Podcast EP 50
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[00:00:00] We used to hear that after 35, a woman's reproductive system turns into a pumpkin and poof, she's no longer able to get pregnant. But that is no longer the case. We know so much more information about the female body, and our science has improved so much that we are giving women the ability to conceive when they're older.
But knowing the science doesn't necessarily help what is happening inside your mind, inside your body as your birthday rolls around year after year and you're still not pregnant.
Hi, I'm Sophie Byfield and when I decided I was ready to be a mama, I thought it would be so easy. Get off birth control. Baby dance, like no one's watching. And poof, I was pregnant. But like many of you, that wasn't my story. After months of negative tests, endless treatments, and more supplements than you can count, I realized that getting pregnant isn't about fixing one piece of your fertility puzzle. It's about bringing your whole body. Back into balance so it feels safe enough to conceive. And this is where we focus on what really matters. Healing your whole body so that you can see those two pink lines. Welcome to the Heal to Conceive podcast.
Yes, your egg quality declines with age. Yes, your hormones change and can go out of whack and out of balance. But all of the data that these numbers are based on are based on [00:01:00] averages and not real women. And not women. In this day and age, it's outdated data. Cis, most of the data out there is out outdated, cis, and can leave you stuck in a spiral.
There's so many things that matter, way more than age, like the quality of your eggs. The health of your hormones. Is your uterine lining healthy enough? Is the environment healthy enough? Then we add factors like lifestyle, stress, sleep. All of those things are things that we can improve and matter way more than this outdated data that you're not gonna be a mom in your late thirties and forties, but when you get stuck in this loop of I'm running out of time, you add stress to your body.
That mental and emotional stress can actually wreak havoc on your ability to conceive. Your nervous system feels like it's in fight or [00:02:00] flight, and your body's response to that is slowing down or even shutting off ovulation, increasing your cortisol, dropping your progesterone, all of what is needed to conceive and carry to term.
Your body's like, it is not safe to bring a baby home because of the emotional and mental anguish you're going through, because you feel like you're running out of time, sis, because you feel like you're running out of time. I was talking to a client of mine and she actually posted in our community saying, you know what?
My birthday just passed and I'm heartbroken. I'm heartbroken. That feeling of running out of time, I want you to know that that feeling is completely normal. I want you to know that we get to grieve every part of this journey, however [00:03:00] we need to grieve it. You know, some people equate grief with death alone, but there's so much more to grief.
You have to grieve the part of you that had a dream and thought this would happen by now. You have to grieve the part of you that had a dream and thought that this would've happened by now. Take that in for a second. Sometimes we like to push our feelings down, push 'em to the side, and not acknowledge that they're there, but they're still a part of you and they're still hurting.
The second thing I want you to do is not blame yourself, sis. We don't have a crystal ball. We don't know when things are gonna happen, and just because they haven't happened now doesn't mean that it's not going to happen for you in the future. The most powerful thing that you can do for your body when you are feeling like you're running outta time [00:04:00] is really.
Acknowledge those feelings and let them go. So there are three tests out there that we can really use to help us determine how close we are to menopause and get a gauge of how much time we have left. That is your A MH, which is a blood test, your FSH, which has to be done between days two and day five of your cycle.
And a FC, which is an ultrasound test done during days two and five to tell us how many follicles you have growing on each side. It's called an anterior follicle count. Using these three tests will get a nice gauge picture of where you are at right now and a rough idea of how many eggs you have left to conceive.
We are born with all of the eggs we are ever going to have, all of them. So if those numbers are [00:05:00] showing that you are closer to menopause than not, it doesn't mean that you are out of the game. Since it means we need to take an aggressive approach to improving your egg quality in improving your uterine health and also, and also making sure the sperm health is good to bring that baby home.
Those numbers. Give us a roadmap to your next steps, not take you out of the game. Now, saying all of this can sound like, yeah, girl, that's easy to say, but I still feel like I'm running outta 10. I hear you. I've been there, and here's what I want you to do for those feelings. I want you to acknowledge them.
Because they're real feelings and they're real emotions. I want you to write, I want you to journal about them. I want you to release them from your body so that your nervous system does not put us into fight [00:06:00] or flight. Then I want you to get the testing done so you have the information and you can make a clear.
Then we're gonna look at where your biggest struggle is. Is it egg quality? And we need to take an aggressive supplement approach. Is it ovulation that you're not ovulating regularly? Is it implantation and the health of your uterine environment isn't healthy or strong enough to carry to term? Once you have all of these data points, then you've got a crystal roadmap to get from A to B to bring your baby home.
This is exactly what we talk about inside the Heel to Conceive system. But for now, I want you to journal and get it out of your body. Figure out your numbers and then figure out where we're focusing. Time is a real thing. Age and fertility is a real thing, but sis, you are powerful too, [00:07:00] and I truly believe that there is a little bit of magic in all of this.
Bringing your baby home. So as much as you balance your relationship with, I'm running outta time. I want you to think about hope, which is the other side of the coin, because it's all possible for you. And remember, you got this. I want you to know deep in your soul that you got this and when you don't got it?
I got you. Baby dust for all.
