The Home of Fertility with Liz Walton & Helen Zee

Season 2, Episode 1: Where Vulnerability Meets Vision – The New Era of Fertility Care

• Liz Walton and Helen Zee • Season 2 • Episode 1

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The fertility journey is never one-size-fits-all. It’s personal, messy, miraculous—and often misunderstood. In this season opener, Liz Walton and Helen Zee reunite to launch Season 2 of The Home of Fertility podcast, weaving together science and soul, lived experience and professional expertise, in a space where all stories are welcome.

What began as a connection at the Australian Fertility Summit has evolved into a shared mission:
To reimagine how we speak about fertility, how we support one another, and how we hold the full spectrum of what it means to create family.

Together, Helen and Liz bring decades of experience—both professionally and personally—to this new chapter. Liz shares her decade-long fertility path, including six rounds of IVF before conceiving naturally at 46, after surrendering to a child-free future. Helen’s work as a fertility lifestyle practitioner is deeply rooted in a lifelong calling to motherhood and her passion for conscious conception.

This podcast is for anyone navigating fertility and family creation: Solo parents and same-sex couples

 Donor-conceived and surrogacy journeys Those just beginning and those who’ve been trying for years Those who carry grief, hope, uncertainty—or all three at once

Each episode brings together voices from both medical and holistic fields—IVF specialists, naturopaths, somatic therapists, and people with lived experiences—to bridge the gap between conventional care and whole-person healing. This is a place where:

  • Vulnerability meets knowledge
  • Medical meets integrative
  • Personal stories become medicine
  • No one walks the path alone

Whether you're navigating your own journey or walking beside someone you love, we invite you in.

Subscribe, share, or leave a review to help more people find this space of truth, tenderness, and transformation.

Subscribe, share, or leave a review to help more people find this space of truth, tenderness, and transformation.

Follow along @AustralianFertilitySummit on Instagram and Facebook.
To learn more about Helen’s work, visit helenzee.com

To learn more about Liz's work visit www.lizwalton.org

Find us on Instagram and Facebook @AustralianFertilitySummit. 

Please share this podcast, leave a review, or subscribe to help us support more people on this path. 

Liz Walton:

Welcome to the home of fertility, a space for real conversations and expert insights about fertility, healing and creating family. I'm Liz Walton.

Helen Zee:

And I'm Helen Z. We are two mums who've walked this path and are passionate about supporting you on your journey emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Liz Walton:

We talk about it all fertility treatments, holistic support, relationships, mindset and the emotional highs and lows.

Helen Zee:

Because sometimes the missing piece lies in someone else's story, in the quiet wisdom of the body or in a breakthrough that's finally made for you we are so glad you are here, let's dive in.

Liz Walton:

Welcome, welcome everybody that's here. And so we're starting a new podcast and so much has evolved since season one and this is this is so exciting. This is one of the most exciting things for us as we're coming together. What began as really me a calling from Melbourne from last year of the Australian Fertility Summit, from people saying and a few clinics going I love what you're doing, would you come to Melbourne? And me going oh, I don't know how I'd go to Melbourne. I don't know about Melbourne. I'd need to find somebody who lives in Melbourne and someone who's as passionate about the fertility space and, you know, wanting to, you know, do something bigger. How could that happen?

Liz Walton:

And then a girlfriend of mine introduced me to this wonderful lady called Helen Z. I think we talked for something like three hours nonstop and by the time we came out of this, really we both decided let's do something together and this was the beginning of the Melbourne Fertility Expo the conception, should I say, and that's where it grew and it's been an absolute honor. So the vision has felt so aligned and it's not just bringing together fertility practitioners, medical practitioners and everyone you know in between that, but it's about bringing heart and passion into this conversation, and what I'm so excited is today is actually the first year anniversary. A year ago today, I did the Australian Fertility Summit, and I'm just so grateful. I did the Australian Fertility Summit and I'm just so grateful. I'm so grateful for everybody that attended, for everybody that I the Canberra Expo, the Canberra Summit.

Liz Walton:

The Canberra Summit. I was getting a bit too excited. You're right, the Canberra Summit, so it's the first year anniversary. So I'm just so grateful for that. And so, helen, thank you so much. Already, you've brought me back, helen, it's just been magic to meet you.

Helen Zee:

Oh, liz, sharing with our viewers and our listeners. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. It's an absolute gift. What started off as that conversation, as Liz said, turned into a partnership, a friendship and a shared mission to build something that was bigger than both of us, and I always say that when something needs to be shared and sprouted, there's a lot of different energies that come together for this creation to take place. No different to the fertility journey or all the heads and hearts that come together to create a brand new soul to enter the world.

Helen Zee:

And, my friend, what I'd like us to do in honoring Canberra anniversary last year, and also this beautiful season two, session one, where it's now the home of fertility, let's take a pause, have a drink, take a cup of tea. I would like to light a candle in your honor, honor and in our unified vision of re-imaging fertility, family planning, health care for australians and beyond. So this is for you, my friend, and this is for everybody joining us from today and this moment on happy birthday, the beginning of something beautiful with love.

Liz Walton:

Should we blow it out?

Helen Zee:

okay, liz, let's share with our listeners why we're here, what the mission is, what people can expect from us yes, absolutely so.

Liz Walton:

our mission our mission is you clear, full of passion is to deserves access to good quality, ethical care which allows the best choices for you, for everybody. So it's, yeah, it's a real big passion. That's why we're here.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, and I'd like to add that we are bridging worlds the medical and the holistic, the evidence, the embodiment, the science and the soul. What we find through our shared practices is whole person-centered health, and also family health, is so important. Let's just not look down the lens of when we think of fertility or raising a family, of when we think of fertility or raising a family predominantly, it is the female form that comes straight up, and we're spending so much energy and time about female reproductive health. But what about family health, family-centric health? What about underlying conditions? Underlying conditions? So we are going to be bringing forth the experts and the voices that are the knowledge and the hands of support for you to get access to, so we don't want people to feel like they have to choose one over the other. You are a whole person having this experience and there is so much support around you. Yes, so let's tell our listeners what to expect this season.

Liz Walton:

Absolutely so. This season we're going to be opening the door to some great conversations, you know, conversations with IVF specialists, with naturopaths, all kinds of complementary therapists, somatic therapists, all different types of healing. Complementary therapists, somatic therapists all different types of healing. We're going to have people sharing their lived experiences and their path of what it was like to try and conceive, and this is all inclusive. And we're going to speak to some of the most beautiful human beings as they walk this path because, as we know, it's a very bumpy ride. It's not a very easy one. We know it's a very bumpy ride. It's not a very easy one. Lots of bumps along the way. So how can we traverse those bumps in the best way possible and do our best to keep ourselves sane in body and mind?

Liz Walton:

So, yeah, there's going to be some fun things we're going to be talking about.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, I'm actually so glad you mentioned the word fun, because I feel that that's something that we can introduce into our sessions as well. I was actually having a conversation with someone yesterday and it's like this can be the tail end and the serious end of when delayed fertility takes place. But there are also many people and many listeners that are here for Preconception Health, for that preparation of preparing the home of the body and the home of you know, the shell and the shelter of the home, for preconception. So what does that include? That also includes the medical side of fertility.

Helen Zee:

We will be talking about hormones, how the body works, reproductive health, as well as treatments, as well as diagnostics. We will be talking about the emotional journey from resilience and what builds resilience, dynamics in relationships, grief and loss, as well as the healing path that opens you up to something so much bigger and greater than what you were before you started this journey. And in that we do touch on the spiritual and intuitive aspects, because the miracle of life is that it is a miracle. It is spiritual as much as it is physical, which is why we are bridging those worlds, and also in the mystery of what your body knows but hasn't said. Yet, liz, would you like to add to?

Liz Walton:

that, sure, and you know, this is the voice of knowledge and the hands of support, and this is where it all comes together. So, if you ever felt like something was missing from the fertility conversation, I want to let you know that this podcast, this podcast, is so for you. Let's just dive deeper into the amazing conversations. In terms of amazing, conversations, yes, those conversations.

Helen Zee:

Let's just very briefly touch on ourselves, liz, so our viewers and our listeners can get to know us a little bit better as well, because we are both mothers and, as you shared earlier on, the journey isn't always simple or what to expect. And for others, yes, it is. For me personally, the longing to be a mother wasn't just a desire, it was felt in all the trillion cells of my body and it was the soul calling that shaped my life from a really young age, and more so as a teenager. So it was a really big surprise to me that I had this essence of what we call matri-sense, and matri-sense is matri being maternal sense. So, just like we've got the six senses, you know the smell, taste, hearing, seeing, touching the intuitive space. Mattress. Sense is when you start viewing the world and the body from the essence of becoming a parent. And for me, that hit me at a really young age of 16. So I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know where this insatiable desire was coming from, to the point where I felt like I was going to die if I did not become a mother in this lifetime. Luckily for me, I did.

Helen Zee:

Years later I decided you know, you've got to wait. You've got to wait. I don't want to be a mum at 16. But I do remember distinctly sitting, I thought where do I go with this feeling? I'm trying to understand this feeling. Where do I go with this feeling? So I went my mum, of course.

Helen Zee:

So I remember telling my mum and really showing her this passion that existed in my whole body and trying to understand what was going on. And saying mum, I really really want to become a mum, to the point that I feel like what is this feeling of like I'm going to die if I don't do this? And, being in a Greek Orthodox background, her response was and doing a cross, the biggest cross I've ever seen her do, going oh my gosh, helen, you're having sex. And I'm like no, mum, you're not getting it. And then I had to try and find other ways of understanding what was going on for me. Yeah, yeah. So I understand that insatiable desire and also the resourcefulness and the resilience that opens up to be able to create these soulful spirit beings coming in through our bodies and in through our families, my friend.

Liz Walton:

Yeah, yeah, beautifully put, helen. And look for me. I had such a very different experience when I was young that really wasn't on my mind at all. It's the unconscious learning that we're told you get married and then you get pregnant. And so for me I'm like, well, that will happen for me. It took me quite a while to find a man of substance and by that time I was already 35 when I got married and considered an older mum, bizarrely enough. And so, you know, after getting married it was like, let's, you know, let's become parents. So for me, married it was like let's, let's, you know, let's become parents. So for me, that did not happen. It did not happen at all.

Liz Walton:

And that's where I started my fertility journey of trying to understand, you know what's wrong, what was wrong with me and um, and having really, you know one of the deepest spiritual experiences from you know the very depths of despair to finding myself, and you know having to learn about who I am and what I am if I don't ever become a mother. There were six IVFs, a rather gargantuan amount of money spent and really wanting to understand why, what. You know what's going on for me. So for me, I ended up having to give up. My sister-in-law, around year eight or year nine, I can't remember now had a baby first time, ivf with a donor sperm, and although I was so happy for her, it really brought up a lot of deep pain for me and this really was my North Star going Liz, time to move on and let go, and so that's what I did. I did a lot of work on myself I would say 18 months and just to really let go, and then, a couple of years later, I ended up falling pregnant. Naturally, I thought it was because I was in menopause, because I felt rather dreadful and then realizing that, you know, I had actually fallen pregnant, but even then, still, it was not a simple path. I was told that my child would not be viable.

Liz Walton:

And again, another deep journey of trying to understand what that is and also, in the end, having a wonderful, wonderful, beautiful birth and a very, very healthy baby at the age of 46. All of this, those 10 years, has given me a blueprint which I now want to support other people on this journey so that they didn't have to have that 10 year journey. So that's how I've turned it around and it's been such an honor. And then that deeper calling of how else can I help people? So it's always been that, you know, how can I find that voice? And as a woman, as a practitioner and now as a mother, to support others, because it's in the vulnerability that we discover who we are, and it's in these experiences are what really make us and help us grow. You know, sometimes some of our most painful times can be when we grow the most, you know. And how can we be a light for others, walking this path and finding more understanding, knowledge and community path?

Helen Zee:

and finding more understanding, knowledge and community.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, yay, and all the stories in between.

Helen Zee:

You know the ways that we shape our family and when you were talking about naturally getting pregnant at 46, and you know the viability of a child, I am a mother to adult children, but I also became naturally pregnant at 45 and got to experience that, but for me, I got to experience that also as a loss and so opening up the bandwidth of the mattress sense journey and that of becoming a mother, which does come with also loss and grief.

Helen Zee:

My friend, I would love to talk about redefining family and the re-imaging of the diversification of the modern family in our lifetime. Now, my friend, you and I both speak about the heteronormative relationship, but we want to say this very, very clearly to our listeners that family doesn't look one way anymore and whether you are a solo parent, a same-sex couple, heteronormative relationship, navigating donor conception, surrogacy or simply finding out what family means to you and your future, you are welcome here that this space is for everyone and that the whole family has evolved, and so should all the support that we receive along the way for people to experience whole person health.

Liz Walton:

Absolutely it is. It's for everybody, because it is wonderful and beautiful how family has changed so much, and with that it means that it's about encompassing and supporting everybody.

Helen Zee:

Yeah, yeah. So, my friends, we want to welcome you home and welcome you to the home of fertility. This isn't just a podcast, it's a home from our home to your home, a place where the vulnerability meets the knowledge, where the hope meets the truth, and also where you don't have to walk this path alone Absolutely, you do not have to walk this path alone.

Liz Walton:

Absolutely, you do not have to walk this path alone. We are here as well as it is growing this community, this is the home where voices can be like medicine. This podcast be an elixir that touches the soul, the heart, and allows you to feel that sensation of understanding, of trust. You know. It's where you can feel moved to share your story because you know sometimes it might be your voice that might be the key that unlocks someone else's healing.

Helen Zee:

Mm beautiful, and with that my friends. We look forward to sharing more in our next episode.

Liz Walton:

Absolutely. Our doors are open. You're right here. We're going to be here regularly and we're going to bring you all of the stories, all of the insights, all of the wisdom and everything that makes our conversations so powerful. Welcome to the home of fertility, welcome, no, you are welcome.

Helen Zee:

Thanks for joining us at the home of fertility. We hope today's episode brought you clarity, comfort and connection.

Liz Walton:

If this podcast resonated, please share it, leave a review or subscribe. This helps us support more people that are on this path.

Helen Zee:

And if you'd like to connect or share your story, find us on Instagram and Facebook. At Australian Fertility Summit.

Liz Walton:

Remember the missing piece might be waiting in a story your body's wisdom or something new just made for you. Take care and we'll see you next time.