Latest / Cry It Out Loud: Navigating Infertility, Miscarriage, Stillbirth, Infant Loss & Pregnancy After Loss / Dr. Lora Shahine on Fertility, Trying to Conceive, Loss, and Hope for Families
Transcript
- 0:12Crying Out Loud, a podcast by Chasing the Rainbows with your
- 0:19host Bernice Quisenberry. Welcome to cry it out loud
- 0:28podcast by chasing the rainbows where we shine light on the
- 0:31realities around infertility, miscarriage, still birth and
- 0:34infant loss while offering hope, healing and resources for
- 0:36families everywhere who have experienced any type of baby
- 0:40loss. Today we are have a truly
- 0:42special guest doctor Laura Shaheen.
- 0:45She's a board certified reproductive End chronologist,
- 0:47OBGYN author, podcast host, and passionate advocate for
- 0:53fertility, health, and Wellness. Doctor Shaheen has helped
- 0:56countless families through fertility struggles, and she
- 0:59continues to amplify conversations around fertility,
- 1:03Women's Health, and baby loss. Her work brings both science and
- 1:07compassion to families who need it most, and today we're honored
- 1:10to have her share her expertise and her heart with us.
- 1:13Thank you so much for being here.
- 1:16Oh, yeah. And thank you so much for that
- 1:17wonderful introduction. It's a real honor to be here.
- 1:20You're doing such great work. Thank you.
- 1:23Thank you so much, Laura. That means the world.
- 1:25And you know, for you joining us today, your work in reproductive
- 1:29end chronology and fertility has already touched so many lives.
- 1:33And I know our listeners are eager to hear your insights.
- 1:36So to begin, could you share a little bit about your journey?
- 1:38What inspired you to specialize in fertility medicine and become
- 1:43such a strong advocate for families facing loss and
- 1:45infertility? Well, thanks.
- 1:47Yes, it is definitely a long journey.
- 1:50A lot of years studying and a lot of exams in medical school.
- 1:54I really enjoyed a lot of different things, but I was very
- 1:57drawn to Women's Health and I loved procedures and surgery.
- 2:01So OBGYN is like the right residency for me.
- 2:04I did that at UCSF in San Francisco.
- 2:06I love delivering babies. I loved caring for women for
- 2:10menopause and just like this breath of help in OBGYN, but I
- 2:14really was drawn to reproductive endocrinology and infertility.
- 2:19I love the technology, I love the constant learning.
- 2:22I loved helping people at such a vulnerable time in their life.
- 2:27And so in order to do that, it's a three-year fellowship.
- 2:31And I did that at Stanford University and was so fortunate
- 2:35to start an amazing practice, Pacific Northwest Fertility in
- 2:39Seattle in 2009. And I've been there ever since.
- 2:42So a long journey, but really enjoyed it.
- 2:46And you know, ironically enough, I was a fertility Dr. that could
- 2:52not get pregnant. So I struggled with infertility
- 2:56myself and did a lot of the tests and treatments that I help
- 3:01patients with everyday. IUISIVF, multiple embryo
- 3:04transfers. I'm very fortunate to have two
- 3:07children, but it was definitely a journey and looking back on
- 3:14how vulnerable I felt, how much shame I felt and sort of being a
- 3:19success driven person that couldn't meet my goal.
- 3:24I really wanted to help other people understand.
- 3:28And so that's the drive towards education and being active on
- 3:32social media, having my own Brave and Curious podcast,
- 3:36writing my own books about infertility and miscarriage.
- 3:40It it really comes from a passion to just help people
- 3:44understand and feel less alone, just like what you are doing
- 3:48here. Thank you so much, Laura, and
- 3:52thank you for sharing all that, especially your, you know,
- 3:54personal experience. And you know, that really does
- 3:58shape you as a physician when you're not only treating, you
- 4:02know, people that are living with infertility every day, but
- 4:05then you're also facing your own.
- 4:07I can't imagine. Yeah, it was very lots of
- 4:12emotions, everything from anger, frustration, you know, I mean, I
- 4:19really empathize with my patients that, like, are
- 4:23struggling to get pregnant and they go to the grocery store and
- 4:25every single person they see has a big pregnant belly like it.
- 4:28It just permeates every single thought and, you know, really
- 4:35makes you doubt your purpose. It feels like it should just be
- 4:40a given that we should just be able to get pregnant and have a
- 4:43baby because we certainly are taught in health class, like how
- 4:47easy it is to get pregnant. We have to really, you know,
- 4:51focus on not getting pregnant before we're ready.
- 4:54And contraception feels, you know, it works really, really
- 4:57well. So that leads you to feel like
- 4:59you're in complete control of your fertility.
- 5:02So when you stop contracepting or you pivot to wanting to try
- 5:06to conceive and it doesn't happen on your terms, you feel,
- 5:10you know, gypped, angry, frustrated, like this is just
- 5:13not the way it's supposed to be. In the movie, someone you know
- 5:17comes home with a positive pregnancy test and the very next
- 5:20scene in the movie is delivering and having a cute baby in the
- 5:23nursery. Like that's what we're shown.
- 5:27And I think over my 20 year career in this field, finally
- 5:32I'm seeing people talk about miscarriage and talk about
- 5:36stillbirths and talk about IVFI Think that is one of the
- 5:41benefits of social media. There's lots of pros and cons,
- 5:44but just, you know, people sharing their stories help you
- 5:47realize like wow, I'm not the only person that has faced this
- 5:50and I I see that positive outcome of sharing.
- 5:55Right, and you do, you find your community, you know, and social
- 5:58media, like you're saying, you know, it can be hard and, and
- 6:00triggering seeing pregnancy announcement after pregnancy
- 6:02announcement when you're trying to conceive.
- 6:05But then also finding the community of how we got
- 6:09connected, you know, Laura on Instagram and you know, hearing
- 6:13the voices and seeing the people who have all, you know, been
- 6:16through this and have experienced the same.
- 6:18And, you know, just seeing validated and seen that is huge
- 6:22when you're on this journey, especially when you're feeling
- 6:24like a failure and you're feeling all that shape blame.
- 6:28And yeah, absolutely. Exactly.
- 6:33Yeah. So how you know how did you like
- 6:36process and work through the shame and blame feelings you
- 6:40know when you were on your own journey?
- 6:44You know, probably not very well.
- 6:47Medicine teaches us very much to compartmentalize and just like
- 6:50focus on what's in front of you and not really deal with all the
- 6:54feelings. You know, because you have to go
- 6:57from maybe in the ER like treating a gunshot wound to like
- 7:02the next patient that you're seeing is just, you know, a
- 7:05little baby with a rash or something.
- 7:07Or, you know, in labor and delivery, you are delivering
- 7:11this beautiful family. Everything goes well, the baby's
- 7:15great, the mom's great. And then, you know, the next
- 7:18patient that you go see is actually, you know, delivering a
- 7:21still birth. And it's like a totally
- 7:23different experience, right? So you learn to compartmentalize
- 7:26in order to function and do what you need to do.
- 7:29And so I feel like I tackled infertility like I did, you
- 7:33know, studying for medical school or trying to get into a
- 7:37fellowship at Stanford, just kind of like, you know, I, I can
- 7:41do this and like knuckling it and not really processing the
- 7:45feelings. And I, I do try to help my
- 7:51patients, not only with the treatments that we're doing,
- 7:55like, hey, these, this is what is open to you.
- 7:58We can do IUI, we can do IVF, we can do donor egg or surrogacy.
- 8:02Like I talk about all these things, but I do try at every
- 8:05visit to sort of at least check in on the emotional piece.
- 8:08You know, are you still finding joy?
- 8:10How's your relationship with your partner?
- 8:12You know, how are things at work?
- 8:14How are you sleeping? Because this trauma of feeling
- 8:19gypped and feeling frustrated, it doesn't just go away when you
- 8:23have a baby in your arms. Then you're processing, like not
- 8:26sleeping and navigating, you know, balancing the rest of your
- 8:30life with this new, you know, little baby.
- 8:33And so I really would love for people to seek emotional support
- 8:40and mental health resources as they're going through the
- 8:44physical part of infertility and miscarriage, because I feel like
- 8:47it can often be forgotten. And I really, you know, it it,
- 8:53it's hard because you don't have a lot of time in these visits.
- 8:56But even if you can just ask the question, like, what are you
- 8:59doing to support yourself? What did you do last weekend to
- 9:01bring joy? You're like, Oh yeah, actually I
- 9:05need to think about those things.
- 9:07Yeah. And it is so important, you
- 9:09know, sleep and all of those things, you know, when you're on
- 9:11this journey, you know, the secondary and like work and your
- 9:16partner and not going through any of the secondary losses that
- 9:19are so affiliated with, you know, infertility and then
- 9:23everything around it. And you're right talking about
- 9:26that and working through it and processing it.
- 9:29Absolutely. I know and I, you know, I almost
- 9:32felt like when we on our journey, it was after pregnancy,
- 9:38after loss, then I was finally able to process everything from
- 9:43all the secondary infertility because you almost just keep
- 9:44putting 1 foot in front of the other.
- 9:46Just kind of like going through the motions and doing everything
- 9:50that you can like, you know, in your control to try to keep
- 9:53things moving or to get to the outcome.
- 9:55You know that you're trying to, it's just, it's exhausting.
- 9:59And then when it does catch up, it just like feels like a
- 10:02freight train, like hit you in the face.
- 10:04Absolutely, inertia is a powerful thing.
- 10:07So if you are going from IUI to IUI or egg retrieval to egg
- 10:13retrieval or embryo transfer to embryo transfer, it feels
- 10:16comforting because you have like the focus of like, you know,
- 10:20making sure you have the medications and going from the
- 10:22appointments and kind of getting that that follow up.
- 10:26And sometimes one of the best things that I can do is just
- 10:29really encourage people to pause for a little bit.
- 10:33I mean, I know that's hard because the age is important and
- 10:35egg and sperm, you know, time is important, but sometimes, you
- 10:40know, just sort of saying like it's a that the process can be a
- 10:44little bit addictive almost. You just are focused on the
- 10:49process and not the overall picture.
- 10:51Like, oh gosh, like I actually took out a second mortgage to do
- 10:54this third IVF cycle. And I haven't really thought
- 10:57about, you know, big picture. You know, maybe I want to pivot
- 11:04and actually think about a life of being child free or I want to
- 11:09take a pause and look at adoption.
- 11:11Or like you don't want to have patients go through just this,
- 11:17you know, hamster wheel and then have no resources left to build
- 11:21their family. Whether it's emotional
- 11:23resources, you know, physical resources, financial resources.
- 11:28But asking for that pause is really, really tough 'cause it
- 11:32makes you think about the big picture and think about feelings
- 11:35that you often don't want to. I know.
- 11:37And you're right. So spawn on about the inertia
- 11:40and just like going through the motions and then when you do and
- 11:42it's like, yeah. Yeah, big stuff.
- 11:49Big stuff, yeah. With like the technology and
- 11:53things like that today, I mean, like you're saying like we're so
- 11:57much more in tune with, I feel like from, you know, 20-30 years
- 12:01ago with our health and things like we almost take more
- 12:05proactive approach with it coming in educating ourselves
- 12:08and you know, hopefully with reputable information and things
- 12:12like that. But then the technology too has
- 12:15become so much more advanced. And you know, what would you
- 12:19say, you know, Laura, that you like, that you love about the
- 12:25technology or or where things are?
- 12:26Heading Oh my gosh, well doing this, you know, for decades, it
- 12:31is so much fun to practice now as opposed to 15 or 20 years
- 12:38ago. So, you know, it used to be the
- 12:41success rates with an embryo transfer were in the single
- 12:44digits. And even if you transferred
- 12:47multiple embryos, we were just so excited if somebody got
- 12:51pregnant and if they happen to get triplets, we're like, oops,
- 12:54sorry, like, oh gosh, let's figure this out.
- 12:57And now we can have as high as a 6065% chance of live birth with
- 13:04a single embryo transfer, depending on of course, so many
- 13:08factors. But like if that embryo has been
- 13:10screened for chromosome balance and age of the people that are
- 13:14getting pregnant and you know, lots of other extenuating
- 13:17things. But to wow, to be that high of a
- 13:20success rate with a single embryo transfer and not having
- 13:25anybody have to risk twins, triplets, and just how hard that
- 13:29pregnancy can be on the person who's pregnant and the babies,
- 13:32you know, that is a true joy. And, you know, even just
- 13:38understanding and helping people go through the process with less
- 13:41side effects. Like, you know, when I was a
- 13:44fellow at Stanford, we were, you know, routinely rounding on
- 13:48people that had ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome,
- 13:52really feeling bloated and nauseated and, you know, just
- 13:55sick after an egg. People.
- 13:57We were doing a lot of fresh embryo transfers.
- 14:00So if you get pregnant when your ovaries haven't recovered fully
- 14:05from like stimulation, the pregnancy hormone can make that
- 14:09hyperstimulation syndrome go well into your first trimester.
- 14:13So I rarely do fresh embryo transfers anymore.
- 14:17They're almost always frozen embryo transfers so that you can
- 14:21focus on a great outcome and a good number of embryos before
- 14:26you're actually trying to get pregnant.
- 14:27And so you're getting pregnant, you know, in a, you know,
- 14:31recovered state as opposed to like right after you did this
- 14:34stimulation. You know, those huge advances
- 14:41have just made the process so much more successful and quite
- 14:45honestly, so much easier on the people that are going through
- 14:48IVF. Absolutely.
- 14:51I know without all those side effects and because the first
- 14:54trimester is hard enough and then to add that level is just I
- 14:59can't. Yeah, yeah.
- 15:02Wow. Now you know, what else have you
- 15:07know, seen the progression and and where we're kind of headed
- 15:11like, you know, what is what is the future of, you know, IVF or
- 15:16you know. Any cuts?
- 15:19Yeah. Yeah.
- 15:20I think something that is really been exciting about
- 15:23understanding reproduction and genetics is the understanding
- 15:29that the vast majority of miscarriages are related to the
- 15:33embryo and the chromosome imbalance or genetic issues
- 15:37within the embryo, that it's not the person who is pregnant
- 15:42fault. Like even the word miscarry is
- 15:46just got to be changed. It should just be pregnancy not
- 15:50continuing, you know, or, or embryo not, you know, going to
- 15:56be a healthy baby. It shouldn't be the woman is
- 15:59miss or messing up carrying the pregnancy.
- 16:03And we know this from being able to, you know, do genetic testing
- 16:08on, you know, miscarriages and pregnancy tissue and realizing
- 16:11that up to 60 to 80% of the time it's a chromosome imbalance.
- 16:15You know, half of the chromosomes come from our the
- 16:18egg that we come from and half come from the sperm.
- 16:21And if at fertilization there's an imbalance, there's too many
- 16:23copies of #7 chromosome missing number, you know, 18.
- 16:28You can have an an embryo develop and divide and turn into
- 16:32a blastocyst and implant and even get to 6 to 8 weeks of
- 16:35pregnancy, but the body will figure it out.
- 16:37It'll stop developing. And then for people who are
- 16:41still miscarrying and they do that testing and the chromosomes
- 16:44are balanced, that doesn't automatically mean that there's
- 16:46something wrong with that person.
- 16:48There's incredible research going on, specifically at
- 16:51Stanford right now, but you know, around the world doing
- 16:54whole genome sequencing on miscarriages that are chromosome
- 16:58balanced, looking for single gene mutations, like little tiny
- 17:03mutations that you can't pick up on big chromosomes.
- 17:05It's like a stack of Legos of genes that are leading to
- 17:09miscarriage. So that doesn't help my patients
- 17:14sitting in my office this week to sort of say, oh, let's see if
- 17:17you've got a mutation on chromosome number six, that
- 17:20could been the reason that this miscarried.
- 17:23And maybe, you know, we can, you know, check for that the next
- 17:27time you make embryos, right? Like that information isn't
- 17:32helping the patients who are trying to get pregnant right
- 17:34now, but it will in the future. And even just the concept that
- 17:40this research is being done and sharing that with people to say,
- 17:45you know, we know that this is the case.
- 17:47You know my book on miscarriage is called Not Broken and you
- 17:53know an Approachable guide to miscarriage it is.
- 17:56Your. Body is not broken and failing
- 18:00you. I mean, of course there's things
- 18:01we have to look for. Of course there's anatomic
- 18:03issues that cause miscarriage. Of course, significant
- 18:06hypothyroidism can cause miscarriage, but for the vast
- 18:10majority of people, it's something within the embryo.
- 18:12And just to be able to share that with people and help them
- 18:17feel less of this shame and blame like you were talking
- 18:21about earlier is, is just a gift.
- 18:25And it's a wonderful way to be able to, to share with patients.
- 18:29This is not your fault. And I do share with people, you
- 18:33know, most people that are getting pregnant will go on to
- 18:37have their baby or their family because so much is going, right.
- 18:42The egg is ovulating, the egg and sperm like each other.
- 18:45You know, implantation is happening.
- 18:47And if it's really just that embryo, like the next time that
- 18:50you try, no matter how scary it is, it's a brand new
- 18:54opportunity. You know, it's a brand new egg,
- 18:57a brand new sperm, a brand new embryo, brand new uterine
- 18:59lining. As long as we're not missing
- 19:02something that we can control and just to so be able, being
- 19:06able to practice in a day and age where there's less shame,
- 19:11there's more science backing up why most miscarriages happen and
- 19:17treatment outcomes are more successful today than they've
- 19:20ever been before. I think that is an incredible,
- 19:25you know, thing to witness through my career.
- 19:29That is, I know, and you know, one thing is like spiraling out
- 19:34around not getting answers around what caused something
- 19:37that is, you know, when you're processing, trying to heal, you
- 19:41know, and and all the things and like we're trying to work it out
- 19:43and you know, it's all those uncertainties and to almost
- 19:46isolate or no and get answers is half the half the battle when
- 19:51you're going through this. Absolutely.
- 19:54That feeling of being out of control is horrible, and that's
- 19:59where a lot of the shame and blame comes from.
- 20:02Like I've got to be doing something wrong if I can figure
- 20:05out what it is. And then change that one
- 20:09variable in the next pregnancy or the next time I try to
- 20:12conceive, I'm not going to feel as bad.
- 20:15But there is a that is temporarily comforting you, but
- 20:20in the long term, it can really backfire.
- 20:23It's like a spiral of, you know, trying to hang on to that
- 20:28control, whether it's like you saw an Instagram post and it
- 20:30says everybody should stop eating gluten in order to try to
- 20:34get pregnant. OK.
- 20:36There's some science that, of course, if you have celiac
- 20:39disease that that is an inflammatory condition.
- 20:42And if you can eliminate gluten, your immune system is going to
- 20:45work better. And that really can decrease the
- 20:47risk of miscarriage. Yes, that is true.
- 20:51But for people without celiac disease, making them eliminate
- 20:55pasta, which might be the most amazing comfort food and really
- 21:00laser focusing in on that. If you accept that, and that is
- 21:03what I'm going to change and then the next month you don't
- 21:05get pregnant, guess who you blame?
- 21:07Not the influencer that shared some study and twisted the, you
- 21:11know, summary to make a point. You're going to blame yourself.
- 21:15Like it must have been that salad dressing at the restaurant
- 21:20and I forgot to ask if it had gluten in it.
- 21:22That's why I didn't get pregnant or that's why I had another
- 21:24miscarriage. Like you're just going to blame
- 21:26yourself. So you have to get out of that
- 21:28shame spiral and just realize there's things that you can
- 21:31control and that you can't control and just really try to
- 21:35be kind to yourself. Yes, yes.
- 21:39And being gentle, I know. It's so interesting because we
- 21:41can do that to others and you know that other peers that are
- 21:45on the same journey as we are at the same time.
- 21:47And you know, we give them so much like kindness and
- 21:50gentleness and grace and everything.
- 21:52And then when it comes to ourselves, sometimes we can just
- 21:55be the worst. Yeah, that is so true.
- 21:58Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy.
- 22:02Or I, I tell my patients, I'm like, it's really normal.
- 22:05You are a huge target. Like it's easy to talk
- 22:08negatively to yourself. Or again, it's comforting to be
- 22:11like, oh, I did this wrong. Therefore I can change this and
- 22:14I can take control back. And, you know, I just try to
- 22:18really validate how normal that is.
- 22:20Like it's a true coping mechanism, but just be aware of
- 22:22how damaging it can be in the long run.
- 22:27Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, talking about
- 22:30things that what are some helpful things that someone who
- 22:36is starting on this journey, you know, they can do like secondary
- 22:41things outside of coming to see NRE Dock, you know, and talking
- 22:44about different options for them.
- 22:47Like what are some things that you would recommend, Laura?
- 22:50Absolutely. I think that it is really
- 22:53important to be healthy overall, whether you're trying to get
- 22:58pregnant or not, but thinking about lifestyle optimization is
- 23:02really important, whether you're doing fertility treatment or
- 23:05not. Hopefully it'll help you be
- 23:07healthier and your hormones work better so that you don't have to
- 23:11end up seeing the reproductive endocrinologist because you're
- 23:14pregnant. Or if you do get to that point
- 23:17and you are having to use high technology like IVF, it's going
- 23:20to have a higher success rate if you've already been working on
- 23:23this with balance and with moderation.
- 23:26So nutrition is important, exercise is important, sleep and
- 23:31stress management. So there's no one perfect diet.
- 23:36You know, if you look at my, I have a whole playlist on my
- 23:39YouTube channel on like lifestyle optimization, you will
- 23:42notice in every single video I'm like, hey, I want to share with
- 23:45you the one diet that's been associated with the highest
- 23:48fertility is the Mediterranean diet.
- 23:50But how to make sense? It's more fruits and vegetables,
- 23:56animal protein is OK, but less red meat.
- 23:59And it's kind of in balance like that.
- 24:02We know this like it kind of makes sense less processed
- 24:04foods. But also realize that everything
- 24:10in moderation. Like I tell people, if you can
- 24:13do things 80% of the time that comes from like a Eastern
- 24:16proverb, then 80% is perfection. So every once in a while, I
- 24:21mean, have that ice cream, right?
- 24:22Like alcohol, not good, not good for anything.
- 24:26But Oh my gosh, a glass of champagne when you're
- 24:29celebrating your girlfriend's birthday or a glass of wine you
- 24:32got to an amazing restaurant. Enjoy that, you know, but you
- 24:36know, not every single day and not, you know, a bottle when you
- 24:40do partake. Like everything in moderation,
- 24:44exercise very important. Like I see people really
- 24:47struggle with, oh, well, I'm after ovulation and before I
- 24:51know I have a positive pregnancy.
- 24:52So I'm just going to lie in bed all day and like not do anything
- 24:55to disrupt this implantation. That's not healthy, right?
- 24:59Like moving your body, of course, you might want to modify
- 25:02and, you know, do things that feel good to you and not
- 25:06necessarily push yourself, but just to completely not exercise
- 25:10like that's not good. And then also on the flip side,
- 25:13you really don't want to be over stressing your body right now.
- 25:17So I tell people like, this is not the time to train for a
- 25:20marathon. You know, I can't tell you how
- 25:22many of my patients are like, oh, I actually was going to do
- 25:25a, you know, an Iron Man, you know, and I'm like, honestly,
- 25:28like, I love that. But this is not the time to push
- 25:31your body. If you push your body to
- 25:33extremes or you're getting, you know, endorphin rushes and that
- 25:37runner's high, that feels great, but that's also pushing out
- 25:40stress hormones and that's going to throw off the hormonal access
- 25:43and throw off ovulation and things.
- 25:44So, you know, again, everything in moderation and sleep, Oh my
- 25:49gosh, sleep is I just cannot emphasize it enough.
- 25:55It is something that you should absolutely prioritize.
- 25:58I do have several videos on it on my YouTube channel, including
- 26:02the importance of noticing if you snore.
- 26:04If you snore, there's 90% chance that you have at least mild or
- 26:08significant sleep apnea. And that will, and that loss of
- 26:12oxygen in the middle of the night will absolutely disrupt
- 26:14your reproductive hormones and ovulation.
- 26:17So you know, little things like that.
- 26:19And then stress management, you cannot eliminate stress.
- 26:22We live in a stressful world, but you can work really hard on
- 26:26managing it. And what that means is finding
- 26:30ways that can help your nervous system go from like, you know,
- 26:33everything's on fire, fight or flight or freeze, running from a
- 26:36bear to like a more neutral, kind of like whether it's
- 26:40breathing, journaling, going for a walk in the woods, petting
- 26:44your dog or cat, you know, whatever it is to kind of reset.
- 26:50Working on that is really important because it's not like
- 26:55you just automatically know how to do these things and and you
- 26:58have to figure out what works so that when you are in that
- 27:01stressful fight or flight, you've got the tools at your,
- 27:05you know, your fingertips. For you, you know, and, and then
- 27:11you're ready, you can dive right in and you know, or if you're
- 27:14having panic attacks or whatever it kind of feels like for you,
- 27:18you know, or just spiraling out like you're saying, fight or
- 27:20flight and you know, how can you like get grounded again?
- 27:23And what can you do that you know works for you?
- 27:27Yeah, exactly. Or yeah.
- 27:29And I think also putting it into perspective because so many
- 27:31times it's like, you know, diet this, that and we sometimes,
- 27:36especially when our end gamer goal is to get pregnant, we can
- 27:40go to extremes and then like you're saying, blame ourselves
- 27:43when things don't work then. But it's all about moderation
- 27:46and making slow changes. So like processed, processed
- 27:49foods, those kind of things like if we started to eliminate,
- 27:52didn't eat out as much, you know, and mainly on the
- 27:56Mediterranean diet or whatever, that would look like, you know,
- 27:58cutting like slowly decreasing red meat to those points and
- 28:02stuff. But right, like food is fuel is
- 28:06what we, you know, talk about a lot and like different support
- 28:09groups and things like that and what it looks like because it's
- 28:12true, you know, and like you're saying the moderation and that's
- 28:17the key to all of. This, absolutely.
- 28:19Yeah, Less like shame and blame around eating or exercise and
- 28:23being kind to yourself. If your body is saying like, you
- 28:26know, today is not the great day to go for, you know that walk,
- 28:29you know, just give yourself a little bit of grace.
- 28:33Yes, and you know, my comfort food is ice cream, so like I'm
- 28:36going right for that pint, you know, and then of course, you
- 28:40know, you do you like it's hard not to in those moments, but you
- 28:44know, allowing yourself to understand it's not like you
- 28:46have to do this perfect all of the time.
- 28:49Because also like when we're on a fertility journey, we're
- 28:52tracking everything. So like we're always looking at
- 28:54charts. We're always, you know, or, or
- 28:56we might not be and, and you know, some choose not to do
- 28:59those things, But for me, I'm like, I need to see this, this
- 29:03and this. So I'm the same way with
- 29:04everything else that's associated with it.
- 29:07And then it does really creep with your mental health.
- 29:09Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. No all, Laura, well, thank you
- 29:16so much for getting on, for sharing your wisdom, for
- 29:18everything that you're doing on social media.
- 29:21You know, you put it in such a way that we find, you know,
- 29:25connection with it. And I just, I can't thank you
- 29:27enough for everything that you're putting out there.
- 29:29And in a way, like I said, that is easy for us to manage or to
- 29:33to look at and to understand, which is huge.
- 29:36Well. Thank you.
- 29:38I really appreciate that and I appreciate today, you know, you
- 29:42are doing such wonderful things to support so many people and I
- 29:47just really commend you for what you're doing.
- 29:50Thank you so much, Laura. That means a lot coming from
- 29:52you. And yeah, to have you on here
- 29:54and to help our listeners. And, you know, we encourage our
- 29:57listeners to find your information.
- 30:00We'll put it in the podcast description.
- 30:02So anyone listening, you can find those YouTube videos.
- 30:05You can find Doctor Shaheen on Instagram anywhere that she is
- 30:11so. And thank you so much again for
- 30:13being here. Thank you.