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Listener Question: How Do I Know if I'm Ovulating? · Nourished Fertility

0:00
Well, hey there and welcome back to the Nourishing Women podcast.
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I am Victoria Meyers, your period recovery specialist, registered
0:06
dietician I'm a person personally fascinated with ovulation and obsessed
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with how fun it is to ovulate.
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But more specifically today, we're going to talk about how do you know if you're
0:18
ovulating and why this is so important for you as you are working to get your period
0:24
back, restore fertility and get pregnant.
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Ovulation is the key to fertility, so it's important whether you're trying to
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conceive right here, right now, or, you know, one to five years down the road.
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Ovulation, is the key to making that happen.
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Now, also, I'll just go ahead and say, like, ovulation's really fun.
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Um, I share this all the time in Instagram stories, but I
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freaking love ovulation energy.
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In fact, I'm recording this very podcast during my ovulatory week because I know I
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am, like, so high energy on these weeks.
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So I tend to make content creation and things like recording podcasts.
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On the week that I'm ovulating because again, I am so high energy.
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We've also got date nights play into the weeks that I'm ovulating.
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Like we like we cater our lives to my, my, my menstrual cycle.
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Okay.
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Um, and I hope that's just fun for you to hear kind of down the road post
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pregnancy, postpartum, post getting your period back, what could be.
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Another aspect of your life because of the benefits of you doing the
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work to getting your period back.
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Most of us spent our entire lives on birth control, haven't we?
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So we have no idea what it even feels like to ovulate.
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I know that was certainly true in my case.
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I had no idea what I was missing out on.
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So I hope this episode inspires you to be like, I want to know when I'm ovulating.
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I want to ensure that it's happening.
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Yes, absolutely.
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For my number one goal of getting pregnant, but also
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so that just becomes like.
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Part of how I do life.
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It's part of my wellness without obsession approach to connecting with my body and
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working with it instead of against it.
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So.
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Let's first just start, let's start today's conversation by explaining
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what exactly is even happening in the body during our cycle, because you
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are going to get your period back.
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Okay?
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So this is in time, what is going to happen for you and your body.
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And this is what happens for women in our menstrual cycles each month.
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So what's happening is that your cycle is divided into four key phases,
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each of them having pretty distinct hormonal shifts and body changes.
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So the first phase, we consider the first full day of bleeding day,
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one of your period, the beginning.
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Beginning of your menstrual cycle, this you can kind of consider the
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reset a more positive outlook for sure on having a period.
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So this reset time of having your period, especially if no pregnancy
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occurred in the previous cycle, this means you're having a period because
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your uterus is shedding, its lining leading to your menstrual bleeding.
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This is when estrogen and progesterone are at their lowest and that role
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is important because it signals to the brain to restart the cycle.
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You may feel during this time more tiredness and fatigue, maybe some
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cramps, especially due to that increased prostate gland production, uh, mood
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swings, low energy, although I will say.
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Your period should not be super intense in symptoms.
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In fact, with our clients, once they get their periods back and, you
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know, we're done with pregnancy and postpartum, once they get their periods
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back, if they are having any, uh, cramps or any intense mood swings or.
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really just not feeling good during their period.
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It really shouldn't be that intense.
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All of that should be very minor.
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And if it is intense or you're having more symptomatic periods, that's when
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we personally recommend the HTMA or hair tissue mineral analysis test to
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understand what's going on with your minerals, which may be leading to that.
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That's a side note, maybe a conversation for another day.
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But I do think it's just worthwhile to say like, hey,
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periods should not be problematic.
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So your first phase, again, the reset is your period.
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cycle.
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The next phase is your follicular phase, the buildup to ovulation.
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This is when your brain is releasing follicle stimulating hormone or FSH.
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And really what's happening is your hypothalamus is releasing gonadotropin,
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releasing hormone impulses, which then tells your pituitary gland to release.
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FSH.
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Um, so lots going on between the hypothalamus, the pituitary
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gland, and your ovaries.
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, but this is what encourages the ovarian follicles to mature.
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And you can think of follicles as like tiny egg incubators that
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grow and prepare one egg for possible fertilization each cycle.
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During this follicular phase, one dominant follicle will produce estrogen,
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which thickens the uterine lining in preparation for a possible pregnancy.
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What's really fun about the follicular phase because estrogen is slowly rising
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is your energy levels rise, your skin is glowing, your libido is increasing.
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This is the time where I'm like, I want to get shit.
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Um, so I feel like after your period, which is a more reset, restorative
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time, a more reflective time, I find I do a lot of like reading
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and journaling during that time.
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Your follicular phase is then again when energy is really starting to
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increase and you want to get shit done.
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Next up is the ovulation phase, the main event of your period.
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I would argue this is, this is the good stuff.
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This is what we're looking for, for both pregnancy as well as just like, Living
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your healthiest best life During the timing for ovulation, which I will say
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ovulation is an all or nothing event.
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It's not like days of this happening but you will feel the increase in
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energy levels and a heightened sense of libido and I always describe
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it like I want to be social.
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I want to do all the things you'll feel that the days continuously increasing
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the days leading up to ovulation.
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But since ovulation is an all or nothing event, you will have
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this happen just on one day.
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I don't want you to think that like ovulatory energy is like
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weeks happening or days happening.
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This is when hormones are really starting to rise.
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In particular, your estrogen is peaking.
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This triggers a surge of luteinizing hormone, or LH.
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And then luteinizing hormone, this surge of LH, causes the
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ovary to release the egg.
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And this, my friend, is ovulation.
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Again, ovulation is an all or nothing event.
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If you ovulate, you will, in fact, either be pregnant or have a period two weeks
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later after ovulation, no matter what.
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After your body releases an egg, the egg travels down the fallopian
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tube where it waits for sperm if present for potential fertilization.
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Or again, two weeks later, if there is not implantation, you will have a period.
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We've already talked about the fun, fascinating benefits of ovulation, how
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you're going to feel amazing, have lots of energy, want to be social, you're going
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to have a heightened sense of libido, more than heightened since you're going to be
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like crazy high libido during that time.
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This is also when cervical mucus really changes and it's really our predictor
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of ovulation, but we're going to come back to that just in a sec. Okay.
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Next up in your menstrual cycle is the luteal phase, which are the days following
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ovulation, the aftermath, let's call it.
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The corpus luteum, the leftover follicle in the ovary, produces
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progesterone, stabilizing the uterine lining in case of pregnancy.
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Progesterone is the dominant hormone in our luteal phase.
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This is actually the number one reason in the cases of hypothalamic
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amenorrhea or period loss caused from undereating and overexercising.
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We're not looking for progesterone as, um, you know, a lab that we're ordering
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because if you're not ovulating, you're not going to have any progesterone.
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So we don't really need that.
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We need more so FSH, LH and estrogen to tell us what's going on.
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And you can kind of see why as I'm sharing these primary hormones that
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are involved with your menstrual cycle.
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But again, after you ovulate, which you will start to do so soon.
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Your dominant hormone is progesterone, and its role is in stabilizing that
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uterine lining in case of pregnancy.
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If the egg isn't fertilized, the corpus luteum, that leftover follicle in the
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ovary, breaks down, progesterone drops, and the cycle starts all over again.
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In your luteal phase, you'll start to notice your mood start to
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change, especially as we get closer and closer to having your period.
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This is definitely a time when PMS becomes pretty obvious and apparent, especially
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for those that struggle with this.
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with PMS in mind, though, similar to what I was saying earlier about period
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cramps and problematic periods, that really shouldn't be something that is in
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any extremes, you know, minor and mild, bloating, cravings, mood swings, cramps.
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That's one thing.
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But if it's affecting your day to day life, There are different types of
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functional lab tests we will order in our practice to help support our
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clients who are going through that.
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But again, what we really start with first and foremost is an HTMA or a hair
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tissue mineral analysis test because of the role minerals play in these
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symptoms that you may be experiencing.
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So again, as we enter the luteal phase, we then start all over with our period
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starting and it starts all over again.
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We have our period and give it as a reset time, our follicular phase leading
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up to ovulation, the main event, then the aftermath, your luteal phase, and
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then again, it starts all over again.
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So why is identifying ovulation then important?
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Why am I harping so much on it in today's episode?
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Number one.
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It is so important because there's no guessing going on.
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With our clients, even in the very beginnings of their period recovery,
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we immediately start tracking for signs of your hormones returning and signs of
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ovulation because this helps us predict and confirm when that cycle is coming.
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This is important.
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Number one, if you are actively trying to conceive, it's critical.
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You know, you have to know when you're ovulating to ensure successful pregnancy.
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Ovulation is Everything when it comes to trying to conceive, we also really like
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to identify when ovulation is happening, whether or not someone is actively trying
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to conceive, because it helps give us a lot of information and tells us when
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someone's period is going to return.
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Instead of doing what you're probably doing right now, which is, you know,
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every single time you go to the bathroom, you're wiping, seeing if there's blood,
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you're in this constant guessing game and kind of concern and worry and fear,
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overriding everything because you're like, Oh my God, I didn't get my period.
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I didn't get my period.
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I didn't get my period.
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We instead use data and information to tell us, Hey, of course you
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haven't gotten your period yet.
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You haven't ovulated yet.
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So we look for ovulation to tell us when that period is coming.
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Or again, if you're actively trying to conceive, that's your signifier of like,
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Hey, this is the time to make that happen.
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We're going to go now through the main ways to know how to
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predict and confirm ovulation.
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But what I'll also say before we jump into that is, we don't guess.
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We look at this information to tell us when the cycle is coming to because If
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there's no rise in your temperature, I'm going to explain this part next.
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If your temperatures are super, super low,, this is also helpful data for us
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as to why you haven't yet had ovulation, therefore you're impaired yet and
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what may be going on with the body.
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For example, if you had critically low temperatures and no increase
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in your temperature rising of basal body temperature, through the work
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of period recovery, that may mean we need to do some additional testing.
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For example, checking something like your thyroid levels to see
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what may be additionally going on.
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So now let's talk about how to predict and then confirm ovulation.
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This is what we do with every client we work with,
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helping them track their fertility for successful pregnancy and also just
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understanding the body and what's going on so that you know exactly what to
12:01
expect when your period is returning.
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The only reason getting pregnant with no period feels hard is
12:07
because no one has shown you how.
12:10
This period recovery method that I'm about to share with you is going to change your
12:15
life and making getting pregnant with no period so much easier and quicker.
12:21
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12:22
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12:27
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12:33
In this free training, you'll learn our proven inside out formula, a Customized
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12:41
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12:44
period loss and your pregnancy goals.
12:46
This free training is going to give you every single detail that
12:50
you need to make your goals of starting your dream family a reality.
12:54
You can download and get started watching this free training today
12:58
with a link in our show notes.
13:00
Now let's get back to today's episode.
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So the first thing we're going to talk about is cervical mucus.
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Let's get to know our bodies.
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Cervical mucus is a fluid produced by the cervix that changes in
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texture, color, and consistency.
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throughout your menstrual cycle.
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This is controlled by your hormones.
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And it's probably why at this specific point you have like non existent
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cervical mucus, because when there's non existent hormones, we're not really
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going to be producing any cervical mucus.
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This might be why You're currently experiencing some vaginal dryness,
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and if you're not sure if you have any mucus or not, what you can do is
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insert your hand into your vaginal cavity, probably using two fingers.
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Swipe as close to your cervix as possible, and then you can take your hand out of
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your vagina and see what's going on.
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And again, if it's super dry, that does indicate to us that there is
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still very low levels of hormones, and that's even really good data
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to understand, to collect, to see what's going on in the body.
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So how your cervical mucus evolves throughout your cycle is in the
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phase of your menstrual cycle, your period, the beginning of your
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menstrual cycle, you are going to have very low to no cervical mucus.
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This is because this is the time your uterine lining is shedding.
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So number one, mucus isn't noticeable, but more importantly, this is because
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you have very low levels of estrogen and progesterone during that time.
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We start to then go into our follicular phase, we're going to
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see some increase in moisture.
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Estrogen is rising, causing the cervix to produce more mucus.
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During this time, you might notice a change in your texture of the cervical
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mucus, from sticky to creamy to watery, and this is because we're gearing up
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towards ovulation, but we're not yet at the time of the type of cervical
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mucus that indicates to us, okay.
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go time.
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Uh, this is, you know, the best type of cervical mucus that
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indicates I'm about to ovulate.
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So again, sticky, creamy, watery, and it will have more
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color to it during this time.
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Then we get to ovulation.
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Can you tell?
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I just love ovulatory energy so much.
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When we are ovulating and we predict our ovulation.
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We do so through our cervical mucus.
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This is exactly what we teach our clients to look out for to say like, Hey, we
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think opulation is about to happen.
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This is because estrogen is reaching its highest level and this leads
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to egg white cervical mucus.
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And truly that's exactly what I want you to think of this peak fertile mucus
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that tells you you are about to opulate.
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And this tells you, Hey, I need to go actively, you know, have sex.
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This is the time it's go time.
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egg white cervical mucus.
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It is truly the best way to describe it.
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It looks like raw egg white.
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It is clear, stretchy, and slippery.
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This egg white cervical mucus is so important for fertility because that is
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the type of cervical mucus that nourishes and helps sperm swim towards the egg.
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It serves very clear purposes in your body by again helping the sperm
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get to your egg for implantation.
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And again, tells us like, Hey, this is the go time.
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This is when I need to go try to conceive.
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And even if you aren't actively trying to get pregnant again, tells you,
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Hey, like I'm about to ovulate or I am ovulating this day from there after
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ovulation into our luteal phase, we will start to see a change in cervical
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mucus and it becoming much, much less.
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I often find for a lot of my clients, other than the time of ovulation, they
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typically do have to insert their hand into their vaginal cavity to see the
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type of cervical mucus their body is producing, where in contrast during
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ovulation, you will very likely see it in your underwear or when you wipe when
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you are going to the bathroom, where again, in the luteal phase, you're
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going to start to dry up after ovulation progesterone rises, making mucus thick
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and sticky again, and less of it overall.
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Thick, creamy, or dry.
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Cervical mucus means we're less fertile, and this mucus acts as a barrier to sperm.
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It's why, again, it is so important to know when you are
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ovulating so that you can make.
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conception successful.
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So cervical mucus is how we predict ovulation.
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We confirm it through basal body temperature.
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Your basal body temperature or BBT is your body's lowest resting temperature.
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Typically we measure this first thing in the morning before getting out of bed.
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You want to do it at the same time consistently every day because by doing
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so you will see a very predictable pattern throughout your menstrual cycle.
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Again, due to these hormonal shifts and this tells us Hey, you did, in
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fact, ovulate cervical mucus predicts basal by temperature confirms so your
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basal by temperature during your period and your follicular phase
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is when you're going to have pretty low basal by temperature readings.
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They'll be low and stable, typically ranging around 97 to 97.
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7 Fahrenheit.
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Um, and this is because estrogen is the dominant hormone keeping body.
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temperature lower.
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Up next, then ovulation.
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As we are done with our period and our follicular phase, we
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then enter into ovulatory time.
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This is when for a lot of people right before ovulation, they might have a
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slight dip in basal bi temperature.
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Then, This is the big thing.
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After ovulation, the day after you ovulate, you are going to have a rise
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in your basal bite temperature by 0.
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5 degrees or higher, and then it will stay elevated for at least three days.
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And this is how we have confirmed that you indeed ovulated.
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This is because of the surge of progesterone released by the
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corpus luteum after ovulation.
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Progesterone as the dominant hormone after ovulation in your luteal phase is
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what raises basal body temperature and tells us, hey, you indeed did ovulate.
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So we predict With cervical mucus, we confirm with basal body temperature.
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In your luteal phase, to wrap things up, basal body temperature will
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likely remain elevated due to this continued progesterone production.
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If pregnancy occurs, basal body temperature will stay
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high and actually keep rising.
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But if no pregnancy occurs, progesterone, of course, will drop
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as we lead towards our period.
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And this will also cause basal body temperature to fall
19:15
just before the next period.
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So we see this consistency in follicular phase with your basal body temperature.
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And then we see a rise in our basal body temperature because
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of progesterone staying.
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elevated throughout our luteal phase and then it drops right before your period
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and the process starts all over again.
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This is important because not only are we knowing when is the exact right time
19:37
to try to conceive as well as knowing exactly when to expect our period when
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we're in period recovery, this is also important too because if you're having a
19:45
period but it is and ovulatory, meaning you're not having ovulation, but you
19:50
are shedding your uterine lining, which can happen in period recovery work.
19:54
People, you know, start to get periods, but they're not necessarily ovulatory.
19:58
This is also really important information too, right?
20:00
Because we want to ensure that you are ovulating both for the health of
20:05
your body, because ovulation and your body doing its thing properly is so
20:09
important for your overall health.
20:11
And because again, if you're trying to conceive, it would make sense if
20:15
you're not ovulating that you're not able to get pregnant, even though
20:18
you may be currently having periods.
20:20
This is why data collection is so important, and it's why we teach this
20:24
with all the clients we work with.
20:25
We help them analyze their data every week so that there's no guessing and that they
20:30
know exactly what they should or should not be doing in order to make sure that
20:33
we're getting the ovulation that we're looking for, not only getting periods,
20:36
but we're getting ovulatory periods.
20:38
So to wrap things up, ovulation is very important for both trying to
20:43
conceive as well as just living a life with your menstrual cycle and being
20:46
a healthy person who has a period.
20:49
So many fun benefits to ovulating.
20:51
We want to make sure as you're doing period recovery that every
20:55
period you're having is ovulatory.
20:57
And we do so by predicting with cervical mucus and again confirming
21:01
with basal body temperature.
21:03
Last thing I'll say with basal body temperature is if you find it quite
21:06
cumbersome to wake up at the same time every day, not get out of bed, check
21:10
your temperature with a thermometer.
21:12
There are new inventions these days that really help with that.
21:15
Things like temp drop, which is an arm band that you wear when you
21:19
sleep, as well as things like the aura ring that does the job for you.
21:23
So If you're feeling any hesitation, or you've tried maybe basal body
21:27
temperature readings in the past and did not enjoy it, I would highly encourage
21:31
doing something like that instead.
21:33
In fact, I really want to get an Oura ring myself this year because
21:35
I know that it helps so much with making tracking as easy as possible.
21:40
I hope you enjoyed listening to today's episode and feel really empowered
21:43
with information about your body.
21:45
And I want you to know at the end of this episode, if you're trying to get pregnant
21:50
in 2025, and you're doing so by timidly trying to eat more to get your period
21:55
back, but low key being so afraid to gain weight, chances are you need an approach
22:01
that you can actually stick to versus one you're counting the days to get pregnant.
22:05
down until it's over.
22:07
We work with our clients through premier period recovery for fertility.
22:11
It's our highest level of care, limited spots available.
22:13
You actually have to apply and be approved to join.
22:17
I want to let you know that we have just a few spots left for this month.
22:20
So if you're ready to nourish your body so it can Ovulate like we've
22:24
talked about in today's episode, but also cycle and conceive again.
22:28
This is exactly what you need.
22:30
I'll be putting a link in the show notes so that you can learn
22:32
more and apply and take those next steps to making your dream happen.
22:37
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
22:39
If you have any questions after listening about how to know if you're
22:42
ovulating, you can always reach out on Instagram through DMs at, at
22:46
nourishing my nutrition until next time.
22:49
Love to each of you.