Getting Pregnancy Ready

This episode has a slightly unusual intro as I had to record it whilst driving, my recorder was safely stored in my glove compartment or whatever the bit in the middle is, by the handbrake.. it does affect the quality a bit, so I apologize. However, I'm just back from Fertility Fest and needed to go and pick up my son and get this episode finished.. Hence the need to multi-task. You'll hear a quick chat from Jessica Hepburn from Fertility Fest who I did an insta live with after the session today (Sunday 28th April) and I've lifted the audio, seeing Lives disappear.. again a slight quality issue. I also wanted you to get to watch the Fertility Fight Club live stream which you can do so here 

Now onto my guest.Meet Melanie Brown, a fertility nutritionist and former guest on this podcast. I wanted to speak with Mel after I saw her post this on her instagram

So I wanted to know more. Now, this chat was back in January, so Mel does refer to refers to it being dark in the afternoons and getting lighter ( don't get confused if you're listening in April when I've released it. 

Mel was keen to know about the effects of circadian rhythms on your fertility and whether they can affect it. We spoke about how it’s been known for a long time that shift workers, stewardesses, and pilots have menstrual irregularities and that there is a great deal of evidence that fertility is diminished. 

But what about the rest of us, working normal hours. Does it affect us? Well it seems it does

The luteinizing hormone that surges mid-cycle is under the 24-hour body clock control so disturbances could affect ovulation and Uterine receptivity. 

If implantation doesn't happen, despite embryos being quality and blastocyst… everything is done to receive the embryo (scratch, washes then we need to start to consider the stress  on the body from  sleep deprivation affecting uterine receptivity

There was also discussion about TNF Alpha - related to Natural killer cells being linked to sleep stress pathway. 

Mel explained how she always recommend my clients use a SAD lamp as there is evidence that getting 20 min of natural daylight in the morning before 9 am can have an extremely positive effect and can set your master clock

Did you know that IVF success rates are lower in the winter,  higher in the spring and summer?

I think it’s also to do with you get up in the dark, go to work in the dark, artificial light and she spoke about 

Mel spoke about the benefits of Melatonin and how in order to prepare to go to sleep, make sure you are not in a bright bedroom, checking your phone and then turning off the light and hoping to go to sleep

We spoke about Sleep Hygiene. Warm bed cold room… we evolved to sleep in cold temperatures having the heating on in the winter is bad for our sleep

We spoke about whether sleeping before midnight is more valuable than after and how it's the quantity of sleep. If you go after midnight you’re more likely to get less sleep

 The cut-off point for sleep damage is UNDER 6 hours

Did you know you can do SLEEP CATCH up at the weekend it’s been discovered you can… just do it for one night…  it’s quite technical so have a listen to how Mel explains it, but do remember that sleep is our wear and repair time and we try and we might get out of it… we can’t do it. Remember that the environment that interrupts our sleep, so use blackout blinds and earbuds.

Women with diminished ovarian research are 30 times more likely to have disturbed sleep? 

Mel gave great advice on how to approach sleep when you are going through IVF… sometimes it's easier to think of it as a project. I know I did like it was a science experiment. Mel said 'You have to think - I have to be in bed for at least 7 hours, so I have some spare time to get back to sleep and I'm not going to get anxious. It’s like school nights you’re getting as much sleep as you can. If you don’t get enough sleep something else will give - the immune system you have to take the best care of yourself and sleep is an essential part of that…"

Do have a listen to my previous chat with Mel about how a Mediterranean diet can really benefit male fertility here 

Firstly, huge apologies, if you have been wondering why this podcast is late. I moved house at the weekend and with the best will in the world couldn't find one of my cables that meant I could share this content with you.

You see, last week I hosted a panel event for Clearblue for the launch of its Ovulation Test System and spoke to Dr. Sarah Jarvis, a  GP and author of Pregnancy for Dummies, and Dr. Fiona Clancy who works for Clearblue about the issues affecting our knowledge about our menstrual cycle.

Had conducted a survey after a report found that the inclusion of both partners in reproductive health discussions is crucial for healthy pregnancies and positive outcomes for parents and children. Overall findings indicated that couples need to talk more when it comes to trying to conceive however what was interesting was that potential dads are listening and learning so they can be part of pregnancy conversations from the start.

Nearly a sixth (15%) of male respondents said that when it came to pregnancy planning they didn’t feel very involved, whereas 91% of women felt their partner was very much part of the conversation. The research also showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any point in their cycle, compared to only 21% of men who chose this option.

The research showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any time in their cycle, compared to only 21% of men who chose this option. Perhaps even more surprisingly, nearly nine out of ten women (88%) failed to identify the most accurate description of the menstrual cycle, with 41% mistakenly believing it to be the often-quoted average length of 28-days, despite their own experiences of cycles.

However, nearly a quarter of men (23%) and women (24%) surveyed correctly identified that successful conception is most likely to occur 2-3 weeks before a woman’s period starts. How is that possible? Guys what did you learn in sex education that we didn't!

It's clear that we need to know more about our cycles.. I'm going to be chatting more with my pals Dr. Fertility about their recent cycle savvy campaign soon hopefully. In the meantime, I'd love to hear about your experience of monitoring your cycle. Is it something that you feel empowered by, does it stress you out?  Email me [email protected]

To find out more visit Clearblue Firstly, huge apologies, if you have been wondering why this podcast is late. I moved house at the weekend and with the best will in the world couldn't find one of my cables that meant I could share this content with you.

You see, last week I hosted a panel event for Clearblue for the launch of its Ovulation Test System and spoke to Dr. Sarah Jarvis, a  GP and author of Pregnancy for Dummies, and Dr. Fiona Clancy who works for Clearblue about the issues affecting our knowledge about our menstrual cycle.

Had conducted a survey after a report found that the inclusion of both partners in reproductive health discussions is crucial for healthy pregnancies and positive outcomes for parents and children. Overall findings indicated that couples need to talk more when it comes to trying to conceive however what was interesting was that potential dads are listening and learning so they can be part of pregnancy conversations from the start.

Nearly a sixth (15%) of male respondents said that when it came to pregnancy planning they didn’t feel very involved, whereas 91% of women felt their partner was very much part of the conversation. The research also showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any point in their cycle, compared to only 21% of men who chose this option.

The research showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any time in their cycle, compared to only 21% of men who chose this option. Perhaps even more surprisingly, nearly nine out of ten women (88%) failed to identify the most accurate description of the menstrual cycle, with 41% mistakenly believing it to be the often-quoted average length of 28-days, despite their own experiences of cycles.

However, nearly a quarter of men (23%) and women (24%) surveyed correctly identified that successful conception is most likely to occur 2-3 weeks before a woman’s period starts. How is that possible? Guys what did you learn in sex education that we didn't!

It's clear that we need to know more about our cycles... I'm going to be chatting more with my pals Dr. Fertility about their recent cycle savvy campaign soon hopefully. In the meantime, I'd love to hear about your experience of monitoring your cycle. Is it something that you feel empowered by, does it stress you out?  Email me [email protected]

To find out more visit Clearblue 

How do you feel about the connection between your body and mind during your fertility treatment?

This episode is an insight into how far it can go, with my guest Russell Davies explaining the personal development work he did on himself after the eight-year struggle he and his wife had with infertility. I almost fell off my chair when he told me that nobody ever tested him! Once the pair had reached a point where his wife who had been dealing with PCOS for many years and got her cycle sorted, they thought they were ready to go. But it still wasn't happening. Only at this point was Russell tested and the results were so poor the consultant asked him whether he had been exposed to high levels of radiation!

Russell talked about how he embarked on a four-month journey to improve his result, using acupuncture, making lifestyle changes, monitoring his alcohol intake, and wearing baggy pants.. yet the next test showed an even worse result and the pair were preparing themselves for ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection)

He closed down emotionally, not wanting to burden his wife and so our chat was to highlight the importance of lifting a lid on our emotions, especially men who are all too often left to feel they need to 'be a man in these situations and don't talk.

Find out about how you can try to open up and find a place of peace without giving up on what you are wanting to achieve. We talked about accepting where you are today and how that does not mean you don’t want it to be different tomorrow.

Follow Russell on Facebook here

You can get a discount on Russell's hypnosis packages using the code FP at the checkout. Just visit his website here 

I've met Barbara a few times more and she is such a wonderfully, passionate lady. Dedicated to helping others I was really looking forward to talking more with her about her work.

Barbara founded Seren Reproductive Reflexology and is the Chair of the Association of Reproductive Reflexologists. For the past twenty years, Barbara has been practicing as a reflexologist and has developed successful treatment plans for enhancing and treating fertility issues. Now considered to be one of Europe’s leading fertility practitioners she has trained hundreds of reflexologists to use the methods she has developed to great effect.

In demand as a speaker on this subject, she lectured last year at the RIEN international reflexology conference held in Madeira and this year is holding a workshop at the Danish Reflexology Association’s conference.

Seren is dedicated to tackling infertility and to enhancing fertility through reflexology, hypnotherapy, and other holistic therapies. Seren specializes in the treatment of infertility, particularly for couples undergoing assisted fertility treatments such as IUI and IVF/ICSI. Find out more about Seren Natural Fertility here and Reproductive Reflexologists here

You can also follow her on  Facebook and Twitter

In this episode, I also talked about journalist Emma Barnett and her article in The Sunday Times yesterday

which you can read via Emma's profile here

[spp-transcript]

Please do come and join my closed Facebook group Talk Fertility or if you'd prefer to say hello on Twitter or Insta just click the top of this page.

See you soon

x

Meet the latest guest Katy has created a community called The Uber Barrens ClubKaty is working on a book, which you'll hear all about to document the struggles we go through during our infertility investigations and is looking for stories. We spoke in detail about Katy's complicated infertility struggle. 

Despite being aware something might be up with her fertility, due to irregular periods and having a fertility MOT at 28 - what happened next to Katy flummoxed leading fertility experts. 

When Katy was diagnosed with PCOS she was told her ovarian reserve was great, so whilst there was an issue it was one that the couple potentially be managed. By 33, on a visit to a gynaecologist, Katy then discovered her PCOS had gone as had all her eggs. 

Katy was told she was 'hurtling towards premature ovarian failure. We talked about how Katy found incredible support in a wide range of online forums, some of which we've listed below: 

• Fertility Friends
• Mumsnet TTC Board
• Infertility Board,
• Donor Conception Board, Miscarriage Board

• IVF Support Group 
• IVF with PGS/PGD Support Group
• Asherman's Syndrome Awareness & Support Group 
• The Miscarriage Association Support Group
• Recurrent Miscarriage Support Group

There are lots of groups that we've not included here and Katy is happy for you to contact her. For example, there are groups for surrogacy, donor conception, male factor, endometriosis, PCOS and these were just some of the ones Katy had found. You can contact Katy on Twitter here  and Insta here  and you can read her fab blogs here 

National Fertility Society Counsellor Directory

British Infertility Counselling Association

If you want to know more about the questionnaire for Katy's book project it's here  (anonymous questionnaires for both the female and male perspectives) Katy also wanted to share her consultant's information which you can access here 

The lovely Amber joined me for the first time since she became a Mum in this episode. Amber has a blog The Preggars Kitchen where she shares some of her favorite recipes as well as her own journey to overcome PCOS and have successful fertility treatment. She also shares more book reviews there. In this episode, we spoke about  the following books which Amber will be giving two of away on her Instagram 

Izzy Judd's Dare to Dream

Emma Cannon's Fertile 

Pure White and Deadline - John Yudkin 

This Sunday 21st will be Izzy's book and the following Sunday 28th October, Amber will be giving away John Yudkin's book.

My second guest was Sheila Lamb talked about her new book The  Best Fertility Jargon Buster which you can find out more about here you can find out all the meanings of all the fertility abbreviations you might have read online within the trying to conceive communities. Here and her more in-depth second book My Fertility Book should be on Amazon on Nov 1st. I'll keep you posted. Here's Sheila's Facebook group and you can follow Sheila on Twitter

Since this podcast was recorded, Sheila has written a whole series of books which you can find purchased here 

Unregulated Sperm Donation needs to be regulated and my guest is on a mission to raise awareness about it

Here is the adoption article I mentioned  in my slight rant at the start of this episode and my guest from last week Katy Lindemann's eloquent response I also mentioned that I'd been speaking in an episode for the BBC World Service on global infertility which you can hear here 

Meet Dr. Larisa Corda,   a fertility specialist passionate about natural care for fertility treatment which is all about the more holistic approach. She has a fab new website launching soon which she told me about and Larisa is going to be a new guest on my podcast in the coming months giving her tips and tricks to get yourself in the best place possible when trying to conceive. In this episode, we discuss Unregulated Sperm donation after Larisa was involved in a BBC documentary highlighting the issues for women using unregulated websites to find sperm donors who have been harassed and sent photos of miscarriages. 

There are strict criteria for NHS artificial insemination and many women say the private treatment is too expensive, so they turn to the internet. One woman told how a potential donor she met turned out to be married and had had a vasectomy. Dr. Larisa Corda has been calling for unregulated sites to be shut down.

Online sperm donation is not illegal but it must be provided free, although expenses can be covered. Some online donors offer artificial insemination (AI) and other natural insemination (NI) - effectively unprotected sex with a stranger. ANYONE can join a sperm donation website claiming to be a genuine sperm donor. There is a complete absence of screening. Donors do not have to prove that they have altruistic intent, they may simply be there for their own sexual gratification.

 Follow Larisa on Twitter here  and on Insta here 

I also mentioned my closed Facebook group which you can join here 

Mel Johnson and I had a great chat about her decision to have fertility treatment and become a Mother on her own.

She has since created a community to support other women trying to make the decision to do it alone as well as the 35% of women who are solo mothering,  to help them feel less alone and to know there are other women out there feeling exactly the same fears and emotions.  Mel has written a great blog for me about the nuances of solo motherhood which you can read here 

You can follow Mel's journey of solo motherhood on her Instagram, Facebook, visit her blog, or send her an email at [email protected].

For anyone embarking on the journey of solo motherhood, you can join The Stork and I Mum Tribe, a closed Facebook group for solo mums and mums to be.

I first read about Afton in an article in Linked In, which was talking about the funding her company Modern Fertility had secured for their work. I thought what she was doing sounded fascinating and contacted her asking if she'd like to talk more.

Delighted when she quickly replied to say she was a fan of my podcast and would love to talk, so we got something set up. Speaking to Afton and Carly, co-founders of Modern Fertility it's not only clear how passionate and smart they are, but they really can't believe the gap in the market they have found. It seems obvious that we SHOULD know this kind of information about our egg reserve and fertility health but the harsh reality is most women don't.

Afton explained how the work she had done enabled her to learn about the science and business of fertility. She was working within a fertility clinic she was able to speak to numerous women who hadn't been told that fertility declined with age or that IVF could solve everything for them. Carly has a background working with Uber and Google - creating things to help people in their everyday lives so the ladies have a really awesome combination of skills they have pooled together and the result is something very exciting.

We spoke about the FEMI the Fertility Measurement Index, which is, in essence, a score that a woman will get once she has completed the test and it's something that we can keep track of every 9-12 months to monitor our fertility health. Could we reach a point where our awareness of our FEMI is something we speak about as easily as discussing our dress size? It would be a brilliant thing if we could don't you think? 

To find out more about the test, which is currently only available in the US click here

To follow us on social media, click here

Instagram  Twitter or Facebook 

To mark PCOS awareness month, I wanted to share with you my PCOS bundle which is a montage of several episodes from the numerous PCOS experts I have spoken to : 

KYM CAMBELL:

I’ve been watching Kym Campbell for some time now.. .how strange does that sound. Her presence has been growing and growing online and her awesome content just keeps coming, so I was really chuffed when we got a time in the diary to speak.

Kym talked about her life dealing with PCOS and how it affected her, from acne medication to anti-depressants, it took until Kym was in her 30’s to actually get help and support that made a difference. Hear the full episode here 

ADAM BALEN: 

Professor Adam Balen is a full-time Consultant in Reproductive Medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.  For many years Adam has had a particular interest in the causes and management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

His experience covers the full spectrum of the condition including; its effects during adolescence and adult life on the menstrual cycle, fertility, body weight, cosmetic effects, as well as the issues that PCOS may have on the quality of life and long-term health.

KATE DAVIES

I also spoke with Kate Davies, who has spoken on my podcast before about her work with OvuSense and her own practice called Your Fertility journey. Kate shares how she works with women dealing with PCOS, especially those who are struggling to lose weight. You can hear this full episode here 

THE CARTOONIST

Ainsley was commissioned by the website ohjoysextoy to create a cartoon strip to raise awareness of PCOS and she talked about her own experience as well as what she hoped to achieve by making it. Here’s a link to Ainsely’s cartoon strip. Hear our chat