Fertility co.

What if I told you that there are 3 simple things you can do to help confirm ovulation day? And what if I told you that you don’t even have to do all of them every day? Would you want to know what they were? I thought so… which is EXACTLY why I am giving them to you in this week’s podcast episode. Here’s what we’re talking about: Menstruation – If your period doesn’t arrive 10-17 days after ovulat...

Ok! I am calling it. It is time we all stop using the word infertility to describe fertility struggles. I work with and speak with so many women who have been trying to conceive with zero success. But these women are not necessarily “infertile”. In this podcast episode, I want to make something really clear. While 1 in 6 couples may struggle to conceive, 1 in 6 couples are NOT infertile. Don’t let...

Have you ever found yourself saying these things? I can’t see egg-white mucus. I can’t see any mucus. I just don’t have enough mucus to actually track my cycle this way. I get it. I promise.  So many women (myself included when I was getting started) just can’t get their head around the fact that a TINY sensation is enough to tell them when they’re fertile! And these roadblocks? Are VERY real when...

More often than not when we think about fertility, we immediately start thinking about women. Yes, we are the ones who have menstrual cycles and get pregnant and grow babies, but if it wasn’t for male sperm pregnancy would never be possible. And if a couple is struggling to conceive, it’s about an even 50-50 split about whether it is a male or female cause.   In this episode, we’re talking about w...

We all know that ovulation occurs about halfway through your menstrual cycle. Definitely not always on day 14 as we have been led to believe, but somewhere around the middle. Right?   But what if your cycle is 40 days long? Or 50 or 60?   Well, if your cycle is irregular or on the longer side, there’s a good chance your body has attempted to ovulate once or twice before it actually released an egg...

If you’ve been listening to me rabbit on about mucus for any length of time now, then you would know that I see it as the number one indicator of your fertility.    The key to understanding when you are fertile or not fertile relies on you being able to track the changes in your cervical mucus throughout your menstrual cycle. So what you see and feel is everything when it comes to identifying your...

If you know me at all by now (hey, hi, I’m Rachel), you’ll know that I will forever be at the front of the pack waving my pom-poms for using fertility awareness and charting as an effective and natural method of birth control.   While I absolutely believe that you don’t need artificial hormones to prevent pregnancy, I also believe that every woman is entitled to know *all* of her options so that s...

Want to know what matters more than size?   Length. (Of your luteal phase, that is)   Those couple of weeks in the lead-up to your next period are too often given a bad rap. This is when a lot of women experience those fun PMS symptoms, and if you’re trying to conceive, it’s the two week wait from hell.   But did you know that it’s the luteal phase that gives you the most valuable information abou...

Sound familiar?    You’re slowly building your confidence with tracking your cycle every day. You feel like you’ve finally made sense of your cervical mucus patterns every month and it’s time to start tracking your daily body temperature too.    But your daily temperatures make absolutely no sense!   High one day, low the next. Completely all over the place and not even close to matching up with y...

It has been a hot minute since I disappeared off the face of the earth. Morning sickness hit me hard but I’m back and it only seemed fitting to kick off the podcast with the lessons I’ve learnt during my first trimester of pregnancy. These are the things I wish someone had told me before and during my pregnancy and I hope you find that reassurance useful. Think of it as non-traditional pre-concept...

Are you trying to get pregnant but it’s just not happening? Sick of sleepless nights down the Google rabbit-hole and counting down the days until you can pee on the damn stick again, only to be disappointed month after month? Desperate to ditch the Pill forever but the fear of getting pregnant leaves you in a cold sweat? Maybe you’ve already tried to quit a few times, but the panic has kept you fi...

In this episode of the podcast I'm joined by Chinese Medicine doctor and acupuncturist Joanna Macmeikan for a chat about all things women's health, hormones and fertility with a twist of yin and yang!⁠ ⁠ We’re talking about how TCM ties in beautifully with the cyclical nature of the female menstrual cycle, how acupuncture can help your body to heal itself as well as what to expect during...

Let's think back to high school for a moment... If you were going to ask someone else to do your homework for you, or take an important exam for you, you’re going to ask someone smarter than you right?    Someone who could guarantee they would get a better result than you could.   Would you consider asking someone if they weren’t as smart as you, if there was no guarantee?    No, you wouldn’t...

Getting pregnant is not a one step process, and implantation is the final step where the fertilised egg (now called an embryo) settles itself into the lining of the uterus for a 9 month stay-cation.   When you’re trying to get pregnant, it’s normal to be very aware of your body and notice every tiny change that happens, wondering if it’s a sign of pregnancy.   The frustrating part is that so many...

I’m not currently trying to get pregnant, so why do I care when I’m ovulating?    Why would I bother charting and tracking my fertile signs when I have no intention of conceiving?   Your fertility is so much more than making babies. It’s about eliminating the need for artificial hormones that have their own set of side effects, and relying on your own body to tell you everything you need to know t...

Here’s a secret – there is one single thing that I miss about being on the pill, and it’s how damn clear my skin was!   Like our teenage years aren’t angsty enough without having to experience the highs and lows of breakouts too. But once we make it to the other side of puberty, not all of us emerge with clear skin. Our hormones like to remind us who’s boss and often around ovulation or our period...

Truthbomb: Your phone doesn’t know when you’re fertile.   I seem to have developed quite the reputation for being anti-app. I’m not necessarily anti-app, but I am anti-crappy apps and it seems that there are a lot of them out there.   The internet is completely flooded with period and ovulation tracking apps that claim to help you to monitor your menstrual cycle and your fertile window. Here’s the...

I get it, you’re already trying to remember to drink enough water, exercise every day, text everyone back, be a good friend, partner, mother, sister, employee…phew, it’s a lot. The last thing you could possibly add to your plate is complicated tracking and charting system. Every. Single. Day.   Fertility awareness and charting has a reputation for being time-consuming, overwhelming and just anothe...

Contrary to what we’re all told, hormonal contraceptives are not the only effective option for birth control. If you’ve decided to finally ditch the hormones forever, or if you’re contemplating taking the leap, you’ll still need to know how to manage your fertile window if abstinence isn’t your thing.   Contraception can be used during the learning phase of fertility awareness and charting, when y...

We spend the majority of our lives actively avoiding pregnancy, so when the time finally arrives that you actually want to make a baby, it’s important to plan ahead.   If you’re someone who finds herself saying “I’ll get healthy when I’m pregnant”, this episode is for you because you really do need to start making healthy lifestyle changes before you get pregnant – 3 months to be exact.   Why 3 mo...

As soon as we ovulate, the body starts to prepare for a potential pregnancy. Month after month, our menstrual cycle creates the perfect conditions for an egg to be fertilised so that when a long-awaited pregnancy finally occurs, you can get to work straight away growing your baby – long before you even know you’re pregnant.   In this episode, you’ll learn when the best possible time is to take a p...

When I look back, I cringe at how little I knew about my body.    When I started to wonder if there was another way to avoid unplanned pregnancy without the artificial hormones, everyone gave me the same cynical answers – Yes, but you’d be crazy to actually rely on them for birth control!   I call BS.   By taking just a couple of minutes a day to tune in to your body, you can use a method of birth...

Caffeine is the world’s most popular drug.    If you’re one of those women who can’t function until you’ve guzzled your morning cup of coffee, caffeine might be doing more to your body than just giving you a quick energy boost.   If you’re currently pregnant or preparing for pregnancy, you’ve probably heard that coffee is on the naughty list. But is this reputation deserved?    Here’s What We’re T...

A xenoestrogen is a type of endocrine disruptor that has an oestrogen-like effect on the body and a significant effect on your fertility. We know that oestrogen is a key hormone for a healthy menstrual cycle, but when xenoestrogens enter our bodies they block oestrogen receptors so they can’t do their job. The body thinks there’s not enough oestrogen available and begins to produce more. This will...

We’ve all been there once or twice. We wake up thinking we’re going to get our period. But it doesn’t come.    We wake up the next day. Still no period.    Then we start to panic.    We do some backwards maths and work out if we might be pregnant. We start frantically Googling and cursing our bodies for messing with our heads.    In this episode, I’m going to save you from that long fall down the...