Ep. 160: What every college student should know about women's health with Grace

I can't tell you how often I hear: "I wish I had known this when I was in college!" Those years of a woman's life are SO significant for relationships, life direction, career choices, etc, but often they FALL FLAT when it comes to becoming more educated and empowered about women's health. We want to change that. College students NEED this information, regardless of their relationship status or family planning goals. Women deserve to know it simply because they are women! So I invited a good friend of the show, Grace Beasley, to chat about the things we think all college women deserve to know about women's health! 

Other episodes you may enjoy!:

Ep. 151: Naturally increasing progesterone, with Courtney Warday, RD

Ep. 148: 5 ways to boost your natural fertility

Ep. 119: What fertility test shouldn't be skipped, with Dr. Sarah Pederson, OBGYN

Transcript

Caitlin Estes (00:23)
Welcome back to the Woven Well podcast. Today I'm joined by a friend of the show, Grace Beasley. Grace, welcome. Now you were on the episode last year where you got to share a little bit about your story and what it was like to work with Woven when you were learning the Creighton system. But now you're back because you're becoming a fertility care practitioner yourself.

Grace Beasley (00:31)
Thank you for having me.

That's right, it's so exciting.

Caitlin Estes (00:50)
It is exciting and I'm curious like what has it been like to be in the FCP program so far?

Grace Beasley (00:58)
It really has been wonderful. feel like before I started, I was so interested on all of this and felt like I knew a lot, like I want to learn more, but I do already know a lot. I get into the program and I'm like, I do not know a lot. And that's been a great thing because I've also forgotten how much I love learning.

Caitlin Estes (01:17)
Hmm.

Grace Beasley (01:17)
And

so it's been neat to just like learn things again. And as I'm learning, I'm wanting to learn more, if that makes sense. Like I find myself, I'm learning, learning, and then I'm like, oh, but there's this route, there's this route. And like just discovering things, it kind of feels like my eyes have been opened in a whole new way. Then when I was just intaking all of this as a client, I was already learning a lot myself, but I feel like even more so there's just been more information or more things I've

Caitlin Estes (01:25)
Yes.

Hmm.

Yes.

Grace Beasley (01:47)
about too and so it's been great.

Caitlin Estes (01:49)
Mmm.

I'm so glad to hear that. love all of that. That

reminds me of my own story because, you know, I was the friend that other friends were asking questions to about fertility and reproductive health. But really all I knew at that time was like my own cycles and what I had learned about my own cycles. And so that was way more than what they knew about their cycles, but it still was pretty limited. And then I joined the education program, started becoming a fertility care practitioner, and I was like, whoa.

Grace Beasley (02:00)
Hmm.

Yes. Yes.

Right. Right.

Caitlin Estes (02:21)
There is so much more to learn. Yes, but like you like so passionate about it

Grace Beasley (02:22)
much more. And I think,

yes, and I think that's what's sad is like, we as women generally don't know, like, we don't really know much about our fertility, even the word fertility. If you would in college told me the word fertility, I would think pregnancy, like, you're, if you're talking about fertility, you're specifically talking about getting pregnant.

Caitlin Estes (02:33)
Yeah.

Right.

right.

Grace Beasley (02:50)
or not

getting or not being able to get pregnant because you don't have good fertility. it's like, no, fertility actually encompasses this whole thing of being a woman. And what does that look like? And this is happening every single day of every single week of every single month

Caitlin Estes (03:01)
Hmm.

Grace Beasley (03:08)
And it's important, you

even just you saying

your friends are coming to you about the knowledge, but you're like, I don't even know all the things I'm just learning what about my own body. But there's so much freedom in,

Caitlin Estes (03:18)
Absolutely.

Grace Beasley (03:20)
someone else is taking

authority or ownership of their own fertility and I could talk to you about it. It's gonna differ from woman to

Caitlin Estes (03:26)
Mm.

Grace Beasley (03:30)
you have people to talk to and I think that's the first step is just knowing, you're caring about this? I could care about this too.

Caitlin Estes (03:33)
Yeah.

Yeah, being that safe place and having a safe place. So having somebody you can talk to about it, because you're right, it does affect all of us, you know, from puberty to menopause, we're dealing with it, like you said, every single day in one form or another. And, you know, I think it's really interesting you were talking about even the word fertility, and that's such a good point, because fertility does often just get talked about.

Grace Beasley (03:44)
Right.

time.

Caitlin Estes (04:09)
when we're thinking about getting pregnant, right? That is the only time. But our fertility as women is kind of the defining feature of us as women. So that makes a lot of people uncomfortable because it's like, wait a minute, I am more than my ability to get pregnant. And yes, you are. Every woman is a beautiful, complex human being created in the image of God. But part of that gift of humanity, of female humanity,

Grace Beasley (04:11)
Yes.

Yes.

Right.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Caitlin Estes (04:38)
is the ability to conceive and bear children. And so whether or not someone ever does that, it's a gift to be honored and to be understood. And I feel like that's the first, like you were talking about, the first step is to understand what's going on, but we're starting from zero. Like most of us know nothing. And I remember being in college and knowing absolutely nothing about my reproductive health.

Grace Beasley (04:56)
Yes.

Nothing! I knew

nothing.

Caitlin Estes (05:08)
When I think back on it now, was mainly period management. Okay, it was like, when do I need to have a tampon with me? And how long is it going to be? And am I going to have to schedule things around any cramps that I'm experiencing? So that's all I knew was period management.

Grace Beasley (05:15)
Yes.

Right

I know

I actually recently had listened to one of your previous episodes on the podcast about the theology of the body of a woman's body and just you talking about like God created us different

Caitlin Estes (05:33)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Grace Beasley (05:40)
on purpose. And so I recommend people listening to that episode for sure, because it was really insightful for me. But just knowing like you're not alone, you know, like you're experiencing things in your body. Maybe someone else isn't necessarily experiencing that, but they've experienced something else and you're not alone. And their knowledge is such power. And so to be able to know you have one body.

Caitlin Estes (05:44)
you

Yeah.

Grace Beasley (06:07)
and you have one sense of fertility in just yourself and God has given you this one life, why would we not want to know about this? This is how I feel now.

Before though, not that it was ignorance or naiveness, but I just didn't know about it. Like you said, we're gonna talk about fertility when it's time to start having kids. But to me, I want to tell every single woman, it is never too early to start investing in the knowledge of your fertility.

in knowing there is such empowerment to know how God designed my body to be, how God created us to function, and how things that I might be doing might actually be harming that. And I didn't know. But that's where the knowledge is power is because if we don't know things like key words like, progesterone I had never heard of that word before

Caitlin Estes (06:42)
Mm.

That's right.

Grace Beasley (07:04)
now I'm like, my word, this is something that every woman is dealing with. And we don't even know those words. In my personal experience, I didn't know those words. I didn't know things like, I had heard words like you obviously know about ovulation and you know about menstruation, like when you're having your period, your menstrual cycle.

Caitlin Estes (07:26)
Hehe.

Grace Beasley (07:26)
But even the phases of like a follicular phase or luteal phase, those words are like, what are you saying? I don't know what that is and what that even means. And I think as a woman to be able to know this is what's occurring in my body right now, which can affect how I act.

Caitlin Estes (07:36)
Yeah.

Grace Beasley (07:47)
which can affect how I perform in exercise, which can affect what nutrition should I be intaking right now to get the maximum results, so to speak. It just, it's an inner web that gets me so excited. So.

Caitlin Estes (07:57)
Yeah.

I'm so with you. And I feel like, you know, we say we didn't know anything and we're starting from zero. Well, we also kind of live in a time and a culture in a mindset that tells us this is something that you put on the shelf and you don't take it down until you need it. And then you put it back when you're done with it. It's like something to be used. And that's not our perspective as women of faith.

Grace Beasley (08:18)
Hmm.

Caitlin Estes (08:28)
Like this is who we are. This is a piece of who we are as women. This is a gift from God. So we automatically know that it's good. If it's from God, then it is good. And so it's worth understanding more. It's worth appreciating. And that's where I feel like understanding those basics. Like you said, you knew what the term ovulation mensturation meant. Well, I'm impressed because not everybody knows what ovulation is. So that's probably the first thing.

Grace Beasley (08:33)
Thanks

Right.

And in understanding,

should say, heard the word, not necessarily recollecting what that actually means.

Caitlin Estes (08:58)
Yes, okay.

Yes. So a lot of us learn about it in 10th grade health and then that's it, you know, and usually in that class class, we're like embarrassed and we're like, you know, you don't want to talk about those kinds of things. And so I think understanding ovulation is a great place to start. So let's just kind of review that really quickly. And then maybe you can talk about the phases that are involved in that just to give people who are listening a basis for this. So ovulation is the process of a female reproductive egg.

Grace Beasley (09:11)
Yeah, I'll talk about this.

Yeah.

Caitlin Estes (09:32)
maturing and then leaving the ovary which you may have heard when you think about reproductive organs there's ovaries that have all the eggs that are ever going to be there leaving that ovary for the potential of being fertilized by a sperm so this happens every single cycle whether that's monthly for you or every six weeks or maybe even further in between and we can talk about why in another episode probably

Grace Beasley (09:58)
Yes.

Caitlin Estes (09:59)
But this is happening routinely, every single cycle. It doesn't just happen when you're ready to conceive. It happens from puberty through until menopause. And so like you were talking about earlier, this really helps our overall health because there are reproductive hormones that are essential for that process to happen. And so those hormones not only affect our reproductive system, but our overall health as well.

Grace Beasley (10:29)
we are able to know what's actually working or how is this working, I think that really creates so much freedom

follicle is starting to form inside of that ovary that you mentioned. And that's what then is eventually going to be the egg that's released in ovulation. But

Those are things that I feel like for me, I didn't know that. I didn't know that's what's happening. And this is starting to form inside of your body each cycle. And then that's what's going to be released to then meet sperm have the potential to meet sperm like you said.

Caitlin Estes (10:51)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Grace Beasley (11:05)
And with the luteal phase, like that's coming right before you're about to start your period again. And you might.

you know, start experiencing some symptoms that correlate to PMS, which I feel like is a hot, you know, buzzword topic PMS. But it's something that I feel like our culture also thinks like, this is just what happens. This is normal. You should be experiencing, you know, lower back pain. You should be experiencing more cravings towards chocolate cravings towards carbs, all those things that like, we just feel like, Oh, I know I'm in college for me. I knew I was about to start my period.

when I was a little bit more emotional and I really wanted chocolate. Like I just knew, okay, this is about to happen. And now discovering like what the luteal phase is and learning PMS doesn't have to happen like that. Like you don't actually have to have symptoms. And again, linking back to other episodes you've had on your podcast talking about progesterone.

Caitlin Estes (11:47)
haha

Mm.

Grace Beasley (12:10)
and how that is related with to PMS symptoms when we don't have enough of it, it can cause those symptoms. Whenever I was your client learning this for the first time, I had no idea. just thought that's part of a woman's cycle

Caitlin Estes (12:25)
Absolutely. I think we think about the period and then it just feels like a month until the next period and then a month until the next period, but we don't understand what's going on in between. And the fact that the first day of our period, we already have follicles that are growing with eggs that are recruited for possible ovulation. The fact that estrogen is involved in that follicular phase the whole time to mature those, but

Grace Beasley (12:32)
Right.

Yes.

Hmm.

Caitlin Estes (12:53)
we're gonna feel signs of that like you were talking about, like maybe we're more energetic and we wanna get projects done. But then after ovulation, as you mentioned, that luteal phase is so important and the role of progesterone in that. And so as we understand that and we tackle PMS and all the great things that you just mentioned, like we're more informed about our bodies, we're more empowered in how we live our health and how

Grace Beasley (12:55)
Yes.

Hmm.

Caitlin Estes (13:18)
health-wise are going for us.

And we feel like we really have an understanding that goes beyond just that plain period management. So if I was thinking about things that I would wanna know when I was in college, your period is important, so I don't want you to ignore that, but I would say like, pay attention to your period, because it can actually give you information about your hormone levels, the estrogen, like we were talking about in the follicular phase, is going to affect the

thickness of the lining, is going to end up being all the amount of blood that you experience in your period flow. So it can tell us things about even your progesterone level, like if you're having brown spotting before or after your period starts, maybe your progesterone is not as high as it could be. Painful periods, like you said, they are not normal, but they are common, okay? So if you're missing class,

Grace Beasley (14:01)
Great.

Yeah.

Yes.

Caitlin Estes (14:18)
If you're staying home from events with friends, if you're missing work because you're having painful periods, this is something to look into. Like you said, Grace, we think so often that this is just what's expected of us as women, but that is not the case. We should not have to push through these experiences, but we should be able to get answers for that and hopefully get healing and restoration.

Grace Beasley (14:35)
Right.

Absolutely, and I think with the painful periods.

what our culture, what our doctors just want to say is, all right, you just need to get on birth control because this will just fix that. And that's a whole nother topic for another day. But that's something too that I think, especially as women, this is really pushed on us and to know that there are actually other alternatives to manage, to knowing about your cycle and managing your fertility. That itself is so empowering and knowing like there are other answers out there. And for me,

Caitlin Estes (14:54)
Hmm.

Yes.

Yes.

Grace Beasley (15:19)
In my experience, I didn't know that. And to be able to just know there's something else, like I think as a woman, it's so important to share when you're learning, share it with other people because more than likely they have the same questions or don't necessarily know or maybe have heard something else that you guys can now start this conversation. And I think being able to just talk about it is so freeing. And again, knowledge is power. And it's like,

Caitlin Estes (15:21)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Grace Beasley (15:49)
just being able you can go on Pinterest and you can search things about just you know cycle phases and and how you talked about when we're having estrogen when we're experiencing our follicular phase we might have more energy and there's information out there about there's certain exercises that actually are better for your body during that time versus a different time of your cycle things like that that I feel like just sparking the interest

Caitlin Estes (16:10)
huh.

Very practical.

Grace Beasley (16:19)
very practical things, but they could drastically change your overall improvement of your day-to-day life because we might be trying to push, push, push and our bodies can obviously handle a lot.

Caitlin Estes (16:26)
Yeah.

sure.

Grace Beasley (16:32)
But if

we understood, this actually isn't necessarily a time in my cycle that I'm able to push and get the results I'm wanting. If I switch, like it's just learning the tiny switch, it doesn't have to be huge, just a tiny switch of, if I actually focused on doing this a little bit more during this time.

Caitlin Estes (16:41)
Hmm.

Grace Beasley (16:54)
of my cycle and that's where it ties back to understanding what is fertility? What is happening in my cycle? So I think that those are really beneficial for women in any stage, but especially as a young adult, I think is so, so, so important because you get to carry that with you.

Caitlin Estes (17:00)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely. There are so many ways to get engaged with your reproductive health and your fertility even while you're in college. So even the things we're talking about today like understanding what your fertility is and changing your approach to it. really learning more about it, appreciating it. I like the term the phrase get curious.

Grace Beasley (17:36)
Yes.

Caitlin Estes (17:36)
So get curious

about your cycles. Maybe write down symptoms of anything that feels uncomfortable or you're uncertain about. Maybe it's something that you just assumed is just a part of being a woman, but now after listening to this episode, you're like, maybe it's not, maybe there's hope. We've talked about PMS, painful periods, irregular cycles. Maybe you're having discharge that you're not sure is normal or not. So these are things that you can actually get answers to.

Grace Beasley (17:39)
Yes.

Thank

Caitlin Estes (18:05)
I would also suggest looking into finding an OB-GYN. So a lot of times, know, women in college are like, I don't know if I need that yet, but you don't necessarily have to get a pap smear in order to work with an

Grace Beasley (18:09)
Yes.

Caitlin Estes (18:20)
Grace, we would encourage people to work with a restorative reproductive OB-GYN because they're gonna help you to understand what's going on in your reproductive health.

Grace Beasley (18:25)
Absolutely.

Caitlin Estes (18:31)
they're not thinking necessarily about pregnancy for you at all. It's wherever you are in your personal reproductive timeline. So helping you to understand your cycle. then lastly, and maybe this kind of applies to all the rest, is to learn a form of fertility awareness. So when you get on birth control, you learn nothing about your body or its design.

Grace Beasley (18:50)
Yes.

Caitlin Estes (18:57)
you gain nothing from that experience when it comes to knowledge and health. But when you use a form of fertility awareness, you have so much information, you are empowered in so many different ways, you can actually advocate for yourself in the doctor's office, you can get accurate diagnoses, you can get treatment that is holistic and is going to improve your overall quality of health, and you're thinking about long-term health too.

not just in this particular moment, but five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now.

Grace, it was fun chatting with you. I know that there are a lot of college ladies who are going to benefit from your education as a fertility care practitioner.

Grace Beasley (19:40)
Thanks so much for having me.

Caitlin Estes (19:43)
Listeners, as always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.