WeNatal: Reversing Infertility and PCOS + How Men Play a Role in Fertility || Mona Sharma

Why aren't men working on improving their sperm quality? And it's simple. Men taking antioxidants like CoQ10, NAC, zinc L, carnitine, vitamin C have five times of a higher chance of getting their partner pregnant. So why aren't all men taking prenatals?

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I'm so happy to have you here. I feel so blessed that I get to have girlfriends that I can call upon in health and wellness to just be in the service of other women. Most importantly, because the inspiration for this podcast is all about ancient wisdom in a modern world and how we can go back to our roots and really feel rooted in ourselves, in our health, in our life, but also our inner wisdom. And I think as a woman, you know, we know about our inner wisdom, we know about our intuition, and yet it's the first thing that we let go to the wayside. We lose that trust. It's like we can always look back and say, oh, I knew I should have done that thing. So with this, you know, let's start off by just asking, what supports you guys in feeling more rooted in your health, in your life? Do you want to start?

Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having us, and we're so grateful for you as a friend in wellness. We learned so much from you. And also for bringing attention to this important topic of our own intuition, this ancient wisdom that a lot of times with modern life, we just kind of forget about. And it's such an important topic for me, I would say cooking and eating real food and opening up my house to community are part of my DNA and part of my family's DNA. And anytime that I get too busy to cook my own food or to.

Host.

That'S when I start feeling kind of not well. But whenever I am able to show love to people with food and to express my creativity with food and to have my friends and family over and house full of kids running around, that's what brings me true joy and what brings me back to myself and how I grew up.

I love that we'll talk more about the cultural aspect of things, but we come from these cultures where being in service and specifically cooking, like, I really think that our mothers and our aunties and grandmothers, they knew about cooking with an ingredient of love. It was in service, it was around nourishment and healing. So it's so beautiful to think if there's something that was transferred on generationally and that's part of you now is so beautiful.

Yeah.

What about you, Vida.

I love eating her amazing food because she's an incredible chef.

Her whole family's food.

Whole family. But like Roni mentioned, I think community is such a. Like just being with friends around, warm meal or breaking bread together. There's something so therapeutic about sharing your story or just being away. For me, the screens and all the things that get me wound up, what calms me down is actually nature, which we forget about. We're especially living in la. We have the beach, we have the mountains. We have so much at our disposal, and we kind of forget to utilize it. And it's so calming. It's so relaxing. Even just sometimes I just need to pause from the computer and take a walk. And I find that just break to, like, actually listen to birds chirp or look at some trees will completely reset my whole nervous system.

Yeah, I feel the same. I think we can both empathize. Like, this is what I call nature's biohacking. I think it was the original biohacker, us getting out into nature and acclimating, especially with the femininity of nature. Right. If we as women are creators and nature is always constantly creating. Right. It's just. It's so beautiful that we can just go outside to get grounded.

Yep.

And that's kind of an important point. You know, I think that a lot of people, we kind of treat these rooting aspects or these daily habits, we do them. We live in a society where we're promoting them, we're talking about them a lot. But I know from experience, working with my clients, that this morning ritual, evening ritual, these habits around wellbeing are often treated like a checklist. So it's like, yeah, meditate, a check. Journal, check. Hit the gym, check. And it's like, well, how did you feel at the meditation this morning? How did he feel at the gyms? Like, well, I don't know. I didn't really. I wasn't present in the moment. Right. So I think it's interesting that we're treating our health nowadays like a checklist. And this is so relevant for women. Right. We want to do it all. We want to have it all. We want to show up as the best version of ourselves for our partner, for our friends, and especially our children, to the point that we sacrifice everything else. But we'll kind of torture ourselves and get up really, really early or stay up really, really late to get these things done, to say that we've done them without really taking on the benefits or the impact of them. Right. And I think that what we'll probably talk about today is this return to simplicity to bring the body back into balance. Right. So with that said, let's talk about what makes you feel more uprooted and dysregulated in your life and in your body. I know it's happening.

I mean, it's happening to all of us, right? Yeah. For me, I think the biggest one is being uber connected all the time and being attached to my phone and social media. And lately especially just constantly watching the news on social media. And you wake up and the first thing that I do is look at the news and hear something negative. And I really feel that, for me, the biggest thing that I can do to kind of balance myself is to disconnect a little bit. And recently, Veda and I went to a retreat where we were shocked when we heard that we couldn't use our phone for 48 hours. And we were shocked when we heard that we couldn't bring our computer to work. And after 48 hours of not being with my phone, I just felt so grounded, and I came back to myself. And I also learned that the news will be there, and there is a time and a place to look at it, but it doesn't need to be constant, and it doesn't need to just be there all day, every day from the moment that you wake up until the time that you go to sleep. That being said, it's hard when you work and your business. You're doing a lot of things on social media. It's hard to kind of tune out the noise, but it's definitely something that I'm prioritizing.

Okay. So with that awareness. Right. You know, about the impact now you went away to this retreat. When I go back to the ashram where I grew up, there's no phones, there's no, you know, mostly no Internet. And what it feels like, it's like you're shutting down hundreds of running open tabs in your mind. Right. And it causes you to just tune in and focus on yourself and listen to your body's symptoms and your inner thoughts and what's important. Right. So knowing that, you know, do you think that from the retreat you could enforce that in your life? Like, you have the evidence now?

Yeah, I definitely am prioritizing it a lot more. I'm definitely putting my phone away when I'm home with the kids. I'm not constantly scrolling. I'm mindful of it, but it's hard. It's addictive. So it's definitely like everything in life, it's A process and we're always learning. And even if it's not perfect, having that awareness and implementing it here and.

There, even baby steps, right? Like no phones at dinner, no phones an hour before bed, no phones before, you know, the first hour of waking up. Little things create a big impact.

All right, I think that's a really great point because a lot of us stress out and feel like it's all or nothing with a lot of things, you know, it's bad for you, but it's hard to give yourself the grace to say it's okay if I just start small. And I think it's really important for listeners to know that any step you take is like well intentioned and a great start. And nothing is going to be an overnight, you're not going to use your phone every night. You know, like, world doesn't work that way.

Totally. I my hope is that moving forward with these episodes, though, like whenever we hear about these things that bring us really great impact to our physiology, our mental health and our happiness that are free, that are in our control, we have to kind of remind each other, especially as women, we have to make it part of the conversation every day. Otherwise we're never going to break free of this society that's constantly looking and selling and preaching and marketing towards looking for sources outside of ourselves to healing. Right. When we know the answers are within, within 100%. So another aspect to these episodes is I really want to talk about imbalances. You know, we're suffering. Women today are suffering. Something that Mindy Peltz, who I had on, she said something great. Women are living at a generational mismatch to society today, right? We are busier than we've ever been before. We're taking on more responsibilities than ever before before. We're wearing hats in so many different buckets. Then there's the world. And I think that as empathetic beings, as mothers, when we see suffering happening in other parts of the world, we take it on. Like generational trauma is a real thing. So although it's not happening to us, you know, there's been so many times, I know you as well, you both can agree, it's the feeling of falling to our knees. So this is a stress response to the body, right? And never before have I worked with so many people, so many women, especially on their fertility journeys, who are doing all the right things. They're eating well, they're exercising, they're going outside, they're trying to manage their stress, but they're still suffering right so when we think about some of these imbalances, you know, tell me about some of yours in the past. Let's dive into fertility.

Yeah. I would say just diving in to fertility with my own story. Experiencing a pregnancy loss at a time where I was doing all the right things and I was working in functional medicine with Dr. Mark Hyman. I knew all the things. Right. And I had years and years of functional medicine work done on myself and I was shocked when I had a pregnancy loss. And I this is kind of what led us to launch our company. But we learned that as women, we take on the responsibility of everything on our shoulders, including fertility. And we learned very quickly that 50% of the responsibility is the man. The men's part, the due to men and sperm quality impacts 50% of miscarriages. So I would say for me, that was a big wake up call for, for me to know that it's not just not all on me and I can rely on my partner when it comes to things in life like having a healthy baby, but just everything else in life. Right. Yeah.

I'm so sorry. Like, you know what I think of whenever I hear any story of miscarriage is my doctor at the time who told me that I had miscarried twins and said, you know, it's so common. Yeah, right. It's so common. As though it was supposed to make that better. Right. And we know just because things are common does not mean that they are normal.

Yeah.

And a lot of women, I think are suffering in silence. Right. For me, takes me a minute to dive into my miscarriage story and I will be in tears. Right. Because it's, it's trauma.

Right.

And we don't understand why. So we'll get to the male piece in a second. But what about you, Vida, in terms of like imbalances and suffering over the few years and now having beautiful children?

Yeah. So I definitely have a similar but different story. So one imbalance for me is also my work life balance. It's. There's no balance in my life if it's like I'm a very typical type, a corporate person who has no shut off with work. And I think that bleeds into the other imbalances in my life.

Right.

Like the stress eating, the sitting all day, being on zoom. My journey through fertility was actually that I didn't know and working with my best friend and her working alongside one of the best pioneers in functional medicine when I had my pregnancy loss. And I've had two. The first one was after the first trimester. And after I told everyone and I didn't even know simple things that could be done right, obviously I went into a massive postpartum depression and blamed myself for everything I did leading up to it. Whether it was the blame game of what I ate, what I drank, the workout, the stress, you name it. But when Ronit sat with me and all her education in the functional medicine space, she's like, have you checked your thyroid? Have you done this X, Y and Z? And it was like something that no one talked about. Like you said, I was very much dismissed at the OBGYN office, that it just happens, there's no reason, keep trying. It's great that you got pregnant. And there was really, it really was left at that. And it wasn't until I dug deeper and we weren't okay. And she actually coached me to say, there's so much you can do. And it was because I checked my thyroid, found out I have Hashimoto's, did the things, took the medicine, you know, like that. I got to a place where it was a quick imbalance, right? And that was just my story, but one that was fixable. I just had no idea to even check it. And standard medicine wasn't telling me to do anything differently.

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So I know a lot of women who watch this or who will watch this will have experienced miscarriage, right? Or their infertility journey. Do you feel like you've processed the pain from miscarriages? Do you feel you hold onto it?

It's so interesting that you asked that because recently I talked to Vida about the fact that launching our company has been essentially part of our healing journey of processing our miscarriage. Seeing how we're able to support so many and how we're slowly seeing the narrative shift and people adopt more of these practices that we're going to talk about that again. These are ancient practices of taking care of yourself and nourishing your soil before trying to conceive. I think seeing that change happen in society is part of our healing journey. And of course there will always be that pain. But in hindsight, I personally feel like this happened to me for a reason and is the reason why Vida and I are now on a mission to change the narrative around fertility and preconception and shift it from this me to we. So in a way there's gratitude for what happened to me. And I think when people are in it and if you are in it right now and it feels like, why is this happening? In retrospect, there's always a reason. And you know, things happen in life that are unexpected, but that's your journey and there's a reason why it's happening.

Beautifully said. And I really love that analogy. Preparing the soil right. When we think about Mother Nature, she nurtures the soil. It takes time for growth. The climate has to be. The climate has to be right, correct for that seed to grow. And how much more soothing does it feel if we think about honoring or nurturing our inner system right prior to instead of fixing, we live in a society of fixing or something's broken or I'm wrong instead of, oh my gosh, I just, I need to nourish myself again. I didn't realize that there was suffering that was happening within. How can I nourish? I'm reminded, you know, when I miscarried, I saw an energy healer Afterwards and who knows, she said that my twins were in the room and she said that I was simply, simply helping them fulfill their karma. Whatever it was made it feel a little bit more simple. Not easy for sure. But what ended up happening is that when I finally became pregnant with my son, who's now 9, When I was pregnant with him, my internal dialogue shifted. It went from you're not good enough, you don't look this way, you're not strong enough, you can't do that. Whatever the negative self talk was to oh my God, I need to love myself so much to keep this baby alive. How can I love my body? How can I love my heart? How can I love my brain and every inch of my body and just cultivate the environment of love within my body? So in many ways, you know, to the launch of WENatal and obviously the children that you've had, the babies that we have now, really was the ultimate act of self love. Right? Ending a narrative that we knew before and turning on a healing mechanism within our bodies that we most likely would have had if we lived like our ancestors did. Right? With support with our mothers, our aunties, our grandmothers, being nourished by healing foods, being connection with nature and all of the things.

Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's so beautifully said and I think something not talked about is how much that impacts your overall the mind body connection. Something I wish I knew in both of my losses and I remember what came after that was a lot of nervous and anxiousness for me when I actually did become pregnant because I couldn't remove the self doubt of what if it happens again? And I think Ronit would have me actually talk to my future child and like really getting my head in a world of gratitude versus the fear and anxiety helped so much. To your point, shift the narrative. And I think it's a small thing, but if we can help everyone, just have a mantra, have something, believe, have faith in your journey and have faith in where everything happens, you know, for a reason. I know it's really hard to take, especially when things are not going your way. We've been in those shoes and it's not fun. But coming back to a place of gratitude, even if it's for the smallest thing that day, and having gratitude for yourself, which for me was very hard because we're type A. Go, go, go. I didn't do enough today. That's typically my narrative. There's no time for that. No time. But that's also why creating a journal was a Passion of ours from day one. It's like, no one talks about how stressful and how increasingly hard it is to find gratitude in a world filled with chaos.

Something I'm grateful to both of you for also is holding circles. So if you haven't experienced a woman's circle, a woman's healing circle, get yourself there. If you know a friend who's suffering or a woman who's suffering, find a woman's circle. It's not a circle to. It's not like happy hour to go and bitch and complain about life. Right. It's a circle where you go to be heard, to feel seen, to share what you're suffering with because you. We all had a common thread between us of that pain and suffering. Right. And that alone was just healing, like, a huge sense of relief. My God, I'm not alone in my suffering anymore. I don't have to suffer this way. Right. So thank you for that.

Oh, we. The circles are. We feel like they're part of our healing as well.

Absolutely.

Bringing women together to support each other. I mean, it's like you said back in the day, we had our aunties, we had everybody living in community. We don't have that anymore, so we have to create it.

I've never even thought about that. Like, I focus so much on creating personalized healing protocols for people, but having a woman's circle as part of a healing protocol, how therapeutic would that be?

Yeah.

Yeah. Back to the earlier question, though, coming from my Persian background, where, like, typically, I'd say in our culture, when things don't go well, or it's a culture where you just kind of want to make things perceived as everything's fine. You know, it's very quick to brush under the rug. You're good, you're healthy. And for me, it wasn't second nature to, like, tell everyone I had a miscarriage. I had no choice because we had told everyone I was pregnant. And so I found that actually sharing my journey through loss was not only healing, but I found out my own mom had miscarriages, which I never knew growing up because she just kept it moving as kids. She wouldn't tell us something like that. I found out several co workers had had it, and it wasn't until I was overly vocal, which it's hard to do in a. In a point of pain. People now come to me before they even tell their spouse or their partner and just like, help me. This just happened to me. And it's so important to find that community, find that advocate, find whoever you feel comfortable to share the story, but it's the best form of therapy.

Absolutely. And it's easier now than ever for us to connect. Right. So infertility is rising globally, and I really want to dive into infertility and PCOS today. Right. So I think it was like, it was. Over 17% of the population is experiencing infertility. Right. One in five women will be infertile. Right. So let's start with PCOS. What is PCOS? What are some of the symptoms? When I was diagnosed with pcos, doctors told me, oh, you're never gonna have babies. You know, it was. It was that bad. I stopped getting my cycle completely. Yeah. So I'll let you.

Yeah. So I'm so glad you're asking, because PCOS is actually the number one reason for infertility. And one in 10 women experience PCOS, which is essentially short for polycystic ovarian syndrome. And how it manifests is infertility, non ovulatory cycles, so not ovulating. Hair growth in places that are unwanted hair loss, insulin resistant, is essentially now shown to be the cause of polycystic ovarian syndrome. And what's happening because of insulin resistance is because testosterone is unable to convert to estrogen, and as a result, women are not ovulating. With that being said, insulin resistance, it's not simple, but it's definitely a fixable condition that many people have. And I was actually just listening to a podcast with Ben Bickman, who was saying that 88% of Americans have insulin resistance, which to me, I thought, wow, I wonder if they're. The rates of PCOS are higher and that women just don't know that they have it. Because if 88% of people in America have PCOS and only 10% of women have. Have PC. I'm sorry, if. If 88% of people have insulin resistance and 1 in 10 women have PCOS, that kind of number doesn't make sense. But with that, we know that the root cause of insulin resistance has to do with the food that we're consuming. So we can dive in and talk about that. It has to do with inflammation, it has to do with stress. And with that, there's just so much that you could do to support your body to get through it. And even though there's a genetic component that has to do with pcos, diet and lifestyle can still help support and get through. Get through PCOS and improve your insulin resistance.

Yeah, let's break that down. Okay, so for people listening, some symptoms, if you have pcos, could be, you know, an increase of androgens in your blood. So this could lead to hair loss, hair growth in places that we don't want it also. And acne. Right. But also irregular cycles or lack of menses altogether. That alone is reason enough to go and investigate.

Yeah.

And I would say one of the best ways to go and investigate is to push for an ultrasound of your ovaries so that you can get a detailed look on what's happening. Right. And you might have to push your doctor. Right. A lot of doctors, because these symptoms are so normal today, they're not necessarily willing to run the labs. So make sure, I always say, make sure your doctor is your partner in healing. Now, if we think about how common it is today, if somebody's told by their doctor that it is common, what would your advice be to them?

I mean, just because it's common, it doesn't mean that it's normal, and it doesn't mean that it's optimal.

Right.

And same thing with miscarriages. It is common, but it's not optimal. And there's so much that you could do, and you know, what we like to do is empower women because there's so much that you could do by yourself or partnering with a great doctor or functional medicine doctor or functional nutrition with diet and lifestyle to improve.

Your.

Fertility, to improve your pcos, to improve chronic disease.

Absolutely. So let's break that down. What are some of the culprits then, Right. That are causing PCOS today? So we talked about an increase in inflammation. Right. Obviously metabolic dysfunction. Right. If our diet is too high in refined processed foods, this is something that we need to fix. If you're experiencing being overweight or obese, but also if there's an increase of toxins within your diet. We live in a toxic, toxic world from the air that we breathe, the water that we're drinking, the foods that we're consuming, and of course, the personal care products that we're using. This is such a big thing. Right. So we'll break down kind of like a multifaceted approach. But let's talk about toxins with pcos. What have you seen? I'm sure, you know, people are writing you and you guys have talked a lot about this on your social handle.

Yeah.

I mean, toxins, all of the things that you just described are actually all of the things that not only contribute to pcos, but overall infertility, regardless of PCOS and toxins, is a big one. We live now in basically a toxic soup from the food that's that we're eating, that contains glyphosate, a lot of it. To the toxins in our personal care products, to the BPAs and phthalates, which are big, big time endocrine disruptors and really reduce both male and female fertility. But on the flip side, there's so much that we could do to reduce that toxic burden. And we kind of say like with fertility you should think about it because it could be overwhelming when you start to go down the list of like, here are all the things that you have to do.

Absolutely.

But if you think about it as removing fertility blockers and then adopting fertility boosters, it makes it so much easier. So what are those fertility blockers? It's the plastics. Right. So in our kitchen, if you think about the kitchen as one place of like a fertility blocker, not using plastic, using glass, not using nonstick pans, using cast iron or kind of the better, the better versions. And nowadays there's so many great brands out there that don't have like Teflon for example, for a nonstick. It's the personal care items. I think back in the day when, I don't know, eight years ago, all of the non toxic brands were just like these crunchy brands. Now it's like there's so much great beauty brands that you could choose from. And we love the environmental working group, we love the Think Dirty app where you can really look at your products and rate them. And then there's the food system. Right. So removing the processed foods and I think specifically with pcos, starting there and stabilizing your blood sugar. Prioritize. How do you do that? You prioritize protein, you don't skip meals, you enjoy your food, you chew your food. You're going back to ancient wisdom, right?

Absolutely.

Chewing our food. How many of us just eat so quickly in front of our computers and don't chew our food? So then you're not absorbing your food if you're not chewing it. And so I would say it's. And then it's also just investing in like an air filter or a water filter. So those are things that are very easily to implement to like reduce that toxic load.

Yeah. Let's spend a little bit more time on this. Okay. Because we know that the toxic burden on our bodies is increasing. Right. And we may have been able to tolerate up until now, but now because of the levels of stress that we're taking on, our bodies simply cannot cope with the level, level of toxic burden that exists. Now that we know PCOS and infertility are directly linked. Start off by reducing your toxic burden. So if you're going to go through your house, I think especially for women. When I was diagnosed with PCOS and told I would never have children, I was working in the cosmetic industry. I was wearing a mask full of makeup every single day. Scented body lotions. Not only that, it was a corporate sales job. So whenever I did a training, I had to spray the rooms with perfume. So I was inhaling it day in, day out, like literally ingesting everything, right? So when we think about ingredient labels, the sad thing with it, whether it's our food system or personal care system, we can't necessarily trust the front of the label. We have to look at the back of the label, read those ingredients so closely. If something says it's unnatural, toxic free, safer option. And even there's something called green washing when it comes to clean beauty products, right? You've got to look at the back of the label, right? So when you think about starting your day, it starts off with what? Our toothbrush, our toothpaste, our mouthwash, our serums, our toners, our moisturizers, our sun care, our hair care, products that we're using, our body care, our deodorant has to be natural. It has to be. You've got to detox from the toxic stuff that's out there. And this goes for children also, right? So, you know, for women who have children, there's so many people that when the kids grow up, all of a sudden those rules go out the window. It's like, oh, well, you know, my kids are healthy now. I can start using that Gillette product or the Pantene, or I can give my daughter the makeup from the drugstore. We're impacting their hormones in the future also.

Yeah.

Everything that they consume from the day that they are born can be a massive endocrine disruptor, right? This is gonna affect their fertility in the future, the sperm count in our boys, which God knows what's gonna happen in the future, right? So we have to protect them. So go through your labels, go through your personal care, go through your cleaning products. There's so many cleaning brands out there that are much safer. We don't have to live in the sterile nation, right, that we thought that we, we had to. And then of course, I want to just touch on fragrances because something that I was shocked this past summer, traveling in elevators, on airplanes, going into restaurants in the bathrooms where they have those air fresheners, right? And just sprays out fragrance. We Ingest that. Right. Or Glade plug ins or the fresheners at home. Like these are things that you're ingesting. And if you've ever looked at the back of a perfume bottle, do you know this? So legally they don't have to put the ingredients. It can just say perfumer parfum. Right. And that can include a whole massive list, laundry list, of toxic ingredients. And where do we put the fragrance onto our skin by our thyroid. It goes directly into our body. What we put onto our skin penetrates 10 times faster than what we eat. This is why dermal patches, dermal medications are so, you know, impactful for people who have digestive issues. Right. So sorry, I had to vent on that just a little bit because it's such an important topic and it's so simple. It's something that you just have to control, like our food system. If we control with our dollar, we will send a message to these companies who are producing these toxic products.

Agree? I completely agree. I mean, research shows that babies are born with over 200 chemicals in them. They're on vocal cord because it's because women are using about 12 personal care items a day and that equates to 200 chemicals in their umbilical cord. So I think, I think it could also be overwhelming. And we also say to people like, you don't have to throw everything out all at once, gradually, slowly. This is a practice that takes time. Right. And I think I heard this from you. If somebody loves their perfume and just can't without their perfume, spray it on your shirt, spray it on your hair, or get their amazing, like essential oils that smell amazing. So make your own.

It is so easy to make your own skincare and body care. It's wild. And I think as we age, you know, there's so many great brands who are. The technology is there or we're doing things like facial acupuncture. Right. Which is so supportive. But I couldn't agree more. So let's really dive into infertility then. So some main causes of infertility, you know, obviously I'm just going to call it stress. We could probably spend an entire episode speaking to stress because it comes from every pillar of our lives. And would you not agree that our tolerance for stress today has now just gone up? I think that we're living with higher stress levels than ever before in history. Yeah, right.

A hundred percent.

We're taught to show up still, especially.

For women, I'd say, you know, we've all become career women. We've all taken on the load of the home and the career. I'd say increasingly our stress, our anxiety, levels of depression, everything is on an all time high right now. We thought it would come down after Covid, it has not. It's only gotten worse. And so as a result, you're seeing it affect everything. Our sleep, which then affects our immune system and trying to conceive. Obviously, if your body's in fight or flight mode every day, it's not really going to help you prioritize conceiving. And so that's what we've Learned of just 100%. Yes. I'm probably also a culprit of the higher stress levels, but yeah, it's very unfortunately very common.

Well, what I love about your story too is that you work. You have a big corporate job.

Yep.

You're busy. Like you're juggling that you're an entrepreneur, you have a family. Like so many people who are going to be watching this. Where's the responsibility then? Is it on the companies? Is it on the woman? Like, how are you going to reclaim your health knowing that anxiety related disorders are on the rise, stress related disorders are on the rise, Depression. Right. Is on the rise.

I'd love to say the companies, but given my own personal journey, 20 years of a corporate career and I finally hit a major burnout actually earlier this year. It has to be on you, it has to be on the individual. I had to learn through a great amount of therapy and community and literally spending three months only focused on my health. And for me, I needed the wake up call. I needed to hit rock bottom to wake up and say what I was doing was not healthy and my body actually stopped me. What I don't want that to happen to everyone listening. And I think you have to take the clues before you experience that. And setting healthy boundaries. It's not real to say like we're not going to live in a stressful environment or our kids and our job will go away. What I came back to the corporate career world was clear boundaries of like what I will and won't do anymore and what will serve me and what will only make me better in my career and better mother, is if I had those clear boundaries with my kids, with my husband and definitely with my career. I was literally working 24 7, counting the minutes till the kids go sleep so I can open my laptop again and get more caught up. And it was just a very unhealthy downward spiral. So for me, I would say my guidance is it's gotta Be on you individually. And you have to figure out the boundaries that make sense. But I can't expect every corporation has needs and wants as a business. I don't blame them. And they're gonna take, take, take, take. And you have to figure out how to give in a healthy way.

And there's no shortage of the story of burnout. Right. There's no shortage between not only our stories, but all of our friends. We know people who have hit rock bottom. We know people who. Their health has been completely compromised, myself included. When you don't have your health, you have nothing.

Correct.

Nothing else matters. You cannot show up for any of those responsibilities. Right, Exactly. And I think men are a big part of this too. Men are also suffering. They're to a day and age where, you know, they were trained to be providers and work hard. And men, I think, are catching on. Like, they want to be part of this journey. They're aware of infertility. They're starting to take ownership of men being a big culprit for infertility. Also. They want to know what to do. Yeah. When it comes to stress and stuff like that too. You know, God bless my husband. He would always. Any. Anyone's advice if they're looking like, how do you get pregnant? You know, we're having such a hard time. He'll always say, take your wife away, like, go on a vacation, turn her mind off and go and get pregnant together, both of you. Right. Like, put yourself into a completely different environment. Change your physiology so that you can just be in connection instead of looking at pregnancy as another chore or a task. Right. Because we've been there.

Back to the checklist. You're like, oh, I'm ovulating. Okay, let's go have sex. Right.

The second.

Yeah.

Right. There's no fun in that. There's no joy in that. So, you know, if we were to talk about this, I think this is a good segue for the launch of WENatal. What was the inspiration? What. What guided you to the inclusion of men and telling the men's story also?

I think it was that big major. Aha. So I had my miscarriage. She helped me through it. We both had healthy baby girls, and in early 2020, we had a miscarriage a week apart, Being my second and her first. And again, she was shocked. Working alongside one of the best in functional medicine, I was more like, yeah, here we go again, kind of thing. And I think Ronit's background really helped us say, no, we're not just going to accept this. You know, which I did the first time around. And she went deep on a rabbit hole. She took me down the rabbit hole of research. We uncovered incredible amounts of publications that really talked about men being 50%, men being 50% of pregnancy loss, miscarriage is due to faulty sperm.

Literally.

We had this major aha moment, the emoji with the brain blowing up. It was like, come again? Like we are in the2020s. Like, women have progressed in so many ways. How can you tell me that? We took on the entire burden of fertility and no one even discussed what our husbands were doing, what they were eating, what they were partaking in, their health, their wellness. And it was mind blowing.

Yeah, wild.

But the biggest aha really came to the fact that we learned that men have this amazing ability to constantly create sperm. It's a process called spermatogenesis. And with that constant creation of sperm and they can completely improve and transform their sperm quality within three months. So we asked ourselves, with women having kids later in life, and you know, there you can, you can also improve egg quality, but it's much harder. Why aren't men working on improving their sperm quality? And it's simple. And men taking antioxidants like CoQ10, NAC, zinc L, carnitine, vitamin C have five times of a higher chance of getting their partner pregnant. So why aren't all men taking prenatals? And that was essentially our concept in the beginning. It was creating a men's prenatal. But then we saw that there was also a big gap in the women's prenatal space. There were, we, we just felt like even though it's a very cluttered space, there's a ton of competition. Prenatals over promise and under deliver. You either have prenatals that are ingredients that are not, not bioavailable ingredients that have dosages that are too low to make a difference. For instance, choline is a crucial ingredient for baby brain health. And most prenatals don't have choline in it. And if they do, they have very low dosages, like 50 milligrams. We have 400 milligrams. So we were, we were kind of blown away when we started to look at the competitive landscape out there and we couldn't believe what we saw. And there are some high integrity brands out there that are very good, but. But they're expensive. They have eight capsules per serving. Wenatal has three capsules per serving. Because we want to make it easy for people to take a prenatal where you cannot expect a Woman in their first trimester who's nauseous to take a prenatal. But beyond the prenatals, right now we also have a fish oil and we have a journal which we'll get into. For us, launching Gueenadal was more of a mission to educate people about the importance of preconception health. Trimester zero the time before conceiving. This is the three month golden window that you can invest in yourself and your partner can invest in himself and you can invest in yourself together in your household. That sets the foundation for your child's life. And we always talk about how people prepare for their wedding. They take a year to train everything to fit into the dress and the facials and all the things take the time to prepare for baby because there is no bigger gift you can give your child.

Can you imagine if we could go back in time and having this discussion with our husbands, having them included on the pre pregnancy journey on the supplements and do you not. I know for myself what a weight that would have been lifted. I would have felt like I had a partner in it. I don't think the miscarriages would have felt like it was just my fault solely. Right. There would have been more community, more connection. Also inclusion for the men. Like, I think men often feel so left out of this. Women don't know what is happening hormonally for the most part. Right. Let alone men. And it's not that they don't want to. So I think, like, I'm just so grateful for you guys for coming out with such an incredible concept because it's time. There needs to be another way. And especially because we have our medical providers saying, go get a prenatal at the drugstore, go to cvs. And it's like shitty quality. It's full of synthetic ingredients, often colors or dyes. You don't know where or how it's manufactured, but it's affordable. So I can hear a lot of people saying, oh well, I, you know, I couldn't afford those quality supplements that you're recommending. So you're really just owning a niche that is necessary for the future of fertility.

Yeah, it's a big deal. It's a huge. It goes back to what you said about you have to be your own advocate in your health journey. You have to learn to read labels. We found in the women's space. There's some with a whole other paragraph of the things you mentioned that shouldn't be in there. But it's also just not taking it. Not taking all the marketing as truth. You have to be your own advocate, whether it's pushing for the labs that you know that you need, but your doctor's saying, oh, you're fine, you're fine. These are common, it's normal. Or reading the front or looking at price tags like it's an investment in your lifelong health. And if you have a girl, you're passing the DNA on two generations, which was mind blowing to me as well. And so we talk a lot about decorating baby nurseries and what I want on my registry. But like Ronit said, that gift that you can give your child of lifelong health comes in that preconception timeframe.

Can we say that again? So if you as a woman are experiencing deficiencies, a toxic burden to your body when you get pregnant, you're transferring those things to your child.

Yes.

So by simply focusing on your pre pregnancy journey, optimizing your body, maybe getting your blood labs done and understanding all of your deficiencies, just by that alone, you're setting the stage for a healthy baby.

Exactly. And I come from a culture. My mom, who actually used to tell us when we were kids, you don't need supplements, you should be eating a diversity of food, you should be eating the rainbow. All the things we're taught, diversity of proteins and a Mediterranean diet that's going to be healthy. My mom never believed in supplements, but the reality is our food today isn't what our parents or grandparents had. If we, if my grandpa was eating one orange back then, it's the equivalent of me eating eight oranges today to get the same nutrient density. So think about that for a second. Like we can't expect, even if we're eating the cleanest, organic, protein rich Mediterranean diet, we just, our soils are depleted and our food is not as nutritious as they once were. So that's why supplementation now more than ever is increasingly important.

Absolutely. Perfectly said. I need to do a full episode on the quality of our soil, the quality of our food and how that's impacting us. Especially in a day where supplements now are being marketed everywhere. Everywhere. There's so many companies popping up. Just like my beverage industry. You go into a health food store and you have no idea what to take, what brand is reputable anymore. Totally. And then you have brands that are reputable, that get bought by somebody else, but. And without even knowing that the ingredients have shifted, they're less quality. So it's just such an important topic, which is why supplementing today is essential. It's essential fertility or not. I Think that everybody should be getting a full spectrum blood lab. You and I, this is obviously our journey together. Full spectrum bud lab. Twice a year. Stay ahead of the game. The name of the game is about prevention and longevity. And when you do have kids, you want to be around for their grandkids. Right. And it all is about what we are consuming and putting into our body. So speaking to that and the quality of food and what our ancestors were eating, let's talk about some of these ancient healing remedies that we all know of that were supportive for us along our journeys that you know to be true. So what are some things that you guys practice? It practiced. What are some ancient healing rituals that you guys practiced?

I would say for me, when after I had my miscarriage, I actually took three months of not trying to conceive, I did all the things that we just talked about and my husband did all the things. But I also did acupuncture, which acupuncture, I think is an ancient Chinese medicine tool and I think it's really supportive of stress, blood flow and really helped my journey in becoming pregnant again.

Beautiful. I think, yeah. Traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, especially for the qi within our body, the flow of energy within our body, especially when we're feeling depleted, is so beneficial. Right. We don't, we don't talk about that. A lot of people, they don't feel an instant shift from having acupuncture. But again, it's something that's gentle to the body. That is so beneficial. So beneficial.

Yeah. For me, the Persian culture is very much a feeding culture. So my in laws, my mom immediately go to like homemade remedies, whether it's bone broths or bone marrow. They made me soups. They made. They believe also in like warm foods and cold foods. And I think one for fertility, at least in the Persian culture that they focus on is dates and walnuts and things that they believe will like, warm back up after you've had loss or can help with fertility. So it was much around nourishing the body with nutrient dense foods. And that was something that was very healing to me from our culture.

Yeah, yeah, it's a good point. So reducing toxic burden, which we talked about, increasing the foods that our ancestors ate. So less processed food, less refined carbohydrates and sugars, less foods with long ingredient lists, focusing on whole nourishing foods that come from the earth, lowering our stress is another big one. What about exercise?

Movement is a big one too. Yeah, but I will say with movement, you don't want to overdo it too. Right. So there is a sweet spot with exercise and fertility. I would say the most, at the most basic. And I think it's such an underappreciated way of exercising, but walking and spending more time. Just like walking. Just like our ancestors did. Right. They didn't have to go to the gym and like lift weights and go on runs. Movement was just part of their everyday. So incorporating movement to your everyday. And if you have a desk job, getting a walking pad or a standing desk and just making sure that the sedentary lifestyle is not kind of your lifestyle.

Absolutely, yeah. Movement, obviously, for the mental aspect also. Right. The release of endorphins that helps us feel really, really good. Our ancestors weren't necessarily practicing HIIT or VO2 max. Yeah. Any of those things. I think for a woman, it's important for her to learn how to work out with her cycle.

Yeah.

And if you know intuitively that you just you're stressed, you're not sleeping well, doing those hard, aggressive workouts are likely going to be even more depleting. Right. Especially if you're not getting your periods right. Ease back, pull back. Focus on movements that feel really good to your body, that are uplifting and nourishing. If you get outside for a walk, you're looking up at the sky. You're focused on expansion and grounding at the exact same time. Right. Lowering inflammation to the body. I think sleep has to come into this also prioritizing rest and your circadian rhythm too. So when we were younger, we were probably staying up later. Right. If you're working a corporate job, you're on your screen before bed. You may not be getting deep restorative sleep that you need for your body to recover, but making sleep almost like the number one priority for yourself so that your body can heal every day and that will help to lower the impact of stress and inflammation.

Yeah.

I don't think we talk about sleep enough. As someone who's had major sleep issues the last few years, it is the number one thing that will change your whole outlook, your brain fog. For me, I was exhibiting all the things and not realizing the sleep was the root cause. And thank goodness for wearable technologies like the OURA ring. I was able to actually find out when my prime time to fall asleep, how to reduce the blue blocking devices at night, and really realizing that how the duration of your sleep and the quality of sleep can dramatically shift your health. It is the time that your body restores and gets ready for the next day. And I was taking it for granted. I was sleeping later and later being on the screens. And it wasn't until I saw the stats that were so alarming and my deep sleep being so little that I quickly had to find out all these things to do and listen to every podcast on sleep and. Yeah, but it's a big one that we don't talk about and it's a huge one for your health.

Honestly, guys, when I'm working with my clients, one on one, nutrition isn't even the number one focus anymore. It's sleep. It's. How are you restoring? How are you focusing on your nervous system? How do you need to heal your body before any of these things will even take impact? Right. I've never worked with so many people who are doing all the right things, but they're still experiencing suffering in the. This is a state of healing. It's a state of our nervous system repair, which we talked about now, you know, after Covid, and it's funny how that happened. Right after Covid, we thought that we would get a handle of things again. We have so much gratitude for the world opening up again. But what I'm noticing is a sensation of like, having to do more. We gotta do more to catch up, gotta do more to get ahead. Maybe there's a fear of something bad happening again to just keep ahead.

I think it's also, it also has to do with kind of this work from home mentality, which then when you're working from home, there's no separation between work and home. And so work becomes your home life. And there's no like, start and stop. So I think that also creates so much stress and it also creates a lack of presence at home, a lack of presence with your kids, a lack of. So that's also one that's important.

And so many moms and dads now working from home. So if we know there's all those articles that came out that, you know, being a stay at home mom is a full time job. Yeah. Okay. It's a full time job. Now we're working from home. A lot of our children are home. Moms and dads are taking the load of, you know, chores, taking care of bills, all that, house responsibilities at the same time. So it's like constant struggle. It's. It's a lot. Yeah. All right, so now let's flash forward. You get pregnant, your greatest joy, okay. You make it past that, that mark, the doctor gives you the green light to go and tell your family. How do you reduce your chances of having a miscarriage?

I think that's, that's a great question. I think there are some things that are beyond our control.

Yeah.

But knowing that you did everything you can in the pre pregnancy time frame to improve your egg quality, to improve sperm quality, I think that to me is like the best insurance. Right. And so miscarriages typically happen because of chromosomal abnormalities and that usually takes place in the preconception timeframe because how the egg develops and the sperm. And so I think pre pregnancy and focusing on that, but while you are pregnant, making sure that if you are having food aversions that you're taking and regardless, even if you're not having food aversions, taking a good quality prenatal is basically the easiest thing that, you know, there's targeted nutrients that are there to help support the baby's growth. The neural tubes making sure that the ingredients are bioavailable, like folate, methylfolate, not folic acid, to make sure that you're supporting baby brain and the growth of the baby. And I think it's also listening to your body and listening to yourself and realizing that you are creating a human being. And so it's okay to rest, it's okay to take time off from work, it's okay to say no to things. You don't have to do everything. You are making a human.

Yeah. Ask for help. Right. Order in some food, call a family member, do all of those things. And I love that point because it's really taking ownership. You are cultivating the environment for life within you and love within you. Right. The greatest act of self love. You cultivate that. I think that for a lot of women who I've worked with in the past, you know, they could be craving things. Like there's a story of, you know, craving something like McDonald's. Right. Oh, we just had these cravings for pizza and McDonald's and fried foods and all these things that we know aren't serving your health, chances are you're not craving those foods. You're probably craving something like good quality fats, maybe a little bit more salt in your diet. And if you are craving some sweets, maybe you can get that from a nourishing sweet food. Right. Culturally, whether it's dates or figs or fruit or warm oats or whatever it is. Right. There's a reason behind it. But I think that that's a great reminder to really take ownership of women. Like the fact that we are creating life within us, like the what has to happen for that to take place. Right.

And I think one other thing is to a lot of women who have food aversions and can't eat during their first trimester or they're throwing up a lot, if you took the time to build those nutrient reserves before getting pregnant.

Right.

And you. You set the foundation for successful first trimester.

Absolutely.

And so what you eat every day, like, if you can only stomach crackers and that's the only thing you can stomach, that's okay because you did the work ahead of time.

Yeah. The point is, is that there's healthier options of all these foods today that you can still feel like you're. If you're not, you know, obviously having an incredible salad or nourishing soup that your mother could make you, that there's still safer options. Yes. Out there.

That's the whole point for me. Two big things. You mentioned it, but I want to focus on it. Listening to your body. I feel like we don't pause and, like, really think about, like, how do I feel sitting in this chair? And that was something through therap therapy that he's like, what do you feel? And I was so foreign to me to sit without noise and have to actually, like, check in with my body. And we actually did it at the retreat for 30 minutes. She put us in nature. No phones, no reading, no talking. No talking. So we literally had to be there with our thoughts and actually check in. And it's a very powerful exercise, and we don't do it enough. Especially when you're creating a human, you need to be mindful of what your body needs. And I just don't think as women. Something I've learned in this journey is trusting my gut more. I'm pretty quick to push my gut to the side, to charge on to what I think needs to be done. But there's nothing more important during this time to own your own journey, and no one's journey is your own. And I think it's very easy to look left and right and say, well, my friend ate fast food and did this and had a baby like that, or whatever the case may be. Your journey is your journey, and try to stay focused on that and your time will come. And the second thing that I didn't learn very well, but I'm really focusing on is to be kind to yourself. Because I think also the pressures of our day to day don't really foster that, especially the busier we get and the more stress we get. But literally, if you do have the cracker, just enjoy it and work on gratitude. And the mental aspect of, like, being grateful for any little thing and just shifting it takes work. But shifting the negative thoughts away. And every day focusing on the positive, even if it's something as small as the meal that you just ate.

So recognize that you are a walking, talking miracle and that your body is actually equipped to send you symptoms at every moment of every day so that you pay attention and tune in. It's like, oh, this is what I need. Oh, I need to rest. Oh, I need to eat. Oh, I need some different types of foods.

Right.

We just have to tune in instead of ignoring those symptoms to muscle through everything. I think that that is absolutely brilliant. And then the self talk thing is a really important piece too, because, you know, would you want me to hear the voice that was inside your head? Right. And if you were to come to me and share some of those thoughts, I wouldn't even believe that you could say something negative about yourself. Right. As women, this is where we can show up for each other, where it's like, tell me how you're feeling. Oh, I'm fine. We get used to saying, I'm fine or I'm struggling, or we will bitch and complain instead of like, you know what? I really, I'm struggling right now. I really feel like my heart is sad or I feel disconnected from my partner or my best friend. By holding space that way, you're talking through something and chances are sharing your experience with another woman who's experienced the exact same thing so that you can move beyond it and you're liberating your body from those emotions.

Yeah.

It feels so good to let it out and you've talked it through and it's like, you know, it's releasing.

We process it.

Totally.

Yeah. And I would say, like, when we think about ancient healing traditions, we mentioned acupuncture, yoga, working with qigong even, or Reiki energy healing, some gentle, gentle breath work, types of different massages and stuff like that. The things that cause us to slow down and restoration to the body are just so important. And I'm sure culturally, you know, in the Indian culture, our diet changes. We're eating foods that are simple to digest. We're using a variety of spices that keep inflammation low to the body. We're focusing on nourishing foods also. What are some recipes or things culturally that your ancestors did?

Turmeric is a big one for anti inflammation. I know my mom uses it on everything. My husband, like, she puts turmeric in everything and it drives him nuts. But I love it. We use Saffron and teas and stuff like that. When I also, when I had my miscarriages, they gave me a warm tea with saffron. Like I mentioned, there's a lot of bone broth in our culture. Depends on the ailment. My mom was actually telling me, like, when there was a body aches, they would make a mixture concoction of like eggs with turmeric and like put it on. And it makes sense because you said the, the skin absorbs it much quicker than eating it and it would help like with external pains. So it's very much. There's probably a wise tale or probably true of how food is medicine that our ancestors lived by and we dismiss it a lot. We think it's like our parents or grandparents being silly. But I love them because I feel like they're so, so much truth to how we nourish and what we put in our body and how those symptoms can flourish or go away.

Bottom line, it seems like just trust in nature. Trust in what nature gives us right to nourish and heal from the inside out.

Yeah, yeah.

What haven't we talked about? Oh, what about the role of modern medicine? So, you know, we have a lot of friends who will do home births. They'll work with the doula. Where do you see the role of modern medicine moving forward?

Modern medicine, That's a great question. So I think, first of all, I am so grateful for modern medicine. There's a time and a place for modern medicine, for sure. I think nowadays people that are struggling with infertility oftentimes revert way too quickly to modern medicine and go down the route of assisted reproductive technology. But oftentimes that's not necessarily needed. And people go through such an expensive and painful and emotionally draining process when they can actually do get to the root of their infertility with a naturopathic doctor or a functional medicine doctor, something like that. I was just talking to a local functional medicine doctor this week who shared with me two stories of people that came to her about after not having successful ivf and she looked at their nutritional levels and saw deficiencies, targeted those deficiencies, and at the age of 46, had a baby, got pregnant naturally. So I think there's so much to be said about the miracle of IVF IUI and how it can allow so many people to have babies and it can allow same sex couples to have babies. This is an infection, incredible tool, but it's not necessarily the only tool. And so before going there, there's just.

So much that you could do so with modern medicine. I couldn't agree more. It's a necessity. I think there's also a demand for doctors to expand their knowledge on options for their patients. I think as a woman, if you're only given one option from your doctor, ask questions and get a second opinion. You know, my dream for the future is to have integration within healthcare so that you can really understand Eastern and Western medicine together. Right. Like, there's no reason that we should not be combining these two sciences, especially since one has this like ancient history and, you know, valid, proven points of being able to, to show up and heal the body. But with that said, you know, we live in an era where women are freezing their eggs, men are freezing their sperm. Right. Like, thank God we have access to this while the couple can figure it out, heal their body, do the things that we've been talking about. And I pray that this turns around, that that will be a necessity for the future. But until then, it is something that is required. Yeah, right. Yeah. So ask questions from your doctor, ask.

Questions of your doctor. I would say push, be your advocate when it comes to all of this. You know, some doctors, you have to educate them.

Yeah. I think, you know what really we found through our journey through loss and creating wenatal was how to be your own advocate, how to educate people with all the resources and knowledge we wish we had and how today in this age, modern medicine is great also because it gives us so many ways to become experts on our own health, whether it be at home testing kits, whether it be wearable technology like Oura rings or Fitbits where we can measure our movement. But like, we have resources now that can actually educate us and we can. All doctors are well intentioned, they want to help us. They may not know enough about nutrition or something else where you might have to be your own advocate, educator and seek the knowledge in ways that you can make sure you're getting the best for you.

So if a man or woman, a couple is listening to this and they're wondering, okay, where do I start? You know, I know about this. There's a vast amount of information online. It's starting to feel really, really overwhelming. How can I bring this down so it's not causing more stress?

Yeah, I would say the easiest starting point is actually to start with a prenatal for him and her. And I will say, are men loved that they have the ability to participate in the fertility journey from day zero? And we always say that our Wenatal men are going to be the best Dads because they are in it with their partner from the beginning. And so it's an easy, tangible way for them to contribute to the fertility equation. I would say otherwise. It's the things that we talked about, they can be very overwhelming. We put together a free guide, wenatal.com guide with nine tips that a couple can do together to improve their fertility. And we break it down in a very simple and easy way.

Does this include the journal too?

It includes the journal. We love our journal. So we didn't really highlight the journal that much, but the Wenatal manifestation journal was created as a tool to allow couples to come together and imagine the family of their dreams. And by imagining, really talking through, like, how do we want to have our.

Day to day be?

Do we want to eat dinners together every day? Who's going to be how? Who's going to support us? Are we going to have help? Are we going to. What's your expectation? How did you grow up? What did your mom do when this and this happened? So there's a portion there that kind of level sets the couple as far as like their understanding and what they each kind of imagine their family looking like. So that's something that we wish we had. And then there's a portion in the book about gratitude and taking three minutes a day to think about what are you grateful for in your partner, in yourself, in the children that you do have, or in your future children. And that practice of gratitude, I will say is incredible. Nowadays there's science, it's not just woo, woo. There's science that shows that practicing gratitude helps your mental health and your overall health physically. So that's, that's a big one for.

Us too if stress is related to PCOS and infertility. But we know that it's impossible to feel stress when you're living in gratitude. It shuts it down completely. So I think that that's just a brilliant marriage of a product. I think that Wenatal is one. I'm just so proud of you guys.

Thank you.

The launch, the quality of the ingredients, the effort that you put into making this happen, the fact that it's a brand that I trust, the fact that you can back up every ingredient, you have an incredible panel of experts on board. And the fact that you're speaking to men too could really change. The fact that you're speaking to men too could also change the trajectory for men and that partnership. I think having an exercise like when you're actually living through having a baby with your partner and you can talk about it. You're so much more prepared for when the day comes.

Yeah.

My gosh. So what do you see about the vision for Wenatal?

The vision? You know, we have a couple more products in the works, but really beyond the products, we are planning to double down, triple down on the education. And right now we share a ton of content through Instagram, TikTok, our blog, the newsletter. But we really want to create an educational platform where the access that we have to all of these people that are trailblazers in the health and wellness space, fertility sprit space, we can showcase them and share that information because that's really been our vision from day one. We are very fortunate to be in a place where we have access to this information, but most people aren't. So we really want to try to find ways to get this information to as many people as possible and get doctors on board and get doctors on.

Board and really shift the paradigms. It sounds silly, but, like, I'll be overjoyed the day when both partners are being checked up front. When both partners are part of the mainstream conversation. We're starting to see it shift, which is so incredibly inspiring and really taking that burden off of women and creating a more holistic approach to conceiving empowering couples education, but also really just everyone doing it together. I think that's gonna, that's gonna be the best win.

I couldn't agree more. I have two clients, I don't know if I told you this, I have two clients taking Wenatal who were trying to get pregnant, are now pregnant and also thriving in their pregnancies.

So we love hearing that. And I will say the Wenatal baby stories, all of those stories that we're seeing, people sending us their ultrasounds or pictures of newborns now that we're a year and a half in, I think that's been also part of our healing journey. Seeing all the joy that the separate bringing to so many people is just so, so gratifying to us.

Which knowing you two means that you're never going to stop. So.

Never.

I know that about you. All right, so some quick rapid fire questions to close things off. So what are some common mistakes or misconceptions that you're seeing in women? Let me ask that again. What are some common misconceptions that you're seeing that women are making when it comes to their health?

That men aren't part of the equation? That's not necessarily women, but I think that's the biggest aha. We had in this journey.

Yeah, I think Also, part of it is kind of what we talked about. You're doing all the biohacking stuff, right? You're doing all, you're doing all the wearables, but you're not focused on the foundation and on the, the basics. Right. Having a good time, laughing, having fun, connecting with friends, dancing. You know, there are so many things that create health and sometimes. And that are free. And sometimes we just think, okay, I'm gonna buy this heating pad and that, that wearable and this thing.

And we're, we're, we're.

We're there too. Trust me. We went to the biohacking conference and bought all the things.

Things.

But it's the simple things that can really help with your health.

Turning down the conflict, the. Turning down the amount of. Turning down the complication. Right. We're making things too complicated.

And like you mentioned earlier, don't just check the box. Either do it or don't. And literally just this week, she called me. She's like, I got invited to this hike. And I'm like, only do it if you're not going to be stressed while you're there. Because she had a whole to do list. And I was like, if you could go and enjoy it, do it. But I think a lot of times we do it to check the box and we're stressed while we're doing it. So it's not really healing you.

It's got to be a full body. Yes.

Less is more. Exactly. Exactly.

So for thinking about going back to our roots, going back to basics, simplifying things to make this journey a lot more simple, what would you say are two of your favorite healing rituals?

For me, it's community, it's friends, it's being together with the people that light you up and make you feel happy.

I'll go. Mine is exercise, for sure. I never feel more, like, alive and in my body than when I move it. And for me, also knowing I've come off of a crazy amount of sleep issues and have really found what works for me, like a really restorative sleep. Granted, I can't control the kids and when they wake me up, but focusing on my sleep and saying no to things, which also my culture is very much like a pleasing culture. And we try to say yes and over commit, but I found so much empowerment in saying no and prioritizing my sleep and my health. And I feel so much better because of it. A little bit of fomo, but I get over it.

Yeah, I love that. And what would you say, like, if you had to talk about two or three things, maybe even looking back at your own fertility journey, if you could go back in time, two or three things that you would start with in order to optimize your fertility.

Number one, balancing your blood sugar. So we know what that includes. That includes all the things we talked about, but prioritizing protein, eating real foods, not eating those carbs, drinking sodas, sugary drinks, all of that. Taking a really good quality supplement for me and my partner and focusing on improving my egg and sperm quality. And then it's cleaning up the household. And we always say that cleaning, removing the toxins from your house not only benefits you, but it sets the foundation for a baby. It's almost like this cue that you're saying to a baby, it's safe to come in here.

I love that. Yeah. I always say build your ashram at home, create your sanctuary. Right. And saying that it's safe to come in here, that is beautiful. What are you most excited about? Moving forward?

I think for me it's like the, it's so simple, but it's the day by day testimonial and customer review. Like every person who comes to us that said because of you, I was like consoled when I had my miscarriage because of you. I'm showing you my positive pregnancy test before my partner. Like so many people have attributed so much trust in Wenatal and us and we've become their community. So for me, it's those day to day wins that like, I, that's it for me. It's like literally one by one who we're helping and the success stories and like, hopefully that just exponentially grows. But we're overwhelmed in like a year and a half of what we've been able to accomplish.

And I think for me it's seeing the shift happen at the conventional medical level as well, because we are seeing more and more doctors referring out to acupuncture or talking about the male portion, or talking about good quality ingredients when it comes to prenatal. So there's definitely a long road ahead of us when it comes to, you know, merging conventional and ancestral wisdom. But I think we're starting to see.

That this is where you should be part of the conversation. Right. So if we know one in five women is impacted by infertility, my goal is that episodes like these with you, information about Wenatal is shared not only with other women, but with practitioners also, so that they're part of the conversation. I think the world would be such a different place if we had more women at the table, on the practitioner end, but also who've just lived through life experience. Right. And then obviously companies like you, who've done your research and created a product that is such a necessity today would change the evolution of our fertility in the future. Right. And the health of our babies also. So if we're looking to optimize your metabolic health. Right. If this is something that's key to PCOS and infertility, you want to get rid of all processed foods, refined carbs and sugars, things that typically come from a box. Get them out of your diet. Increase your consumption of real whole foods that come from the earth. Focus on getting enough quality protein in your diet as well as fiber. Fiber is an essential component to this. And then clean hydration. What are you fueling your body with in terms of food but also the liquids? Getting rid of sodas. Refined car or refined. Getting rid of sodas. Any refined sodas. I said that twice. Getting rid of sodas. Obviously alcohol, if you're pre fertility, but sugary drinks that we look at the sugar content and what you're consuming, that could be a metabolic disaster. And something simple as walking after meals. Walk after your meals with your partner, with a loved one. Balance your metabolic rate, get a step ahead of your metabolism so that you're priming your body for optimal metabolic function.

Yeah. And I would add one other thing is making sure that you don't skip meals, because that can create a metabolic roller coaster that will backfire.

Yeah. And this is the balance. We don't want to be overeating. We don't want to be under eating also. Right. So for some people wearing a cgm, a continuous glucose monitor could be really beneficial if this is something that they're struggling with. Right. Especially if they're overweight or even underweight. If you're trying to figure out an optimal eating window for you, that could be supportive.

Yeah. And I will say anybody who subscribes to WEN8, we send them a blood sugar balance guide and some of those tips, like going on a walk after you eat or even drinking a little bit of apple cider vinegar before your meal, which helps.

Yeah, good point. Eat carbs, Right? Carbs are okay. We want to eat carbohydrates that come from nature. Right. There's a difference between those carbs and the carbs that come from the box. Yeah. That's brilliant. Yay. Yeah. I love you guys. I'm cheering you on. I'm sharing you with the world. My clients adore you. I see the efficacy of your products, and I'm just so excited for what's to come. Thank you so much for being on my show.

Thank you.