Episode: 52: What Your Doctor Didn't Tell You About Baby Making, with Dr. Aumatma Simmons

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha. I want to share something with you that I believe God is doing right now in women's health. We're in the middle of a massive movement and most people don't even know it. Every single day, 6,000 women in the U.S. enter menopause. That's over 2 million women a year, and by 2030, that's more than 1.2 billion women worldwide. So here's the thing, most of these women feel exhausted, bloated, anxious, disconnected from themselves, and the medical system is Doctors are handing out prescriptions and quick fixes, and no one is helping women heal from the root cause of their issues. That's where Fast to Faith coaches come in. As a certified coach, you'll be equipped to help midlife women balance their hormones, heal their gut, regain their energy, and reconnect their faith, the foundation that so many of us have been missing. And from a business standpoint, woo, this is one of the most lucrative untapped opportunities in the entire health coaching world. The global health coaching industry is expected to reach over $33 billion by 2023, and midlife women are the fastest-growing, highest-spending demographic in that space. Most importantly, these women stay with their coaches. They invest deeply because they are desperate for lasting transformation— body, mind, and spirit. So if you've been feeling that pull and that whisper that you're meant to do more, This is it. Now is the time to rise, to serve, and build a purpose-driven business that not only changes other women's lives but transforms your own in the process. Because when you help one woman heal, you help her family, her marriage, her faith, and her future. That's the ripple effect that we're creating with Fast to Faith. So join me, click the link to come watch this webinar. It might be the one thing that really moves the needle for you in this Next season. I can't wait to see you in there. Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Functional Gynecologist. I'm a board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, and Insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi ladies. So this week's episode is super important and probably impacts Either someone close to you or it might even be you. I'm talking about infertility. So it has become much more common in this day and age for multiple reasons. You know, we're waiting longer to start having children as women because we're focused on our careers and doing all that, all the amazing things we need to do. We also have more hormone imbalance. We lead very stressful lives. We have a lot on our plates, and that oftentimes leads to hormone imbalance where we're not ovulating every month or we have too much estrogen, that type of thing. And then we have like toxic burden from our environment. So we see toxins in levels that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers never saw, and our body has to work hard to detoxify those and function. with toxins in our cells. And so all of those things can contribute to infertility or difficulty carrying a pregnancy once you get pregnant. It has also increased, you know, our issues of having high blood pressure during pregnancy and diabetes during pregnancy, which can have lasting effects on your children once they are born and start growing. But they also increase your risk of developing those lifelong chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure and heart disease. So it's super important to get healthy if you're even considering having more babies, um, even if you're not. But my guest today, Dr. Amatma, she is a natural infertility specialist and she does amazing work. Like, You guys are going to love her. I just think she's a sweetheart. She's a wealth of knowledge. She gets in there and she finds where your deficiencies are and replenishes them. She helps you remove impediments that are interfering with your body's ability to function well, and she optimizes your ability to get pregnant and stay pregnant. So it's pretty amazing. And she's got her own hero's journey that she went through to get To that point where she learned all of this. So she's super awesome to talk to and to listen to. So please stay with us today as I interview Dr. Amata Simmons. Let me just sing her praises. So she's a naturopathic doctor and nutritionist. She's been in practice for 15 years. She specializes in women's health. She's the bestselling author of Fertility Secrets: What Your Doctor Didn't tell you about baby-making. She's a sought-out speaker on topics related to women's health and empowerment. Dr. Matma was awarded the Best Naturopathic Medicine Doctor locally in 2015 and 2020, and as a Top Woman in Medicine Doctor in 2020. So that's pretty awesome. So in addition to supporting couples through their individualized care and long distance, she trains practitioners who want to specialize in fertility. So She's so good at helping people get pregnant that now she trains other practitioners on how to help patients get pregnant. That's pretty cool. Dr. Obama has been featured on ABC, Fox, CBS, KTLA, MindBodyGreen, The Bump, etc. She's been interviewed on countless podcasts on the topics of fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum health. So today, We are going to talk about all of these issues. She's going to give you some amazing nuggets to start incorporating into your life. And it's just a great discussion. So stay with us. And if you know somebody who is struggling, who's got an appointment with the IVF doctor, who's given up hope, you know, anybody, anybody along this path. Pass this episode on to them. They need to hear it. It will help so much. And if you want to work with Dr. Amatma one-on-one, the links are in my show notes, and don't hesitate to reach out to her. So here we go.

Well, welcome, Dr. Amatma.

Thanks for being on the Functional Gynecologist Podcast.

Thanks for having me, Dr. Tabatha.

I'm so excited to talk to you. You are just an awesome person doing amazing things. So thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to connect and talk.

Yeah. So you are infertility. That's your thing, right?

All night. That's all you do. Yeah.

Okay.

We do, we do support some people through pregnancy and postpartum, but usually people reach out to us for fertility.

How did you get started in this? Was it like a personal journey that you went on?

Yeah, a little bit. So I was married to this person that I— we had only been married for a year. We had been together a long time prior to that. And what, like, he had been talking about, like, oh, we should have a child, you know, it's time to have a kid, blah, blah, blah. And I was getting to that, like, 35 age where fertility magically falls off of a cliff. And I, I like, I kept thinking about it. And there was a deep part of me that was just like, there's something about this that's not right. And it took me a few months to really figure it out. But I was like, I think I married the wrong person. Like, I married this person, but I don't want to have kids with him. So I ended up Starting— I just started researching on my own as I was in the process of like, what am I doing? What's— what am I going to do with this relationship? So I just started researching. And even what we had been taught in naturopathic school was 30— at 35, that's it. You're basically screwed. And, and that's what the media says. And the media at that point in time, this was like 10 years ago, probably.

So.

There, it was just the beginning spurts of egg freezing and like that was gaining more popularity. And I was like, do I want to freeze my eggs? And I actually consulted with the clinic and they were like, oh yeah, that's going to be $10,000 plus like whatever amount per month. And at the time, like, I was like, I don't have $10,000. Like, this is ridiculous. So I, I was like, well, there must be something I can do naturally to preserve my fertility. So. I started researching for myself, like, what am I going to do? How is that going to work? I ended up talking about a lot of what I was finding, which one of my biggest inspirations in the fertility work is, you probably know her, Dr. Christiane Northrup from Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom. So I'm like, I have this Bible, let me— and it literally, like, it's this thick, you guys. So I opened up this Bible and I'm like, there's got to be a chapter on fertility. I start reading the fertility chapter and she's talking about these women that used to live in tribes in the middle of nowhere that would get pregnant at 50, at 60 without any issues. And that was the moment that I was like, what if I just changed my assumption? What if I just didn't assume that at 35 my fertility was going to crash? And as soon as I had that shift, I was like, great, I'm out. I left that relationship.

That's beautiful.

And simultaneously ended up at an acupuncture clinic. One of my friends ran this huge acupuncture clinic. He's like, our naturopathic doctor just quit. Can you come and fill in for us for a little bit? And at the time I was like, well, I'm still figuring out what I'm doing. So sure, yes. And I started the clinic and 2 weeks later, the head acupuncturist is like, wait, I heard you on a podcast talking about fertility. You must do a lot of fertility. And I was like, well, I'm just starting out and I just like have a bunch of research essentially. But, and she's like, great, I'm going to send you all of these people that I haven't been able to help. So for years she had been working with all of her clients that Weren't able to get pregnant, she shuffled them to me. And within a few months, they started getting pregnant. And that's when I was like, oh, this is amazing. Like, and you like the little amazing feedback of, wow, we just grew this little human together is so beautiful.

Yeah.

And, and then just simultaneously, like, Babies are born with 200+ toxins floating in their bloodstream. So that was a little bit of a wake-up call of like, what are we doing to help support the next generation where we're like, you know, affecting the, the future health of this baby and their future generations? So what can we do now that can really like help support a healthier baby for a healthier world?

So, oh my gosh, I love that you just like dove in. You're like, I'm gonna figure this out. I think it's so important to, when you feel stuck, right, get unstuck. Search, research, figure out a way. I think that's so incredible. And just shifting your mindset changed everything, right?

Yeah, it was, it was literally like reading that one paragraph in this book that transformed the whole trajectory of my life because Had I kept with the old belief, I would have probably had a kid. I would have had, you know, probably would have still ended in divorce. So I'm really grateful for that and the ability to just like come out of it with like, now I have this amazing partner and we have a beautiful child together. I had a kid at 38, which isn't that much older, but I have, I have memories of my gynecologist saying, oh, you know, because you're a geriatric pregnancy. And I was like, mm-hmm.

What?

What?

I know.

Why would you call me that? And she was like, well, technically, we're required to tell you that you're geriatric. And I was like, Oh, this is like, I'm okay. I can handle it. I'm a doctor. I can get over it because you calling me something doesn't mean anything to me. Yeah, but please don't tell your patients this. Like, this is so scary for women to hear. You're geriatric because you're over 35.

Like, it is. It's an absolutely horrible diagnosis, you know, naming of a diagnosis. I had the same thing. But I grew up, you know, in a large Catholic family. My mom had her last baby, I think, right around 40. And—

Hmm.

So it never occurred to me that pregnancy was a young person's thing or that we should have concerns until I did my residency. And that was like being drilled in my head. And like you said, at the time, the new frontier was IVF and like just all of this infertility. technology. And so they were really pushing the idea of, yeah, don't be having babies after 35. Don't use your own eggs, for God's sake, after 35, right? I mean, I had so many conversations with women about possible Down syndrome, just completely scared out of their minds that if they got pregnant, they were going to have a baby with Down's. I mean, there's so many issues with that. Right there, you know, we had to have the conversation about how Down's people, you know, live amazing, productive, beautiful lives. They're some of the most happiest people I've ever met.

Right.

A whole nother story. But we like instilled so much fear in women and made them afraid of this natural, beautiful thing.

Yeah.

And I just love that you're like squashing that. You're like putting this to rest. Like, that's a bunch of crap.

Stop thinking like that.

And we need Embrace a mindset of health and wellness, and we can do whatever we want because we're women. Seriously.

Yeah, yeah, we're women. We're amazing. We, we get to decide when we have a baby and with whom we have a child with, right? Like, that is so important to me because, because of my own story, right? Like, thank God I didn't have a child with this other man.

Like, just—

Yeah, I have like every day I have so much gratitude that I not only didn't have a child with the wrong person, I was able to wait till I was in a different place in my life with a different person, with more the right person than ever before. And I think that every woman should have that choice. And if we are making decisions out of fear, we just don't ever get that opportunity.

Yeah, exactly. And I'll tell you, like, I had a baby at 17, and then I had 2 more at 33 and 35. You're a totally different mother when you've actually lived and had some experiences. And I was able to prioritize and enjoy my babies in such a different way when I was an older mom. Right? So here's to the older moms. But I want you to tell me, my listeners, like, what did you learn on this journey? What are some of the big lessons of how to preserve your fertility and how to get pregnant naturally and all that?

Mm-hmm. So I think that we talked a little bit about the most important one, which is the mindset, right? I think that so many women that I talked to that are just about to turn 35, and they're literally like Freaking out because they're like, oh my God, I'm gonna be 35 next month. I have to walk into an IVF clinic today and like, go get pregnant. And, and then to like, have the experiences that I've had where we had a 44-year-old last year. So I had— she came to me when she was 42. I worked with her for almost a year and a half before I was like, okay, you're ready for IVF. And and she was like, Dr. Ohm, I only have one. I only have money for one IVF cycle. Like you've got to make sure that it's gonna go well. And she's already 44. And she basically waited till I told her it was the right time. She went to the fertility clinic. They yelled at her. They were like, why did you wait so long? And don't you know you're 44? Like this is gonna be really bad. And The chances of you actually getting pregnant are so low, blah, blah, blah. Oh my gosh. They retrieved 23 eggs from this woman, 23 eggs, 17 of which fertilized to healthy day 3 embryos. They, they were like, wow, we have so many. What are we going to do with all these embryos? Because they completely were not expecting a 44-year-old to have those results. So it's not to say that every 44-year-old is going to have that result, but I, I do believe that there is the value of preparing your body and doing the work that your body needs to be in a fertile state before you even get to the point of going into IVF. So I think first it's like the mindset around age. The second is the mindset that we have that, oh, IVF is just going to be the end-all be-all. And it's amazing. It's a beautiful medicine. And I've, like, I tell patients this all the time. I've had, like, spiritual experiences watching retrievals because it's just like, oh, it just takes my breath away. Like, we are literally watching. Yes.

Yeah.

Like, you're watching life be created in front of It's so beautiful. And when you do the natural things before you go into those scenarios, you have a likelier chance that it's going to lead to a positive outcome. So it's not like there's never anything negative towards IVF, but how do you do that in a way that doesn't lead you to cycle after cycle after cycle? And so that, that really led me to the second thing, which is IVF success rates are based on 6 cycles of consecutive IVF cycles. So most clients, they're like, oh, 27% success, which is supposedly great.

Right, right.

Like 27% is not that great. But even if we get excited about those results, That's after 6 cycles of being exposed to hormones, injections, like—

The emotional—

The trauma that you're, you're going through while you're in that process. It's just like, what if we could just save women from that, right? Like, go do IVF, absolutely. But what if you could be pregnant within 1 cycle or within 2 cycles at the most instead of 6? Then we have a really different— then we'll just be like so much better because you won't be feeling crappy from all the hormones that you've been pumped full of.

Yeah, I feel like women don't really realize what they're getting into when they sign on the dotted line, right? Like, yes, it's totally emotionally and mentally and physically exhausting to go through IVF. I mean, they put you in this hyperhormone state. Like, you feel like you're in balance now, just wait, right?

Yeah.

I think a lot— I think about endometriosis and how we treat that. I feel like that's kind of the same idea. Like, you can go in, you can have surgery to remove your endometriosis and hopefully help with the pain for a minute. But if you're not maximizing your diet and lifestyle and doing everything to prevent it from coming back, you're never it's never going to work, right? It's not worth going in surgery after surgery after surgery. This is kind of like the same thing. Like, why don't you maximize your potential outcomes so that you can shorten what you're about to go through and have success from the get-go? So I just—

Yeah.

I love the way that you frame that and the way that you, you know, work on things, because I think mindset is so important and women need to know what they're getting into. They need to be mentally and physically strong and fully functioning and amazing when they go into it, right?

Exactly, exactly. And, and yeah, and that's really like our approach is how do we get you in the right frame of mind? There are— I used to call this the woo-woo part of what I did, but 10 years later, there's actually research for all of this. So there are studies that have shown that Having a positive, a self-reported positive mindset or positive outlook on life when you go into an IVF cycle has 90% higher chances of you having a successful IVF cycle than when you go in with a negative mindset. Just the mindset.

Okay.

Like, that alone has a huge variation of outcomes. So We talk about research and being research-led or research-informed, and there's so much research now that supports all of the natural things that we do.

Yeah.

Even down to the woo that I love to talk about. So, yeah, I think so. In terms of tips or what I feel like are foundations to supporting fertility, whether it's I want to get pregnant tomorrow, or I want to get pregnant a year from now, 5 years from now, whatever. I think the foundations stay the same for everyone. If you're looking to get pregnant very quickly, then the foundations alone are not going to get you there. But if you're looking to just like maintain your hormonal balance and, and like get pregnant later in life, I think you can totally do that with Following kind of the fertile foundations or fertile lifestyle that I like to talk about. So the first thing is water intake. The number of times that women are like, oh, I drink a glass of water and then I have 3 cups of tea and my cup of coffee in the morning, and they're counting all of those liquids as water. Right. And I'm like, coffee is super dehydrating. So for every cup of coffee, you just peed out 4 cups of water. So you need to like replace it. And then you need to get at least a baseline of half your body weight in ounces is usually what I go by. So really like making sure that you have water, which is There. So this is not research-based, but like your ovaries are floating in liquid. All of the eggs are in liquid. So you, you need water. Like, I'm envisioning these like shriveled up eggs when people don't drink enough water. I'm like, you got to drink the water. I don't know what it's doing, but there will be a research study soon. I promise.

Yes.

So water intake. Then when we talk about food, it really does need to be good, clean, unprocessed food as much as possible. Like if you're talking about, I want to preserve my fertility for 5 years from now, you don't need to eat super perfect for the next 5 years, but In a majority of your time, or a majority of your meals should be unprocessed, wholesome food in whatever diet you choose. It's like there's so many different diets. Everyone's like, what about this diet? What about this diet? I'm like, does your diet have a focus on vegetables? If yes, you're good. If no, you might want to reconsider. And, and like eat stuff that came out of the ground. Like, don't eat things that come in a bag, a box, or a can. Simple.

I— that's exactly what they say. If it had a mom or it came out of the ground, you're good, you know. And I think you hit on such an important point. It needs to be clean because there was a study that came out about 5 years ago that tested umbilical cord blood of babies, newborns, who have not Been exposed to the world, only to their mothers. And they had over 400 chemicals in their umbilical cord at not good levels.

Yes.

So that was very eye-opening for me as an obstetrician because we are told that it's okay to give all these medications during pregnancy and, oh, don't worry about it. But it does cross the placenta. Your baby does start to accumulate these toxins. Before they're even born. And so you are already setting them up for a lifetime of disease, just like the study that came out and said whatever mom eats during her pregnancy, that will turn on baby's genetic expression and they are going to be more apt to be obese and have diabetes. Like, wow! You know?

Yes.

You are already setting your kid up for failure. Holy cow, I see it time and time again. You know, women are severely overweight or they have gestational diabetes. 5, 10 years down the line, their kid, you know, is getting picked on at school because they're carrying the extra weight and they're already set up for that chronic disease. So please keep it clean. I love the vegetables. Oh my God. Okay, sorry to interrupt. Keep going.

No, no, totally fine. Yeah, I think I think you have some great points, like babies being born with toxins floating around in their bloodstream. That was one of the stats that made me say, oh my God, like, we have to do better. Like, we can do better. Why aren't we doing better? We are, you know, like, I just feel like we have so many resources that we need to get out into the the world so that people can just do, do different.

Yeah.

And it's really scary.

As a conventional obstetrician, I never was taught that food mattered. And I will tell you, I was pregnant with my son as being the chief resident, and I lived on ice cream. I, you know, I wouldn't eat all day. I'd work 12 hours in the OR, and I would hit the Dairy Queen drive-through on the way home. And so He was raised on ice cream and now he has allergies and sensitive skin and sensitivity to gluten and all these issues. I'm like, he had to be on Zantac for months and months. And I'm just like, and now that's a cancer-causing drug. I'm like, so your doctor doesn't know everything because I feel like I'm pretty darn smart and I learned everything I was supposed to learn and I still didn't know better, right?

So Because, I mean, it's not your fault. Like, medical— conventional medical schools have a weekend's worth of nutrition in their entire— like, how many, how many years were you in school?

Right.

Like 10, 12 years. Um, so you really— it's not your fault. It's just the way that our system is set up and designed is not designed for Doctors to know about everything, especially not food and lifestyle. And that's— I think that's really where, like, our naturopathic medicine program— I would have spent probably a year in a nutrition program, and then I have a master's in nutrition, so I studied more nutrition for 2 more years after that, um, so that I could really be Versatile in coaching people and kind of guiding people into healthy food and lifestyle. Like, that has to be the foundation of what we do if we're trying to transform the world, right? Yeah, exactly.

I mean, conventional medicine, we are just focused on sickness and keeping people alive. It's a sick care mentality. How do you How do you just keep people alive? It's not about thriving and wellness. And so I kind of feel gypped that I didn't get this naturopathic training in addition to it. I'm getting there. I'm trying.

You get there. It's never too late.

No, I think it's soaking it all in. Yeah.

Yeah. And I feel like the functional medicine world is— it's kind of the doctors like yourself who are woke. They're just like, We got to do better, y'all. These patients are not getting better. I'm going to go find a different way to help my patients.

Exactly.

And that's what's so powerful about what you all do is like, it's, it's so needed. Like, more and more doctors are like, nope, this system is broke. I need to go find something else.

And honestly, when I just did OB-GYN, you know, the only tool I had for pregnancy help was Clomid. And surgery. And so I did those 2 things and I would eventually get people pregnant or not and send them to the fertility clinic.

Yeah.

Now that I only do functional medicine, like, everybody gets pregnant and they get pregnant quickly. Like, as soon as I have them work with the nutritionist and they switch things up, they start pulling the toxins out. Boom.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's really like Diet plays such a big role, and it can be as simple as taking out the basic things that cause inflammation in your gut, which also cause inflammation in your uterus, believe it or not.

Mm-hmm.

So for those of you who are listening, no corn, gluten, dairy. Soy, I'm usually on the fence about. Some people do okay with soy, some people don't. If it's organic, right? If it's organic, non-GMO, definitely that. Most of the corn— actually, all of the things that I just listed, most of those are GMO, which means genetically modified organisms. When the plants are genetically modified in that way, they basically are anti-fertility. So Those seeds are designed to die after one generation. What does that do to your own fertility? Like, where are the studies? Why aren't we doing research on how genetically modified organisms are causing infertility? Probably they are.

Right. So I know, like, thinking that pesticides were only killing the bug But magically it's not going to kill our cells when we ingest it is just moronic, right?

Yeah, exactly. Like, oh yeah, we just kill the bugs. It's going to accumulate in your body somewhere, somehow. So really getting that clean food is really important. The third thing that I'll say is probably going to— it's kind of related to what we were just talking about, about pesticides. So there's a product called glyphosate, which is in Roundup, that is often sprayed on plants. And the most heavily sprayed plant with glyphosate is cotton. And cotton is what we make our feminine hygiene products out of.

Yes.

So let's take glyphosate-ridden cotton, make tampons and pads, and then insert them into our vaginal tracts where they're going to affect our fertility.

Yeah.

So this is like probably one of the most— when I kind of put those pieces together, I was like, oh my God, are we really doing this? And like kind of in a panic, like, how is this legal? Like, how do we treat our women like it doesn't matter? So yes.

And organic actually are available, right? You can get organic tampons and pads.

You can get organic tampons and pads everywhere. And, and you can also like— and I'm also for the environment, so trying to like shift towards more reusable things like cloth pads or They're really amazing, like panties that have like absorbency built into them.

Yeah. Thinx?

Yeah, Thinx is one of my favorites. There's some other companies that are coming out with similar things. And then there's like menstrual cups, which are amazing. So there's so many options. I think 10 years ago we didn't have as many options, but we have them now. So like, try stuff out. And a lot of people will say, oh, I don't like Diva Cup. I tried it once. It was very uncomfortable. And I'm like, yeah, there's 30 other brands you can try. Like, you don't have to like Diva Cup.

Yeah.

So, and I usually tell people, like, it might take you a 2 or 3 different companies of trying before you find the one that really works for you. And that's just true for all other female things, right? Like, we just need to try it out. Everybody's body's different.

Exactly.

So, and, and, and I found that women who suffer from significant menstrual pain, when they change at least to organic pads and tampons, but ideally to like cloth or cups or whatever, their pain levels go down from just doing that.

I would love to see a study on that. That's amazing.

Yeah, they, they— this is self-reported, but they will report like 50 to 75% decrease in pain just from switching to, to not using non-organic tampons and pads. So I wonder if the glyphosate on those cotton plants is creating some sort of inflammation in our reproductive organs that literally is leading to pain.

Right. I mean, it makes complete sense because we know that they destroy the gap junctions between our intestinal cells, right? And release all this zonulin and then things seep into your bloodstream and cause an inflammatory response. So I'm sure that is happening. happening in our pelvic organs. And the science is just so new. And unfortunately, that kind of stuff probably won't be studied because there's no way to make money off of it. So no one's really interested, right?

Exactly.

That's just the truth.

Yeah. If there is not a pharmaceutical company behind it, there's probably not going to be a ton of research. Right. And I feel like when it's related to women's health and women's products, there's even less of a likelihood for research. So I feel like there is this gap in really researching things that would support women. Like, why are we not, right?

Yep, exactly. Yeah.

Yeah.

So we got water, diet, our personal care products. What else?

The other— well, okay. Yes. So I'm like, so many. I was going to say one more, but maybe two more. A lot of women, especially when you're trying to preserve your fertility, the attitude is, oh, I'm going to do all this stuff like career life stuff that I can't do once I have a child. So the mentality is I'm going to do all these things and like burn the candle at both ends. And drink tons of coffee to get through until I have a baby, right? So I'm going to do all these things, and the coffee, alcohol, marijuana—like there are studies on all of these and how they decrease fertility. So if you if your intention is to have a baby when you're older, I would really really really suggest to cut back. on all of those things. If you can't cut it out, at least cut back.

Yes.

And, and like, don't burn the candle at both ends. Like, the number of women that I see who have burnt the candle at both ends or are like Type A, so they're not necessarily doing too much, they're just— their mindset around doing Yeah. And the burnout that you feel from that is going to impact your fertility in the future. So the way to really support yourself in preserving fertility within your body is to really learn those fertile foundations or fertile lifestyle things, which I think Saying no is a really important fertile mindset to just be like, nope, that's too much. Can't do that. But a lot of like, just think about how 10 years ago I was really uncomfortable saying no, and I'd be signed up for a million different boards and a million different things. I was just like, oh my God, I'm so overwhelmed. And, and once you have a kid, you Basically have a built-in excuse and it's like, nope, can't do that, family time. And it, it's, it's a lot easier after you have a child, but it's still— you need to be doing it even before you get to that point where you're ready to have a kid, because if you're burnt out by the time you're ready to get pregnant, there is really no vital force left for you to pass to this child. So. A lot of the fertility struggle comes out of you've used up all of your resources. I like to give this like bucket analogy. If you came to the planet with a bucket full of vital life force or energy, or energy is not a great word for it, but in Chinese medicine they call it qi. You come with a reserve and You, if you live through or burn through all of that reserve, that by the time you get to the bottom, you're going to have some health issues. And by the time it gets to zero, you're not going to be here anymore. So it's really about putting in the tools and lifestyle things that can help build or sustain the reserves that you have. So that when you are ready to have a child, you can have some energy to pass off to the kid.

Those babies suck you dry. They take all of your vitamins. I mean, they will leave you so depleted. You want to go into it like with a built-up storage, like you're saying. And You know, so many women have struggles becoming pregnant because of irregular cycles or they're not ovulating, things like that. And it all comes back to what you were saying about stress. Like, if you are pumping out cortisol every day managing all this crap, you are going to get your hormones imbalanced.

Yeah.

And yeah, we can give you medications to help you ovulate, but there's research now coming out that those might increase your risk of ovarian cancer. And who knows? I mean, why mess with all of that when you can just set some boundaries, start to say no, learn from people like Dr. Amatma, and not have to, you know, go through it yourself? Like, I think we just need to learn from each other and stop trying to learn by our own messes, right?

Yeah, yeah. I think it's Like, as women, so this is one of my other tips is like, ask for help, right? As women, we're so driven to be independent and like, so I have to figure it out myself. I have to do it all myself. And we're in a place where we have access to so many resources because everything's online.

Right.

You have a podcast that you can listen to while doing whatever you want to do. Because that's the age we're living in. Like, your support, your help, your content is available to you nonstop. So there is really no excuse for you to be able to get help. You have access to so much.

Yeah.

So just ask for help. Ask the person that you are Like, we— this is the other thing I find a lot is like, as women, we're taught to stop, stop paying attention to our intuition.

Oh yeah.

Yet if we just follow our intuition, we know what we need. Like, we have it within us, right? And a lot of times people, clients, potential clients will be like, well, what do you think? Should I work with you or not? And they're waiting for me to sell them something. And I'm like, Oh, no, we do not sell. If you want to work with us, you're already really clear that you want to work with us. And if that clarity is not there, if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. So just take it off your plate. Like, don't even think about it. And when I tell people that, they're like, wow, really? You're not going to— you're not— you don't have a sales pitch? You're not going to, like, try and sell me to work with you? And I'm like, well, that wouldn't be the great start to a relationship, would it? Right? Like, you wouldn't go on a date and wait for your date to convince you that you should go on another date. It's a no. It's a no. Like, what? So, yeah. So we need to just like, like reconnecting with that part of ourselves where we're being guided. we're being led to what we need to be led to. If you're listening to this today, you're meant to be here. Yeah. And you will, like, you will draw in— you are a powerful creature, woman. You will draw in whatever it is that you need to manifest what it is that you want in your life.

Amen. I love that. So good. You know, we, we do need to trust ourselves again, because I feel like We, especially during COVID we have, you know, fallen off the wagon. We made bad food choices. I know I've yelled at my kids and lost my shit a few times over homeschooling. And, and, and so then that makes you feel like, oh, I can't trust myself. I'm making bad choices. I'm doing the wrong thing. Well, you need to just check that and give yourself some grace and say, you know what, I'm going to start over. It's not that bad. Let me reach out for some help. I mean, we should all have mentors. We should all have people helping us, supporting us, guiding us, no matter where we are in our life. I just love the idea of a sisterhood and relying on each other. And so people need to search out someone like you, Dr. Amama, who will actually just work with the best intention at heart and guide them into what they need and not force anything upon them because they know what they need in their heart of hearts, right? If they're ready to have that baby or they're starting to plan their future, you just need someone who has beautiful intentions like you to walk them through it. And so I'm so glad you're out there for these women. And it's amazing that now we can do this all online, right? So, yeah. Tell my listeners, you do one-on-one and groups online, right?

Yes. Yes. So we do have, we have our one-on-one program, which I call my baby because that's really how we started out. I didn't start in the online world. I started as a practitioner.

Right.

And people would come and they would get pregnant and they would go on and tell other people. So that's kind of how we started out. But these days, especially so the COVID the gift of COVID I call it, was to really launch an online program that I've been dreaming about for ages. I'm like, oh, if women could only connect with each other and see that they're not alone and fertility doesn't have to be so isolated an experience. And then COVID happened and I was like, Well, we're launching this online group program thing. And people were like, yes, where do I sign up? And like, literally overnight.

You had a COVID baby.

Yeah, literally. So that is our online space. And that one is more like, I'm— I can't be your doctor, obviously, because I'm not where you are. But You can get guidance and support, and then we can work with your doctor to help support you if needed. Yeah.

And oftentimes you don't need an actual practicing doctor, right? I mean, you're a doctor, but they don't need that because you don't need medications prescribed and interventions and stuff. So it works beautifully the way that you have it set up. So I'm going to have all those links in my show notes because people need to reach out to you. You're so good. I love it. Yay!

Thank you. Thank you. It's so lovely to chat with you. And, and I like, I really feel the resonance, like we're, we're on the same page. Like, there's just so much beauty that comes out of supporting women that in a different way, right? Like supporting women in a way that's gonna like transform their lives. Rather than, um, all the other options that they are being offered.

Yeah, like you said, when someone comes into your life, think of it like, why did this happen? And try to make the most of it. I mean, Dr. Amata and I just kept connecting through different courses and we're like, this must mean that we're supposed to get together.

So yeah, and now we have a sister.

So good. So where can my listeners find you, hun?

holisticfertilitycenter.com or find us on Instagram. We share tons of content all the time. It's @holistic_fertility_doctor. So Holistic Fertility Center or Holistic Fertility Doctor on Instagram.

Awesome. And I, I'll have all those links in my show notes for you guys. So thank you so much. This is wonderful. You are such a beautiful person. I love it. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Isn't she great? I think Dr. Amata's laugh is like infectious. She just makes me smile. So I enjoy her so much, and I'm sure you did too. So definitely follow her on Facebook and Instagram. And check out me on Facebook and Instagram @DrTabatha. You can also check out my YouTube channel, The Functional Gynecologist. And figure out anything that you can take from this episode, incorporate it into your life, add it to the other stuff that you've been doing to become your best self. That's the name of the game here. That's what we're all striving for. Even if you're not trying to have a baby, this is about being your best you. Like, if you're healthy enough to grow an amazing, beautiful human being, then you're on the right track. So I want you to love on yourself, take care of yourself, do what you need to do for yourself. Maybe write down 5 things you love about yourself and do that every day for a week and see how your mind mindset begins to change, how you can love your body again. So thank you so much for staying with me. If you're enjoying this, please share it with your friends. And if you would be so inclined, I would love it if you would hit the subscribe button, even leave me a review, because that tells iTunes that you care about this kind of information and you want to see more of it. And that gives me leverage So let's get empowered together. So leave me a review, hit the subscribe, 5 stars would be great. I really appreciate it. I do this for you ladies. So shoot me out your questions and I will see you next week. Go kick some ass. Bye.