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Why You Want More Estrogen, Not Less (For Active Women Trying to Get Pregnant) · Nourished Fertility

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Welcome back y'all to the Nourishing Women Podcast, your go-to podcast to
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get your peer back and get pregnant.
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I'm your host, Victoria Myers, peer recovery specialist, fertility, dietician,
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and owner of the virtual coaching practice nourishing my nutrition, where we work
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together to restore your fertility.
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Today we are diving deep into a misunderstood and often
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demonized hormone, and that's.
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Estrogen and specifically I want you to lead this episode off
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knowing why you, specifically you, why you want more of it, not less.
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As an active woman struggling with period loss or irregular and ovulatory cycles,
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because so often we see information on the internet about estrogen and
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specifically estrogen dominance.
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It convinces us that we need less estrogen, right?
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That maybe that's our fertility struggle.
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So we, you know, we take dim and we eat fewer carbs and we
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exercise more and we detox better.
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And this feels like such a good answer because it means we're
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doing more, we're going harder.
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And I think this type of information is more appealing to someone with.
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You know, an active woman with period loss because it kind of helps you avoid
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what you know that you really need to do.
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And also, like this DIY information, uh, you know, it just, it, yeah, it kind of
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feels like, okay, like this will solve it going harder into what I'm already doing.
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It's gonna make this better because it's hard to confront your disordered eating,
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your chronic dieting, and how undereating is actually causing your issues.
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And I want you to know.
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But I get it, I promise you.
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But this type of DIY information and not doing something that is truly
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what you need, what's best for you.
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Your needs are just so uniquely specific and different than everyone else.
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This is likely just making the situation worse, not better.
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And I wanna emphasize how especially true this is, if you've had a diagnosis of PCUS
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because of your period issues, meaning you either have an entirely missing period
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or you have a period, but it's wildly unpredictable.
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And if you've had a diagnosis of PCOS as a healthy fit active woman, I know
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that this just further convinces you even more so that you need to get your
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estrogen and testosterone under control even if your labs both estrogen and
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testosterone did not present as elevated.
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So what do you do then if really what your peer loss.
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Is caused from is not PCS, even though your doctors have diagnosed you with it,
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you know now, or even years and years ago.
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What I see most often is clients that got diagnosed when they first
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lost their period, maybe back in like early college, their early twenties.
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Were put on birth control for years and years, and now just getting off of it, you
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know, the past one to two, three years and still struggling now with period issues.
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And they come back to like, oh, well it's because I had PCOS.
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That's why I'm struggling with my fertility right now.
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So if this is you.
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I want you to consider today that your infertility issues are most
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likely in your case, not from estrogen dominance, and that you don't actually
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need more cleanses and detoxes and harder diets and harder workouts is
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actually like all of that is making it so much worse, and I will just say.
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This is where testing, not guessing and creating a custom protocol based
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off of your root cause investigation is going to be a thousand percent
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necessary because peer loss can happen for a small handful of reasons.
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And I also wanna just say like, hear me loud and clear.
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I'm not saying that all peer loss is always caused from low estrogen, always
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caused from hypothermic amenorrhea, but.
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What I am saying is that for my clients, my community, if you are listening
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to this podcast, that very likely is your culprit not the need to detox
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or diet harder, or assume it's PCOS simply because you have a missing or
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a regular period and many follicles.
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Sometimes your doctor will call them cyst on your ovaries when viewed on ultrasound.
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Remember, this can happen in the case of hypothermic, a amenorrhea two,
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including this cyst on your ovaries.
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Okay?
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Whether you haven't had a period in months or years, or you're getting
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cycles that are just inconsistent and not atory, meaning you never get
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fertile cervical mucus, you never get a rise in your basal bite temperature.
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You never get a positive on those LH strips I that you're taking.
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I, I like, I get that this frustration is so real.
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It's so intense.
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It feels so overwhelming.
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Especially so if you've been trying to get pregnant for the past year and it's
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not happening, and I know you feel like your body is failing you, and I know how
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heavy that feels, how devastating that is.
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My clients tell me how.
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Like just daunting of a feeling.
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That can be, especially when you're someone like yourself, like my clients
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that's doing everything right, clean eating, exercising, supplements you
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like, look like the picture of health.
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You've tried everything, you've even like done.
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Less alcohol, less caffeine lately, but nothing's changing.
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Heck, even the increase in fertility meds it's not working for you.
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So let me help you better understand what's going on for
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you so that you can actually get the results you're looking for.
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And let's just start with the truth.
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Estrogen is essential
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in reality, if you're not ovulating or you're not menstruating regularly,
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there's a strong possibility that instead of having too much of it, you
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actually don't have near enough of it.
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And that my friend, is what's standing between you and the
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positive pregnancy tests you want.
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It.
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Here's what estrogen does for both your period and for your fertility.
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It builds your uterine lining, or it's also called the endometrium so that
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an embryo can implant successfully.
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Estrogen is also vital to triggering the LH surge that is necessary for ovulation.
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It's also the dominant hormone in the first half, the faller
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phase of our menstrual cycles.
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Because of this, it supports cervical mucus production as, especially as we
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get closer and closer to ovulation, what helps and allows for that peak
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fertile egg white cervical mucus and, this is critical for sperm
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transport, allowing us to get pregnant.
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And also estrogen, um, plays such an critical role in maintaining bone
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brain and cardiovascular health.
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Long term.
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So important, and this is where I, I get honestly, like straight
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up concerned for some of you guys.
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My dms telling me that you've had period loss for 10, 15 years and like
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you were never even on birth control or hormone replacement therapy.
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Developing osteoporosis in your thirties is like a serious matter, and what
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I'll do in our next episode on estrogen as well, focus specifically on the
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health implications of low estrogen.
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So know this without enough estrogen ovulation is just not going to happen.
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And if you're not ovulating, you're obviously also not producing enough
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progesterone either, which is the dominant hormone in the second half of
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our cycle after ovulation, we only produce adequate progesterone levels in the
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second half in our luteal phase, which progesterone plays such an important
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role in helping us stay pregnant and when we have low levels of both estrogen.
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But because it's low estrogen, that also creates low progesterone
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'cause we're not ovulating.
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This just keeps you stuck in a place where pregnancy is impossible
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and even what I would argue makes.
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Treatments like IUI or even IVF so difficult because your body's in
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such an unsafe state and hormones are just so dramatically low.
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You've been told you need to gain weight, stop exercising or do IVF
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to get pregnant with no period.
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What if I told you that's not actually true?
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You're tracking your food, working out, trying everything to be healthy,
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but your period is still missing and now pregnancy, it feels impossible.
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I know exactly how that feels because I've helped hundreds of women get their
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peered back and get pregnant naturally.
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Inside my free training, I'm walking you through the exact five step
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method that's helped women like Lex.
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Lauren and Stephanie restored their fertility in 90 days or less.
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Without extreme weight gain or giving up on movement, you'll learn what's
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really causing your missing period.
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Why food freedom is essential for fertility and the customized approach
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that actually works even if you've tried.
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Everything.
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If your dream is to see two pink clients and hold a baby in your arms,
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this training, it's your first step.
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Click the link in the show notes to watch the free training.
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It's time to restore your period, your fertility, and your hope.
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Now let's get back to today's episode.
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The biggest misunderstanding I see for active women.
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And this would be you.
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If you, you know, you eat super clean or have a history of dieting,
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you're exercising daily or following a very rigid exercise routine that
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you always follow no matter what.
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If you also deal with a lot of stress and you kind of cope with your stress through,
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you know, being a controlled eater and a controlled exerciser, um, but also.
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Very poor sleep.
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You're not giving enough of it.
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And also being stuck in fear around gaining weight or eating enough.
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This may mean that you're actually in a state of low energy availability.
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This is true for so many active women.
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We know that up to 50% of active women have period disturbances,
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meaning either peer loss or that they're just not ovulating regularly.
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They have short luteal phases or long folic phases.
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Two, and all of this, you know, is really.
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What we're talking about is hypothermic, am amenorrhea, as well
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as the hypothermic dysfunction I just mentioned, such as irregular or
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anovulatory cycles, and specifically this happens hypothermic, amenorrhea
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as well as the dysfunction because of.
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Chronic energy deficiency.
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This leads to decreased of the kind of starter hormone of
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your entire menstrual cycle.
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It's called Gogo Trappin Releasing Hormone, or GNRH.
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It's released in pulses.
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When that stops, it then affects the ability to produce enough of
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FSH or follicle stimulating hormone and LH luteinizing hormone leading
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to low estrogen, lack of ovulation.
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And again, like the whole cascade basically shuts down.
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That's why I always explain it.
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On the podcast, like the communication between your brain and your Aries
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shuts down, and again, you can be fit.
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You can appear to be like the healthiest person you know and still be hormonally
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suppressed because your body just doesn't feel safe enough to reproduce.
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Some symptoms of low estrogen that you might be ignoring or even possibly
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confusing for estrogen dominance or PCOS because you don't have someone
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looking at your labs as a peer recovery expert in having someone do this
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root cause investigation for you.
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It is quite honestly, easy to kind of misunderstand the symptoms, um,
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of what your true root cause is.
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But what.
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What could be happening here if you have low estrogen is of course just missing
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periods altogether, but also irregular periods, mood swings, anxiety, depression,
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vaginal dryness, sleep disturbances, like not being able to sleep through the night.
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You always wake up at 2:00 AM and oftentimes you're waking up like
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covered in sweat, extremely low libido.
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That is such a classic sign of low estrogen.
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Bloating or digestive issues, brittle hair and nails being cold 24 7.
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I hear that one all the time and I feel like it's just one of those things
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that you like low key get used to, but actually is so freaking frustrating.
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You wanna know.
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Another one is ping all the time because low estrogen affects
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the bladder lining, just like it affects the uterine lining too.
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Speaking of uterine lining, a thin uterine lining is classic
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for low estrogen, never having a positive OPK or ovulation confirmed.
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And then specifically, if you were looking at your labs, if you order
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them on day three of your cycle, anything below 50, we would consider.
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A case of low or suboptimal estrogen, and specifically, your Dr.
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May diagnose you with hypothermic a amenorrhea if it's below 20.
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But again, anything below 50 we see as a red flag.
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And if you're nodding along, I want you to know.
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That this is like not your fault.
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You don't need to blame yourself.
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You just have been doing what the world told you was healthy.
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I know you've been so praised and validated for your discipline and for
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your body and all these things, and how good you eat and how much you exercise.
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However.
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Your body is giving you loud feedback.
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It's giving you like the biggest red flag it possibly could with a
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missing or a regular period that it now needs something different.
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And without a personalized strategy rooted in your unique physiology, you're
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just gonna be shooting in the dark.
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You're just gonna be assuming it's something like estrogen dominance or
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PCOS, when it very well could be the exact opposite of what you actually need.
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And this, again, is where a root cause.
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Investigation with a personalized protocol based off of the results
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where the solution isn't, you know, just like guessing or you know,
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even encouraging more extremes.
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Like your Dr. May even be telling you like, Hey, like it's good that
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you're exercising as much as you are.
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It's good that you're eating so low carb.
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Like that's actually not what you need.
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You need more precision and a customized protocol based off of your unique needs,
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and that is exactly what we do inside a premier period recovery for fertility.
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What we do is we create a custom roadmap by first.
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And covering what your body actually needs.
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This includes comprehensive blood work to assess.
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FSH, lh, estrogen, prolactin, thyroid health, and so much more.
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A hair tissue mineral analysis, or HTE to evaluate deep mineral status.
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'cause this can affect your hormones, your nervous system, and how your
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hormones are able to communicate with one another, as well as your egg quality.
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We would also do a root cause investigation through a full review of
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your eating patterns, your caloric intake, and nutrient gaps for fertility and a
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movement and stress audit to align your lifestyle with your fertility goals.
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We use this to develop a specific supportive protocol
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that works with your body.
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Not against it.
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And then we support you every step of the way to implement your protocol,
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make adjustments along the way, heal your relationship with food and exercise
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as you do the work to get your period back and your fertility too, and
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support you until you get that positive pregnancy test you've been dreaming of.
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So remember.
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Estrogen.
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It is not the villain.
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Estrogen is what you actually need more of as an active, healthy woman so that
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you can get your period back and get it consistent and then go on to get
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pregnant, whether that's right here, right now, or in the next one to two years.
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If your cycles are off and your body is screaming for support, please know
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you do not have to keep wondering why you aren't getting pregnant.
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Wasting precious fertility ears or feeling as if IVF is the only
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solution for you moving forward.
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There is a way through and it doesn't necessarily have to involve medical
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intervention, or if it does and that's your body, your choice that
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you've made, hey, that's fine too.
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We can actually make the percentage of that being successful so much higher.
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By still doing the period recovery process.
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So start today by trusting that your body can heal, that you can
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get the strategy and support to make this happen, and that for you.
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I don't want you worrying about too much estrogen.
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I really want you to consider if actually your very problem is
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that you don't have enough of it.
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If you are looking for more support so that you can get your period back and get
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pregnant, I wanna encourage you to reach out now for one of our fall spots inside
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of Premier Period Recovery for Fertility.
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Let us walk you through a personalized plan designed for your root cause
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so that you can get one step closer to that goal of holding a baby in your arms.
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Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
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All the links you need to know about our programs and offers
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are included in the show notes.
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We'll be back for another episode next week.
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Until next time, know that a nourish body is a powerful one.
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Thanks so much for listening.