Getting Pregnancy Ready

It’s episode 2 of the relaunched Fertility Podcast and it has been amazing hearing what you think of our new sound. This week we’re talking about what to eat when you’re trying to conceive. It can be so overwhelming, and we want to make it easy for you to understand all you need to know.

We speak to Ro Huntriss who is a registered fertility dietician to give you the most up-to-date chat we can on what to eat.

Previously on the podcast, we’ve spoken to a fair few people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to fertility and nutrition and we'll add some other episodes you might want to check out below, but dieticians work slightly differently. Their focus is very much on evidence-based practice and their training to become a dietician involves clinical placements and training to support people with co-existing medical conditions. The way they work is to follow the medical model such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, etc.

Where do you start with nutrition when trying to conceive?

Ro recommends that you consider your own diet and look at the changes that you feel will make your diet healthier. Keeping a food diary is a great thing to do and can give you a really good picture on what kind of foods you’re eating and where you might need to make some changes.

How can I improve my egg health?

It takes around 3 months to influence the health of the egg and some of the nutrients to include are folate (folic acid) - to help reduce the risk of neural tube defect but also help to improve egg development and quality. Omega 3 - in oily fish or as a supplement can play a huge part in improving egg quality. Antioxidants – from fruits, veg, whole grains, nuts, seeds and even meat.

How can I improve Sperm health?

Ro also shares with us her recommendations for sperm health and how a Mediterranean diet and antioxidants are particularly useful such as vitamin C, E, Zinc, Selenium and folate.

Plus, we get the low down on whether you should go gluten and dairy-free – Ro makes it really clear that unless you’re a diagnosed coeliac, it is not recommended to be gluten-free to support fertility as there is no evidence to suggest that this is necessary. Wholegrain is an important part of our diet and needs to be included. If you’re worried you might be intolerant to gluten, ask your GP for a test before removing it out from your diet to be sure. With regards to dairy Ro doesn’t recommend cutting it out unless necessary and if you do, make sure you get your plant-based dairy alternatives in.

We frequently talk about the importance of weight when trying to conceive and probably focus more on being overweight, however being underweight is also a consideration when it comes to fertility. Having a low BMI can cause irregular cycles and therefore ovulatory disorders. Ro recommends that if you’re underweight include olive oil, nuts, seeds and avocado in your diet.

Is it sensible to follow a vegan diet when trying to conceive? Ro says yes but encourages you to have a review with a dietician or nutritionist if you’re struggling to conceive. What about restrictive diets? Ro discourages this as these low-calorie diets are so restrictive and research shows that people that follow these diets don’t get the best outcomes.

We’ll be catching up with Ro in the very near future to chat about preparing for IVF but in the meantime, you can find more about Ro here:

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Other Nutrition chats:

Listen to Melanie Brown talk about a diet for sperm health

Listen to Angela Heap talking about diet and your genes

Listen to Rosie Tadman talking about sperm health

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Ask the Expert - send your q's to [email protected]

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THE FERTILITY PODCAST IS BACK WITH A NEW SOUND, A NEW RESIDENT EXPERT BUT THE SAME MISSION.

We’re so pleased to be back with you, having taken some time to really work out what the best future plan for The Fertility Podcast is, and it’s to clearly guide you along the way to pregnancy. We’re going through all that we think could help and sharing previous episodes to make sure you can really get stuck in. We can’t guarantee you a baby, nobody can.

But we can promise you information you can trust and a lovely community to come and be a part of.

Our first episode back is talking about what we wished we’d know before starting to conceive. To be honest it’s what we should have been taught in school.

Those teenage years and when you’re in your early 20’s can be pretty worrying if you have unprotected sex. It’s drummed into us NOT to get pregnant and what you should do to avoid getting pregnant. Sadly for so many of us, we never realised as we were never told, that our fertility is so finite.

That is what we’re here to do. Kate is SO passionate about empowering women to understand their cycle and the pair of us are talking through what you need to be thinking about.

Research shows that time to conception is reduced with fertility awareness knowledge so for the next few weeks we’re talking cycles and diets.

In this episode, we discuss how best to monitor your cycle with the different methods available and in particular what works and what doesn’t!

We’ll be talking soon with a brilliant new app available to help you that has worked with women all around the globe. We also want to be very clear on the language we use as one of Kate’s pet hates is the fact that a normal cycle is often referred to as a 28 days cycle and that you ovulate on day 14.

FACT - Women’s cycles vary hugely and can still be normal when shorter or longer than 28 days. We want to dispel this myth once and for all.

It’s also so important that if you are trying to get pregnant in a heterosexual couple both of you understand about fertility health. Since this podcast launched in 2015 we have talked a lot about men’s fertile health and we’ll be revisiting it again, don’t you worry. The good thing is there is much more awareness today about the issue, then there was 7 years ago, but it needs to be taken seriously. We discuss the issue of protein shake use and how they can affect sperm health, as can smoking, recreational drugs and too much alcohol. It's so important that if you are in a couple you both take responsibility for this and get yourselves in the best place possible to improve your chances of conceiving. Men need to realise that infertility issues are 50/50 male to female.

We’ll be talking over the coming weeks about optimising your fertility and be sure to join us to carry on this conversation in our closed facebook group where you can also submit questions to Dr James our expert for next time.

Make sure you head over to our  Instagramme  for details of our fab giveaway happening for launch week only. Closes Friday 26th Feb 11.59pm.

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Thanks to our episode sponsor Pharmasure who create the nutritional supplement Impryl, which enables your body to maintain its natural metabolic balance and so ensures the very best chance of pregnancy - to find out more visit fertilityfamily.co.uk

In this montage, you’ll hear from  Emma Cox from Endometriosis UK about how the diagnosis of endometriosis, which all too often goes undetected for 7 years, can be made. Hear the full episode.

Plus we want to make sure you know how you can improve your Gut health and what you can do to aid your fertility as we speak to Dr. Cecilia Kitic the founder of The IVF Project and Dr. Sue Reed who is a Dietician and microbiologist. Hear the full episode.

We also spoke with Fertility Nutritionist Melanie Brown about the importance of sleep and your fertility, and how you can improve your sleep hygiene. You can listen to this episode here.

 My lovely co-host Kate explains what we need to make sure are thinking about with our menstrual cycle which you can hear in full here.

And when it comes to PCOS, we spoke with Kym Campbell about how PCOS affected her family building and what she did to overcome that. Have a listen to the full episode here.

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We are delighted to welcome Professor Joyce Harper to this week's podcast. Joyce is a Professor of Reproductive Science at the Institute of Women’s Health at University College London and Director of the Centre for Human Reproduction. Joyce has an incredible amount of knowledge when it comes to women’s health.

With over 30 years of experience working in the field of fertility awareness education, she is so passionate.

Finally, Joyce has had the time to finish a book, she started writing 4 years ago Joyce covering the whole of a woman’s lifespan from menarche to menopause.

You can imagine how fascinating it is going to be. It comes out next year and is described as

"The only guide you'll ever need to understand how your body works, from the menstrual cycle to the menopause: no myths, no misinformation, no scare stories - just scientific evidence that shines a light on the facts you need to know. "

Finally, the book we all wish we'd read earlier.

Joyce hopes that her book and all the information it contains will help men and women have a greater understanding of their fertility so that they may avoid needing assisted conception.

A powerhouse when it comes to research, Joyce has recently completed a study on fertility apps and found that the majority,  used a calendar method using just cycle lengths which gives us very little information and using natural fertility indicators such as BBT, cervical mucus, cervix, and OPK’s (note not always reliable for women with PCOS).

She tells us about a new method that used carbon dioxide to measure fertility - fascinating eh.

We talk about how useful, but equally how misleading, social media can be when it comes to fertility information and perpetuating myths. The book looks at the scientific information and gives women the bottom line and the evidence they need. She is concerned that women can be very vulnerable when they trying to conceive and can be sucked in by bold claims on for example alternative therapies.

Joyce has been recently auditing the IVF clinic website and the IVF Add ons they offer. She found that many clinics in the UK are charging thousands of pounds for unproven treatments and that bold claims are made for many IVF Add ons, such as PGT-A, assisted hatching, and time-lapse imaging. Worryingly, it seems that the clinics are telling patients to ignore the evidence. Joyce has found it hard standing up to her colleagues on this contentious issue but is determined to get this information out to patients through her book.

Joyce talks about the Fertility Education Initiative that aims to get fertility education out to all. This initiative has now become international and all of their campaignings have, at last, got the word ‘fertility’ on the school curriculum. More work needs to be done to reach a younger community on the platforms they use.

Are we seeing a shift in Fertility education? Whilst there is so much great work being done, Joyce thinks we’re still in a bubble and hardly scratching the surface.

Please share this episode with as many people as you think may benefit from it. Let’s use our ‘bubble’ to reach other ‘bubbles’ and get talking about fertility awareness.

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In this episode we’re back with Dr. Malu Consultant in Sexual Health and Clinical Director of Clarewell Clinics based in Birmingham and Leicester, talking more about STIs and fertility.

Have you been to an STI test? How comfortable would you feel about going to an STI clinic? Does this fill you with dread?

Dr. Malu explains exactly what a hydrosalpinx is. It’s something you may have heard about or may have had diagnosed on a scan, but the name doesn’t exactly explain what’s in the tin! Hydrosalpinx refers to a fallopian tube that is blocked with ‘watery’ fluid and is typically caused by infection.

Erectile Dysfunction can have a huge impact on fertility, especially when it comes to the stress of TTC and performance anxiety. Kate asks how frequently is ED due to psychological issues and how much is in relation to physical aspects? Dr. Malu tells us that in young men, ED is predominantly due to psychological issues and also lifestyle such as alcohol intake, etc, but in older men, it may be a mixture of both the physical and psychological aspects.

Over the years with all the advances in drug treatments for HIV, men and women can now live perfectly normal lives with HIV, but what are the implications for TTC with an HIV diagnosis? Dr. Malu explains how well HIV can now be managed and that if one partner is being treated effectively and the virus is undetectable then the risks of passing on HIV to a partner are virtually zero. Similarly, if a woman becomes pregnant the risks of passing the infection to the baby are virtual zero. However, if an individual is not diagnosed and does not use a condom, then the risks of passing the infection to a partner are high, and passing the infection to the baby is 30-50%.

As a final note, Dr. Malu encourages all men and women who are trying to conceive to seek advice about STIs. Get empowered and take a test. You can take a look here for more information on the different STIs we’ve chatted about.

For even more online support with your fertility and exclusive content, become a Patreon today for just £11 a month, you'll get access to more Q&As with Kate and me more regularly as well as Q&As with our expert guests.

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In this episode of our Later Years series, we focus on a real-life fertility story and welcome TV personality and model Rhian Sugden to the show.

Rhian and her husband,  Coronation Street actor Oliver Mellor have been together for 8 years and a year ago after fertility tests, Rhian was told the devastating news that her ovarian reserve was very low and she would need IVF. At the time of recording, she was about to start her 3rd round of IVF. Rhian has been advised to consider a donor egg, but at the moment, she just wants to give it one more try - an emotion that we’re sure is familiar with many of you.

Both Rhian and her husband are in the public eye, and their journey so far has been all about living this experience publicly. It’s been a rocky road so far. Unfortunately, Rhian has experienced some negative comments and has been trolled on social media, but equally, Rhian has found support from women in similar situations, on Instagram, through sharing all she is going through.

During Rhian’s IVF treatment she started to notice a strange side effect – an increase in freckles! Rhian’s IVF medication caused hyperpigmentation of her skin. Hyperpigmentation is not well researched, but women do report this side effect and it is quite likely the false ‘menopausal state’ that IVF meds propel you into, could be the reason why this occurs for some women.

Rhian has looked into what’s involved with donor eggs. We chat about epigenetics and how it is possible for a woman to influence the genetic make-up of the donor egg once in utero. Rhian now feels really positive about this option and is no longer fearful of considering this option to create her family should she need to.

Sadly, since recording Rhian let us know that her 3rd IVF failed. Rhian and Oliver are very much in our thoughts and we did make sure Rhian was happy for us to still publish our conversation, which she gave us her blessing.

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Do you know where to find reliable information about your fertility? Today we speak to Matt Prior a Fertility Consultant Gynaecologist in Reproductive medicine at Newcastle Fertility Centre.

As well as working at Newcastle Fertility Centre, Matt works with Kate providing consultations for Dr. Fertility. Matt is passionate about patient information and on a mission to improve the quality of patient information, founded The Big Fertility Project.

Matt talks about the different types of information available to fertility patients, whether this is patient information leaflets, patients sharing their stories, information via fertility influencers, commercial information from clinics, and other organizations and media information. Matt’s ambition is to bring this information together in a collaboration between patients and professionals to produce better quality information than we have currently available.

Matt shared with us the research he undertook into miscarriage research – The Miscarriage Priority Partnership this identified the top 10 aspects that should be researched in miscarriage. This research involved a collaboration between patients and professionals to establish what aspects were most important to patients.

Matt aims to find good sources of information and present it in a more accessible and engaging way that is more appealing to patients. We talk about the rise of fertility social media influencers and how whilst they share fantastic information and break down barriers, sometimes this information can be biased if influencers are promoting products and caution is needed.

We talk about the benefits of patients sharing their stories, but it is important to be mindful that because someone may have had a negative (or positive) experience of, for example, a procedure, it doesn’t mean to say that it will always be this way for you.

If you’re interested in getting involved with The Big Fertility Project and sharing your story – get in touch via the links below.

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Welcome to our final episode of The Later Years Series. We're hoping to bring you one final episode of 2020  just before Christmas and we’re very much hoping that the two of us can get together to record in person  - Covid restrictions permitting!

This week we’re talking egg freezing with Catherine Hendy author, yoga teacher, and co-founder of Elanza Wellness, and Sophia Money-Coutts journalist and creator of the podcast Freezing Time.

So, you might have reached 35 or over and you’re thinking what next?

Catherine did after her marriage broke down at the age of 32 and found that there were so many presumptions about a life - childfree. This made her interested in finding out more and eventually made the decision to freeze her eggs.

Sophia has recently frozen her eggs and shared her egg freezing journey in her fantastically funny, informative, and emotional podcast. It is a must-listen if you’re considering freezing your eggs or even if you’re about to embark on your first round of IVF.

Catherine wanted to find out about the misconceptions of egg freezing and the questions women want to know. She found that the common questions were women considering if they’re the right age, the pros and cons, how much egg freezing costs.

We ask for Sophia and Catherine’s opinion on fertility MOT testing. Sophia found the test really useful as it helped her with decision-making going forward. Catherine made the decision to go to a clinic to have the hormone test along with the antral follicle count scan to provide more in-depth information.

Sophia talks about the importance of feeling really comfortable with your choice of clinic and doctor. She recommends attending clinic open evenings to help you make a decision on which clinic. Sophia decided on the Lister Clinic and (in her words) the ‘lovely Dr. James’.

Natalie asks whether they considered freezing embryos as well as eggs. Sophia felt that this decision was rather rushed and didn’t want to ‘panic buy sperm’, so in the end made the decision to not freeze embryos on this occasion but doesn’t rule it out for the future. Catherine was only 32 when she froze her eggs and felt as though she had enough time to meet a partner. Therefore, freezing embryos was not really on her radar at that time.

Finally, we chat about how they both feel about their decision to freeze their eggs in a Covid world. Sophia says her overriding feelings are relief, positivity, and gratefulness. She still is questioning whether or not she feels broody yet but after a year of Covid, she’s looking forward to a bit of traveling before making any more decisions. Catherine on the other hand, two days after freezing her eggs met the partner she now lives with, so time will tell….

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In this latest episode of The Fertility Podcast, we continue to focus on 'The Later Years'.

We're in conversation with Lucy Lines,  an embryologist based in Australia. Lucy worked as a clinical embryologist for many years and following redundancy made the decision to take a different path and founded Two Lines Fertility.

It's always fascinating hearing from an embryologist and Lucy explained how early on in her career, she had to sit a personality test to see if she was the right person to take on the role. She explains how it takes a certain type of person to become an embryologist.

Just as we are, Lucy is also passionate about fertility education and talked about a recent patient that had been trying to conceive naturally and with IVF for over a year with no success. She explained how it became evident that this couple had very little knowledge of their cycle and when the woman ovulated.

Lucy was shocked that no one, had anyone talked to her about the signs of ovulation!

This is something that frustrates both Kate and Lucy  - that women and couples aren’t given this vital information, especially as research shows fertility awareness education reduces time to conception.

Lucy uses her years of experience to advise patients on the ins and outs of embryology and what it really means when an embryo is 3 cells on day 2 or 6 cells on day 3.

She helps couples understand the science behind it so they can make informed decisions. Lucy also explains the importance of carefully searching for information and guidance on the internet and always using Google Scholar for evidence-based information.

If you've ever wanted to understand the differences between egg quality and egg health, then Lucy does it perfectly.

'Egg quality is the genetic stuff and the things we can’t change like eye color, height, etc. Egg health, on the other hand, is the stuff we can change – such as improving egg health by healthy lifestyle choices and the right supplementation for you. '

Lucy recommends spending 90-120 days before conception by concentrating on these aspects to give yourself the best chances.

Like our recent guest Professor Joyce Harper, Lucy is passionate about raising awareness of your future fertile self with children and their parents. She shares an example of young people seeing their parents use synthetic fragrances and beauty products, or heating food in plastic containers, and how these chemicals are endocrine disrupters and disrupt the fine balance of both male and female hormones.

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In the 3rd episode of our Early Years Series we chat with an old friend and colleague of Kate’s Dr. Manoj Malu who is a Consultant in Sexual Health and Clinical Director of Clarewell Clinics based in Birmingham and Leicester.

When did you last consider your sexual health? Was it something that you thought more about in your 20s but since settling down it’s not even been a passing thought? Today’s episode might just get you thinking again…….

Meet Dr. Malu we chat about the general awareness of STIs and how these infections can impact your fertility. He tells us the less common infections such as Syphilis are on the rise and explains what really is bacterial vaginosis. Dr. Malu discusses how pelvic inflammatory disease can have a devastating impact on your fertility and raises the issue of a little-known infection called mycoplasma genitalium. This infection is very common, as common as chlamydia, but it is not routinely tested for in the majority of clinics!

On the podcast, we frequently talk about how there needs to be more joined-up working among fertility doctors and urologists/andrologists, etc and Dr. Malu adds to this further discussing the importance of adding comprehensive STI investigations and examination to the mix.

Tune in next week to hear more from Dr. Malu when he talks about what on earth is a hydrosalpinx, erectile dysfunction, and the amazing advances in HIV treatment. In the meantime, you can take a look here for more information on the different STIs we’ve chatted about, including mycoplasma genitalium.

For even more online support with your fertility and exclusive content, become a Patreon today for just £11 a month, you'll get access to more Q&A's with Kate and me more regularly as well as Q&As with our expert guests.

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