In this episode of the Natural Fertility Podcast, Dr. Jane Levesque, a naturopathic doctor and natural fertility expert, shares the complexities of fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum care. She sheds light on her personal journey through traumatic pregnancies, a miscarriage, and the challenges of supporting her sister through infertility. Dr. Jane emphasizes the importance of holistic preparation, mental and emotional health, and the need for comprehensive care beyond conventional medical advice. Tune in for expert interviews, practical tips, and actionable insights to optimize your fertility naturally and navigate the various stages of your fertility journey.

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Key Takeways

01:31 The Lack of Support and Education Around Infertility

04:03 Miscarriage and Family Goals

06:36 Lack of Comprehensive Fertility Care

08:38 Stages of Fertility Journey

11:10 Compartmentalizing Overwhelm

23:24 Stories of Miraculous Fertility Cases

27:58 Misinformation in Fertility Advice

Memorable Quotes

"I felt robbed of the whole experience. I felt like I should have this overflowing feeling of love and gratitude for my baby, and I just didn't. It wasn't because I wasn't excited to see my baby, but I just felt really empty inside."

"The miscarriage really brought up a lot of things for me around the first pregnancy, actually a lot of grief around not appreciating the first pregnancy and not really being present for it because I was so sick and so thrown off."

"I really underestimated how much the mental and emotional components have to do with preparing myself for pregnancy and preparing us as a couple for the next pregnancy."

Connect With Dr. Jane Levesque

Website - https://www.drjanelevesque.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drjanelevesque/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DrJaneLevesque/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@dr.janelevesque7319

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I got a lot of cold sores, which only happened when I was stressed. So, like, I knew that I had a lot going on and then the labor is what really did me in. It was just such a traumatic experience. I was one push away from a c section. I just remember feeling so tired and depleted and thinking there's no way that this is what pregnancy and postpartum should feel like. I felt robbed of the whole experience. I felt like I should have this overflowing feeling of love and gratitude for my baby, and I just didn't. And it wasn't because I wasn't excited to see my baby, but I just felt really empty inside. Pregnancy is a natural process. So if it's not happening or if it's not sticking, something is missing. After having a family member go through infertility and experiencing a miscarriage myself, I realized how little support and education women have around infertility. I want to change that. I'm doctor Jane Levesque. I'm a naturopathic doctor and a natural fertility expert. Tune in every Tuesday at 09:00 a.m. for insightful case studies, expert interviews, practical tips on how you can optimize fertility naturally. If you've been struggling with infertility, pregnancy loss, women's health issues, or you just want to be proactive and prepare yourself for the next big chapter in your life, this show is for you. All right, ladies, I've been doing some reflecting and I've been thinking about where might you be in the journey of your fertility and your fertility journey, and what actions do you need to take specific to where you are in your fertility journey. So I'm going to briefly tell you, if you're new here, why I got into the fertility space and some of the mistakes that I believe that I made and still have to work through that I really would love for you to avoid as well. But there's kind of three big pivotal moments as to why I got into the fertility space. The first one was my first pregnancy. That, like, absolutely rocked me. I did nothing to prepare. Literally nothing. Like, I just started taking a prenatal the moment that we decided to start trying, and that was the same moment that we basically got pregnant. And that whole pregnancy just rocked me. I was super nauseous for 20 weeks and throwing up quite a bit. I actually got a case of food poisoning where I was like, I lost a bunch of weight and, you know, there was a lot of scare and worry about what's happening. And then I was just really uncomfortable through the pregnancy I got a lot of cold sores, which only happened when I was stressed. So, like, I knew that I had a lot going on. And then the labor is what really did me in. It was just such a traumatic experience. I was one push away from a c section. I just remember feeling so tired and depleted and thinking, there's no way that this is what pregnancy and postpartum should feel like. I felt robbed of the whole experience. I felt like maybe like I should have this overflowing feeling of love and gratitude for my baby, and I just didn't. And it wasn't because I wasn't excited to see my baby, but I just felt really empty inside. And so that was really sad to me. It took me a while to recover and to feel like a mom and to feel connected to my daughter. And I still believe to this day it's something that has impacted our relationship and that I have to continue to work on. And I genuinely think it's something that I will continue have to work on for the rest of our lives, where I obviously don't have that experience with my second daughter, but my third pregnancy. So the second thing that got me into the fertility space is the miscarriage that I had, because now I was convinced that, okay, here's all the stuff that I need to do to prepare. And, you know, I took my prenatal. I lost a little bit of weight. I optimized everything that I knew to do and helped my husband do the same. But we were in a very busy state. It was during COVID We were running a gym that was constantly open or closed, so we were really stressed, and we were also moving at that time. And I just remember being really stubborn because I was like, I have to have. I want to give birth in July, and so we need to get pregnant now. And I just kind of assumed that it was going to happen really easily. And so we did get pregnant within a couple of months, but I ended up miscarrying. And when I miscarried, I obviously was crushed and devastated, but my husband felt a sense of relief. And that was a big aha moment for me because I realized how disconnected we were on our goals as a family. And I had no idea that he was feeling so overwhelmed. And the miscarriage really brought up a lot of things for me around the first pregnancy, actually a lot of grief around not appreciating the first pregnancy and not really being present for the first pregnancy because I was so sick and so thrown off and I felt so inconvenienced, which just broke my heart. Now having the miscarriage, being thinking that, oh, my God, if I can never be pregnant again, I had this beautiful experience and I had no idea, like, I had no idea that this was such a privilege to have it. So I needed to process that, obviously. But the other thing that my husband and I needed to process is to come on the same page. And I really underestimated how much the mental and emotional components component has to do with preparing myself for pregnancy and preparing, like us, as a couple, for the next pregnancy. So that was the second thing that happened and then the third was my sister. And that happened. I think, you know, she was between the first baby and the miscarriage for me, but she was 37 when she met her husband and her doctor was just like, hey, if you don't get pregnant in six months, just come in and we'll do IVF. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's crazy. You're not going to ask her her family history, you're not going to ask her her medical history. You're not going to like nothing. You're just going to. Because she's 37 and if she can't get pregnant, we're just going to do IVF. No diet, lifestyle recommendation, no supplements, nothing. No. Like, to me, I always thought that before I had children, I just focused on as a practitioner, I focused on IB's and athletics. I worked with kids and a little bit with pregnancy. But honestly, I feel like we, as practitioners, attract what it is that we need to work through. So as I started to become a mom and I was pregnant, I started to attract more and more of those patients. And of course, my eyes opened up to how little care women were getting throughout the entire journey, not just the fertility, but through the pregnancy and postpartum. So when I heard that my sister was just recommended IVF after six months of trying, I thought, wait a minute, I thought IVF was something that was recommended as a last resort and we were going to try and fix things and optimize things before we did that. And turns out, no, actually, it's the only thing that's offered. That's the only thing that's offered. Sure, you may be an IUI before that, but that's it. You're not being offered diet, lifestyle recommendations, or supplementation or the male partner is not even looked at. So as I shared my journey on social media with the pregnancy loss, and even with my sister, I've been sharing it for a while. Depending on how long you guys have been following me for, I realized, I mean, my inbox just flooded with so many women going through such difficult situations, and it broke my heart. And of course, being a mother and experiencing the miscarriage and having my sister, you know, go through infertility, she. They were trying for a year, so after six months, she reached out to me, and then it was up about after six months later, they got pregnant. And now she has two beautiful baby boys and realizing that there's such a big opportunity to help, and now being in the space, really wanting to help women on a deeper level in all stages. And so today I want to show you kind of the five, the five stages of the fertility journey that I've noticed that you guys are reaching out to me in terms of questions and little action tools on how to make sure you're not wasting any time. Because let's face it, time is the most precious asset that we have in general in life, and especially when it comes to fertility. Time is of an essence. And there's a reason that we as women feel the sticking clock, because it's very much, there is very much a decline in your fertility as you get older. I'm not here to deny that it doesn't mean that you cannot get pregnant, just like my sister's example, but it does mean that you have to work harder and smarter to make sure that we are optimizing both the egg and the sperm and then the environment, aka the uterus, aka your body. So then you can still continue to have children into your late thirties, into your early forties, and a safe, you know, in a safe way. So here's kind of the five stages that I have noticed in the your fertility journey. Stage one is your one to three years in wanting to conceive. So you want to have kids, but it's probably about one to three years out. The biggest concern you have is that you're overwhelmed, you're anxious, you want to be proactive. You probably have been on birth control, I don't know, anywhere between 510 to 15 years. And so you're concerned that may have something to do with, you know, that may impact your ability to get pregnant, or maybe you even have had a diagnosis, whether it's pcos or endometriosis, diabetes, autoimmune disease. Like, you have a diagnosis and you're trying to get on top of it, which I celebrate. I think the earlier you can start preparing your body, because let's face it, when you're working in your fertility, you're working on your health. When you're improving your health, you're improving your fertility. Those two things go hand in hand. That's true for males and for females. I'm still like, again, just an initial consultation that I had, and the guy's like, well, I didn't think that that was important for my fertility. So he didn't share any of this lab work with me because he just didn't think it was that important. And I'm like, your health is your fertility. So if your sperm is sticky and it's low volume and it's poor concentration, that is a reflection of the inflammation that we're seeing in the blood work, in the brain fog that you're feeling, the inability to lose weight, the puffiness, or the bloating that you feel every time you eat, those are two and two together. So the sooner that you can optimize your health, the better, because, let's face it, why do you want to be sick? Nobody wants to be sick. You want to feel good. It's just hard to find the answers. And so that's stage one. The best solution for stage one, what I would say is just some direct research and resources, and I would absolutely start working with a clinician, depending on the severity of your symptoms. So if you don't have a lot of symptoms and you're just looking to optimize, for example, while I'm just getting off birth control and I want to know how to cleanse myself, will be coming out with a nice little kind of PDF in a course that's really short and sweet. But just to give you an idea of, like, here's what I would do to help optimize your, uh, you know, to help get rid of all the excess synthetic hormones and bring up your nutrients. That's the best solution. You just want some direct research and some direct resources to a specific problem that you have. When you're overwhelmed, try to point to the thing that you're actually overwhelmed about. And then you have to block out the noise with everything else, because you have to remember, when you're looking on the Internet, when you're looking at social media, we're all trying to grab people's attention with different problems that you might have. But if you have, like, 15 different problems, then you're like, oh, and it's this. Oh, and I have this, and then I have this, and then my digestion and my skin and my hair. And so what you. What if I can get you to compartmentalize? This is the worst one that I have. Like, the worst thing that I'm worried about. Is this birth control thing or. It's my gut. So then focus on the gut, because it's probably going to fix all the other issues that you're having, right? Versus my hair or my skin or my nails. Like, don't get me wrong, those things are important, but it's just focus on one thing. And if you can get some direct resources, like, specific to your problem, that would be the best help at this time. And I have a lot of information on that. So at the end, I'll say you can fill out a form and literally, like, if you just want free resources, check the section on free resources and we'll send you free resources. And the more specific you can be in terms of what resources you need, the more specific we can be with giving you those resources. Because like I said, you don't necessarily need to run all the testing and do all the detoxing and take all the supplements, but you do need to do some specific things that are going on for you so you can feel like you're taking action. And the best way to decrease your anxiety is to take action. The second stage in your fertility journey is you're ready to start trying. You're like, okay, we're ready to start trying. It's one to three months. Or maybe you're like, okay, this is the cycle that we're starting again. The biggest concern here is there's a lot of overwhelm and there's a lot of noise. What supplements do I take? What do I do to find out pregnant? Anything that I can do to prevent a miscarriage. So if you're in that stage, specific information is also what you need. But that specific information needs to be around what supplements are the best to take. You know, what's safe to do, what's not safe to do during pregnancy, the labs to run. And usually you're looking at lab work. You want to understand, I'm such a proponent for lab work, because when you don't have any data on yourself, you're just stepping into pregnancy completely blindfolded. And I think that's just a dangerous situation because you could be one of the lucky ones and nothing happens, or you could be the person that you have low progesterone, so your chances of having a miscarriage is really high. And so you might be experienced unnecessary pain and struggle without having because you didn't have any data. And whether it's something going on with your immune system, like it's thyroid issues or autoimmune conditions or low vitamin D or some low iron. All those things can cause miscarriages. And I think, especially if you're in Canada, like, nobody's testing anything. They're like, oh, just try it and see what happens. It's the worst advice ever. And we don't need to do that now because there's so much information on the Internet. Yeah. You know that there's more to it than that, and that's why you might need to get some more specific help. But I would always, always recommend to do some good lab testing, even if you're like, oh, well, I'm ready to start trying now. And what if I find out that you know something else is wrong, and then you want to know that information. You don't want to find out that something is wrong when you're pregnant. That's way worse. You want to find out information as soon as possible, and if you don't have enough courage, you're too afraid to find out, then I can almost guarantee you that you're not going to have enough courage to go through the entire journey. Well, because the journey is so, so tough. Like, if I, the woman that I coach. Cause I'll coach them through fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum, the number one thing they say to me is, I cannot believe how hard this is. I cannot believe how hard, even if the pregnancy was fine, but then the postpartum, or, like, the labor was really difficult and postpartum there. This journey will challenge you to your very core. And I think it's designed to be that way to literally change us from just being a woman to being a mother. It's a huge change. It's a huge change, and it will challenge you. So I do not want you to walk blindly into that journey. And if you can feel and sense that there's, well, like, I don't want to find out, just know that that's fear, and that's okay that you have that fear, but find a practitioner that's going to help to walk you through that and give you the courage and help you give the tools how to fix it, because I think the fear is around. If I'm broken, that means I. It's not. I can't fix it. You can absolutely fix it. Basically, almost anything in the body. Okay. So if you're just starting to try out, I want the solution is to have some more direct resources. They're going to be a lot more around kind of supplementation in the lab work, foods to eat, to optimize, to help with implantation and to support the menstrual cycle. Again, I have a lot of those resources and a lot of resources through my fertility 101 program. And I'll give you some links down below. But if you're just starting to try out, I need you to narrow in on whether it's the laps, the supplements, your menstrual cycle, how to eat with it, how to support implantation. Those are the things that I would be focusing on. The third step in the fertility journey is when you've been trying, but it's been less than a year. This is this wonky space where you're told, well, keep trying because we don't have anything for you until you've been struggling for a year. And as soon as you've been struggling for a year, here's IVF is the option that we have. The one key time is you're uncertain and you're frustrated because you thought this would be easy, but then you're not getting any help because you haven't suffered enough. And to me, I think it's just the worst recommendation, the worst recommendation that you could be given because truthfully, why do you have to suffer for a year before you're given the same recommendation? Right. So this is where we need to. Like, my goal and my vision is to really help change the fertility space and how we as women think about our fertility journeys and pregnancy and postpartum, because genuinely, the space is changing and not for the better, meaning that more and more couples are struggling with infertility. And IVF is a booming market. Like, it's predicted to grow to 39 billion by 2032, and it's like 25 billion right now. That's huge. That's a huge growth in eight years. You know, so that alarms me a lot. And it's not that I'm against IVF. I think there's a time and place, but that shouldn't be the only solution that's offered. So if you've been struggling for less than a year, I think that your partner needs to be involved. If he's not already. A lot of the time, the males are not involved until it's been more than a year. So we need to get testing on the partner. Usually you can get sperm analysis, but I would be getting more comprehensive testing on both of you. The blood work, the hormones, the methylation panels, the stool analysis, the environmental toxin, because it's not just about getting you pregnant. It's about having a good pregnancy and that postpartum and what you do during pregnancy and what you do before you even get pregnant will set the foundation for the health of your future child. If you think about that and let that sink in, it's really huge. And so even though sometimes you're like, but I want it to be yesterday, I feel like I'm running out of time. I get it. I absolutely get it. But if. Yeah, and I'm not saying that you need to wait years, but we need to be patient for a couple of months so we can find out what's going on, and then we can put in some work. And, yes, it's going to take some time, but again, my goal is to bring healthy babies into this world, and I'm pretty sure you want the same thing. And that means we need to be a little bit more proactive in our approach, and we need to do it together and be patient to know that we're working towards, you know, the. Something that's really big, and we're optimizing all. Everything that we can do. But you do not have to wait for more than a year to get help. Your fertility clinic might not even look at you, but that doesn't mean that you can't get help. Yes, it means it probably will not be covered by insurance, but I just want to let you know that insurance doesn't really care about your health or the health of your baby, and they just want to take your money. And so if they're covering retrievals or iuis and all the medications, but they're not covering any healthcare things, like actual healthcare things that should tell you everything you know. And so it's unfortunate. I hate it. Cause it's a trap. Right? And a lot of you listening might be feeling that, but I think it's just being aware that these are my options and, like, what am I paying for, and how do I want to be spending my money and becoming aware of those things so we don't get stuck in those traps. The fourth stage is you are in the trenches. Okay? So one to four years of struggling, and you've maybe already done some ivfs and they didn't stick. Maybe it's just iuis and you've been comprehensive about IVF, and you're trying to figure out if that's the next right stage. Definitely a lot of, you know, sadness, grief, bitterness, frustration. But you're still very much in the fighting phase because, I mean, you just want to have a baby. So my recommendation here is, I mean, of course, I'm assuming at this point the partner is 100% involved. If he's not, he has to be. And if he's not, then I'm not sure where the breakdown is because that's huge. 50% of the DNA, 50% of the it's contribution needs to be involved. But you do need to be way more aggressive with your actions and you need more personalized support here and more definitive roadmap. To me at this stage, it is not an option to not run the testing. I think if you're just trying to, if you've been down the conventional route only and you're trying to see if natural medicine is the way to go, then you could do some of the natural medicine route like I have, you know, my fertility one on one program where you can learn about how to optimize nutrition and sleep and hydration and environmental toxins and jump into doing some detoxification. But at the end of the day you need. If you've been struggling for one to four years, there is something that's wrong. Physique, like on the physiological, biomechanical level, and we need to figure out what that is. Usually there's gut issues, microbiome issues, vaginal microbiome, aka, you know, and the reproductive system, methylation, you name it, mineral statuses, environmental toxins. So you need more aggressive action and a more personalized support and a definitive roadmap. This is definitely where I'm working, most of my patients are at. So if this is where you're at, I would fill out an application and see if I'm the right person to help. Because the fifth stage is, you know, it's been more than five years. You're exhausted, you're bitter, you're resentful, you're isolated, you have like, you just haven't had a life for the last five years. And this journey has absolutely consumed you. And there's still a glimmer of hope because let's face it, you're a woman, but you're tired. It's been a lot, you spend a lot of money and you're probably in the worst health and you know, when you even started this thing, because depending again on how much you have put yourself through. So my advice here is fertility is a tough journey because there is no guarantees. Yeah, there's no guarantees in life. And I think if any practitioner guarantees anything, you need to be very cautious and, you know, consider looking for second opinions, because the guarantees are what we want to believe, but it's just not realistic. What I do always say is that there is probability and we have to look at data, we have to look at history, we have to focus on healing. You need to heal. The body needs to heal, because you are going to live in your body for the rest of your life. And so what does that look like? To live peacefully and content and see where that journey takes you? I have been working with Doctor Leah Hitchman, who is globally recognized as a wonderful clinician. She's an atropathic doctor, specializes in fertility, pregnancy, postpartum and just reproductive health in general. And she has some miracle cases that she has worked with where people were told they're never going to have kids. All that jazz. There is absolutely a possibility to have a child. I don't know if you're that person, and I'm not going to tell you that over the podcast, but what I do know is there. To me, the non negotiable is to heal, is to find your peace, to find your truth, to feel good in your body, to feel confident in your body, to feel connected to your partner again, to feel connected to your higher purpose. Yes, having a child might be the thing that helps to fulfill you, but that's not the only thing that, you know, we as women are here on this planet. And I know it's hard because sometimes you feel like that's the only thing that you want it to do. And I think it's important to expand our mind in a sense, that might be, there might be a way that we can get you a baby and we. I don't know what that is, but there's other ways that you can find, you know, fulfillment and joy as well. And it's not to take away from what you've been through is just to help shift some perspective and help you start living again. And I think this is the hardest part in the journey when you've been through it for so long, because it can, you know, really just, I mean, I've seen it destroy relationships. I had people open up to me when I went to a business conference and it, you know, it's not health related, but yeah, my, we got divorced because of our infertility journey. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that, you know, so I think it's really heartbreaking. But my approach with my patients always is, we need to heal. Our fertility journey needs to be our healing journey. And as we continue to evolve, I always draw this staircase model. What you do, you know, in the first month of your fertility journey is different than what you're doing in the third month and the 6th month in the first year and the third year, whatever, you know, wherever you are, of course my patients are nothing. They don't have the three year mark. The goal is to get them pregnant within a year. And that doesn't necessarily mean it's natural. I used to think that was, you know, for some people, it's just going to take too long and we just don't have that time. So we have to rely on technology, and that's why it's there and there's a lot more that's coming out. So it's just, I think this space, like when you're in the five plus years, it's just finding that practitioner that's going to walk through with you, that's going to stay on top of the research, that's going to present, that's going to test frequently and help you come back to feeling like yourself again, feeling centered, feeling connected and see where that leads you. Because like I said, there are some miracle stories out there for sure. And we want to share those and we want to inspire them because. Inspire other women, because I see so many women giving up right at the time where, hey, maybe you were so close and we don't know that, or vice versa. It's like you were fighting so much that now the system was exhausted and we just needed to change our approach. But I do think that everyone is individual and it's personalized and customized 100% of the way. I have never met a single person or even within the couple that needs the exact same protocol all the time. It's just we're all individual, unique snowflakes. And I think the right practitioner will be customizing things for you every step of the way. So those are your five steps. And genuinely, I have something for all of the five steps. I tend to work one on one with people who are in step four and step five. And then in my group setting, I tend to the fertility one on one program tends to be the, you know, step one, two, and three. So haven't started trying yet. Just started trying. Have been trying under a year versus. You're in the trenches where you're at the bottom of the, you're at the end of your fertility journey and you're just kind of trying to give it one last go to figure out if this is the right thing for you to approach yet or not. This is where I tend to work with my patients. So I have a form down below. Type it, fill it out. And if you want just some free resources, then just say free resources. And my team, my fertility strategist, Alicia, she's fantastic at getting the resources that you guys need to help you move into the next stage of your journey, not necessarily down the stage, but what do you need to know to help you fill in a piece of the puzzle so you can feel like you can, you know, take an action that's more specific versus the wild, wild west of the Internet, which, let's face it, is super crazy out there right now. So much misinformation, even some of the docs that are well respected just saying things where you're like, well, that's not true. That's. And I try to stay out of those rivalries, if you will. But sometimes you just need to point out this information because it's just a lot of misinformation out there. So be careful, be mindful, but do fill out the form and we'll send you the resources. Or potentially, you know, you'll jump on a call with Alicia and see if there's anything else that we can offer. We are here to help. I'm really passionate about what I do. And if you're in the place of your fertility journey when you're just thinking about starting to conceive and it's only, you know, in the next year, I think that's the most, the best time for you to start taking action. But it doesn't really matter where you are. We all need to take some sort of action. And as you continue to go through your fertility journey, new pieces of information will reveal themselves, and that's the piece of information that you need to take. You know, the next step. So fill out the form down below, let us know what you need, and we'll help you out as much as we can otherwise. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening to read the full show notes of this episode, including summary, timestamps, guest quotes, and any resources that were mentioned on the episode. Visit drjanelevesque.com podcast, and if you're getting value from these episodes, I'd love it if you took two minutes to share it with a friend. Rate and leave me a review@ratethispodcast.com. dr. Jane the reviews will help with the discoverability of the show, and who knows, I might share your review on my next episode. Thank you so much for tuning in, and let's make your fertility journey your healing journey. Our channel.