In this episode of Food, Freedom, and Fertility, Caitlin interviews special guest, Lindsey Lusson, a registered dietitian who works in the fertility sphere of women's health. After experiencing her own journey of Hypothalamic Amenorrhea, Lindsey aimed to assist women whose physical & mental habits interrupt the natural fertility process based on their eating and exercise habits. While Sophia is on maternity leave, Caitlin & Lindsey take the time to explain Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (HA) by diving into the signs, approaches to recovery, while discussing the researches that connects HA to infertility-related diagnosis'.

HA is a result of your brain halting communications with your reproductive organs.

The affect being your body doesn't think it has enough energy to create a monthly cycle and ovulate properly, leaving women with no monthly period cycle. Since the body has to account for important vital practices such as blood to your heart and air to your lungs, it enters reserve mode to cover those basic functions. Research shows the cause as a result of psychological and physiological stress from exercise along with mismanaged eating or under eating. While both overweight and underweight women may have HA, it is important to zoom out and examine the full picture of what your body is going through when evaluating your likelihood of HA.

As seen in Lindsey's experience, it may be hard to retrieve an official diagnosis from a certified Doctor, as HA is a relatively new term in fertility studies within the medical industry. For this reason, Lindsey offers some advice to listeners who want to or have tried to navigate these waters but have not been able to retrieve accurate results when it comes to missed periods and fertility trouble. Her advice includes what tests to request from your doctor, along with the ideal team to consider building around yourself when faced with HA. One request being lap tests, even if not properly timed in your cycle. As a baseline to see what is going on with your body, lab tests provide a starting point on your roadmap when navigating HA.

Both Caitlin and Lindsey aim to motivate listeners tuning in to evaluate their relationship to their health by means of eating and exercise during this honest, open dialogue about HA and its underlying causes as they relate to the "diet culture" and what we consider as healthy in 2021. By bring honestly and vulnerability from their own stories, Caitlin & Lindsey hope to relate the content shared in this special episode to anyone hoping to step into a better approach to diet and exercise.