Latest / The Birth Lounge Podcast / Ep. 456: Restorative Fertility: A Cutting-Edge Approach Mercier Therapy & Getting Real Answers with Jennifer Mercier

Transcript

Ep. 456: Restorative Fertility: A Cutting-Edge Approach Mercier Therapy & Getting Real Answers with Jennifer Mercier · The Birth Lounge Podcast

I don't use smoke and mirrors here, and if somebody's telling you that, you know, IVF's your only way, I'd love to talk with you first before you make that decision.
And sometimes it is the best way if you wanna build your family, but most times it's not Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Birth Lounge Podcast.
Let me ask you something.
Have you gotten your hands on my free download of my non-toxic baby registry list? It's all of the things that I put on my personal baby registry, and I spent hours, like 60-plus hours, exploring, researching, deep diving, rabbit holing into every single thing that went on this baby list.
I was really intentional about everything that I put on.
Number one, I didn't want to just get a bunch of stuff, because I personally believe that You know, I don't necessarily identify as a minimalist, but I also do believe that babies come with a lot of things, and people love to just gift you stuff when you have a baby.
However, I didn't really want my house to be filled with just a bunch of stuff, so I was very intentional about the things that I put on there, and if there were tools and gear and things that could have a multipurpose in our home, then I went with that.
Number two, and probably even more important, is I was incredibly diligent about the toxic load of each product, and that's why it took me so long.
That's why I spent 60-plus hours exploring every single product.
And when I say every single product, it wasn't just the products that are on there.
It was so many brands of that same product.
So I'm talking car seats, strollers, bottles, bottle washers, swaddles, sheets, baby washcloths, baby baths, all the things that you need or that make life easier when you have a baby.
But I didn't want a lot of forever chemicals and microplastics, and if you don't know anything about silicone, the US standard of silicone doesn't even meet the silicone requirements for pig troughs in Europe.
Yeah, you heard me right.
I'll say it one more time because it's absolutely sickening.
The silicone that we use in the US that passes US standard does not even pass the standards to be used for farm animal feeding troughs in Europe.
Sick.
So I just wanted to make sure that not only was I investing in quality products, I was only getting the gear and the tools that I truly needed, but also I was reducing my family's toxic load at the same time because our little ones are so sensitive, and their little bodies are just learning to be on the outside.
And so I wanted to make sure that everything that my baby came in contact with was the lowest toxic load As possible.
So head to thebirthlounge.com
and you can find my baby registry at thebirthlounge.com/registry.
So you're just gonna type in thebirthlounge.com/registry,
and you will be able to download my full list of everything that I registered for, and I put little blurbs about why I chose that product and what made me go with that exact brand because it was low tox and a good investment Now, what if there was a provider out there who instead of pushing you to IUI or IVF or quickly diagnosing you with unexplained fertility, took a moment to get to know you as a human? She looked at the labs that maybe your traditional OB had run, and she saw gaps, and she filled those in with additional lab work that really gave you the entire picture.
What if you could find a fertility approach that was holistic, that looked at you through a whole body lens? I'm so excited to be being joined by Dr.
Jen Mercier, who is a naturopathic doctor, a PhD, a midwife, and a fertility specialist.
She also is the creator of the Mercier Therapy, a pelvic visceral manipulation technique that supports reproductive health.
With over twenty-five years of experience, she has helped hundreds of couples conceive naturally and has trained healthcare professionals worldwide.
She is also the author of Conceive and the filmmaker behind Fertility: The Shared Journey, and the new upcoming documentary, Conceiving Miracles.
Dr.
Mercier has also conducted three independent research studies, two which have been published in Midwifery Today Journal.
Her therapeutic approach, the Mercier Therapy, has also been instrumental in assisting women in their recovery from C-sections, post-gynecological surgery, and managing pelvic pain.
Today, Mercier Therapy is practiced in thirty-four states across the US and twenty-two countries worldwide.
Today, we're gonna go on a deep journey into the realms of infertility so that you can make informed choices about the least invasive ways to conceive so that you feel supported along your entire reproductive journey.
You're gonna hear us talk about the things that are causing our infertility rates to skyrocket in comparison to previous generations.
We're also gonna dive into the term unexplained infertility, which feels completely defeating, by the way, and we're gonna talk about other options that you may not have ever heard of.
Dr.
Mercier is also gonna talk to us about environmental toxins, cell phone use, microplastics, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals that may be harming your fertility.
If you are on a fertility path of your own, I'm gonna give you the same disclaimer that I'm sure you know is coming, but listen to this conversation when you're ready.
And hit that pause button as needed, and come back to this conversation whenever it feels best to you.
Dr.
Jen and I are gonna be here no matter what.
No matter the time of day or day of week or how many times you need to pause and revisit this conversation, we'll be here waiting, ready to support you.
So whether you are currently expecting, you are thinking about having another baby, or maybe you're on a long-awaited road to meeting your little one, this conversation is going to be so pivotal for you.
We're gonna dive into things that traditional healthcare practitioners and the system as a whole may not necessarily be discussing with you And finally, Dr.
Jen has a message for every woman out there who is struggling with fertility, who feels broken and hopeless, and maybe even like your body has failed you.
So as we navigate this conversation, know that I'm right here, I'm holding your hand, and we're going to get through this together.
Without further ado, Dr.
Jen, welcome to the show.
Thanks, HeHe, for having me.
I appreciate it.
Oh my gosh, honestly, the honor is mine.
I, um, was telling our audience before you and I connected here how excited I am to have you on the show, because this is a topic that everyone is super, super interested in.
I think the more that people are starting, women specifically, are starting to learn how to use our voice, learn how to advocate for ourselves, the more that people wake up to, you know, not to, not to bash the hospital system and not to be a conspiracy theory, but the, the more that we kind of wake up to the fact that maybe the system doesn't always have our best interests at heart and/or isn't always presenting us with all of our choices, that sometimes there may be an agenda bet- behind the things that are presented to us.
I think women are becoming increasingly eager to have more information about what questions can they ask, what options do we really have? If this is not working for me, now where do I go? And I think that, you know, everyone listening, me, you, we all know somebody that has reached the end of that road, and they have sat in a clinic and had a doctor tell them, "I'm so sorry, we just don't have any other options."
And I'm super excited today because I think we're gonna talk about some options that people may not have ever heard about.
Um, but before we dive too far into that and we talk about your method specifically, I would love to, to start the conversation with, you know, you do a lot of talking about looking at the whole body, the whole-body lens.
Look through this lens of the whole person, and especially male-female dynamics.
Like, we want to be looking at both partners.
What do you think is missing from the average traditional conversation of fertility counseling that patients are receiving right now today? Are you asking the, what's missing from traditional reproductive endocrinology care? Yeah, and, and more so the conversation.
So I think one thing that comes to my mind is NaPro, is- Mm-hmm your, you know, the food that you're consuming.
What is your chronic stress level? We're not looking at male partners.
How is sperm health? I think there's, for me, and I'm far from a fertility expert, there's so much missing.
So I'd love to know what you think is missing.
Sure.
So I used to work in the medical industry, the reproductive endocrinology and fertility industry, and I'm gonna kinda tell you from that perspective and then from an more integrative perspective on what I'm observing and what's kind of been like the long-lasting, um, situational kind of theory that I've observed over many, many years of practice.
In reproductive endocrinology, it's kind of like a one-size-fits-all approach to fertility, and if you don't fit into their ideology you're probably most likely to fail that kind of medicine or that therapy, which is IVF or, you know, medicated IUI cycles, that sort of thing.
Although there is a time and place for those types of cycles, but I prepare women to be ready for those kinds of cycles.
So I...
What I do and what integrative medicine does is personalize.
We personalize, and we to- take a look at the individual, and we decide based on labs and history, current, uh, cycling and what that is all looking like, and also what a husband or male partner, what the sperm is looking like, and then make a decision as to how, how to fine-tune all of that.
And then also taking a look at, like, maybe the missing puzzle pieces.
For instance, women come to me, and they've got all these, these labs done, and I look at them and I think, "Who ordered these labs?" "Oh, my OB."
Okay.
So I can, I can tell that someone outside of reproductive endocrinology ordered these labs because there's a lot missing, and then I go in with my nurse practitioner, and we fill in the gaps.
Usually, that's where I find the aha.
Like, it's usually prolactin.
Prolactin shouldn't be in abundance any other time than when we nurse a baby, and you know that.
So why is it abundant when we're trying to conceive? Is there a pituitary adenoma on the brain that's overproducing prolactin at the inappropriate time? I mean, that is can cause anovulatory cycles.
And so if that's elevated, we need to reduce the burden or figure out what indeed is going on because that's the first thing, cycle charting.
We have to make sure that there's a rhyme or reason to LH surging and cervical mucus.
And you might be seeing some of those things, but there's still an element that is saying, "Mm-mm.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope."
And if we miss that, and we're cycle tracking forever and a day, right? You've missed that, that critical piece, and we could easily remedy that critical piece.
So I'd say with medicine, we're doing a one-size-fits-all approach, maybe with a little individ- individualization.
But with integrative medicine- We're doing a more personalized approach where I'm really taking a lot of time to look at labs, to get to know these women and their husbands, to get to know what their history looks like, and it, you know, their surgical history.
It makes a big difference in how pelvic organs move, and medicine just doesn't do that.
And to their credit, I mean, I've got friends that are OBs.
They're just, they're busy.
They're busy.
They're delivering babies, and they're doing surgeries, and then they're seeing patients in the office, and they just...
You're liable to miss something when you're not able to spend as much time as you need to getting to know somebody and all of the facets that come along with that case potentially.
So I think that we really need to be more careful in how we go about ordering some diagnostics and looking at lifestyle, as you said.
So letting the food be the medicine, eating organic food.
As, as much as we know about organic food, it's still the better choice.
It's still the better choice.
And choosing, you know, like organic wheat over processed wheat, we might be getting glyphosate in our wheat, so we, we need to, to make a better choice.
And yes, these things are more expensive, but being sick is more expensive, so you have to figure out what's gonna be the best path.
Certainly, I think most of my patients, my clients they're gonna do exactly what I ask them to do, and I'm not always right.
Let me just say that.
I am not always right, but after 25 years of clinical practice, I can say that I'm pretty close.
I'm pretty close.
And I can meet somebody halfway, and they've gotta come the other half and be compliant, but eating whole food diet is exactly what I tell everyone.
Let the food be your medicine.
Make sure there's no, no more than five ingredients in the food that you're eating.
You know, and just to be mindful what you stick in your mouth because most of these women will, will be compliant, and then after you have a child, you wanna feed them the best that you possibly can too so that they grow healthy and strong.
But medicine is medicine, and integrative approach is very, very vastly different.
And so, that's what I love about it, taking a lot of time with women and, and uncovering a lot that me- that maybe medicine has missed.
Now, what about the women who have had all the labs run, and maybe they've had many labs run, and they're being told, "Your labs are normal.
We don't know what's the problem"? Yeah.
So I see this all the time as well.
Good point.
So they bring in their labs, and I can usually tell what day of the cycle the labs were drawn.
So I'll look at them, and I'll say, "Were these drawn on your day three?" Yeah, they were.
How did you know that? Well, because your estradiol, your progesterone are very, very low.
Your FSH is low, exactly where it needs to be.
You know, you can just, after you read so many labs, you can tell where a woman is in her cycle.
You know, like mid-cycle, estradiol's gonna be elevated and, and luteal phase, the progesterone will hopefully be elevated.
But again, when we're just going to the obstetrician and doing random labs at any day of the cycle, that's not super helpful.
And then the reproductive endocrinologist will do labs at the appropriate time, but again, they're doing the bare minimum.
So I look at all the labs from a very fine lens.
I wanna make sure that I've got new updated cycle day threes.
We call them day threes because that's the most accurate time of the cycle when she's bleeding to get the labs the labs that introduce us to what that cycle potentially will look like.
And if they're older, let's say three, four, five months old, I'll get a brand-new set and go from there, and just look and see.
And then also another big component that's missing from these labs typically is a full spectrum thyroid panel.
Most, uh, medical providers will only do a TSH and a T4.
I order a TSH, a T4, a T3, thyroglobulin antibodies, thyroperoxidase antibodies, reverse T3.
That gives me a full spectrum picture of what, what's going on metabolically in the thermostat here, in the thyroid.
You can't get a good picture of overall health of the thyroid by just doing a TSH and a free T4.
Now, what's the thyroid got to do with fertility? Oh my goodness.
Well, it's your metabolic regulator and your thermostat.
And so it governs all of the rest of the endocrine system.
It's like a, um, like a puppet show, right? You see the puppeteer mastering all the puppets down on the stage.
You have to do that with the, the hormones too.
The hormones are like a symphony.
You pull the string section out, it sounds good.
You put the strings back, it sounds beautiful.
So we can't be cherry-picking, uh, what hormones we're testing and and leaving s- some hormones out.
It just doesn't work that way.
You have to look at all of them.
It's v- it's imperative to do so.
Yeah.
Well, without the full picture, you only have pieces, right? And there's gaps in what you're looking at, so there's gonna be gaps in the care that we can give you.
That makes so much sense.
Why do you think that traditional medicine isn't doing this? That seems so silly to me.
Yeah.
It seems so silly to me too.
You know, it could be that they don't wanna code it a certain way for insurance to pay for it but we do that here.
It's n- not a big deal.
It's better for the patient, and it's also better for me as a provider to be able to take care of them fully and know all of the, everything about them, the details.
And then I also think that, you know, we as providers can fall into a groove, and we just order what we typically order for everyone else, and we leave out things.
And then that's where growth and learning has to come in.
You have to be willing to grow and learn.
And, you know, if, if a reproductive endocrinology clinic does their basic day three labs and doesn't look at the thyroid and the prolactin levels, I'll say, "Hey let's fill in that gap with these levels."
And then I may find a, a subclinical hypothyroidism or hyperprolactinemia and say like, "Listen, tell your clinic this is what we found and this is how we're gonna move forward accordingly."
And they'll, they'll actually say, "Thank you for finding that."
Of course.
So it's a collaborative effort.
I'm...
I always wanna work nicely with alongside of other providers for the greater good of my patient.
It's not about me.
It's about me bringing my knowledge.
It's not about me, though.
It's about my patient, my, my client that I'm caring for.
I wanna, I want her to have the very best that she possibly can have.
Mm.
A- as a couple, you know? Yeah, and that radiates from you.
I mean, I knew that from just your Instagram and other podcasts that I've heard you on, and that's, I think for me, why I was so drawn to have you on the show, too, is because you really bring this human element back to medicine and treating patients that I think has been removed from the care, the patient care side, right? Um, and I, I don't think that it's doctors' faults that humanness has been removed.
I think it's just the way of the system, and I think that people are overworked and understaffed, and it's all about ROI and moving our bottom line.
And doctors really have their hands tied in what they can and can't do in, in terms of patient care.
And, um, so yeah, I was really drawn to you- to that.
And I love how you talk about, you know, being willing to stretch yourself and learn and, and being willing to kind of step outside what you already know and what you do every single day to meet your patients where they're at.
Because one thing that we know is that our patient population is changing, right? Our fertility crisis is only getting worse.
I would love to hear your opinion or even kind of maybe clinically what you're seeing on why is our fertility so bad these days compared to previous generations.
Yeah.
So let me, let me, uh, go way back to the early '90s when I was a clinician for the Center for Human Reproduction, and I thought we had fertility challenges then.
That was nothing but a thing Compared to what's going on now.
So back then, I used to monitor all the IVF cycles from start to finish.
I used to go into egg retrievals and embryo transfers.
I used to do the pap smears and the endometrial biopsies and the IUIs and the semen analysis and all of that.
So I speak the language.
Now what I've learned is that we've got so much microplastic in our body from clothing, from all the plastic we're engaged with every day, from the food that's wrapped in plastic.
You could go to Whole Foods and get, like, organic grass-fed beef, it's wrapped in plastic.
It all leaches.
The fact that men are exposed to volatile chemicals, this is affecting their sperm quality.
And also THC use.
We weren't using manufactured THC 25 years ago.
We're now using a lot of manufactured THC.
People think, "Oh, well, it...
I went into the store, to the dispensary, and I just bought it, so it's probably fine."
It's actually not fine.
And there's a lot of really great research out there about manufactured THC and how it's 10 to 20 times stronger than just smoking marijuana flower.
And we don't really actually know what's in that resin that manufactured resin.
It's causing psychosis and psychotic breaks.
It's causing...
when you get loopy, so do your sperm.
I tell men that all the time.
I'm like, "You're gonna stop eating gummies.
You have to.
You have to stop."
"Well, I can't sleep."
"Okay, well then we gotta figure out why you're not sleeping and, uh, but not mask it by giving you THC."
If you gotta smoke flower, smoke flower, but you're...
But I'm just saying that THC is, is really potent, and I'm...
It is really dangerous.
It's really dangerous.
Uh, Dr.
Shanna Swan, she's a PhD.
She did some really great work since the mid-'70s on sperm quality.
And she said since the, the mid-'70s, so 1976, she wrote a paper, and she actually talked a- about it on Joe Rogan, that men's sperm morphology and quantity have been shaved in half by 50%.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So when I see...
When I order a, a semen analysis on my guys, and I look at their morphology, which means the shape of the sperm- Right? The head, the mid-piece, the tail.
We're looking at all three components to see that, you know, this, this guy is not just sitting there gyrating, but actually swimming, so that means motility.
We are looking for morphology between four and...
well, 4% and above.
If it's below that, can a woman still get pregnant? She sure can, but it makes it a little more difficult.
She'll probably be waiting a while.
So what I do is I take a look at his labs as well, not just a semen analysis, and I move in alongside of what he might need because he have...
he might have a- an un- unfound Hashimoto's thyroid disease which needs to be fixed, right? Lots of guys have Hashimoto's these days.
I'm seeing it a lot.
A lot.
So I mean, again, it's just going back to, like, letting the food be your medicine, trying to cut out as many volatile chemicals in your, in your life, and then eating clean, and moving your body.
Getting outside, breathing the air, move your body.
These are really easy things to do, but we're not used to that.
Hehe.
We're, we're used to ordering something on Amazon today, having it delivered today or tomorrow.
It's a society of convenience, and when p- when women are not getting pregnant, like, immediately, or they're planning, "I'm gonna get pregnant th- at- on this month because I'm a teacher and I wanna take the summer off and I wanna plan it all," it doesn't work that way.
It doesn't work that way.
And so this is the society of convenience.
If you're not getting pregnant on the timeline that you thought or had hoped that it would happen, they run off to the REI, they start Stim for IVF, they do IVF, and just to find that the road is really, really tough, especially if you're going i- into IVF without the preparation that you need.
So it's just all things working against, you know, us trying to procreate.
And I...
You know, there's chemicals in the air outside too that are neuro and endocrine disruptors.
I'm seeing more cystic masses on ovaries now than I've ever seen in my life, and fibroids.
Fibroids and polyps, and all kinds of things that medicine can bypass.
But when you bypass, you miss something critical, and I don't know that we necessarily should be doing that.
So you had brought up NAPRO.
My friend Naomi Whittaker, she's an OBGYN in Pennsylvania.
She's a NAPRO, uh, surgeon.
And I have always thought that was the best way, the most careful way to operate on a woman, by doing excision.
And excision takes time.
Excision o- of endometriosis, that takes four to five hours per case.
So you can imagine how backed up these doctors are with their cases.
I know that Dr.
Whittaker has a five-year-long waiting list So we've gotta be better, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology is not supporting that.
They're not supporting, uh, NaPro.
But things are moving now, and moving in the right direction, I believe.
It's gonna take some time, 'cause we didn't, we didn't get here overnight, right? Mm-hmm.
So it's gonna take a little bit of unwinding and relearning, but I definitely think we're on the right track you know, for women that need to seek out preservation of fertility with the NaPro methodology.
It's just, it's exquisite.
So I want to dive into NaPro.
We will do that in just a minute, but I have a couple of questions about the things that you had just said.
So when we look at women who aren't getting pregnant right off the bat or according to their own timelines, is it a fair assumption, or am I kind of gathering the pieces correctly that this wasn't always the case in terms of, like, immediately thinking something was wrong? As in, like, when our parents and our grandparents and s- you know, kinda decades before us, did they kind of have this idea that it may take a while, and they didn't automatically just jump to conclusions that something is wrong with us? Yeah, it's interesting.
Um, also you should know that IVF is only, like, 53 years old.
So, right? So our grandparents really didn't have this technology.
The first IVF baby was Louise Brown, and she's, she's around my age.
I'm 52, so sh- I think she's, uh- Oh, wow, okay like, a year older.
Yeah, I think she's a year older than me.
So I think literally people were just waiting for it to happen, or they're using a drug called Clomid.
Um, Clomid is ovulation induction medication, but it, it also depletes estradiol.
So unless you're coupling it up with an IUI, bypassing that hostile vaginal environment because it's depleted of estradiol, there's not very...
It d- it doesn't...
It's not a very good drug.
It's an old, cheap, garbagey drug that, you know, OBGYNs will throw at their patients and say, "Here, try this," when we really need to do better than that.
And Letrozole too.
Letrozole is ovulation induction medication.
It's also estradiol depleting, and it's a medication that has a lesser side effect profile, but...
than Clomid.
But when you're depleting estradiol, you're depleting good cervical fluid, right? And then you're thinning out the, the endometrial lining, and then you need estradiol on board to grow the vital organs of the embryo, this heart, the brain, and the spinal cord.
So when you, when you come into a pregnancy with a deficit like that, are you necessarily giving that embryo the strongest start that it, it needs? And the answer is no.
Plus, w- we're using Letrozole as a post-breast cancer treatment drug.
Did you know that? I didn't know that, and that almost seems the opposite of fertility, right? Yeah.
Yeah.
But we, but if we find a drug that can be used off-label and it does what we want it to do, like Cytotec, right? Yep.
Which is misoprostol.
Yep.
It causes uterine, sometimes violent uterine contractions- Yep in the case of induction or augmentation, and then also for termination, uh, it's being used.
That, that drug is a, a drug that was put on the market to treat gastric ulcers, and then we find an off-label use for augmentation, induction, termination.
So I don't know if you're familiar with the Dr.
Marsden Wagner.
No.
He was a, a neonatologist.
He was an amazing man, and he was a big he was a big proponent for midwifery, but he was also he also was an completely and vigilantly against using misoprostol for induction.
He's like, you talk about uterine ruptures and placental abruptions, and he just, he was a really great advocate for not using it.
And he's since passed, but I'm a midwife too.
I don't know if you knew that.
Yeah, I, I delivered for about 12 years, and I've, I've studied with some really amazing, famous midwives and it- it's been a, a real blessing.
But the things you learn along the way.
I had no idea that misoprostol was, you know, put on the market for gastric ulcers, treatment for gastric u- ulcers, and using off-label, and these are the things you learn in practice as you go on and on and on, and you just it...
For me, it just doesn't sit well.
It doesn't sit well at all.
Like, ugh, that, that doesn't feel like the right thing to do.
Do no harm.
It, yeah, it feels very similar to, I think, the bypassing of certain bodily functions with medicine and medical treatments instead of getting down to the root cause.
It's very similar line of thinking.
It's, well, if we can induce this woman and get her baby here faster without medical reason.
I'm not talking about a medically necessary induction, right? I'm talking about an elective induction that we have no medical need for.
It's just, it's just elective.
We're just choosing to do this.
Why not encourage that woman to stay pregnant? Why not allow that baby to choose when they're ready to be born? Um, you know, we talk a lot- Right about this on the podcast already, about if we did that, we would see just- So, so much less birth trauma, so much less NICU admissions.
We would see far fewer cases of postpartum depression, higher rates of bonding.
Parents would probably enjoy birth, labor, new parenthood a lot more if they didn't have this really rocky, treacherous, traumatizing entrance into parenthood, often stemming from over-utilization of medical things and interventions where it's not needed.
And I think that's where I butt heads the most with traditional practitioners is, you know, oftentimes these traditional practitioners see no harm in this stuff.
They see no reason why we wouldn't offer and maybe even encourage everyone to have a 39-week induction, and it just doesn't sit well with me because- Yeah I know that we could have better patient satisfaction, better birth stories, better experiences, better outcomes for our moms and our babies, which are going to give us better outcomes for dads and partners if we just didn't meddle nearly as much.
Um- Really you know, of course, we're not talking about completely hands-off.
There are cases, and you guys know this, you listen to me every day, there are cases where we need medical intervention.
Those are the cases that we wanna intervene, but when we don't have a necessity to do so, why are we sticking our fingers literally and figuratively in places that they don't belong, you know? Okay, I'm stepping off my soapbox.
No, I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
I wanted to talk to you really quick about one of the best resources that you can have right in your back pocket so that you can have an informed and confident birth.
A little bit of real talk is that you absolutely can have a positive hospital birth, despite what you see on the internet and despite all of the viral birth trauma stories that go crazy wild on Instagram and TikTok, all the social media platforms.
You can have a good, positive, uplifting, empowering, joyful hospital birth, but not if you're walking into the hospital system blind to how the system actually works.
And that's actually exactly why I created The Birth Lounge app.
It's like having me, hello, in your back pocket, your doula, your evidence-based hype woman, and your birth translator all rolled into one affordable, accessible app Inside the Birth Lounge app, you're gonna find bite-sized videos that teach you exactly how to avoid unnecessary interventions, how to advocate for yourself confidently, but also respectfully.
Remember, I want to build this collaborative partnership between you and your care team where you are the decision maker, but you also are not coming to your care team disrespectfully or furthering that divide that we all feel.
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I cannot wait to see you in there Okay.
I ha- I do have a question about the failed IUIs, failed I- Yeah mm-hmm What are you seeing clinically in terms of common patterns or most common diagnosis that come from more individualized care like what you provide? Because obviously a lot of people end up in the bucket of, quote-unquote, "unexplained fertility", but they just don't have a provider that's willing to go the length to get down to the root cause because I just, I struggle, and I did not struggle with fertility this first go-round, right? Obviously nothing is promised in the future, so I will say I'm coming to this from a very biased and unexperienced, uh, place.
I struggle with the idea of unexplained fertility.
I just simply believe that humans were meant to reproduce, and so if we're unable to, and if we're meeting fertility challenges, there has to be a reason, and it's just simply a matter of getting down to what that reason is.
Am I really off course here or what do you believe about that? You're not.
And again, I'm gonna go back to what I said in the beginning.
When medicine is missing critical testing pieces from the puzzle, right? So if they're not even testing the thyroid or they're just doing a TSH and that looks okay, but then I test the thyroid antibodies and they're positive, then we have an autoimmune disease, right? So they wouldn't have known that because they didn't test it, and no other provider in this woman's life has ever tested it, so she had no idea, but she does have Hashimoto's.
So there are great ways about going to fine-tune these things, um, again, with diet and potentially lowering those antibodies with, like, low dose naltrexone or even moving in with a, a, like, a small dose of Armour Thyroid, which is full spectrum thyroid therapy.
Or, you know, checking semen, making sure that there's no infection present, or if she had a past history of an infection like chlamydia.
Chlamydia scars the tubes.
You can treat it, but it can scar the tubes.
There's...
Or polyps in the uterus.
You know, we're not gonna go in right away and do a saline infused sonogram.
We'll start with a pelvic ultrasound, which sometimes can show an artifact in the uterus.
Sometimes it doesn't.
You need to open up the uterus with a saline infused sonogram to see the movement of the polyp as the saline is being pushed.
It's just a multitude of different things, and unexplained, that just means that they didn't do enough.
They didn't spend enough time.
Because if I have a really heavy set woman that l- that looks unhealthy and she walks in here and she says, "Well, I have unexplained," no, doll, you have a metabolic syndrome.
I'm gonna guarantee that immediately without even looking at labs.
I can just tell this moon-shaped face and this heavy belly with these stick skinny legs, you know, do you have Cushing's disease? What's going on here? So I give each new consult an hour of time, and any follow-up appointments is an hour of time.
Also unexplained secondary fertility challenges usually due to primary C-sections.
Yeah.
Right.
Wow.
The incision on the lower anterior uterine segment starts to adhere to the back of the bladder, the posterior bladder.
That can cause organ immobility and also isthmocele, right? So if there's an isthmocele there, we...
I mean, sometimes I can do it with my hands, and I can use Mercier therapy to soften everything and...
But if there's a tight band of connective tissue, it needs to be remediated with surgery.
So implantation if there's implantation anywhere near the isthmocele or the surgical scar tissue, yes, you can very well conceive, implant grow a pregnancy, but there is a higher risk of placenta previa, and there's a higher risk of rupture.
It's less than 1% with a primary VBAC, but there's still a surgical scar on the uterus.
So what I do with Mercier therapy, regardless of if there's a surgical history or not, is it's a, it's a visceral, deep va- uh, deep pelvic visceral manipulation.
I go in with my hands transabdominally, and I...
I mean, it's very deep work, and it's a sequence that I use to manipulate the ovaries, the tubes, the uterus, all of the surrounding structures to ensure proper organ mobility and restoration of blood flow.
And usually that's enough to get the signaling going back up to the hypothalamus and pituitary to start the dance, the hormone dance, because everything's talking to each other now.
Where the light switch was off, I've put the light switch on, and everything is talking to each other now.
The ovaries are hearing the signal from the brain saying, "Make estrogen."
Whereas before it could have been, Make estrogen."
So it sounds like make estrogen, but it's muffled, and it's a whisper as opposed to a direct command.
So that's why Mercier therapy is so great because women that have endometriosis, the disease is aggressive.
It's never gonna go away.
So working deeply into the pelvis to make sure that you've got good organ mobility and a little bit of a cessation of uh, inflammation, it, it's better than living in this p- this state of horrible inflammation.
And I can attest to that.
I have stage four endometriosis.
I have had three laparoscopies to clean it up, and with my last one, the surgeon, who is actually in my upcoming documentary, we've known each other for 30 years he said, "You're gonna have to do IVF."
And I said, "Yeah, I'm not, I'm not doing IVF."
He's like, "Well, you're gonna have to."
I'm like, "No, I'm not doing it."
So I ended up getting pregnant seven times- On my own after my students just found my uterus and ovaries on me and did a few maneuvers that I taught them to do.
My third pregnancy was my daughter, my seventh pregnancy was my son.
So I lost five.
But Hashimoto's and endometriosis were against me, and I just kept going.
I also knew what to do.
So I had my daughter when I was 37.
I had my son when I was 41.
And I, I knew that I knew that it would be an uphill battle, but it was r- it was worth it, obviously.
They're now 14 and, and almost 12.
Oh my God.
So, yeah.
So all of you people out there who are, quote-unquote, "geriatric pregnancies" with me, this should give us a little hope.
I actually am not hopeless.
I loved being pregnant in my mid-30s.
I found that it was...
I mean, you guys know.
You heard me talk about it.
I, I talked about it all the time.
It was joyful, and it was so blissful for me.
It was perfect.
I could not have imagined having a baby earlier.
My husband and I were not ready.
We were able to establish our careers.
We were able to have an 11-year relationship.
We bought a house.
We moved.
It was just, we got to live a life before we had a baby.
And now Baby Saggy feels like he's given us this, like, renewed sense of life.
Not that we were in a place where we were, like, in a slump or anything.
It's just, like, a baby just does that to you.
I don't know.
I, I wasn't expecting that.
But I love- Nice to hear that you were pregnant later in your 30s and even into your 40s because I feel like there's so much fear-based information about that, and that women are really...
well, they're, they are truly scared into getting pregnant earlier and/or people who are considering having additional children later in life may be scared out of that decision based on fear-based care even though on an individualized, you know, p- a playing field, it, this cannot be generalized, but if you look at each individual, it totally is, is possible for a lot of women depending on their lifestyle and their goals and their individual health.
For sure.
No, for sure.
They treated me like I was a little delicate egg when I was 41 having my baby, having a VBAC.
Yeah having a VBAC with my son.
It's funny though.
I mean, they're just, they've kind of cooked themselves into a corner, uh, medicine has, they, with all of their interventions, all of their intervening, and all of their inductions and failed inductions, and C-sections, and all the things.
C-section has a time and place.
It does.
Totally.
It absolutely does.
But so they've, they've actually done this to themselves, and then they, then they come in, you know, with a heavy hand on women that are laboring and are pregnant and at the end of the pregnancy, and they have a wedding to go to this weekend so they're gonna induce you on Wednesday, and pray that you deliver by Friday so that they can have their wedding on Saturday.
And that's just how it is.
That's how it is.
So what I recommend to every one of my pregnant mamas is to have a doula going in with, with her.
Gotta have a doula.
Gotta have a doula.
It's imperative.
Otherwi- you gotta have some sort of support in the hospital.
Yes, you can have your husband in there, but they're not a doula.
And, and the doula's great for a husband too.
Yeah.
You know? Go get something to eat, or come over here and I'm gonna show you how to, you know, help her with this pain, or whatever it is.
It's imperative now.
You can't go into the hospital by yourself.
Mm-hmm.
You, you just can't.
I...
There's a lack of trust there at this point, and rightfully so.
Yeah.
I was gonna say rightfully so.
And y'all, I didn't, I didn't tell her to say this.
I didn't pay her to say this.
I'm just...
i'll let you toot the horns of doulas all day long, Dr.
Jen.
Doulas are the best.
Do a word to the doulas.
I love it.
Okay.
More about your visceral manipulation.
This is external or is it internal? External.
Okay.
So it's gonna be like a massage technique, but deeper and can I venture to say it's not necessarily relaxing? You're so right.
It's not relaxing.
Mm-hmm.
In fact, it can be uncomfortable.
Sure.
But, you know, women tell me that, you know, they feel so much better even after one session, or they'll say, "Wow, I've felt some tenderness for a few days after you worked with me.
Um, is that normal?" And yeah, I mean, I'm doing things that you probably have never experienced before, but Mercier Therapy is how I have my babies.
That's the only way I have my babies.
It's incredible.
It's really proven time and time again that it's great work, and, uh, I've written and published research on it.
You can find it.
My new film is coming out.
Actually, it's premiering May 23rd at our local theater here.
Um, it's called Conceiving Miracles, and you'll be able to stream it probably, I'm thinking September-ish, 'cause we've gotta get all of our private screenings out of the way first.
But yeah, you'll be able to stream it, and I'll let you know exactly when and where you can find it.
You can find my first documentary...
You can find that on my website, my practice website.
It's, uh, www.expectamiracle.life,
and you can watch it for free because...
So here's how the second documentary came into existence.
I was thinking about it in 2024, like, "What's my next project?" And I said, "Oh, okay, I need to do a 10-year follow-up."
And so the first film was 2014, and then in 2024, I'm like, "Okay, we're gonna start filming in August 2024."
So we did, and the film is brilliant.
It has come out so nice.
I'm so proud of it.
So what are the differences between the two films? One is about...
Does it follow pregnant people, and then your second one follows up with those families? Not at all.
So the first, that's a...
That would've been great too, though.
That would've been awesome.
So the first film is a few couples that I'd worked with, um, but then mostly, like, the public view of what fertility looks like.
When we did street interviews, I would say, "Hey," just at random, "what's the first thing you would do or would, would you, like, tell your family member to do if they had fertility challenges?" IVF.
It was IVF, IVF, IVF, IVF, IVF.
We have all that footage.
It's so cool.
And then I, and then I actually stop and explain IVF to, to someone, and they're like, "What?" Like, "Yeah, that's- that's IVF."
Oh."
So we talk about fertility in general.
We talk to several professionals in the first film, and it's just great.
It came out awesome too.
The second one is about several couples that have worked with me, and they all have varying cases, very different cases.
I have a couple in the film that had a stillborn baby boy at 38 weeks and then came in to see me, and she wasn't even sure she wanted to have any more babies, but we worked.
And then she got pregnant, now she has a daughter.
And these couples are just so special to me.
Then I've got, uh, Naomi Whitaker, who's an OBGYN in the film talking about NAPRO but also talking about Mercier therapy, and then a, a traditional reproductive endocrinology physician, and the CEO and founder of Birthfit, Lindsay Matthews.
Yeah.
Yeah, I helped her get pregnant too.
She's in my film.
So we had five crews in five states, and weaving all of that together into a story has just been magical.
And I just...
These people are all flying in for the, the premiere, and I can't wait to see them all, give them a hug and- Where, where's that gonna be? It's gonna be in St.
Charles, Illinois, um, at the Arcada Theater.
Yeah.
And if you, you know, if you wanna follow me on Instagram, you're welcome to.
It's, uh, doctor...
It's dr.jennifer.mercier,
M-E-R-C-I-E-R.
Uh, I'd love to have you as a follower.
I post content probably twice or three times a week.
Just trying to stay current with, like, the, you know, the, the hot kind of topics from today, and yeah, I love it.
I love it.
I love connecting with everybody, and I appreciate you having me.
Yeah, you can tell.
Yeah, you can tell.
Yeah.
I've learned so much from your Instagram.
And, and like I say, I, I first discovered you on Instagram, and then I started to follow kind of your, your podcast ring of, of you being on other people's podcasts.
And I just knew, like, my audience has to hear from you.
I just knew that it was something that I wanted to share with people because, you know, again, like I said in the opening, is that people are increasingly becoming aware of microplastics and toxins and how our lifestyles are negatively impacting our fertility.
And I think that our ears are finally perked up to understanding that we do have a lot of control in our fertility journey.
Um, and especially if you are facing the traditional pushback of, "Well, your labs look normal," or, "This just may not work out for you," or, "You just have unexplained fertility.
We don't have any other options."
Um, you know, I, for better or for worse, I am not one to just lay down and kind of take that type of care.
I typically am encouraging women to say like, "Okay, but what else is out there for me?" And, and I think that you are such a powerhouse in, in helping women explore those options.
When it comes to the Mercier therapy, are there trained practitioners across the nation? Is it just you? Do people need to travel to you to be, you know, seen? How does that work? So Mercier therapy is in 22 countries, so you can probably find somebody.
What I do is I keep a, a list of providers, and, uh, when we, when a- an inquiry comes into my office, we'll ask whoever is asking for someone in, you know, whatever, Miami, Florida, um, to do a local Google search to see who's in their area, and then to ask us, "Hey, is this person in good standing?" And I recently just changed my standards of training as well.
So January 1, you have to be fellowship trained by me And then you come and you take the three-day course to learn the manipulation.
And that's going really, really good.
But I needed to up the game a little bit and have the providers better trained, if you will, and not just come for the manipulation, because it's so much more than that.
And so if you have a, a, a client come in to you and, you know, she's got an ostomy and she's had several abdominal surgeries and she's trying to get pregnant, can you work around that ostomy? Can you...
You know, and what does her thyroid look like? What does...
what are her hormones look like? How is she cycle tracking? Like, what is your skill base, and what are you comfortable working with? So that if you're just, like, having an unexplained situation and you feel good about going to your local person and working with them, fine.
Otherwise, you can come here and work with me.
I have a four-day condensed treatment program for the Shared Journey Fertility program.
I put it all together for you.
I work on you four days in a row.
It's 90 minutes each day.
And then, and then you leave me with a protocol.
I have the supplements that you need put together for you.
I teach you how I want you to monitor your cycles.
I give you a journal.
And then we keep in touch with each other, and we check in every month.
If we need to get any medications on board, like Armour Thyroid or HCG triggering, I have an, uh, a lovely nurse practitioner that will do that for my patients.
Early pregnancy monitoring as well.
We'll do that.
We'll get HCG quantitative and progesterone levels.
If we need to have oral progesterone prescribed, again, my nurse practitioner can do that for my patients.
And so it's just...
it's a great practice.
I love it.
I love it.
Yeah.
I love it so much.
Can you expect to be sore after the therapies? Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, just b- because of the manipulation and how deeply it needs to go, and then all of the muscle tension is released.
Is that kind of why? So if you've not been to the gym in a long time, and you go and you do a bunch of tummy crunches or a bunch of tummy exercises, you feel that the next day, right? You feel like, "Oh, okay, I did some work."
That's exactly what the tenderness feels like after I work.
Mm.
Um, sometimes women can have some spotting.
Sometimes they can have, uh, like a fatigue or a headache because there's so many lymphatic, uh, glands in the pelvis, that when you work that deep, you're encouraging that fluid to, to move quicker than it's accustomed to moving.
So that's something we see too, is, like, a fatigue, sometimes a light headache.
But that's about it.
And women feel freer.
They feel good.
They feel taller because we've worked into that space, releasing everything.
So it, it really is cool.
Yeah.
Okay, I'm circling back a little bit to something that we touched on.
Um, we touched on microplastics.
Yes.
What do you think about cellphone usage? Do you think that having cellphones in our pockets, sitting in our laps, in the front pouches of our, you know, the kangaroo pouches in our sweatshirts, do you think that's hurting our fertility? You know, how can it not? How can it not? I mean, you...
So these are, are positive ions all day, every day.
Yeah.
That's all I got there.
I mean, I haven't read really too much that solidifies that, but yeah.
I mean, we need negative ions.
We need to be outside breathing the air, taking walks and stuff, and literally we have a computer in our f- in our hand all times of the day looking up everything, you know, ChatGPT-ing all the things.
And while it's, uh, it's definitely helpful to have a phone like this, I just think we're on it way too much.
Yeah.
I mean, I just can't imagine what it's doing to our brainwaves and our hormones.
So get outside, people.
Put your feet in the dirt.
Put your feet- Yeah in the grass.
Go touch some sand.
Go dip your toes into the ocean.
Oh my gosh.
Absolutely.
Mr.
HeHe and I just got back from California, and it was so refreshing.
And as we were walking along the beach, he said, "There's just something so positive about being at the beach."
And I literally turned to him and I said, "It's the negative ions."
It is- That's it it's the earth, it's nature, you know, calling us back to our normal, our, our natural habitat.
Not that- That's it we wanna live, you know, in the wilderness, but to say that we- need to be spending more time outside, Yeah you know? Right.
For sure.
Yeah.
For sure.
Um, okay.
So we talked about NAPRO a little bit.
For people who are like, "What is NAPRO?" Tell us a little bit about what that approach is, and who it might be appropriate for.
NAPRO is appropriate for every woman that is having a hard time conceiving.
Maybe it's been a long time.
She's having pain patterns that sound like endometriosis.
It's just a very careful surgical technique.
It's a preservation of res- it's restorative reproductive medicine as opposed to just going in and doing ablation of endometrial adhesions.
This is excision.
So they're, they're not using any heat to potentially damage structures like ovaries and the surface of the uterus, the tubes, and et cetera.
It takes longer.
They're looking through loops of bowel.
They're looking up under the diaphragm.
That's why these cases can take so much longer than just a traditional laparoscopy with ablation.
So I think it's great.
I think it's, it's actually where all the surgeons need to be trained But here's the, here's the thing, if you can do a laparoscopy in an hour or two and then move on to the next case and the next, they can do more cases that way.
Whereas Dr.
Whittaker would say it takes four to five hours to do one case.
You know what I mean? Absolutely.
So all of these big practice management corporations that hoover up these smaller doctor's offices, and now these doctors work for this practice management corporation, they're being told what they can do, and that's not typical for them, but they've just made a boatload of money by signing on.
So it becomes about the bottom line and not so much about patient care any longer, which is unfortunate.
I really think there are some good doctors out there that have been manipulated, if you will, to think that it's better on the other side, and certainly they don't have to pay their liability insurance.
It would now be up to the big organization to pay for it.
So there are some sweet spots, but in the end, the patient's the one that suffers.
So is the story of American medicine.
Oh my gosh.
That's it.
I mean, it's- Yeah just...
We...
I think a lot of us birth workers like to think that's just in birth, but it's not.
It's all of medicine.
It's, it's- Yeah the entire US healthcare system.
Um, and you know, I, I always take time to recognize that I do think doctors are victims, too.
Um- Yeah I think that it's really unfortunate that they've been manipulated, and they have been, some of them truly, and I don't say this in an ugly way, but truly have been brainwashed into thinking- Mm-hmm a certain way, and they're just unable to see sometimes the harms that they are causing, and it's really, really so unfortunate.
Oh my gosh.
Okay, so is there anything else about microplastics or environmental toxins that we need to know about our fertility? And so for the people who are listening that are like, "This feels so daunting to take this on," where are some steps that...
You know, what are the, the first steps, and where are the places that maybe are the easiest to start? Yeah.
Well, I mean, if you wanna start in your home, you should take a look at what's under your cabinet, you know, and what kind of things you're cleaning with.
Maybe b- make better choices there.
And then also trying to just buy, uh, linen or cotton clothing.
I mean, there are so many cute things out there there that are polyester or spandex and while that contributes to, you know, the microplastic situation, but also consider this.
So I was thinking about this, like, beginning of the year, and I can't believe we're, like, mid-May already.
S- This year has gone by fast, right? Here, I'm gonna put on my plastic readers so I can see you.
Oh.
Um, I was thinking about this.
So in in vitro you are stimulating.
You're, you're injecting medication through a plastic syringe.
You're having your eggs retrieved through a pr- a plastic catheter.
They're then going into a plastic dish in the embryology lab.
They're being ICSI'd, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, so the embryologist chooses the sperm that he or she thinks should go into the egg with a plastic inject- injector.
And then your embryos are being frozen in plastic, and then at the time of frozen embryo transfer, you're thawing them in plastic.
So we're taking a process that's meant to be in vivo, in vitro, so outside of the body, right? And we're introducing these very primitive cells to plastics even before conception, and then we're delivering the embryo back into the body with plastic catheter.
So could this be a problem for babies born by in vitro? And I think that would be a great study to do.
Yeah, especially for people who have taken such steps to reduce their microplastic load- Yeah to hear this can feel really deflating.
Is there an alternative? Is the alternative to get back to stainless steel and just take the extra time and the extra money, instead of using disposable tools, to then invest in, you know, the big machines that clean and sanitize? Right.
I mean, I think it's better to, to use things that you can put through a, a an autoclave- Mm and sterilize them as opposed to...
I mean, we use plastic speculums.
Yeah.
Right? Just in the name of throwing them away and using a new one on your next person.
I mean, when I was in the industry, we used to use metal speculums, and we would soak them all day after we used them, and then we would scrub them and put them in the autoclave.
I thought that was a great idea.
I don't see why we wouldn't do that anymore.
Well, money, right? People don't want to invest in an autoclave.
They'd rather invest in disposable.
Yeah, and they're expensive.
So, and I don't honestly think that medicine really thinks about plastics either, 'cause they're putting on latex or plastic gloves all day.
They're using plastic things to do, you know, biopsies or whatever they're doing, and I just don't think it's, it crosses their mind, honestly.
Golly, that's I, I say just do the best that you can, right? Just do the best that you can.
Don't- Yeah don't drive yourself insane doing this.
My, my good friend, Lauren Fitzgerald, she's an MD.
She owns Larimar Med Spa here in St.
Charles, and she was, uh, an anesthesiologist But she just took a microplastics test, and she's at 85%.
And this woman has, like, the cleanest lifestyle, the cleanest.
She was so defe- she felt so defeated.
She's like, "That's it.
Throwing away all my clothes.
Lululemon made of plastic, and I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get just, you know, Pact or, you know, whatever is just the most organic clothing."
And I just thought, gosh darn it, I mean, I think we probably all just have so much leached plastic in our body.
What do you do, though? What do you do? I mean, you can do IV treatments to leach, you know, with leaching solution, but how much of that do you actually need, you know? So it's really tough.
I say just do your best.
Yeah.
Just do your best and get outside.
Yeah.
And eat clean food.
Control the controllables, right? That is the- Yeah.
Mm-hmm that's a sentiment that we share on this podcast, and in my community, and on my Instagram, and in The Birth Lounge every day, all day.
It's control the controllables.
Not everything in your realm, in your world, in your life is gonna be controllable, but the things that you have control over, take the time to control them.
One of the other easy swaps that I love, love, love is swapping out all of your plastic in your kitchen.
So I think Tupperware is something that- Yeah comes to everyone's mind.
Yeah.
But if you are using, um, melamine or melamine, uh, plastic plates, you know, get rid of those.
Go back to ceramic or glass.
Um, think about your plastic, um, like, cooking ware.
Go back to stainless steel or- And wood wood.
Yeah.
You think about your you know, pots and pans.
You guys, if you are using Teflon, that is one of the most dangerous things that you can have in your home, and then you're consuming that stuff.
Go back to stainless steel.
I know these things are really expensive.
I've talked about this for many years.
I am on year about four or five of transitioning our home I just recently went down the rabbit hole of putting up curtains in our home, and to find curtains that do not have harsh chemicals and aren't made of polyester is just nearly impossible if they are not going to cost an arm and a leg, and they're going to look nice in your home, or they don't only just have one style.
I landed on Two Pages curtains, and now they're all over our house.
I love them so much.
They are good, clean, sustainable- Yeah material.
They don't have harsh chemicals.
They're not polyester.
Um, they have several styles.
But that's, I, it...
All of this to say, like, take tiny baby steps.
I am really encouraged, and I, I am, like, patting myself on the back because I started with our kitchen.
And so to hear you say, like, start underneath your cabinets, start with your kitchen, start with the things that you're eating and you're cleaning your home with, makes me feel very proud because that is where I started.
And you guys, if you're on the beginning of this journey, just know that you're not gonna do it overnight.
You're not gonna do it in one year.
It's, th- you know, this is a multi-step, multi-year process, but the things that you can control as you run out of one product, just make a different choice the next time you buy, and buy something that has less chemicals.
Buy something in a glass jar.
When you go to- Yeah replace your sheets, go for a natural fiber instead of polyester, things like that.
So, all right.
I agree.
Dr.
Jen, this has been so amazing.
For women that are listening right now who feel broken and hopeless and like her body has failed her, maybe she has experienced multiple miscarriages, maybe she has been told she has unexplained fertility, maybe she is about to embark on IVF, but there's this little nudge in her that says, "This just can't be right.
This can't be my only option," what would you want that woman to know? Yeah.
Um, I would love to see you in my office, actually, because I can guide you to what will be the best for you, truly.
I don't use smoke and mirrors here, and if somebody's telling you that, you know, IVF's your only way, I'd love to talk with you first before you make that decision.
And sometimes it is the best way if you wanna build your family, but most times it's not Oh my gosh, you guys.
Dr.
Jen keeping it real.
You know, I keep it real.
I only have guests on here who keep it real, um, because, you know, we don't have time really in this life to waste our time, to waste our money.
We, we deserve real answers.
You deserve honest, transparent care from your healthcare team, and you d- you deserve care providers who are going to work with you and not push an agenda, or not push exactly what they learned in textbooks, and not be flexible in their thinking, not be experimental when it's appropriate and when it's something that you want as well.
I am so appreciative of you, Dr.
Jen.
Thank you so, so much.
If people did want to connect with you, work with you, learn from you, you know, see one of your documentaries, how can they do all of that? Sure.
You can go to my practice website.
It's, uh, www.expectamiracle.life.
And if you wanna train with me, you can go to www.merciertherapy.com.
And what about your Instagram? I know you gave it to us already once.
Yep.
Try it again.
Sure.
It's dr, D-R-dot, jennifer.mercier.
Love it.
Oh my gosh, you guys.
This has been an amazing conversation.
I know there are so many of you out there listening that this got your wheels turning and/or maybe I gave you the answers that you have been looking for.
I know so many of you are struggling with these questions and these answers, and getting that true transparent care from your healthcare team, because you land in my DMs, and you land in my email, and I am not the expert to help you do this.
But what I do vow to you is that I will always seek out and bring those experts to you so that you know that you have other options.
I will not take the answer of, "This just isn't gonna work out for you," or, "This is just unexplained and you don't have any other options."
I'm not gonna let you do that for yourself, and I won't do it for you either.
I will always, always, always help you find someone who will be exploratory, help you explore your options, help you have the conversations that maybe nobody else in your life is willing to have with you.
All right, you guys.
Oh my gosh, I love hanging out with you every single week.
Every single conversation is so good.
I'll see you guys in the next episode.
Be sure to follow Dr.
Jen on social media, and you can find me at tranquilitybyhehe and at the.birth.lounge.
Until next time, head to your app store and download The Birth Lounge app for evidence-based childbirth education and data-driven postpartum support delivered straight to your phone.
Bye.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.
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I'm HeHe, and this is the Birth Lounge Podcast.