allow you
to know that that's there. It's actually not a design fault.

(40:29):
It's like on purpose, you know when you've got your period.
And this goes for women that even if you don't
have pain, in fact, you shouldn't have pain. Pains common,
but it's not normal. And the same with ovulation. It
shouldn't hurt. It's common, but it's not normal. You have
this warm, warm, wet sensation. Ovulation is the same, except
it feels cold, not warm. And the reason that one

(40:50):
feels warm and one feels cold is from the location
of where it's coming from. You're obviously uterulining when it's
coming and shedding is further up, and it's warmer, as
opposed to the cervix, which is almost at the opening,
it's colder. It's interesting hearing you say that having going
through ovulation there should be any pain, because I've definitely
noticed quite stabbing pain in the stomach, and I would

(41:14):
always be like, oh, it must be ovulating there's that
stabbing pain again in the middle of my cycle. I mean,
it's very common. A lot of women have ovulation pain.
It doesn't mean that necessarily it's an issue with fertility.
It usually is a hormonal issue. Wherever there's pain, there's inflammation,
so something is not really where we want it to be.
And usually for the majority of women that have ovulation pain,

(41:37):
they're usually estrogen dominant, meaning they've got too much estrogen
in their body, and they usually also have heavy periods.
So yeah, right, So that's the clear if you that's like,
if you have ovulation pain and a heavy period, I
will say any day of the week that you've probably
got too much estrogen. And one of the best ways
that we make sure we're clearing estrogen is to make

(41:57):
sure our bowls are regular, so pueing every day. If
you're not moving your boughs every day, hormones will sit
in the bow and be reabsorbed, and that just adds
to the estrogen pile. But the other reason that we
have too much estrogen is modern lifestyle. So you know,
chemicals in body products, cleaning products, water, our paints, on
our walls, everywhere we're exposed to these endocrime disruptors. So

(42:20):
what I would say is there's definitely things you can
do to help with that. But it is a sign
that there's too much estrogen, and it's something that you
might want to address if you've been trying for a while,
because it can it can temporarily impact fertility, but it's
not a long term fertility issue. It just needs some
for some women, it just needs some attention.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
What about women who get quite a lot of pain
during periods? What does that mean or is that more normal? No,
pains normal, it's just common.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
It's very much associated with modern lifestyle. Yeah, the periods
aren't supposed to be painful. Period aren't supposed to be painful. Now,
for a lot of women that might have a diagnosis
endometriosis ad in myosna that will cause very painful periods,
But not all women that have painful periods have endometriosis
or admiosis. Up to ninety percent of women report feeling

(43:10):
pain in their period at some point in their life.
The majority of women I can go, how's your month been?
Have you been stressed? Have you been eating a lot
of sugar? Have you been going to the toilet? And
they're like nope, And so they will come back and
from a holiday and they'll say, oh, my goodness, I
didn't get any pain, and I'll be like, well, there
you go. So we really need to look a lot
of this is lifestyle related, which is why it's not

(43:33):
something that necessarily your doctor's even clued up to talk
to you about because there's no drug for it. And
we go to our doctor generally that's what they prescribe
is medicine, and there's no medicine for that. It's actually
lifestyle related. So we need to look at what else
is going on in our own environment. And we're all
different and we all respond differently to that. So some
people can get away with huge amounts of stress and

(43:54):
it does nothing, and others can't. And that comes down
to genetics. But you're right, no, pain's not normal, and
it's definitely something to be explored, and especially through our
fertility years and if we're trying to conceive, because if
there is some type of scarring or in demetrious as,
we kind of want to know about it rather than
not because it can impact your chances of falling pregnant

(44:14):
if it's not dealt with.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
For the woman who's listening to this and she's been
trying for a while has not successfully been able to conceive.
What advice can you give to her?

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Firstly, take a breather. Most women are told your times
running out. Your biological clock is ticking, and I'm going
to say one month, two months, three months, four months,
is probably not going to make a difference. The pressure
we put upon ourselves is really impacting our bodies just
responding to that. So I'd say, take a breather. Track

(44:48):
your cycle for three months, actually learn it without the
stress of having to get it right and time things.
See if you're actually attempting to ovulate and then ovulating later,
that's probably the number one reason why I see women
not getting pregnant. And then if there are other issues
like period pain or heavy periods, go and see somebody

(45:09):
and let's get some answers because it is treatable. It's
very treatable, and patients will come to me and they'll
saynt I've got endometriosis, I've been trying for twelve months.
What do I do? And I'll say, all right, give
me three months. And if in those three months we
don't get you where you need to be then we
need to talk about the next step. So it might
be some laproscopy. I'm not doing the laproscopy, but it

(45:30):
might be some surgery where I work with gynecologists all
the time obstetricians to help with their patients. But what
I would say is it's not urgent. I know what
feels like it is, and I know that's really hard,
but sometimes taking a breather is exactly what needs to happen.
There's lots of things you can do to improve your fertility.
I've got some pretty wild and wacky things that you know.

(45:51):
Under practitioner supervision is a bit different. But that's never
let me down. Getting patients to actually step away for
a minute. It's the hardest thing you'll ever do. Yeah,
but it can really be detrimental in the long run.
And I really unless somebody has had some type of
structural damage, I would say most women can fall pregnant,

(46:11):
even if they've been told otherwise. They're the patients I
see the ones that have told I'll never fall pregnant.
It's like, wow, let's just see what we can do.
You know. Yeah, strange things happen, so don't lose Hope
is the other thing. I would say, if you've been
trying for a while, there's a reason and we just
need to get to what that is. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
I remember when I felt pregnant and I met my
OB for the first time and he asked me the question.
He was like, have you had to do external things
to fall pregnant?

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Did you go through IVF? And I was like, well,
I did get acupuncture obviously at your clinic. And he
was like, Yep, that works. Done, and then he like
noted it down. Do you know why it works? No,
I don't actually know, but it works really quickly. I mean,
there's lots of things that you can do, but it's
the most handiest tool I have. Yea, it is the
best nervous system regulator. Yeah, and often women are really

(46:58):
stressed and it's impacting your stress hormones and your sex
hormones compete or your sex hormones will be impacted by
stress hormones. That's a coping mechanism. If you're regulating the
nervous system and you're re calibrating hormones, that's gonna really
help with your fertility. We also use acupuncture to increase
blood float to the uterus help with implantation. There's so

(47:18):
many benefits to that. So you know, some practitioners or doctors.
I know, I've worked with doctors that will say, I
don't understand what you do, but whatever you make me
look good, so let's work together. Others will say it's
rubbish and that's fine, Like everyone's entitled to their opinion,
but there's great evidence now to support that. You know what,
accupuntu might not be your jam, but maybe massage might be.

(47:39):
I would say acupunch is far more effective in terms
of what it does. But find your thing. Yeah, you know, absolutely,
look at your cycles, start to address what that looks like. Really,
I think your menstrual cycle is giving you constant feedback. Yeah,
and if you can really tune into that, I think
that that's going to be the best thing that you
can do. Yeah. I absolutely love acupuncture.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
And it's so funny because when I'm stressed out, I'm
too stressed to go and.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
You know what, my team, my team see you and
they're like, hi, and now would you like a treatment?
And you're like, oh my god, yes, like yeah, yeah, yeah,
We've done that a few times where my team is
so funny, but they're like, I saw Anna's stressed, Should
I get her in. I'm like, yes, just call her
bit it does. It really helps.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
But then it's so funny because I think as women,
we're so busy with work, and then if you're not
feeling well and you're stressed, you're like, the last thing
I need to do is self care. But it's actually
the first thing you need to do.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
It's the first thing you need to do, and you'll
very quickly learn as you become mother that it actually
if you look at the women that are doing it all.
And I hate using that, but the other women that
carve out time for themselves, they're a better mother for
doing that. They can give more of themselves for doing that.
I firmly believed that we can have babies and have
careers and live full lives. And not everyone wants that either,

(48:58):
And that's completely fine. You do you like, I can't
do that, But I take my hat off to the
full time mums that actually that's what they want to do.
It's your way, But at the end of the day,
taking time for ourselves is the most important thing we
can do.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Okay, let's quickly talk about men. What impact does their
fertility have on falling pregnant a huge.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
It's it's huge, and it's so underestimated. Maybe more, we
don't know. I say more. I actually do say more.
And the thing with sperm is it is actually very
treatable if it's not healthy, and it's all reflective of
the male health. So, but men are more robust, they
can handle more stress. They're not cyclic beings. They work

(49:52):
on a circadium rhythm, like a twenty four hour clock,
not a twenty eight day cycle, so they are able
to handle most dress. But we also men aren't necessarily
you know, living in the jungle, hunting, running, like doing
the things that actually are supportive of their sperm health

(50:14):
and their fertility. So it is so important I think
to talk about it and address it. And if you know,
I can't tell you the number of patients that wait
to get them the sperm tested. I'm like, just do it, yeah,
like it's because or assume it's bad. It takes around
one hundred and twenty days to regenerate healthy sperm. Just
start to treat it as if it's not healthy, and

(50:36):
you know, within three months it's going to improve. What
a male ejaculates today is reflective of around three months ago.
So if you're living at a really stressful point three
months ago, chances are it's probably average or sub average.
I've definitely seen sperm health decline over the last twenty years,
quite substantially, which is concerning, but it's again a result

(50:57):
of modern lifestyle. And the other thing is men will
come in and say, oh my god, my sperm are perfect,
and I'll be like, okay, let's just have a look
at this. If I look at the morphology, you've got
one percent normal forms, which means you've got ninety nine
percent abnormal forms. You're not amazing, mate. You could do
some improvements here, but unfortunately rates have dropped so much

(51:19):
that we now consider one to two percent of abnormal
forms normal for men. So even if we can improve
that by two percent, you are having much better outcomes.
I would say when a patient comes in and if
there's been a miscarriage experience, I will always look at
the mail straight away, because the embryo is well half

(51:42):
half him, half you, and then the environment is the
other thing that you provide as a woman. But the
embryo itself does all of the work for the first
nine or so weeks. We don't really form the placenta
until around nine weeks. So it's the embryo working and
how it's actually the components of it and how it's
changing your body and it's releasing hormones. It's doing all

(52:03):
the work. So if it's not healthy or viable, then
we need to look at both parts. For sure, stress
will impact sperm health as we'll smoking and drinking. We
know that, and then nutrient deficiencies is the other thing
as well, so you know and also sorry, One other
thing I will say is for men sitting down for
long periods of time, because there's a reason the testicles

(52:24):
are actually on the outside. They're kept cooler, and if
we're sitting on them constantly or not we but men
are sitting on them constantly, then that can raise the
temperature and that can change the sperm health as well.
So I get patients to walk around often if they're
exposed to a lot of chemicals. So painters and mechanics
I often find a challenge with because they are being
exposed to all sorts of things that I guess others

(52:47):
aren't that can impact sperm quality and hormones. But they're
the main things that I think, and you can very
quickly jump online and find some great support nutrients for
men that are actually fertility support. I would just do
that anyway. Yeah, I had Michael on the men of it. Yeah,
I think.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Would you recommend if a couple is trying to conceive,
because I had this kind of debate in my own head,
would you recommend that they both stop drinking? Or they
should continue drinking or it's just it's a.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Really, really difficult So men can actually handle more alcohol
than women. We don't know what the safe level is,
so this is why it's just said no, but men
can handle more. For women, we recommend low consumption, which
is around two drinks a week, right, For men, they
can handle two drinks in a sitting, two to three

(53:39):
drinks in a sitting every second day, which is actually
a lot of alcohol. It's a lot compared to women,
I know, right surprise, that seems to be around what
they can handle before it impacts sperm health. However, we
don't really know, so I think cutting back on alcohol
definitely smoking too, is advice. In fact, most fertility people

(54:02):
say very low consumption to none, but it definitely alcohol
mimics estrogen. Men don't need a lot of estrogen. So
if there's a lot of estrogen in their body, it's
going to absolutely impact their sperm health. So I think
it's important that I think it's important to really dial
in nutrition and lifestyle habits. We say up to a

(54:23):
year beforehand. I just don't like putting pressure on people.
You know, it's already stressful. We've made it very medical.
It's something your body knows how to do. And I'm
pretty sure half of our half of our listeners' parents
were probably drinking and smoking mostly nights of the week,
you know. So I just think, is it not as
long as three months? Because it takes three months to read,

(54:43):
It's at least three months if you read it. Yes,
if you know that there's poor sperm health, or like
I said, or you're just going to if you're just
going to assume that the sperm health is not great.
But we are encouraged for a year to start to
really dial things in. The reason I think the year
good is you can learn your cycle. You can you know,
make sure that if you've transitioned off birth control, that

(55:05):
things are backed as they should be, that your vitamin
and mineral stores a where they should be, Like there's
lots of reasons, and that takes time if you're a
healthy person. I don't, and I try and encourage my
patients and my listeners to be always the best version
of themselves, not having to go on an overhaul to
have a baby. That's actually kind of to me, you're

(55:26):
not living your best life from them. Yeah, I agree
with right, So it's kind of like, I don't know
that that applies to everyone. I think we always unfortunately,
when we're talking about healthcare, we have to accommodate the
person that doesn't care about their health, and that's not
who I talk to. So probably not a year, but
several months. But most of my people know their circles anyway,

(55:46):
so they are ready to go when they're ready to go,
and it means they also have prevented pregnancy for all
of that time as well, which is what we want
when we don't want to get pregnant.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
This is right, What an incredible conversation that was with Nat. Honestly,
we're so lucky to have her in the studio, and
I hope you guys got as much out of that
chat as I did. As always, make sure you're following
along with the podcast If you guys want to hear
something on where's your bump out a specific topic, or

(56:15):
if you want to send me a voice note, then
please send it in.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
I would absolutely love that. I want to get you
guys as involved as possible in this podcast. To find
that head to our show notes. It's all in there
and until next time.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Starting a new chapter in your life can be scary,
so let's do this one together.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Lots of love, Anna,