185. Root Causes of Infertility, Miscarriage and Irregular Cycles with Sarah

In this episode I chat with Sarah of @healingformotherhood about her journey with loss, her research in infertility and miscarriage, what she's discovered and helps other women fix, hormone health, common causes of infertility and MORE! 

Find Sarah at:

Instagram: @healingformotherhood

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I went on to have four miscarriages in total. And every single time the doctors would run lab work and say that you know everything's normal, everything looks great. They would do an ultrasound. They did a couple of procedures. They tested my husband. They literally did everything they could think of. And every single time it came back normal. Um, so me being me, I'm a very, very stubborn person. I I've started hiring a naturopath, a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, um, a private hormone clinic. The private hormone clinic, you know, because I was paying out of pocket, like we're we're not focusing on the preparation. You know, you go to your OBGYN and they're like, oh, well, are you taking a prenatal? Are you stopping birth control? Or, you know, they do it, they do the standard workup and they say, send you home on your way, have sex and have fun. That's that's it, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I'd love to hear you kind of mentioned every day you're working on balancing your nervous system. So why don't you walk us through like what a typical day would look like for you, things that contribute to a more relaxed nervous system, and maybe things that you used to do that you cut out to make sure that you're really balancing out your hormones. If you think someone, if someone thinks they're experiencing this, right? Like they're having trouble getting pregnant or they're having losses and they don't know um why, what would you recommend a woman does right away to get help as opposed to going all those different ways and failing to find the solution? Welcome to the Knight Fit Podcast. I'm your host, Emily Knight. I'm a running and strength coach whose primary mission is to help runners reach their goals and maintain their strength without sacrificing their true health. On this podcast, we talk about all things health and fitness so that you can stay up to date on some of today's latest research. I host inspiring guests, drop solo episodes where I explore pertinent topics and get to the heart of many of our questions around what it means to chase our fitness goals and prioritize our wellness. So sit back and get ready for an awesome conversation. Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Nightfit Podcast. Super excited to have you guys here today. Today I have the honor of chatting with Sarah from Healing for Motherhood. Sarah is someone who likes to help women understand miscarriage and kind of the root cause. And it's honestly a lot more complex than people think. So I'm just really honored and excited to chat with Sarah today and pick her brain on this very important topic. So, Sarah, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Thank you so much for having me here. I'm so blessed and honored to be able to speak to more women, speak to your audience. This is just such a great opportunity to keep spreading the word. So thank you so much for having me here.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Of course. No, I'm honored. And um, if you guys hear anything in the background, I do have my daughter next to me in the bouncer. And I know Sarah so wonderfully took the time today to chat with me away from her daughter. So we totally understand each other. And um, if you guys hear anything, that's what we're we're listening to. So, Sarah, I always start my podcast by having my guests introduce themselves, share some personal, professional, and then the hardest part is the fun facts.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Oh, yes, of course, fun facts. Oh, you guys are gonna laugh at my uh fun facts because it's it's very it's very unique. So um I'm Sarah. I am originally from the US, the Chicago area, um, a town called South Ben Indiana, home of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. I am not a Notre Dame fan. Um I was vacationing one year in Jamaica when I met this guy from Canada. Um, long story short, we did the whole long distance thing for a year before inevitably he moved me here in 2019. So I now live in Canada. So that's pretty much my fun fact and a little bit about me. Um professionally, most of my life I worked in retail, um retail management. I worked for Abercrombie. That was like, you know, the highlight of my young adulthood. And um I did business to business sales for a while, but now I am very happily a stay-at-home mom and a full-time content creator. So that's just a little bit about me.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I love that. And actually, I went to Notre Dame for school.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

So that's so ironic.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

I know it's super funny. And um also I'm in Minnesota, so I always say like I'm Canada's neighbor. So totally, totally get it.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Wow, that's wild.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, and you get the weather, it's just a whole different thing. Um, but Sarah, why don't you go ahead and tell us a bit about your story? So I know you speak a lot about infertility and miscarriage and all those things, but tell us more about how you got into that area, you know, your specific journey.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yes. So um I moved here in 2019, and um we had plans of, you know, planning our wedding, our dream life, everything. Um, I wouldn't have moved to Canada if I didn't think that he was the one. So um midnight 2020, we got engaged, and it was the start of something so beautiful until we all know what happened in 2020, the world shut down. So the border between US and Canada was closed down. Um, so I didn't get to see my friends or family for two years, and our wedding plans were postponed indefinitely. Um, so legally, we had to get married for me to stay in the country um during COVID. So October, um, you know, we we legally signed papers and everything. But in July, we had decided to start trying to have a family because if the world was going to pause our wedding, we were just gonna go ahead and try to have a baby. And so July, I had um, you know, a very weird period and um some things were off. So I got some blood work tested, and you know, they said everything was normal, there was nothing to worry about. Um, and so in December of 2020 was my first pregnancy, um, known pregnancy. Um, but unfortunately, um about a week and a half after I had found out we were in the ER with an active miscarriage when they chose to run blood work and uh let me know that my blood work from July showed that I had also had what it was a chemical pregnancy then. Um, and so I was grieving not one but two miscarriages at the time. So um at that time, I was like, okay, well, what can be done? I want to I want to prevent this from happening again. And the answers that I got were very vague to say the least. Let's just go ahead and put it that word. Um, and so they were like, well, there's nothing we can do for you until you've had three or more pregnancy losses. And I'm like, my gosh, that is just that's awful that you're gonna force a mother or woman to go through that three times. Like, that is mentally and physically traumatizing at the body. And I didn't understand that at the time. I didn't understand the trauma. I mean, yeah, I knew the like the emotions of it all, but I didn't understand the trauma until much later. Um, anyway, so I wanted uh I went on to have four miscarriages um in total. And every single time the doctors would run lab work and say that you know everything's normal, everything looks great, they would do an ultrasound. Um, they did a couple of procedures, they tested my husband, they literally did everything they could think of, and every single time it came back normal. Um, so me being me, I'm a very, very stubborn person. I I started hiring a naturopath, a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, um, a private hormone clinic. The private hormone clinic, you know, because I was paying out of pocket, um, they kind of went in a lot more detail into the things that um is typically outside the scope of normal OBG UN care. And so I started learning stuff there. But I noticed um a pattern that um anytime that I would take this information back to my OBGYN, I was immediately dismissed, told to stay off Google, like you know, the whole very, very dismissive personality. And so um I just started getting a little bit angry, but I was relying heavily on the hormone clinic at that time who figured out that through functional lab work I had low progesterone. Um, and at the time I thought that was the solution, right? I thought, oh, we figured it out. It's low progesterone. Um, but later on I'd I'd go to find out that that was just a symptom of what was going on. Um, but anyways, they prescribed me progesterone suppositories. After my fourth miscarriage, I ended up getting pregnant with my daughter, who is now three and a half years old. Um and then I thought it was over. Like I thought I figured everything out. So um at 15 months postpartum, I had um gotten pregnant with our sibling, and this pregnancy was entirely different because I wasn't as stressed out as I was before. Um, you know, I kind of knew the layout of the land, what was to be expected. Um, but I have blood type A negative. So anytime that I have any kind of spotting whatsoever, I need to go get an injection. So I had a little bit of spotting around eight weeks, and um I went in, they did the standard workup. They said my HGG was extremely high. They wanted to see me um again in a couple of days. So I go back in a couple of days. We did see a um, you know, a fetus on the the ultrasound. Um, but they said that um they suspected a what's called a molar pregnancy, and I had no idea what that was at the time. Um so you know, all of a sudden, my hopes and dreams again, you know, they were scheduling me for an emergency DNC to um get rid of the pregnancy because it could, if it was a molar pregnancy, it could become life-threatening. And of course, at the time I had to think about my daughter. And so um they took the the fetus off to pathology and to determine that it was not a mole, there was no chromosome abnormalities, they don't know what happened. So, needless to say, I was angry. Um, I was devastated. Um, and I was just honestly at a point where I knew I couldn't rely on the medical system anymore. So I started doing a bunch of research on my own. Um, and I started reading medical literature, I started following fertility doctors that are world-renowned. Um, I started learning from them and implementing the teachings that they were teaching um and seeing how it was changing my life. And so um I started sharing about it um on social media, and I had a lot of women coming to me saying me too, me too, me too. And so that kind of just inspired me to keep um sharing everything that I'm learning. So that's just for time's sake, that's just a little bit of you know where I got started with doing this.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, no, that's amazing. Um, and honestly, Sarah, I'm so sorry for what you had to go through. That's nobody should have to go through that. And I think it's another thing too. I've had a few women on the podcast who have shared losses. Um, and it's far too common, but not talked about enough, right? So too many women experience it, but we don't share our stories, and we don't also tell women that they shouldn't have to go through that and that they shouldn't have to be quiet about it, and they shouldn't have to just suffer in silence, and also, like you've attested to not get answers. So kind of just this is just how your body is. It's you know, this is just a problem. Let's get you to an infertility clinic instead of why is this happening to me? Like, what is going on? What is the root cause of this? And um, I commend you so much for your vulnerability and for sharing it so so honestly on the internet, but it's helping so many women and it's truly I know your work specifically now more than ever. I know that um infertility and loss is really peaking right now. Um, so it's just it's doing so much good. And I'd like to speak a little bit more too about what you've learned when you started doing your research when it came to why this was happening. Um, maybe share, if you don't mind, some of the key findings that you were finding through your own work and through your own research.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Thank you. Um, thank you for that. It's been honestly sharing my journey here. Um, I may have started off sharing it because I got into network marketing and um, you know, I I wanted to make an income, right? I wanted to make um I wanted to be there for my daughter in ways that I never imagined because of everything that I went through. I knew my sole focus in life wanted to be on her. Um, so I started off this for network marketing, but then when I started discovering everything, I I quickly started realizing how healing it was for me to share my story and for all those women to come to me and say me too, me too. Um, because it is a silent struggle. And um I actually volunteer for a nonprofit organization called Chasing the Rainbows. And um, this is a safe place where women can come and share their stories because more oftentimes than not, um, when women are navigating infertility and miscarriage, they truly feel like they have nowhere to go, they have nowhere um to talk to. Even like for me personally, my best friend, my sister, um, you know, everyone I know around me had no trouble getting pregnant. And so couldn't even be open and honest to my best friend. But somehow I had no problem sharing all this with strangers. Um, I just first hand before I get into you know the root causes and everything. I just want to say that this my page is a safe place, chasing the rainbow is a safe place. If you ever feel alone in this journey, just know that there are safe places for you to be yourself, to vent, to be angry, to be negative. So just wanted to get that up first. Um, and so my research. So I people are all like, oh, well, you know, you're an influencer, you're just making this up to like get money. Well, it's actually not that at all. Um, I've read medical literature, which I am not a doctor. I don't have any fancy letters after my name. I don't ever claim to, you know, make medical diagnosis whatsoever. I'm literally reiterating what I've learned from double board certified reproductive endocrinologists, um, psychonutritionists, um, people that specialize in fertility that aren't afraid to speak up and challenge the common modern healthcare system. These are actual doctors that are telling you this information. And so I started reading their books. And every single one of these doctors had one thing in common common root causes from gut health, because that's that is one of the leading most research factors right now around fertility is the gut health and the gut microbiome. And so um I got absolutely fascinated by the gut microbiome and how it literally is connected to every major function in the entire body, including your mental and physical health. Um, and let's face it, we live in a world that is so completely stressful. I mean, whether it's the challenges of um work-life balance, being a mom, being a you know, a housekeeper, all the things that us women are expected of in today's time that is so traumatizing in the body. I mean, it it literally pushes us to the point of you know, burnout. And so um the gut, which is where all of your hormones get regulated, is constantly be being put under so much stress. And so our body is now reactive to that, and um, you know, rising cases of infertility, one in six couples face um infertility, one in four women face miscarriage. Um and the common root causes is gut health. Um, other thing that is tied into that is nervous your nervous system. Um, so that also ties in with a lot of mental and physical health. Um and the thing with the nervous system is I don't know if you know much about cortisol, but cortisol was the biggest underlying factor for me personally. So I if you remember a little bit ago when I told you that I hired a private hormone clinic, they had um did functional lab work to determine that I had low progesterone, which by the way, never ever showed up on my standard care, um, my standard blood work that my OBGYN was doing. Um, this took, you know, very special, unique testing, and they told me it was low progesterone. So, fast forward to when I started doing all of this research, I was very curious about um cortisol and the connection. Um, they found that my cortisol was dangerously high, like to the point of burnout. Um, and so I could probably go on about this forever, but I'm trying to keep it short as possible. Um your cortisol is your stress hormone. It is what keeps us alive, it is what wakes us up in the morning, it's protecting our body from danger. So the cortisol connection to pregnancy and infertility is when your cortisol hormone doesn't fluctuate throughout the day like it's supposed to, if the first thing that you're doing this in the morning is reaching for a cup of coffee, looking at your phone, um, your cortisol is going to spike um at an abnormal rhythm and it's going to stay elevated for a prolonged period of time. So what happens when cortisol is running the show and you go and you put your nervous system into burnout, you're not going to be able to make progesterone. Progesterone is the hormone that your body needs to sustain pregnancy. It is the only way that your body is able to keep a safe environment for a baby to safely implant and grow and develop. So I learned that my cortisol was dangerously high and my progesterone is low. Now I'm at the point where I've been working on my regulating my nervous system. Um, and that's literally what my entire day is about all of the time is making sure that I am protecting my nervous system. I may not be able to ever make progesterone um enough on my own. I will probably always have to be a progesterone depositories going forward. Um, but knowing that was such a crucial piece for me, and it's what something, what something that I wish every woman knew. If you were struggling with recurring pregnancy loss, if you're struggling with infertility, you might need to look at the stressors in your life. That's that could be mental, you know, all the tolls that our body is put on every single day. In fertility and miscarriage is such trauma to the body. Whether you think that you're strong enough to handle it or not, your body is trying to tell you something. It's trying to tell you that it's not a safe place and that it is too stressed out and that your nervous system is dysregulated. And so there's there's things that you can do to work on your nervous system regulation. Um, and focusing on your gut health, your your nutrition is probably the biggest piece. Also, um, physical activity. Let's talk about that because I'm sure that's one of your favorite subjects. Um, women like to overdo it because, you know, especially I'm 37 years old, and it gets to the point where like women want to bounce back, they want to have this ideal body, they want to look like, you know, everybody in the magazines telling them that they need to look like, um, or vice versa, the opposite. They, you know, my body is beautiful no matter what. I can eat whatever I want. Um, both of those are extremely opposite and extremely unhealthy. Um, because what you fuel your body with is going to make or break your ability for your body to feel safe. Um, overdoing it in your workouts is extremely unhealthy to your hormones, is extremely unhealthy to your nervous system. Um, and I'm sure that you've spoken on that plenty of times, but that's just a small piece of regulating your nervous system. That's very important. Um, and the other is nutrition. Um, women are severely depleted. Um, when you go through pregnancy or pregnancy loss, your body is losing all these key nutrients and it's it's not able to feel safe. Um, so we need to focus more on nourishing our body and less on this diet culture. Um, I it drove my me nuts every time my sister's like, oh, well, I can only have this many calories or this much fat or this many carbs. And like, it's not about what the numbers are, it's about what is the nutrition that you're intaking throughout the day. It's not about calories. Stop counting calories. I could eat 3,000 calories if I'm eating, you know, grass-ide beef and I've tallow as my fats or avocado, sweet potatoes as my carbs. Like that is all nourishing stuff to your body. You don't need to restrict that kind of stuff. The stuff that you should be restricting, anything processed, anything, you know, alcohol, um, seed oils, the stuff that causes inflammation in the body. Because inflammatory inflammation. Inflammation is a key trigger to pregnancy loss. Um, and then the final thing that I started, you know, researching was environmental toxins because that also contributes to the other things, three things that I mentioned gut health, nervous system, and nutrition. Environmental toxin exposure, we cannot not be exposed to any kind of toxins in the world that we live in. It is depleting the nutrition in our soil, it is polluting our air, the the air that we breathe in and our lungs are processing, um, our skincare, our hair care, the water that we drink, everything is so polluted with toxins. And a lot of people in my life have called me crazy for overanalyzing all of this stuff, but there is so much clinical data and research about how these environmental toxins um contribute to what's called endoctrine disruptors, and that is directly affecting your hormones. So, yes, going low toxic as possible is something that is extremely, extremely important to your fertility and your overall health as well.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Okay, you're speaking my language. So I talk a ton about hormone health because I had hypothalamic amenorrhea, which is like, um I don't know if you've heard of it, just a missing cycle from overtraining and under-eating. And so I struggled with that for a while, and I had to figure out how to balance my cortisol and how to get my cycle back and then conceive. And I know all about like progesterone and how it's impacted in the luteal phase and um how we want enough um of every hormone, estrogen, especially too, for ovulation and LH and all those things. Um, super passionate about it. So, you sharing all of that, I just I love it. And I think it's definitely not talked about enough. And I'm kind of in the running space, and there's a lot of female runners and athletes who neglect their fertility. They train really hard, they're not eating satiating foods, they're not resting enough, they're not leaning into what I like to think of as our femininity, which is our fertility, right? We're feminine creatures, we're meant to be fertile and we're meant to do things differently than men. And I think that gets very much missed, right? Um, and it's it's a tricky balance, especially if you like to be active. But Sarah, I'd love to hear you kind of mentioned every day you're working on balancing your nervous system. So why don't you walk us through like what a typical day would look like for you, things that contribute to a more relaxed nervous system, and maybe things that you used to do that you cut out to make sure that you're really balancing out your hormones?

SPEAKER_00 24:37

That's a great question. And this is probably the first thing that I teach. Um, because everybody, when they first start out on this, they're like, okay, what can I do that feels achievable? Um and it's funny because a lot of people they get very upset when I tell them about their coffee habits. Because I mean, coffee is life, right? Like I I love a good cup of coffee. Um, but a lot of women don't understand that um this this habit that they have of waking up and reaching for a cup of coffee is destroying their hormones. Um, and I know that it seems such a small thing, but it's actually the small habits that make the greatest impact. And um how you set the tone for the day, how you wake up every morning is gonna set the your cortisol rhythm, it's gonna help stabilize your blood sugar, which impacts fertility, um, and it's just gonna create safety. So the very first thing that I do, um, which is different than I did two years ago, is I stopped reaching for my phone. And um, that's hard for me. It is. Um so I make sure that I give myself a good 10 minutes, 10 minutes at least, up to a half hour if you can, um, I get morning sunlight. So I live in the east coast of Canada. It is quite cold here for six months of the year. So I am not a fan of cold. But if you ideally it's best if you go outside and get you get 10 minutes of fresh air, sun on your face for 10 minutes. But um, if you can't do that, if you're like me and you don't like the cold, um, open a window. Um, try to get that sun on your face for you know, five, ten minutes. Um, I also use things like red light therapy. Um, I use circadian light bulbs. So your circadian rhythm is linked to your nervous system. And um, I have special light bulbs in my house that I turn on throughout the day um that help regulate your circadian rhythm. So those are two um things that I have bought to you know help support my nervous system. Um, but sunlight is free, completely free. So if you can get daily sunlight. Um that's step two. Step three, do not reach for that cup of coffee. Instead, I want you to have breakfast within 30 minutes of waking. 30 grams of protein. Um, so just you know, eggs and toasts or an avocado toast is not gonna cut it. That is going to um keep your blood sugar unstable. So it's really, really important that you focus on protein here. Um, through every meal of the day, actually, you're gonna want to focus on protein, healthy fats, fiber, um, and that's gonna help stabilize your blood sugar. But breakfast, you know, the saying of breakfast is the most important meal of the day is actually true. It's not just a saying, it's very, very true. You need to set the tone for your cortisol rhythm, your blood sugar to create safety in your body. So those are the three easiest habits that I say, well, maybe not so easy for some. Uh, it did take me some time to get over the coffee thing. Um, but then after um, you know, you have your breakfast, it is safe to have that cup of coffee if if that's something that you feel like your body can tolerate. Now, I had a completely dysregulated nervous system, and um, it is no longer safe for me to have coffee, at least on a regular basis. I have it as a treat sometime. Um, but here's the thing about coffee, and I know people are gonna be really butthurt about this, but it's going to um, it is a stimulant, it's going to spike your cortisol in an unhealthy way. Um, if you are someone that struggles, and you know, you have I've I've done the lab work to show um how dysregulated my nervous system was, um it is not safe. It's going to um disrupt your cortisol rhythm. And that's not a permanent thing. So some people are like, oh, well, that's ridiculous. I'm not gonna give that up. Um, it's not something that you can't cut out for a period of time and let your body heal and regulate, and then you can slowly introduce it back again if you want. Um, I choose to have things like matcha or you know, green tea, or um caffeine that is less stimulating on the body. It's not that I'm cutting out caffeine completely, I'm just having low stimulating um caffeine. So I'm still getting my you know my energy boost, but um yeah, I'm just creating that safety first thing in the morning as much as possible. And then throughout the day, like I said, focus on protein. Um, and then your nightly routine is um equally as important as your nighttime or your morning routine. Um, I again I use the circadian light bulbs. So the circadian light bulbs that I use have three different settings. They in the morning um help produce energy. Um, and then at night they have um like a window, so it's triggering to your brain to start winding down. They're they are flicker-free. Um, a lot of people don't understand that the lights that we use throughout our house have a constant flicker that are, you know, you can't see to the naked eye, but um it's actually disrupting your circadian rhythm. So if you want to, you can change them out for red lights, or you can use a circadian light, um, you know, whatever your preference is, but then you know, set a time frame where you're putting your phone away too, because the the blue light is going to affect your brain um and affect your sleep because sleep is one of the most important things to supporting your nervous system, to being healthy um and supporting your fertility, sleep, quality sleep. Like I'm talking a minimum of six to seven hours. Um, I do not function without eight hours of sleep, I just don't. Protect your sleep. Set a bedtime routine. Um, I always say that I'm going to be asleep by 10 p.m. So um a lot of people are like, oh, well, I can't, I have this and this and this and this. But if you um, you know, are a morning person and you're waking up early anyway, 10 p.m. is not that difficult to, you know, start programming and start creating a routine. Um, just focus on, you know, getting that six, seven hours of solid sleep, protecting your sleep cycles. Um, a lot of the times I was using a Fitbit to track my sleep to make sure that I am getting, you know, at least three REM cycles and that my sleep scores were in the 80s. So that way I knew that my, you know, my nervous system was being protected at night too. So routine is everything.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Yeah, no, awesome, awesome. All those things. And those are all things too that I, especially when I was going through hormone healing, which you could call it period recovery, um, had to implement too, you know, moving the ca caffeine around definitely took a break from caffeine all around. Um, and something I like that you mentioned too is that for a lot of people, this isn't forever. This is like we need to get to the root of what's causing your dysregulation, and then you might be able to go back to some things that you love. So I'd like to hear uh, have you been able to be more flexible since getting getting your nervous system under control? Have you found there's more spontaneity involved again? Or how have you been able to manage that? And is that something you think most people can regain?

SPEAKER_00 32:11

So two it was two years and oh my gosh, it's almost been two and a half years. Yeah. So October 2023 is when I had my last um pregnancy loss, and that's where I started doing the deep dive into all of this. Um, I feel like in the past two and a half years, um with each cycle, I started learning so much more. Like my brain just started being able to not only read, but like thoroughly understand what this information meant. And it's kind of like I was doing a trial with myself. I was implementing these strategies, um, and I would learn something new. So it's like I constantly feel like everything that I learn is constantly evolving. Um to to answer your question, I don't think that um I have re-implemented any of my bad habits. I I'm consistently evolving new good habits, um, but in a healthy way. Because I feel like a lot of times when I have these conversations with women, it it gets to the point where like, oh my gosh, I have to cut this out, or you know, I have to change this product, or I have to supplement with this. And it can be so mentally overwhelming. And that's the last thing I want for anyone. This isn't meant to stress you out or make you feel like it's your fault or you're doing a bad job. This is this is just literally things that is going to take a long time to implement and start healing. So I I don't think that it's not a forever thing, but there are things that we should be practicing on the regular and um kind of eliminating the things that just don't work for us. And it's completely up to everybody else because everybody has a personal preference of you know how they reintroduce things. If you feel safe, if your body feels safe enough, you're gonna know. You're gonna know that your body is like, okay, I'm at ease now. So it's safe to reintroduce coffee or whatever, whatever it may be. Um, but here's the thing it's like for me personally, um, now that I know these things, I can't unknown them. So never again, all those years that I spend working for Abercrombie, all of the Abercrombie fierce cologne that I like ingested in my entire life, I can't go back to that. I can't go back to the bathroom bodywork candles. Um, that's like a hard no for me. But, you know, if I'm out and about with my daughter and we want to stop for ice cream or we want to get a treat, like that is a part of my 80-20 rule. And I think it's important that everyone has those 80-20 roles because it's like, you know, you have to do what you're most comfortable with. That's not gonna stress you out. Like, I don't want you to live your life in complete like worry that you're doing something wrong. You know, there's that 20% of the time where you can go out to eat or you can have that ice cream or whatever, but there's there are those things that are hard no for me. Like, I get a lot of pushback from you know, family and friends that oh, your daughter, she can't eat birthday cake. And I'm like, well, sorry, dyes in artificial sugar are hard pass for me. That's that's who I am. Um, after everything that I've learned, I can't unlearn it. So that's a hard pass for me. But some people are like, no problem, it's just a slice of cake once a year. It's fine. And everybody, it's important that you do what you feel most comfortable with.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Yeah, and I think you said it perfectly too, because everyone's everybody, and I wish, you know, I was thinking about this this morning because I was thinking about period recovery and how it's different for every woman postpartum. But like everybody is different, and how easy would it be if everybody did function the same? Because we could be like, oh, this is probably what's wrong, just do this, and you'll get your cycle in perfect condition, but it's not that way. And some people, after years of having core high, like you mentioned, high cortisol, your sensitivity is always there, and you can't necessarily get your HPA access to calm down to the same level that it once was, right? So I think you spoke to that very well without being like yes or no. You basically said it really depends, which I loved, um, because it does. And something you mentioned um that I kind of want to just ask about a little bit before I ask about what you'd recommend people do if they think this is their issue, but um, gut health. Are there signs that a woman might be struggling with her gut health? Was this something you personally found out? I know you mentioned cortisol, but um, signs of gut health issues and kind of what women can do to have better gut health.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

Yes, and especially for women um navigating recurring pregnancy loss or infertility. Um, that is a key factor now. Infertility and miscarriage is a sign of there's something going on in your gut. Um be under undernourished and um mental health. People have no idea the gut brain axis. Excuse me, um your mental health is directly connected to your gut through the gut brain axis. And so, you know, a lot of people's solutions are oh, throw some probiotics on it. I I genuinely thought that for a good amount of time, throw some probiotics on it and you're good. And then you know what happens when I throw started throwing all of those probiotics on my gut, I got SIBO. So SIBO is an upper GI infection because of you're overpopulating the good bacteria. Um, you know, having that broken connection between your gut and your brain, I mean, it's it is going to leave lead to anxiety and depression. And a lot of women don't understand the complexity of postpartum anxiety and depression. I I was like, that's never gonna happen to me after, you know, everything that I've been through. I'm gonna be so blessed to be a mom. Like I'm so excited. Um, but then, you know, anxiety, which I struggled with anxiety my entire life. Um, but there's nothing like postpartum anxiety, and it's the one of the most terrible things that a woman is gonna have to go through. And what what people don't understand, what makes me really frustrated because doctors aren't teaching this, is that your gut microbiome has all this bacteria in it, and when you deliver a baby, um, your body, our bodies just do amazing things. Seriously, we lose gray matter. We learn, I'm I'm not gonna get off sidetracked here, but your body is passing its nutrients onto your baby during delivery. So that leaves mom completely depleted of all key nutrients that you need. It's leaving your gut microbiome completely depleted. And so that's why postchronic anxiety and depression happen because you're left with nothing. Um, I always like to reference, you know, I don't know if you know this, it's a fun fact, but flamingos, they lose their pink. Their mothers lose their pink when they give birth to their baby and they turn gray. Um, and eventually they get their pink back. Um, and you know, there's things that it can take years for that, you know, mother to get her hypothetical pink back. Um, but it's because of the gut microbiome that we're, you know, we give birth and we stop taking our prenatal, um, we're not eating, we're not sleeping, all of these things are disrupting our gut microbiome, which affects our mental health. Um and that goes to the same too with pregnancy loss. That trauma is putting so much stress on your gut microbiome, which directly affects your mental health. Um, and so gut health is probably um the biggest area that I like to focus on. And so signs that you might notice other than mental health, um, a consistent um, you know, bloating, um, signs of you waking up at 2, 3 in the morning and you're restless, you can't get back to sleep, um, you know, digestion issues, um, you know, there can be a there can be a wide range of variety of things that might some people are like, oh, well, I had this or I had that. Like, not everybody has the same like common symptoms, you know. But I feel like the most important would be to keep an eye on um is your mental load, your stress, because that's going to affect um every major function in your body. Your gut literally is connected to everything. So start there. Um, be super curious about you know the symptoms that your body is trying to tell you. It's trying, it's literally trying to communicate with you. Miscarriage is a symptom of something your body is waving a red flag and it's trying to get its help. Um, and this is something that I wish doctors um did more of, but you can get a stool test and you can get your GI map test and learn exactly what's going on specifically to your body. So I highly encourage that if you are working with a practitioner that is, you know, a little bit more open to ask for a GI map. And then you can know everything that's going on in your body.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

That's fascinating. I appreciate the flamingo analogy too, because I have a lot of friends who have had babies or even just losses, and they don't, and I've been like, well, you're taking your postnatal too, like it's really important you keep your nutrition up, and they're like, Oh, when I have time, you know, it's just I'm busy. It's like, but it's like you have to take care of your body. You have to make sure you have the nutrition. I really appreciate you speaking to that because um something we also don't talk about is loss, right? And that does this, it has a similar effect on your body, and that's not talked about at all. And I think especially with repeat loss, women don't realize that's happening. And I really appreciate you bringing um light to that. I think it's really important. Um, something I wanted to touch on too. Well, first actually, let's talk about if you think someone, if someone thinks they're experiencing this, right? Like they're having trouble getting pregnant or they're having losses and they don't know um why, whether it's gut health, nervous system, nutrition, environment. Um, what's I know you went so many different avenues, naturopaths, doctors. What would you recommend a woman does right away to get help as opposed to going all those different ways and failing to find the solution?

SPEAKER_00 42:47

Functional lab work. Okay. Um, unfortunately, we're not at the point where modern medicine, and I know that I've been I've been burned one too many times by modern medicine. So um I'm just realizing that there's not enough doctors that have this level of training. Um, you know, I get a lot of pushback, but there's a lot of the doctors in my area that belittle me and make me feel small for even questioning them or you know, doing research outside of the standard care. They they don't they don't like it and they give me pushback. Uh but uh gratefully there are doctors out there that are being very, very vocal and loud about this profound research that's coming out right now, and so um those are the ones that lead more to functional lab work. So I'm gonna explain it in a way that hopefully makes sense. Um, you have your standard blood work that's your OBGYN, your whatever practitioner that you're working with is running. They're probably testing progesterone on day 21. They're probably Measuring TSH, so your thyroid. You know, they're just doing their place basic blood work to just rule out anything major. Like their entire job is to just catch disease. So they're the ones that are going to be able to test for like, you know, chromosome abnormalities, the semen analysis, the morphology, all that. They're going to test for endo, PCOS. They're going to rule out what's major. Okay. That's what they're good at. That's what they're trained to do is catch disease and fix it with medication. But what modern doctors are not taught right now is common root causes that are literally like free things. I have a theory, but I'm not going to get into it. But like these are entire free things that women can do to prepare their bodies. Are you stopping birth control? Are, you know, they do it, they do the standard workup and they say, send your home on your way, have sex and have fun. That's that's it, unfortunately. Um, but there is so much preparation that should go into the body, and it all starts with functional lab work. Um, so you have your um common blood work that they're doing, which basically just tells you, do you have disease? How bad is this? And then you have functional lab work, which is going to tell you how optimal your body is to support life. Um, you know, where your nutrient levels are. Are you depleted? Do you have mold exposure? Um, you know, how badly are these environmental toxins affecting you? Um, you know, what is causing your depletion in certain nutrients? Like, it's going to tell you everything in your body. And so knowing everything that I've been through and all the avenues that I've taken, that is the first place that I tell people to look for because it can be emotionally overwhelming to go to your doctor and they're like, everything looks great. I have no idea what's going on with you. And they truly they they don't know because they're not taught this. Um, so where can you get functional lab work? So I I work with a wellness clinic in the States. Um, they do it virtually. There's there's several avenues that you can take. I don't know if you've heard the Dutch test. Dutch test is an at-home kit that you can order. Um, the company that I work for, same thing. It's they run um lab work through vibrant labs. It's like the Dutch test on steroids. It's so much more complex and it gives you so much more information. Um, but you know, that there's also fertilisus, there's there's all these at-home test kits that you can do. Um, and then a lot of the times you can take that information back to your provider if you so choose. Um, I choose to work with functional providers. Oftentimes, these are the same doctors that were in common, you know, modern medicine and then just got so fed up with the system that they left modern medicine to pursue like more of a holistic or functional way. The doctors that I work with at um the the clinic in the states is you know that's that's their life. They went through personal health struggles and they saw firsthand as a doctor and as a nurse practitioner everything that was wrong with the system, and so they made it better. And so, you know, you can go to any naturopath that maybe function uh specializes in um holistic medicine or um you know functional causes, then they'll help you diagnose, like in that like the Dutch test, for example. They'll tell you, okay, well, this is what your you know your Dutch test is trying to tell you, here's what your levels are at. This is specifically what your body needs to feel safe, and so if if you can, and I know it's it's not everybody's um ability to be able to afford functional hour because it's it's out of pocket. Um, but if you can, that is the first place to start because seeing that data for me, I mean, I cried coming home from my naturopath, tears of joy, but also like relief, finally knowing, finally having those answers in my hand. My body isn't broken, it's just trying to communicate with me and tell me exactly what it needs. And so even though I probably had my blood work ran by my doctors probably a hundred times, especially after my last pregnancy loss, and they thought it was a molar pregnancy. I had to go see, I had to go to blood work twice a week, every week for like three months. And so every single time it came back normal. But it wasn't normal. It it was just not a disease level. So if you can start with functional lab work.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

That, yeah, thank you for sharing all of that because I had the same experience with a doctor, and I think you said it perfectly. They just look for disease, and most people who have fertility issues, they don't have disease, and so the doctor's like, oh, everything's fine, just keep trying. And if a year goes by, we'll send you to a reproductive endocrinologist. Where, as you said, and then I went to a naturopath as well, and I found out a lot more information about my body and about my hormones. Um, I think it's amazing that you spoke to that. I actually had a doctor naturopath. So there's actually naturopaths, and then there's those that have their doctorate in their naturopaths. So I always kind of say, like, go that route because I had one on the podcast and she spoke a lot about how um all the things you mentioned experimental toxins, um, stress levels, nutrition, nervous system, gut health, all those things. She spoke to them at length, and I think I hope that that does become something that healthcare can provide because it's pretty nuts that the main things causing issues we can't even get healthcare for. So hopefully that ends up being the system. But I really I think you said it perfectly to go to functional, figure out what's going on, um, and maybe you know, start with the OB, because maybe there is a case where you have PCOS or something and they can do a little bit for you. But I do think the majority of women, there's much more going on that is more actually easy to address than getting like treatment for PCOS or things like that. Um because there's also an overdiagnosis of PCOS, so it's um it's crazy. But just for the sake of time here, I'd love to kind of close with parting wisdom or advice you have for women who have experienced infertility or loss and just kind of what you want to say to them to give them hope or guidance or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 50:57

Um I will say that I actually had this conversation with someone the other day. Don't stop fighting. Um, I what if you're in your heart your desire is to be a mom, do not stop fighting. Um, I know there's such a mental load that you take on, you know, navigating the most difficult time of your life. Um, and it's challenging when you're can't can't you're constantly met with the word no or we don't know. And you would assume that you know these providers are someone that you can trust and what their word is is final. If you are ever in a position where you hear the word no, and in your gut and in your heart you feel like there's something more going on, do not stop fighting until you get the answers. Get 12 different opinions until someone's like, I believe you, I'm going to find the answers for you. Um, and so I just want you to know do not ever give up on yourself, on your future child. Um, and everything that you are going through um might be might feel like the most difficult time in your life, but once you get through this valley, once you get through the dark times, you will understand everything at that point. And I know this this is hard for women who have aren't blessed with their rainbow baby. I know how it is to feel like these words are just empty words, but when you get to the other side of the valley, you will understand everything that you walked through was for a reason. And so it's very important that um you believe in yourself. Um for me, it's believing in my faith to you know guide me to where I'm meant to be, and that everything that I desire in life will happen if I keep fighting for myself.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

Absolutely, and Sarah, thank you so much. This was amazing, and I think you spoke about oh, there goes my daughter. Um, I think you spoke about all the most important parts here, and I just um thank you for being vulnerable and honest and shedding so much light on such an important topic. I really appreciate it and your time.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

Of course, thank you so much for having me.