Latest / Nourished Fertility / Men Need to Nourish Their Bodies for Sperm Quality and Fertility, Too! with Dr. Kelsey Duncan, ND
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back y'all to the Nourishing Women Podcast, your go-to podcast to
- 0:04get your peer back and get pregnant.
- 0:06I'm your host, Victoria Myers, peer recovery specialist, fertility,
- 0:10dietician, and owner of the virtual coaching practice, nourishing
- 0:13Minds Nutrition, where we work.
- 0:14Together to restore your fertility today.
- 0:18I am so excited to share with you this really special episode with
- 0:22guest expert Dr. Kelsey Duncan.
- 0:25She's a naturopathic doctor and she focuses on, uh, such a incredibly.
- 0:30Unique need in the fertility space, which is a whole couple approach, so
- 0:36that you can optimize your fertility and replace overwhelm and frustration
- 0:39with instead, excitement, hope and joy.
- 0:42And I think what's so special about Kelsey is she knows literally everything
- 0:46there is to know about fertility.
- 0:49However, she makes it very easy to digest and easy to understand.
- 0:53And.
- 0:54What we focus on in today's episode, what I'm hoping you'll do too is give
- 0:59this to your husband to listen to.
- 1:01This is for your husband or partner today.
- 1:04I want him to walk away understanding why it's so important for him to properly
- 1:10nourish his body for fertility too.
- 1:12And you know what he does, the habits and the lifestyle he leads also impacts his
- 1:16sperm quality, therefore his fertility.
- 1:18And you know, you are making so many changes.
- 1:21You were.
- 1:23Changing basically everything about who you are in your life.
- 1:26You identify as a healthy person who you know eats perfectly and exercises
- 1:29daily, and to make all these changes to work also in your perfectionism
- 1:34and your type A personality and all these things that lead to your stress,
- 1:37which then impacts your fertility.
- 1:39It's a lot and I think it's only fair that we say to our husbands
- 1:43or partners like, Hey, I want you to join me in this journey.
- 1:47My version of nourishing my body for fertility is making sure that I'm giving
- 1:51my body the wrist and safety it needs.
- 1:53But you also have very specific things you can do that are very
- 1:56achievable and attainable to also do the same for your sperm quality.
- 2:01That way we can get pregnant with ease.
- 2:03You and your husband are gonna learn all about that in today's episode.
- 2:07So without further ado, let's jump into this guest expert
- 2:10episode with Dr. Kelsey Duncan.
- 2:13Hello Kelsey, welcome to the podcast.
- 2:16I am so happy you're here with me today.
- 2:19I am so excited to be here.
- 2:21I had the honor and privilege of being on your podcast a few weeks ago, and now
- 2:25we're here today on mine and we're gonna have like the funnest conversation ever.
- 2:29In fact, this is the first time they're ever gonna hear this topic before.
- 2:32Say like, you're gonna be our like expert guest on this conversation.
- 2:36Are you ready?
- 2:37This is my prob. I mean, I talk a lot about fertility, but this is
- 2:40actually probably one of my most favorite conversations, so yes.
- 2:43Oh, wonderful.
- 2:44But I'm so glad I picked you to have this conversation.
- 2:46That's serendipitous.
- 2:47Okay.
- 2:48Let's just start by, by sharing with the listeners who you are and the work you do.
- 2:52Yeah, so I am Kelsey Duncan, Dr. Kelsey Duncan.
- 2:56I am a naturopathic doctor.
- 2:57I practice in Ontario, but I'm also the founder of a program called
- 3:02the Fertility Confidence Method.
- 3:03So we help couples using a whole body, whole couple approach to
- 3:09optimize their chances of conceiving.
- 3:12Through all walks of their fertility journey.
- 3:14So we work with women and couples who are just starting out and are on the
- 3:18more proactive side and couples who have been at this for multiple years,
- 3:23um, in the medicine medical community doing assistive reproductive technology.
- 3:27I-V-F-I-U-I medicated cycles and, and everywhere.
- 3:31In between.
- 3:32Um, I'm also a mom myself.
- 3:34I have two little kiddos.
- 3:35My son is about to turn nine.
- 3:38She is like, hard to think about and my daughter just turned six.
- 3:43And so, uh, we're in the thick of summer vacation.
- 3:47So this is when, you know, we get to spend extra time together and mom gets to.
- 3:52Work with the pitter patter of, of little footsteps above.
- 3:57But we spend lots of time at the cottage, at the lake together, out
- 4:00hiking, enjoying life and, and yeah, so when I'm not working with, with
- 4:04my favorite people, I'm with my other favorite people and my wonderful family.
- 4:09I feel like the exact same way as you're sharing this, I'm
- 4:11like visualizing my own life.
- 4:12It's like I get to sit it with my wonderful family and then my work.
- 4:15I know not everyone loves their job, but I genuinely mean that.
- 4:18When I say that I, it is such an honor to do this work for a living and I just feel.
- 4:22So incredibly lucky every day to be like, I, I actually love all of this.
- 4:25This is wonderful.
- 4:26Yeah, totally.
- 4:28So you talking about your, your, your personal life makes me wonder, do
- 4:32you, did you get into fertility work because of your own personal journey?
- 4:35Let's actually start there and then we'll go get into Mel and fertility.
- 4:38Yeah.
- 4:38Yeah, so I had a bit of a different journey compared to
- 4:41I think what most people like view their story into this work.
- 4:44And, and I actually shared this on, I, I host an office hour inside my program.
- 4:50So I was on that right before I popped into here.
- 4:52And we were talking about that part of my story where, um, it started with me
- 4:56having really horrible cystic acne as most young teenage women do, and doing.
- 5:02All the things that the doctor gave me, which was basically just
- 5:06various forms of birth control.
- 5:08Um, and coming to a point of trying to have an IUD inserted and I spent
- 5:14about 45 minutes on the table.
- 5:17I will not give all of the gory details, but it was a very traumatizing
- 5:21experience, um, with a very non.
- 5:26Sympathetic or empathetic woman doing the procedure who after 45
- 5:32minutes of causing me, which if you haven't had to try to have a, if
- 5:36you haven't had an IUD insertion before, like it's not really the most.
- 5:40Fun inert experience.
- 5:42So to be like subjected to this were, well, it was,
- 5:47should have taken five minutes.
- 5:48And so it was very, I was like, this cannot be normal.
- 5:50Um, she basically told me that my uterus was a funny shape and in the wrong place.
- 5:55I couldn't get the IUD because she couldn't insert it and that I was likely
- 5:58going to really struggle to get pregnant.
- 6:01And here's another prescription for a birth control that I had
- 6:04actually already tried and, and just left me there in this room.
- 6:07And I was like, what?
- 6:08Just.
- 6:10Happened to me, and so I was only 22.
- 6:13I was young.
- 6:14It wasn't something that was like high on my list of things.
- 6:17In fact, I'll, I'm very open with sharing at that point.
- 6:21I didn't even think I really wanted children.
- 6:23Um.
- 6:25But it was like a really turning pivotal moment for me.
- 6:28Once I kind of like had my few months of wallowing of like, oh,
- 6:33woe is me, you know, I am barren.
- 6:35I didn't even, at that point, I didn't even understand what any of that meant.
- 6:38I was just, all I heard was, you will not get pregnant.
- 6:43That was basically all I heard, and, and pretty much all she
- 6:46said, there was no explanation.
- 6:48There was no.
- 6:49This is what happened and this is why, and let's do this testing
- 6:52and figure out what's not.
- 6:54None of that.
- 6:54It was, it was very cold, very not great.
- 7:00And so I then took that because I am me and was like, that
- 7:05is not gonna be my story.
- 7:08And if anyone knows me, they're like, yep, that's right.
- 7:11I, I'm not gonna live that life.
- 7:13I'm gonna live a different life and I'm gonna just figure it out as I go.
- 7:17And I was already at naturopathic.
- 7:19College.
- 7:20Um, I knew I wanted to work in women's health, but that's really what the, the
- 7:23next few years of me saying, okay, if I am going to struggle to get pregnant,
- 7:29what do I need to do to mitigate that?
- 7:32I spent, I. How old was I when I got pregnant with Cole?
- 7:36So I spent the next five years in preconception care, which most women
- 7:42don't get that privilege right.
- 7:44And I can look back on my journey now and say I'm so grateful that that happened
- 7:48because yes, it wasn't lovely, but.
- 7:51It led me to actually take the next five years of my life to make every
- 7:55decision, basically through the lens of if I do wanna have kids,
- 8:00what should I be doing now to help get my body ready for that place?
- 8:06And we, we did start maybe a little bit earlier than I. Originally kind
- 8:11of wanted to given the guise of like, we don't know what's going to happen,
- 8:16and I was very, very fortunate to get pregnant with my son and then my daughter
- 8:21and be able to go on and say like a. Women's healthcare is just so garbage.
- 8:29And I wanna contribute to women's healthcare in a way that is empowering
- 8:35for women and not reactive, but proactive.
- 8:39And then living through and learning all about fertility and
- 8:45how can we optimize our bodies.
- 8:47And what does that look like?
- 8:49Um, really help me to see.
- 8:52How we can support couples on a deeper level.
- 8:55So when I started practicing.
- 8:57I took that very like common approach as a new practitioner of like, I wanna do this,
- 9:03I wanna work in infertility, but I don't know, like I wanna keep my options open.
- 9:09And for the first year of practice it was.
- 9:12Fertility case after fertility case after fertility case that came through my door.
- 9:16And I very quickly built a name for myself and my community as someone who
- 9:20listened and gave legitimate suggestions beyond just take your prenatal and keep
- 9:26trying, and actually helped to dig deeper.
- 9:29Um, and that spiraled into then me saying like, no, this is, this
- 9:33is what I wanna do, obviously.
- 9:35My story wasn't one of deep struggle like we hear in the fertility space,
- 9:41but it still brought me to a place of knowledge and understanding that I needed
- 9:45in order to share this with anyone and everyone who will, who will listen.
- 9:51No, I so appreciate you sharing that with us to like, like set the groundwork
- 9:55and I honestly relate to that a lot.
- 9:56I actually did the work to get my period back, um, for my own
- 10:00personal stories, obviously period recovery, like my audience.
- 10:03But I did it four years before I was trying to conceive.
- 10:06So like you, I was in that preconception planning phase for four years and I
- 10:10really think that was for a reason because I wanted like you to learn
- 10:13as much as I could about it and.
- 10:16I'm so grateful that that happened 'cause it was a quicker process for us because
- 10:21I did that work so many years ahead of schedule and so much time spent really
- 10:26learning, investigating, really like using my body as an experiment, which I'm
- 10:29sure you can relate to what practitioner doesn't do that to some degree.
- 10:34Uh, but speaking of experiments, um, and more specifically protocols that help.
- 10:40Men specifically to support their fertility.
- 10:42That's the focus of what we're gonna chat about today on this show.
- 10:45We talk a lot about peer recovery, getting pregnant after ha, but.
- 10:50I really want to address the woman's husband who has not been addressed
- 10:55yet, who is like, I don't need to do anything, or I don't even know what to do.
- 11:00Or could I also be part of the problem?
- 11:02'cause I do think women with peer loss get blamed for like, this is the
- 11:06entirety of our fertility struggles.
- 11:09So that's what we're gonna chat about today and I think
- 11:11just a good place to start is.
- 11:13Why is it so important to address male fertility issues just as much
- 11:18as we address women infertility?
- 11:21Yeah, so I, I have stats and numbers for you because that is my brain,
- 11:26but before I share them, love it.
- 11:27Let me share a story.
- 11:30That came from my first year of practice.
- 11:32So I had this client, she came to work with me, um, in prep for her
- 11:37wedding to help heal her skin.
- 11:39She had acne.
- 11:40She connected with my story.
- 11:41She wanted to work on her skin before she got married.
- 11:44We spent, um, many, many, many months together.
- 11:47After the wedding, she was like, okay, we're ready to start our family.
- 11:50Help me with that.
- 11:51And I was like, okay, cool.
- 11:53So we started doing some preconception stuff.
- 11:55We were doing acupuncture.
- 11:57Months went by, nothing was working.
- 11:59We did more things and more testing.
- 12:01After about 10 months, I was like, okay, I think it's time I. At this point to
- 12:07go to the fertility clinic and where we lived in that moment, I could refer her.
- 12:13They took my referral over.
- 12:14They don't anymore, but it, whatever.
- 12:15That's not a part of the port, the story.
- 12:17Um, I have beef with that, but that's okay.
- 12:21So we sent her over to the fertility because I was like, listen, there are
- 12:24things here, like we don't have an HSG, we don't know if your tubes are open.
- 12:29Like there's only so much I could do as an nd I can't order.
- 12:33Ultrasounds and, and that type of testing.
- 12:35So I was like, we need to get this physical stuff done and
- 12:38you, we can send you over.
- 12:40She wasn't really open to the clinic earlier on.
- 12:42We'd had that conversation, but she, at that point, she was like,
- 12:45okay, cool, let's go do that.
- 12:47She got in there, she came back to me after they got all the testing and
- 12:50everything done, and she was like, Kelsey, it's not me, it's my husband.
- 12:55And I was like, what do you mean it's your husband?
- 12:58And she was like, he never knew that when he was younger he had issues with his
- 13:05testicles and they had to do surgery.
- 13:07And so when we did our sperm analysis, they found that he actually
- 13:10only had like 4 million sperm and just FYI, you should have over 50
- 13:14million per milliliter, if not more.
- 13:18That's like bare bones.
- 13:19And we were like my, she said, the doctor said, our only option is IVF.
- 13:24And, and she's like, is that true?
- 13:25And I was like, well, yeah, if these numbers are, are right, like
- 13:28it's definitely your best option.
- 13:31Um, and they went on and had, did IVF.
- 13:33They have two beautiful twins.
- 13:35They, they transferred two embryos.
- 13:37They both took, they've got beautiful twins at home.
- 13:39And like the story has a very happy ending, but it's sits with me.
- 13:43Every single day that I did not run a semen analysis on her husband on day
- 13:49one, and it quite literally changed the trajectory of every single fertility
- 13:56client that walked through my door.
- 13:58Thank God that happened really early on in my practice because
- 14:03from then on I was like.
- 14:05A woman walked and sat in my chair and I was like, get your husband's
- 14:08button here right now because we are not wasting any time.
- 14:12I will not have another one of you sit for a year and assume
- 14:17it is you when it in fact isn't.
- 14:20So the one thing that's really important to know is regardless of your ha journey,
- 14:27your period loss, what have you, you, you, you know, if you're not ovulating.
- 14:32Pregnancy isn't going to happen.
- 14:33Okay, cool.
- 14:34We know that that's fine and we can have feelings about that, obviously,
- 14:38but that doesn't negate the fact that sperm will always be 50% of the equation.
- 14:45And once you are ovulating, that sperm now comes into play right away.
- 14:51Right.
- 14:51And so.
- 14:53One in six couples struggle to get pregnant for a wide variety of reasons,
- 14:57but if we break that down, 33% of couples are struggling because of male factor
- 15:03infertility on their own just male factor.
- 15:06And another 33% of couples are struggling because of a combination of male.
- 15:13And female factor.
- 15:15That's one third of all couples.
- 15:18And if we put that together, that's two thirds of couples
- 15:21have male factor infertility.
- 15:22It's on the rise.
- 15:24We know that male fertility is declining.
- 15:26If we look at the research, yes.
- 15:29Is it scary?
- 15:30It is.
- 15:31Like if we really dig into it and there's a lot of fear monering
- 15:34out there, but I also think that.
- 15:37Uh, men, maybe men are a little bit farther behind in like the health craze,
- 15:41but like we are starting to kind of realize that we have to treat our bodies a
- 15:46bit differently in order to stay healthy.
- 15:48We can't just like keep on keeping on with how we treated ourselves, um, in the
- 15:54nineties and, and early two thousands.
- 15:56And, and so we, we know that that's a piece and if you dig into the
- 16:00data, there are some scary statistics out there that are showing if, if.
- 16:05Society continues the way that it's continuing.
- 16:08Men could really start, all men could struggle to make babies in
- 16:14the next few decades, and that's.
- 16:17You know, in our lifetime, right?
- 16:19So that's a really scary thought, but there's so much we can do to change
- 16:24that trajectory for you personally and for our society as a whole.
- 16:28Um, and the first step is to realize that just because you have a known
- 16:35diagnosis that's impacting fertility, that doesn't mean that your partner.
- 16:40Couldn't also be contributing.
- 16:42And how beautiful to use the time to optimize sperm that you are
- 16:48taking to get your period back and to start ovulating again.
- 16:52Like we don't wanna waste any time.
- 16:54We don't want to wait.
- 16:55Until you are ovulating to find out, oh, he actually has a problem too.
- 17:00We can use this time that you are working to build your ovulatory capacity back up
- 17:07by also optimizing his health as well.
- 17:10I think that's such a good point right there if like there's gonna be a
- 17:14timeframe that it does take us to get your peer back at least three months,
- 17:18sometimes more, occasionally less, but it's, it's gonna be a period of
- 17:21time and we know that we can change.
- 17:24The quality and quantity of sperm within three months.
- 17:28Uh, especially if we have three to six months.
- 17:30I mean, there's a lot we can do.
- 17:31And I think yes, it, it could be really scary to sit and look at those
- 17:35statistics and I, I think in some ways, sometimes we need to let ourselves.
- 17:38Feel the fear, because I do think that impacts our willingness
- 17:42to make behavior change.
- 17:43Right?
- 17:44Especially for the men listening to this episode.
- 17:46However, I think this episode is more than anything like really empowering
- 17:50of like there's a lot you can do.
- 17:52So let's just start with some like basic understandings of what is healthy sperm.
- 17:57Like if we talk about motility morphology concentration, you
- 18:01mentioned some, like for example, like the 50 million as like the.
- 18:05The bare minimum.
- 18:06Let's go through those specifics so that they understand like
- 18:08what we're looking at here.
- 18:10Yeah, so if you wanna check your sperm and see like our first kind of lens
- 18:16of what's our fertility capacity, that would be looking at a semen analysis.
- 18:20And for anyone that is sharing this with their husbands that they're
- 18:24like, I don't wanna get testing that.
- 18:26I'm not ready for that.
- 18:27That's awkward.
- 18:27I first want you to know that it's.
- 18:29It's not the same as what we see mm-hmm.
- 18:32On old TV sitcoms.
- 18:34Is that home now?
- 18:36It's pretty easy.
- 18:36Yeah.
- 18:36You don't wanna go into the creepy room with the creepy magazines that everyone
- 18:40else has touched and like, someone's like, everyone always pictures someone
- 18:44leaning against the door, listen.
- 18:46Like, no, it's not like that anymore.
- 18:48You can literally do it at home and you drive it in.
- 18:50So there's, we can just get rid of all that fear.
- 18:54Mm-hmm.
- 18:54And I will say for any of my dudes that have been.
- 18:58Skeptical and nervous and it's taken them time.
- 19:00They always come back and be like, that was not that bad.
- 19:03And I'm like, okay, cool.
- 19:04See, can we share, can we like spread that word out there a little bit, but.
- 19:09That's what you wanna have done.
- 19:10So you wanna ask for a semen analysis, and that's gonna come
- 19:12back with lots of different numbers.
- 19:14And the main kind of things we're looking at to start is how many sperm are there?
- 19:19How do they swim and what do they look like?
- 19:21So that's concentration, motility, and morphology.
- 19:25And we have data from the World Health Organization that we use to say what
- 19:30is optimal versus what is normal.
- 19:33Because what you're seeing on the reference range of those documents
- 19:37is what they deem as normal in the.
- 19:42General population that's not necessarily optimal for conception.
- 19:48So they have pulled their reference ranges from what is deemed the
- 19:55fifth percentile in their data.
- 19:58So that means that if you're hitting that number, they're still 95%
- 20:03of men that are better than you.
- 20:05And that's how low their standards are, which is, and
- 20:08it used to be not my favorite.
- 20:10No, it's silly.
- 20:13It's not smart.
- 20:15Like it makes no sense.
- 20:16But we just, the, the issue being is that reference ranges are built
- 20:20off of population average, and we've already said sperm health is declining.
- 20:26Back in the forties, our optimal range for concentration was over
- 20:30100 million per milliliter, and now we're happy if it's over 30.
- 20:36That's a huge, that's insane.
- 20:38Huge difference.
- 20:40And so when we look at that paper with that data, I'm kind of
- 20:44aiming for the 50th percentile.
- 20:46We wanna be, we want a 50 50 chance.
- 20:48That's kind of how I, I look at it.
- 20:50And so when we look at those numbers, we ideally want your
- 20:53concentration to be around 60 million per milliliter or higher.
- 20:58We want your motility to be around 60% or higher, and they break that down
- 21:03into forward progressive, slow, rapid.
- 21:07We, we want them to be able to swim straight and fast.
- 21:12Ideally, if you look at a video of a Petri dish of sperm, they all swim like this.
- 21:17It's, it's actually, whenever I look at that, it's quite a miracle that we
- 21:20have any humans at all because sperm.
- 21:25Don't just like line up like an army and swim straight.
- 21:29They, they chase their own tails.
- 21:31They're all over the place.
- 21:32Like, and that's just, the majority of them are going to swim like that.
- 21:37That's why you need so many, 'cause it's a numbers game when it comes to sperm.
- 21:41Then with morphology, we have slightly lower standards.
- 21:46And I would say that mostly just comes from the fact that I very rarely see it
- 21:50higher than like that fifth percentile.
- 21:53So whether that's a good or a bad thing, I'm not sure.
- 21:57Um, we'd love it to be over 8%, 10%, but that is fairly rare from the, you know.
- 22:03Hundreds and hundreds and over a thousand easily semen analysis I've
- 22:08looked at over the last few years.
- 22:09So we ideally am happy if that number's four or higher, and that is the reference
- 22:13range that you'll see on the papers.
- 22:16Um, and that's just a harder, a harder number.
- 22:19But with that percentage, again, it becomes a numbers game.
- 22:23So if your morphology is, let's say 3% and slightly below normal, but you have.
- 22:29A good amount of sperm, you're maybe in the 80 million per milliliter, that
- 22:341% difference becomes less problematic.
- 22:37Whereas if you are 3%, but then you also only have 15 million per milliliter,
- 22:43now that 1% becomes more problematic because the numbers are vastly different.
- 22:48So we want lots of sperm, but we also want.
- 22:52Good quality sperm.
- 22:54So we're gonna start with, with those numbers to kind of guide us in towards
- 22:59what other labs need to be done.
- 23:02If numbers are low, we're often saying, okay, is there a physical blockage?
- 23:07Is there an infection?
- 23:09Is there hormonal disruption that we wanna be looking at?
- 23:12Is there metabolic reasons we wanna be looking at?
- 23:15A lot of the things I'm sure.
- 23:17Victoria, you talk about in terms of like insulin and, and blood sugar and things
- 23:23that all of that matters for men and sperm production and testosterone production,
- 23:27just as much as it matters for women.
- 23:30So the good news is, is when it comes to making healthy
- 23:33changes, men can often just.
- 23:36Do what their partners are doing, and it's gonna have the same positive
- 23:40impact, but in a different way.
- 23:42And so the same analysis can give us a lot of information in terms of where do we go
- 23:46from here if the numbers are looking low.
- 23:49And also what does the research tell us in terms of helping to
- 23:52improve these numbers specifically.
- 23:56Yeah.
- 23:56So let's, um, let's piggyback off of what you were sharing earlier or
- 24:00just a second ago, rather, of some of the basic things that really
- 24:03negatively impact sperm quality.
- 24:06And let's stick in a little bit more there, because I wanna like, think of like
- 24:10the basic health habits from like alcohol consumption to marijuana to food intake.
- 24:15Let's talk about like what negatively impacts sperm health
- 24:18from just like a basic health habit standpoint, and then what
- 24:22positively impacts it once we do that.
- 24:24Yeah, so we look at it from like a four foundational pillar lens.
- 24:29So how are you eating?
- 24:31How are you moving your body?
- 24:32How are you sleeping?
- 24:33And where's your mindset?
- 24:35And so if we break those down into like, which of these habits could be potentially
- 24:40negatively impacting, I would say the big ones being the, the food that you are
- 24:44or not eating, and how you are generally treating your body in terms of your sleep.
- 24:51Sleep actually has the most fascinating research.
- 24:54Um, for men and women, but men in the fertility world, it's way easier
- 24:58to, to do research on men because it's so easy to get a semen sample
- 25:02and be like, do this for a month and come back and we'll do it again.
- 25:05And, and so the data is really fascinating, but
- 25:07sleep is a really big one.
- 25:08Stress is a really big one.
- 25:10Um, and your metabolic health is important.
- 25:12So that kind of circles back into the how are you eating and
- 25:15how are you moving your body?
- 25:17We know that men who are overweight, men who are chronic marijuana users,
- 25:23which I will asterisk that in, saying the data doesn't do a great job in
- 25:29explaining what that actually means, like from a quantity perspective.
- 25:35Um, but we know that there is impact.
- 25:36We know there's impact with nicotine, we know there's impact with alcohol and.
- 25:42From a data lens, we also know that it comes down to.
- 25:47A long-term exposure and amount of use.
- 25:51So for example, you going out on a Friday night and having a few drinks with your
- 25:57friends, but you're not really much of a drinker at home, and that's like a
- 26:00couple times a month and not a big thing.
- 26:02That's a very.
- 26:04Different conversation than the person who's having 3, 4,
- 26:086 beers every single night.
- 26:11And then even more perhaps on the weekends.
- 26:13Like we do have to look at it from a, a quantity lens when we're talking about.
- 26:19Alcohol, even cigarettes.
- 26:21Um, nicotine is another one that they don't do a great job in
- 26:25the data at being like, here's the line we don't want to cross.
- 26:29Mm-hmm.
- 26:29Like, you can have this much, but anything after that, not so much.
- 26:34'cause they more so look at it from a lens of how long you've been
- 26:39smoking and then how much you've been smoking and kind of like.
- 26:43Pinpoint it from there, but the data's never positive
- 26:46when we look at those things.
- 26:47So if those are habits that are still within your lifestyle, how I
- 26:52approach it with clients, because I.
- 26:55No one wants to have some lady from the internet come in and
- 26:58be like, you can't do this.
- 26:59You can't do that.
- 27:00You can't do this.
- 27:01You have to stop that.
- 27:02Right.
- 27:02Like that's just, they're fair.
- 27:03Fair.
- 27:04Especially with our men, like especially with men.
- 27:07Men need numbers.
- 27:10Data, they're very logic driven.
- 27:12So, um, for example, we're, we're running our conceived together challenge
- 27:16right now, and I can give you the link for that, Victoria, but 'cause
- 27:19people can, can grab it at any point.
- 27:21And it's built with both partners in mind.
- 27:24But I share the data of like, okay, this is why sleep is important.
- 27:28It's important.
- 27:29Specifically for men, for testosterone production, for your nervous
- 27:33system and to lower your cortisol.
- 27:35And we know that men who sleep more than seven and a half hours
- 27:38of good quality sleep at night have significantly higher sperm counts.
- 27:43Like it's quite literally that simple.
- 27:45And I share the data.
- 27:48So when we have husbands that are like me, I'm not really sure I can do that.
- 27:53It's always about one tiny change at a time.
- 27:57It can make a really, really big impact.
- 28:00It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
- 28:03Mm-hmm.
- 28:03So with alcohol, for example, 'cause I find alcohol is usually the
- 28:09biggest sticky and, and smoking like.
- 28:12It's a bigger decision to quit smoking than it is to change
- 28:16anything else, obviously, because we have that addiction piece usually
- 28:19intertwined into there, but mm-hmm.
- 28:21Alcohol is typically one where men are like, I don't wanna give this up.
- 28:24This is my social time, you know?
- 28:26Yep.
- 28:26Like, hear that all the time, yada, yada, yada.
- 28:28I, and I get that.
- 28:29And so the data that we have comes from the IVF space, which most of
- 28:33our fertility research does come from the IVF space, and we have to.
- 28:38Borrow that when we're not in that space yet necessarily.
- 28:42And the research shows that men or women who drink more than four
- 28:47alcoholic beverages a week have a lower conception rate in IVF.
- 28:52Wow.
- 28:52So four is not that many.
- 28:54I was about, that's why I'm saying Wow.
- 28:55I'm like, four's not that many.
- 28:57Yeah, it's not that much.
- 28:58And, and we're talking legitimate, appropriate sized.
- 29:02Beverages.
- 29:03So like, which let's build this, a wine glass that's like usually two servings.
- 29:07Exactly.
- 29:08Like a tall boy is not the right amount.
- 29:12Or like you just getting a very big cup and being like one serving
- 29:18that doesn't work that way.
- 29:19So.
- 29:20When we, you know, in our society, our own versions of serving size, especially
- 29:25when it comes to alcohol, is very different than what is actually standard.
- 29:29And so when we think about it that way too, we have to kind
- 29:32of keep that in check as well.
- 29:34So that's usually the first step that I give of like, okay, if we're
- 29:37getting over that, let's say your partner tells me that they're typically
- 29:42drinking 10 to 12 drinks per week.
- 29:44I'm not gonna come in here and be like, you must quit.
- 29:47Right now cold Turkey, with the exception of if they're gearing up
- 29:51for an IVF cycle and they've got like four to six weeks before they're
- 29:55doing an egg retrieval, then we do have a very serious conversation
- 29:58around no alcohol in that timeframe.
- 30:01But it's more so about, okay, if we're starting at 12, can we work on
- 30:06getting down to 10 and then down to eight and then working our way down.
- 30:10And if you wanna hang onto that four number being what the data shows us.
- 30:15I'm fine with that.
- 30:16Yeah, that's okay.
- 30:17That's realistic.
- 30:18Exactly.
- 30:19Yeah.
- 30:19And baby steps, like I think as women, and I mean this in a very polite
- 30:26way, but when we're going through this journey, it's really easy for us
- 30:30to go to them, our partners, and be like, look at all the stuff I'm doing.
- 30:35You need to do X, Y, Z, A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, all these random things
- 30:40you found on TikTok and Instagram.
- 30:43That can feel very, very overwhelming in that moment, whereas coming
- 30:46at them and being like, I read this really cool article.
- 30:49Mm-hmm.
- 30:49And I think this could make a really big change.
- 30:53And I know it might be challenging, but I'm gonna do it with you and
- 30:57let's just take it really slow and focus on one thing at a time.
- 31:01And that makes a huge difference than trying to do, and this goes for
- 31:06anybody, like trying to change eight things at once is very different.
- 31:09It's never a good idea.
- 31:10No, never a good idea.
- 31:12But for men, it can feel they're in a different head space in the fertility
- 31:16world because it's ha, it's hard.
- 31:19It's different, right?
- 31:20It's not their bodies.
- 31:21We can get very fixated, especially I would imagine in the HA
- 31:25community, very fixated on like.
- 31:28Healing and getting our periods back.
- 31:30Yeah, and, and all the focus there.
- 31:32You can't also have the same amount of attention on trying to fix all
- 31:38the habits you feel like your husband has that are negatively impacting
- 31:42your fertility as well, which is why working with a practitioner to do that
- 31:46for you, I think is so, so important.
- 31:49But.
- 31:50You need to focus on you.
- 31:51And the one thing I find with our community is that leading by example
- 31:55is probably one of the most powerful ways to change lifestyle habits.
- 31:58And eventually they come around and they're like, oh, I'm just gonna start
- 32:02eating what you're eating, and oh, you're going for a walk, or maybe I'll come
- 32:06with you, because then we can chat and have connection time and just work things
- 32:10in really, really easily like that.
- 32:12Whereas we're not just coming in and taking away.
- 32:15The burgers, the beer, the fun, right?
- 32:18I always tell my clients when they start with me, like, I don't wanna be the fun
- 32:20police, but like, here's what I'm seeing based on your numbers, and this is what
- 32:28the research shows us can help with these numbers, and ultimately, you're
- 32:33a grown ass man and you get to decide.
- 32:35Yeah, do with that information.
- 32:37Right.
- 32:38I would, I imagine for these guys too though, this is where the semen analysis
- 32:41is so helpful because as you were talking about earlier, like the data.
- 32:46It's so important, it's so helpful.
- 32:48Uh, and I know that's true for our clients too.
- 32:50When they see their low estrogen on a lab value, when they see what everything
- 32:55looks like when they see the low mineral status, like they take it more seriously.
- 32:59And I think for men, a semen analysis for many different reasons, including
- 33:02like a personalized care plan, but also just so they take it seriously.
- 33:07Like, yeah, there is actually room for improvement here, or
- 33:10there's a lot we need to fix.
- 33:11And then from there, tanking it one step at a time.
- 33:14'cause you're right.
- 33:15Men are in a different head space.
- 33:17I think that's just fair to Yeah.
- 33:19Say.
- 33:20And they can also take ownership of their role in the fertility too.
- 33:24Yeah.
- 33:25Okay.
- 33:25So with the semen analysis, you can also have, um, tested your DNA fragmentation.
- 33:30Yeah.
- 33:30Help the listener understand like what exactly that is.
- 33:33'cause I feel like it's a big, fancy word and sometimes that's.
- 33:36Common, the fertility spaces that throw around big, fancy
- 33:39words but not explain it.
- 33:40So let's start there and then like we can talk about what
- 33:42improves DNA fragmentation.
- 33:44Yeah.
- 33:44Yeah.
- 33:45So when we do a semen analysis, we're essentially looking at
- 33:49the sperm on the outside, so it doesn't tell the whole picture.
- 33:55You've been told you need to gain weight, stop exercising or do IVF
- 34:00to get pregnant with no period.
- 34:02What if I told you that's not actually true?
- 34:05You're tracking your food, working out, trying everything to be healthy,
- 34:09but your period is still missing and now pregnancy, it feels impossible.
- 34:15I know exactly how that feels because I've helped hundreds of women get their
- 34:19peered back and get pregnant naturally.
- 34:22Inside my free training, I'm walking you through the exact five step
- 34:26method that's helped women like Lex.
- 34:28Lauren and Stephanie restored their fertility in 90 days or less.
- 34:33Without extreme weight gain or giving up on movement, you'll learn what's
- 34:38really causing your missing period.
- 34:40Why food freedom is essential for fertility and the customized approach
- 34:44that actually works even if you've tried.
- 34:46Everything.
- 34:47If your dream is to see two pink clients and hold a baby in your arms,
- 34:51this training, it's your first step.
- 34:53Click the link in the show notes to watch the free training.
- 34:56It's time to restore your period, your fertility, and your hope.
- 35:00Now let's get back to today's episode.
- 35:02Okay, so the, the tricky part here is you can have a good amount of sperm that swim
- 35:08really well and look fine on the outside.
- 35:12But aren't great on the inside, and that's where DNA fragmentation comes into play.
- 35:16So I have a podcast episode.
- 35:18Talking about how a good semen analysis doesn't just like give
- 35:22you a gold star and, you know, say, okay, you're, you're good.
- 35:25You don't have to do anything because there's actually this other number
- 35:30that we don't get from a standard semen analysis and isn't also readily,
- 35:36um, offered in the fertility space.
- 35:39I find it.
- 35:39Still something that people need to advocate for.
- 35:42It's also more expensive than your run of the mill testing, but it is
- 35:46very valuable, especially in couples who have miscarriage and loss.
- 35:53We are seeing more and more data how the sperm is actually more of
- 35:57a driving factor in miscarriage, and that's a big thing that.
- 36:02We as women, often blame ourselves for that.
- 36:05It's our body that's not doing what it's supposed to, but we're seeing
- 36:09more literature coming out that that's actually not necessarily the case.
- 36:13And this is where DNA fragmentation can come into play.
- 36:16So I. What it's looking at in simplistic terms, is actually the DNA genetic
- 36:22makeup of the sperm internally.
- 36:24So it can look healthy on the outside, it can swim well, and you might have a
- 36:29lot of them, but if the DNA on the inside isn't great, when it fertilizes with
- 36:34that embryo, we're not, or with that egg, sorry, we're not gonna have an embryo
- 36:38that's necessarily compatible with life, it may not be able to implant at all.
- 36:44It might implant but not continue to develop.
- 36:47And so now we're potentially having chemical or early losses.
- 36:50It might continue development until later in the first trimester and
- 36:55then have losses at that point.
- 36:56We don't really know.
- 36:58We can't pinpoint exactly when that is potentially going to happen, but
- 37:01we know now more and more coming out that that is a piece of the puzzle.
- 37:05So.
- 37:07Even if you've had a good semen analysis, that doesn't negate the fact
- 37:10that working on the overall quality of your sperm is still very important
- 37:15and impactful, even if you don't run this secondary test, that's still true.
- 37:21And then if you are in the camp of, I want all the data and all
- 37:25the numbers, I encourage you to source that testing out for sure.
- 37:29Mm-hmm.
- 37:29Um, and or you are having miscarriages, you're further on in your journey and
- 37:34you are having losses at that point.
- 37:36Don't let anyone tell you that that's a female issue because it's not, and
- 37:41it's still likely can be driven male factor wise, and or if you are doing
- 37:46medicated cycles or you're in the IVF space and your embryos aren't developing.
- 37:52Or, um, they're all genetically abnormal and, and an or non-Anglo.
- 37:58Then that would be another instance where we'd wanna do DNA fragmentation
- 38:02testing and actually see we want that number to be ideally below 15%.
- 38:06So again, not all sperm are gonna be healthy imper.
- 38:10It is a numbers game.
- 38:12There's always going to be bad ones there.
- 38:14There's also always going to be not great eggs no matter what you do.
- 38:18That's just.
- 38:19A fact of life.
- 38:21But yeah, we can't control everything.
- 38:22Exactly.
- 38:23We can't.
- 38:24And if you take like anything out of this episode, if you're on your fertility
- 38:27journey, the fact that you have to let go of trying to control everything, I think
- 38:32is so important for your nervous system.
- 38:36Mm-hmm.
- 38:37Especially for ha girlies, that is their personality.
- 38:40So much so.
- 38:40Yes.
- 38:41So they really have to work on that.
- 38:42Yeah.
- 38:43A hundred percent.
- 38:43A hundred percent.
- 38:44So, yeah.
- 38:45So the DN Afra is, is.
- 38:47Something that is not.
- 38:50Like I said, readily pushed in the testing space.
- 38:53It's definitely something you'll probably have to ask for and maybe even be
- 38:57told like, yeah, you don't need that.
- 38:58It's fine.
- 38:59But if you want that data, it is available for you to get.
- 39:03And if you find your DNA fragmentation is high.
- 39:06The biggest driver for that is oxidative stress.
- 39:09So our best way to combat oxidative stress is to look at our lifestyle.
- 39:15So smoking, alcohol, excuse me.
- 39:19Eating how we're eating, how we're moving our body.
- 39:22Endocrine disrupting chemicals and looking at our exposures to EDCs
- 39:26and plastics and things like that.
- 39:28Mm-hmm.
- 39:29Um, and then using antioxidants to help reduce that oxidative stress in our body.
- 39:35So the good news when we build out most of our care plans is a lot of the things.
- 39:41Like selenium and zinc and vitamin C mm-hmm.
- 39:43That have good data to support sperm count and motility and morphology.
- 39:48Coq 10 and on all of the things is also helping with DNA fragmentation regardless
- 39:54if we know those numbers or not.
- 39:57So we can take a little bit of like comfort in that, but then having
- 40:01the number knows like, how high do we have to dial up this support?
- 40:06So let's take, let's say.
- 40:08Three specific health habits that you're like, okay, every single male could do
- 40:13these starting today, listening to this podcast, and they would make such a
- 40:16drastic improvement in their sperm quality as well as their DNA fragmentation.
- 40:20If you could only pick three, what would you pick?
- 40:23If you are not prioritizing your sleep, if you're someone that
- 40:27is like a certified night owl.
- 40:30Looking at my husband,
- 40:33he's like, I just can't go to bed before midnight where I'm
- 40:37like, at eight 30 bed, right?
- 40:39I know I'm in.
- 40:39Oh, the kids kids are in bed.
- 40:41Yes, I shall follow off my phone.
- 40:46But if you're like, no, I just, I just stay up late.
- 40:48But then you have to get up at like six or five 30 to start your job for the
- 40:52day, and so you're only giving yourself.
- 40:55Six-ish hours.
- 40:57It doesn't seem like that's very drastic, and we hear this all the time.
- 41:01I've always been like that.
- 41:02I've, I thrive off six hours of sleep.
- 41:06You do not, your internal wiring does not thrive.
- 41:11Off of six hours of sleep, you've learned to adapt to six hours of sleep.
- 41:16Yeah.
- 41:17Yeah.
- 41:17But you do not thrive on six hours of sleep, and the research is just so.
- 41:22Cool.
- 41:22And so if you are that person that's like, you're looking at yourself
- 41:26being like, okay, maybe I give myself seven hours in bed to sleep.
- 41:30But yeah, it takes me a bit to fall asleep.
- 41:32I wake up a little bit like, and I am tired.
- 41:36Like if we're really honest with ourselves, I think that's
- 41:39a really easy thing to change.
- 41:42That's a free, like we're not talking, going out and buying a bunch
- 41:47of stuff to try and hope it works.
- 41:48It's free to improve your sleep.
- 41:51And it can be very simple, but it takes time.
- 41:54You're not gonna go from someone who goes to bed at one in the morning to someone
- 41:58who comes to bed with Victoria and I at eight 30 and just fall asleep easily.
- 42:02Although most men can close their eyes and just fall asleep, like wherever.
- 42:05So maybe can, I couldn't, you know, I, you have to generally like
- 42:09work your bedtime back to a point where you feel comfortable, but.
- 42:13Aiming for that eight hours of good quality sleep is so important for so
- 42:18many aspects of, of your life in general.
- 42:21Take fertility out of it.
- 42:23But that would be a big.
- 42:24Big one, that can cause huge, impactful change.
- 42:27That's very, very easy.
- 42:29I would then really examine how you're eating and how
- 42:32you're nourishing your body.
- 42:33And if you're someone who does get quite a bit of sugar fried food,
- 42:37processed food, like this is a more complex change for sure, in terms of
- 42:43lifestyle and choices and preparation that we have to think about.
- 42:47But if.
- 42:48Your wife is a member of this community, I guarantee you she's already making
- 42:52those changes and adjustments.
- 42:54So how easy to just like follow suit, right?
- 42:57And join her.
- 42:58And we kind of alluded to this at the beginning of how, I actually don't know
- 43:02if we were recording when we talked about this, but how important it is,
- 43:06even if for the male por portion of this journey, if you get all of the like
- 43:11green check marks, everything looks good.
- 43:15There's something to be said about joining your partner and meeting her
- 43:19where she's at as a level of support.
- 43:22Of like, okay, you're seeing her and you're acknowledging her.
- 43:25All of the crazy things she's changing and maybe struggling with, and it's
- 43:32such a show of compassion and support to just say like, I'm gonna do this
- 43:37with you even though I don't maybe need to, but we're in this together.
- 43:41Like once you are trying to conceive a child.
- 43:44It's not you and her, it really is a team effort.
- 43:49It has to be.
- 43:51Mm-hmm.
- 43:51And the fertility journey is so isolating and lonely for women and men.
- 43:56You know, we could have a whole other hour conversation about the, the mindfulness
- 44:00and mental health aspect of male fertility that is not talked about at all.
- 44:05But that show of support of like, I'm gonna join you on these
- 44:09changes so that we're in this together is, is a really big.
- 44:14Piece that needs to be talked about and needs to be actually
- 44:18encouraged, I think in, in couples.
- 44:21'cause a lot of clinics will just be like, you're good.
- 44:23Don't worry about it.
- 44:23And get really focused on the woman and, and that's not showing com
- 44:28companionship and support in my opinion.
- 44:31So the food thing is a big one.
- 44:34Um, and then I would say the third one would probably depend on.
- 44:41Uh, I mean, I'm gonna put exercise as my third one I think.
- 44:45'cause again, lots of really great data and research.
- 44:49Um, men who strength train three times a week have higher levels of
- 44:54testosterone and more healthy sperm compared to men who don't exercise at all.
- 45:00Um, and some men I find get very cardio heavy and that's their
- 45:05exercise of choice, which is great.
- 45:07However.
- 45:08That's not necessarily building that muscle, it's muscle that we
- 45:12want to build that lean muscle.
- 45:13Mm-hmm.
- 45:14To help with testosterone production.
- 45:16And again, another thing like sleep that isn't just helping
- 45:20fertility but has so many other trickle down benefits for your life.
- 45:26In your lifestyle.
- 45:27Another thing that your partner is probably trying to figure out
- 45:31what that looks like in her life, and you can do that together in a
- 45:35healthy and period supporting way.
- 45:38Um, but that would be probably my third.
- 45:41Yeah.
- 45:42Movement I think is also like a really powerful treatment tool.
- 45:45We're so quick to say, take these 10 supplements and let's cross
- 45:50our fingers instead of saying.
- 45:52Let me look at my lifestyle.
- 45:54Mm-hmm.
- 45:55First, and where are there areas that like maybe aren't, aren't terrible, but
- 46:00I could make some impactful improvements?
- 46:03Then bring the supplements in as like an adjunctive therapy.
- 46:06Yeah.
- 46:07And when you're saying all this, I'm like, gosh, if, if he did all of these
- 46:10things, those three areas, the sleep, the eating, the exercise, not only is he
- 46:15gonna be supporting his fertility, but gosh, you're gonna feel so much better.
- 46:19Yeah.
- 46:19Like you get enough sleep and you.
- 46:21Regularly move your body, especially strength training.
- 46:24That's something we really advocate for, for men and women.
- 46:27Um, and then you're eating nourishing foods.
- 46:30You're gonna feel incredible.
- 46:32So like, just like major bonus points for fertility, but like,
- 46:36you're gonna feel good too.
- 46:37And that's, that's a nice feeling.
- 46:39And like you said, like women with pure loss fear so much of the burden, but.
- 46:43Their husbands need to join them.
- 46:45If anything, just to say like, Hey, I see you potentially gaining some weight,
- 46:50having to add more food in, having to change some of what you're eating.
- 46:55I am going to join you and making some changes.
- 46:57That may be difficult for me too, but I see you doing difficult
- 47:00things and we can do it together.
- 47:02Yeah, a hundred percent.
- 47:04So for the woman who's listening who does have period loss, how
- 47:07important do you think it still is to address male fertility?
- 47:121 million person.
- 47:13Yeah.
- 47:16If my story at the beginning didn't convince you, hopefully like come do the,
- 47:21come do the conceive together challenge.
- 47:23Um, because yeah, we'll put the, share some of the data for sure.
- 47:27And again, like I said, like men love numbers and love the research
- 47:30and so it's a really easy way to open up the conversations around
- 47:35these different lifestyle changes that might feel heavy and hard.
- 47:39But if you are.
- 47:41Serious about wanting a baby, he needs to be on board.
- 47:46Mm-hmm.
- 47:46That there's, that's just like a non-negotiable thing.
- 47:50There is no other choice in my opinion, and it's so easy to have testing done.
- 47:59Yes.
- 47:59Like I said, it might feel scary in the moment, but it's really not that hard.
- 48:05And if you end up needing fertility clinic support.
- 48:09I guarantee you the male portion of that is significantly easier
- 48:14than the female portion of that.
- 48:15That's what I'm thinking when you say that, like there's no way it's as bad
- 48:19as what women have to go through though.
- 48:21No, no, no.
- 48:22No way at all.
- 48:23No, not even similar.
- 48:24Right.
- 48:25Not even similar.
- 48:25So it's just we have to let go of that ego piece.
- 48:29Um, and that fear, and I think that's the hardest part for men is there, there
- 48:34is a very deep rooted fear in, in their bones of like, well, what if it is me?
- 48:40Yeah.
- 48:40And that's what blocks them.
- 48:41Right?
- 48:41And it makes sense, like the ego sitting there saying.
- 48:44It can't be me.
- 48:45I'm a man.
- 48:46I can make all of the babies.
- 48:48That's why I'm here on this planet.
- 48:49Yeah.
- 48:49We have that ancestral drive to reproduce and so it, there is a, a barrier for men.
- 48:56So I don't wanna sit here and say like, it's super easy.
- 48:59Just go do it.
- 49:00Because for those of you listening who have that block, I get it.
- 49:04I see it with my clients partners all the time and it, and it almost
- 49:10feels easier to just not know.
- 49:14Then to acknowledge that something might be wrong.
- 49:17And that's very common in the fertility space.
- 49:19It's common.
- 49:20Women do it too, right?
- 49:21Yeah.
- 49:21Where we're like, oh, I'm just gonna keep on keeping on and
- 49:25hope for the best because like.
- 49:27It feels scarier to actually know what the problem is than
- 49:32to hear there is a problem.
- 49:36And so that's the first kind of hurdle we have to jump over, especially
- 49:39for men, because that tends to be the biggest roadblock for not just
- 49:44getting testing done, but for making changes as we're, if we're making
- 49:48changes, we're acknowledging that there's an issue and that can be scary.
- 49:54But I think in this community, in the HA space, what a beautiful time to be able
- 50:00to say we're working on period recovery.
- 50:03We're not actually actively trying to conceive right in this moment, but I just
- 50:08bought myself a few months to make sure that my body, my sperm is in tip top shape
- 50:14so that when she is ovulating mm-hmm.
- 50:17We're good to go because sperm turnover every 72.
- 50:21Days.
- 50:21So at three, three-ish months, two and a half, three-ish months is how long we need
- 50:27to really make impactful changes to sperm.
- 50:30And like for Victoria and myself, we had this, this warning, this red flag that
- 50:36gave us years of preconception care, whereas most couples don't get that.
- 50:40Yeah.
- 50:40So if you are getting that like.
- 50:43Look at it as bonus time.
- 50:45Right.
- 50:45It's not, I'm like, well, she's gonna have to do the recovery time.
- 50:48Yeah, exactly.
- 50:48To get her period back.
- 50:49Like how freaking cool would it be if you immediately did a semen analysis
- 50:53while she's doing her work to get her period back, and you were making
- 50:57changes alongside with her so that she felt so supported to get her period
- 51:01back and she felt a momentum with you.
- 51:03But also it's the exact amount of time you need to start making
- 51:06improvements to your sperm health like.
- 51:08There is no losing cure.
- 51:10No.
- 51:10There can only win.
- 51:11Yeah.
- 51:12Gold star.
- 51:13Gold star.
- 51:14Thousand percent.
- 51:15I don't give those out very freely, but the proactive man, he gets the gold star.
- 51:20Also very attractive.
- 51:22Let's just say that too.
- 51:23Yes, yes.
- 51:24We love, we love a proactive man who cares about his health.
- 51:27Yes.
- 51:28Women in 2025 Love.
- 51:31Yes.
- 51:32Okay.
- 51:33This isn't such an informative, empowering.
- 51:37Episode, I've loved what we've talked about and I really feel like I was exactly
- 51:41what I hoped it would be, which is just a really good understanding of sperm
- 51:45health and what we can do to improve it.
- 51:47So I wanna wrap up though, Kelsey, with every, uh, question I ask
- 51:51every guest that comes on the show.
- 51:52I think I may have mentioned this when I was on your podcast,
- 51:55but we have a philosophy here of wellness without obsession, probably
- 51:58exactly as it sounds, right?
- 51:59Like how do we take care of ourselves, but without losing our period?
- 52:04Along the way.
- 52:05Um, and I'd love to hear how you personally are living
- 52:09wellness without obsession.
- 52:11Ooh, I love this.
- 52:13This is like so on brand for what I feel like I'm working through right now
- 52:17because it's so easy to get hung up on.
- 52:22Mm-hmm.
- 52:22The checkbox items of like, in order to achieve this, I need to do da da.
- 52:28And so for me.
- 52:30It's about allowing myself moments of, of stillness.
- 52:34So I am a busy go, go, go.
- 52:38I'm, if you're familiar with human design, I'm a generator, so I thrive on like
- 52:43high intensity, high energy environments.
- 52:46Put a project in front of me that I enjoy doing.
- 52:48I will sit here for 24 hours straight and enjoy my life.
- 52:52Like I obviously can't do that now with my children.
- 52:54They are my.
- 52:55My stoppers, but I can, I can thrive in that environment.
- 52:59But it also becomes that sort of like non wellness obsession, right?
- 53:08And, and I can find myself kind of going in the other direction of like,
- 53:12no, I can't be obsessed with this.
- 53:13I have to be obsessed with wellness.
- 53:15And you sort of have that pendulum all or nothing swing.
- 53:17Mm-hmm.
- 53:18And so for me to stop that.
- 53:19It really comes down to allowing myself to have moments of slowness
- 53:24because I'm so used to moving quickly.
- 53:26So for example, I'm in a deep period right now of like mindset work for myself
- 53:32and the company, and where are we going and how are we supporting our clients?
- 53:36And it can get.
- 53:37Easily lost in that.
- 53:39And so this morning I was like, I have, you know, an extra hour or
- 53:43two, I kind of am battling a cold.
- 53:45Like let's just sit and read my book outside on the deck and listen to
- 53:49the birds and like, oh, I love that.
- 53:50Bring in that moment of like, I don't actually have anything I need.
- 53:56To do right now, and I'm not doing this because I'm trying to be healthy.
- 54:03That's kind of how I look at it, is like we have, and this, for any of you
- 54:08who are trying to conceive, I think this is like one of the biggest mindset
- 54:12shifts to make, is that not every decision you make needs to go through
- 54:17this lens of like, well, is that.
- 54:20Going to get me pregnant, right?
- 54:22It's so easy for us to, it's too much.
- 54:23It's too much.
- 54:24Same with the ha, right?
- 54:25Like, well, is this actually gonna get my period back or not?
- 54:28Because if the answer's not, yes, I'm not doing it.
- 54:30And if these answer is yes, add it to my checklist, and now I'm just
- 54:33gonna robotically do those things.
- 54:36And now we're no longer doing them with a sense of presence or mindfulness.
- 54:39So.
- 54:40Bringing in those moments for me of just like, okay, I, I actually have an hour
- 54:44right now that I can just, what do I wanna do for myself that has nothing to
- 54:50do with my goals, with be that health or otherwise that I just enjoyment and
- 54:56bringing more and more of that into like, break up the checklist pieces.
- 55:02I cannot relate to that more.
- 55:04That is me to a team and I, I couldn't agree more.
- 55:07It's, it's.
- 55:09If you're gonna be this busy of a person, which all people with with ha
- 55:12are this way too, they're type a high achieving women, uh, this is why we're
- 55:17so driven and successful and it is also why we have to learn and actually
- 55:22practice the habit of rest and pause, which may be for other people is easier.
- 55:26So I love that that's how you answered.
- 55:29I have loved this episode so much, Kelsey.
- 55:32Tell everyone where they can find you and learn more from you and
- 55:34potentially work with you too.
- 55:36Yeah, come over and listen to the Fertility Confidence Podcast
- 55:39and find Victoria's episode 'cause it also was really lovely.
- 55:43Um, and I'm over on Instagram at Fertility Confidence Method.
- 55:47You can find me there.
- 55:48And if you're curious about the Conceived Together challenge, it's just ttc
- 55:52dot kelsey duncan.com/ct challenge.
- 55:57Um, and yeah, there's lots of fun stuff over on the website and on my Instagram.
- 56:01Lots of free resources in the podcast.
- 56:03Come check it out and, and.
- 56:05Pick around and feel what you, what you need to look for.
- 56:08Awesome.
- 56:08I'll put all those links in the show notes too.
- 56:10Thank you so much for going on the podcast today.
- 56:12Thanks.
- 56:13I.
- 56:14Kelsey, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.
- 56:16Thank you to my incredible community for listening to this episode.
- 56:20Do not forget to share this episode with your husband or partner, and I want him to
- 56:25know, and for you to know too, that we do offer sperm analysis as an add on option
- 56:30to premier peer recovery for fertility.
- 56:33So not only in joining Premier Period recovery for fertility, will you get.
- 56:37Every single thing you need in order to accomplish your goals of getting
- 56:41your peer back and getting pregnant.
- 56:43But you can also add on the option for your husband or partner to properly
- 56:48nourish his body for fertility so that he can join you on this journey.
- 56:52And really I think that is when the most.
- 56:54Important things about doing a sperm analysis add-on, of course, is
- 56:58catching anything that we need to see.
- 56:59And giving strategic plan from a food, nutrition and supplement
- 57:03perspective of how to fix that.
- 57:04And I promise guys, listening is not we.
- 57:07We make it so easy to understand.
- 57:09We make it so attainable.
- 57:11It meets you where you're at.
- 57:13But I think what it does more than anything is it makes.
- 57:16Your wife, your partner, feels so supported that she is, you know, having
- 57:20to make some pretty massive changes in her life, and you are joining
- 57:23her and meeting her halfway there.
- 57:25That way you can both improve your sperm and egg quality as she's
- 57:29doing the work to get her peer back.
- 57:31And then you guys can go on to get pregnant if you wanna learn more.
- 57:34You can do so with a link in our show notes.
- 57:36Also, I will include all the links to learn more about Dr. Kelsey
- 57:39Duncan in the show notes as well.
- 57:42She's such an incredible resource.
- 57:44I also highly recommend learning and potentially working with her too.
- 57:48Thank you guys so much for listening to today's episode.
- 57:50We will be back, as always for another episode next week.
- 57:53Until then, no, that nourish body is a powerful one.