Introduction and Mira partnership

Rose MacKenzie, I'm so excited to have you here today. You are the medical affairs specialist at Mira, a tool that I love and U. S. health care professionals and providers to successfully use the Mira with their patients.

You are a fertility health coach certified in the Marquette Method and Sympto-thermal method of NFP. You've coached more than 500 clients, including women, using the Mira monitor to track their hormones in regular cycles.

Irregular cycles, postpartum amenorrhea, which means not yet having their period, and chemo induced menopause, as well as perimenopause. Rose, I I'm so excited to have you here for The Super Fertility Summit and so honored and in appreciation to have Mira as a generous sponsor of The Super Fertility Summit as well.

We have been recommending the Mira as part of the semester protocol for years. So it really is a dream come true to have you here. Yes. Thank you for having me.

We all love to empower women to understand their hormones and track them, trace their fertility goals. So it's a great partnership. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Okay. So we have so much that we want to cover today. And really to let people know what the Mira is, why it's such a powerful tool and how it can work in both, as you say, both regular and irregular cycles, as in the case of PCOS and other situations, some of which we've already highlighted.

Before we begin, I would love to start from the end and ask you, what's the one thing that you would love for every woman, man, human, listening to this conversation today to take away from this interview?

How Mira works and sharing data with providers

I would want them to know that Mira can be that tool. That's the missing piece in the puzzle. So when you begin using it, it helps you to see those underlying patterns and trends of your hormones, which really is above and beyond other tracking.

So you can really see where the imbalance might be happening. So is the issue with estrogen or LH or progesterone or all of them? When we're tracking multiple hormones at once, we can really see the interaction between them.

And again, those overall patterns and trends really show us a lot. Absolutely. I absolutely love it. And I feel like one of the things that's so important about Mira is that it's really put so much power back into the hands of the woman or the person who's tracking their, their cycle.

And we used to have to always rely on going into the doctor's office or the lab or ordering a Dutch test. And when the Mira came out, I thought, oh my God, what a revelation.

And I just imagine that little by little they're going to replace the Dutch test, and we'll have the ability to do our Dutch test or something very similar to it at home, and not just see, a snapshot of what's happening with hormones, but really get a bigger and more longitudinal picture, which is so, so important.

So I absolutely love it. And I think this innovation has been really groundbreaking and life changing for so many, including our families in the Primemester Protocol.

So thank you so much. Would you start by telling us just a little bit about the Mira and how it works, and how it's different from other fertility tracking options on the market?

We've started to touch on this a little bit, but but tell us in a little bit more detail, please, Rose. Yeah. so Mira is the first at home analyzer that does quantitative measurements of hormones, and it uses a technology called immuno fluorescent, which, you know, most of us don't know what type of technology most things are on the market, but it's on the same, categories, like a hospital, laboratory, reader.

And so in that way, we're able to provide you, again, those quantitative results. It's the raw data. So you're not relying on, an app to tell you it's interpretation of the results.

So it's there's no generic, like manufacturers threshold ranges and you're not having to manually read them yourself looking for a feeding line or a darkening line.

It's, again, the real quantitative measurements of the hormone are given to you. And that's, that's empowering to really see, like you mentioned, the the depth of, like a Dutch test of all the hormones, real time.

So from day to day watch as they're happening and that, that type of technology because it's real time you're able to, as a patient or as a provider, change things in mid-cycle, maybe you've just found ovulation and now you're going to change what supplements you're on or medications.

and so it really is putting, like you said, the power back to the patient of, you know, your data. Now you can decide what to do with it. Absolutely.

Tracking LH and understanding PCOS patterns

And also, if I understand correctly, Mira is partner partnering with with providers and offices to help to get your data that you want to get to them.

So that they can also help you to make informed decisions. I think number one is that we as women, as humans, as the consumer, have the power in our hands, but then we also have the ability in real time to share these pieces of information with people with whom we want to share, so that they can help us make educated and informed decisions about what to do mid-cycle, or when they're seeing a pattern over time and so can you talk a little bit more about the transmission of data to providers and how providers can use the data that they're seeing?

Yes. Yes. So any provider that works with our team is given free access to the provider dashboard, which is, real time data, just like the patient's free phone app.

So as soon as the patient sinks the data into the free phone app, it's then available immediately to the provider so providers are able to, if they're meeting with their patient this afternoon, they can open up the dashboard, see the patients data from today, the rest of the cycle, previous cycles and have a very informed decision or, conversation with the patient of what's been happening right now.

What can we change? What, has already happened. and the patient also has the ability to generate a report, which is a wonderful tool in the app. As long as they've tracked one cycle, they can generate a PDF report and that can be securely sent, through the, my chart or EMR to their provider.

So if they have maybe a health coach and a provider and someone else on their team, they can share that data either through the dashboard or through a generated report.

I love that. That's wonderful. Rose, can you tell us about the benefits of tracking more than just luteinizing hormone or LH. Yes. Yeah. So we know LH is important and it is an easy hormone to track either in blood or urine.

It tells us you know, that your body's trying to trigger that will reach release the ripe egg. but there is actual different patterns of LH and some are better than others.

And when you start tracking it in the quantitative measurements, you can see very easily when the LH is starting to rise, when it's climaxing, and when it's declining.

And that's an important piece to the puzzle. Are you having, chronically elevated LH? Is your LH pattern? not ideal. So that information, tells us a lot.

And we sometimes find women also, especially with PCOS, who have these suppressed LH patterns. So if you're a patient that's testing with LH test strips and you can never find a true positive or peak Mira actually finds that, suppressed, pattern.

So it shows you that small change. And then if you see your progesterone rise, then you know that LH did trigger the ovary to release the egg. Now, the pattern might not be ideal still, but at least you're finding when ovulation, was triggered.

Absolutely. Our patients with PCOS have so many benefits. I think, you know, Mira has become kind of a favorite with people with PCOS and there's so many reasons.

you know, we could talk about this all day, but, PCOS, generally there's not a good pattern of the hormones. And so when you start testing, you can see what type of pattern is it and where is the issue occurring.

And you can see your progress over time. So if you start testing and you know you might be tempted to be discouraged because the hormone pattern doesn't look very good.

But you'll be motivated and encouraged as you continue testing and you see your hormones start to shift. Because of all the, as I like to say, hard work that you've been doing to improve or manage that PCOS.

So the PCOS is, like I said, one of our favorites, we have we have found that our PCOS patients, self-report conception rates at about 55%, which I know most people think that's not a very good percent, but the general PCOS conception rate is about 20 to 25%.

So by using this higher technology, and managing your PCOS well, you can double the conception rate and get to about 55%.

Fertility trends, support, and self-advocacy

Absolutely. That's wonderful. And then if you're doing the tracking and you're also doing the things that help to better regulate your cycle so that you see, a pattern that that is more fertile.

And then, you know, we know that that's also related to the quality of the eggs that are released actually extra and the health of the pregnancy going forward.

Then you should be seeing an even an even higher success rate. So that's really, really exciting. I love that, Rose. What do you think are the most exciting and concerning of the fertility trends that we're seeing in 2024?

I think I'm encouraged by how many people want to understand what their body is doing. So they feel and they feel empowered to, you know, take this into their own hands.

It's their body, their fertility. And by tracking it, that's really, can motivate you, maybe to change some of your lifestyle. So maybe you do need to optimize your, sleeping patterns or minimize your stress because you're seeing effects on your hormones from that.

We know, you know, ovulation can be suppressed or delayed by stress. so we're really seeing a lot of people who, are very interested in their health. And that's of course, encouraging because anytime we are motivated to take care of ourselves, we're going to have better quality of life, longevity and reach our fertility goals.

Absolutely. I completely agree with that. I we actually have a mama who had her super baby with us in her 40s, and I always remember her saying that needing to work hard to get pregnant was such a blessing for her, because it was the catalyst for her feeling like she had no choice but to step up her health.

At this point in her life, where the average person in America, in the Western world and on the globe is starting to see massive declines in their health in the fourth decade of life, that just continue on and on.

But if you have this moment of, I want this thing more than anything in the world, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get there, and then all of a sudden you're feeling like, wow, I'm healthier than I was in my 20s or 30s.

As opposed to being on this, on the decline, with my with my on average, people are at this point in life. And it was really interesting because obviously that's what we do every day in the semester protocol and at FPI.

But I had never really thought about it like that. We we talk all the time about how intimately tied reproductive longevity and longevity are. We have all kinds of data showing that relationship.

So when we're doing things to improve our fertility, we're doing things to improve our longevity. But it's a but it is it's a slightly different way of looking at it, which is this beautiful opportunity to really step up our health at a time in life when the most people would say, the ship has sailed and health is just going to keep deteriorating from there.

And then you get to have such a different life experience because of that and your your super babies and your super babies. So I think that that's so beautiful that the way this, this mama said it and very much tied into what you just said about this positive trend of of people really wanting to understand what's going on with their bodies in, in a way that we haven't seen really in the past.

So I agree, that's absolutely beautiful. What do you think is the the most concerning or, trend of 2024 when it comes to fertility or something that you wish would look different?

I think what I wish would look different would be the support. So I. Yeah, our. Organization does a wonderful job, but I, you know, some patients are not as lucky to have found you.

And so they kind of feel like they're on this all by themselves. And they don't always feel like they're getting their questions answered. And then they resort to Google and they get overwhelmed.

And that's really, you know, unfortunate that it's so hard for women to get what they need and the support that they deserve in a way that is excess to them.

So that's what I wish would be different. I evokes a lot of emotion in me like I have, you know, I have tears because I think, as someone who lost her mother at birth, I the the journey to finding a way to feel supported in life was not for the faint of heart.

Because your mother is your you know, first and most essential source of support throughout life. So I have a a really intimate understanding of the way you can really feel like you're lost and floundering when you feel alone and like you don't have the support you need or you, or you don't know where you need to go for support, which is, I'm sure, one of the reasons why we take the support we provide so seriously and thoughtfully and sacredly because, I mean, we have a mountain of scientific data that shows that it you know, it might sound like it's cute or sweet or optional to have support, but actually the social support scientific literature is so profound that, I mean, isolation is as deadly as smoking.

Not having support is is literally a deadly for the body, the mind, the spirit. And on the flip side, everything that we want to do, be, have and achieve in life, including being a mom, including having our super babies, is becomes more possible for us when we have support, and the data show that very clearly, and that's for all humans.

But it's even more that effect is even more pronounced for women. So I just all that is to say, I couldn't agree more with just how how much I wish, like you wish that support were easier for people to find and access so that they wouldn't feel so alone on a journey which feels very long and hard for many people as it is, and is even longer and harder when you feel alone. Yes.

So thank you so much for raising that. You're I, I've asked this question in every interview, and thus far you're the first person in that. And yeah, to me, you know, I have such a strong visceral reaction to that. Yes.

That that is so much of of what we need. And it doesn't just stop when you finally achieve your positive pregnancy test, right. In some ways, the need for support.

Yeah, it's even greater at that point. And then when you when you give birth and, and everything, that comes after that, I, I always say it takes the village to make our super babies and grow them, but it also takes a village to raise them.

Right. So yes, that's absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for that, Rose. Thank you. tell us, who would benefit from tracking their reproductive hormone?

So, of course, anybody who wants to be pregnant in the near future, anybody who's struggling to get pregnant, which is the, you know, the vast majority of people on the Prime Minister protocol have been, you know, have come to us after trying to get pregnant for months, years, up to two decades now.

I was I was telling you before we began the interview that now 26% of the mamas who come to us actually come in advance of trying, which I love because that's an empowering place to come from, to to be proactive and planning ahead.

But tell us, tell us which groups who who benefit the most from tracking their hormones. Well, of course it can be anyone. If you have any interest to understand your hormones.

We have people simply tracking their hormones for health reasons to say no. I have, you know, maybe they say I have pretty severe PMS symptoms. Does it have anything to do with my hormones?

So of course it does. Yeah. So when they start tracking, you know, they're empowered to say okay yes there is an imbalance here and we can start working on it.

so anyone that has any interest in, trending their, hormones with their symptoms or their situation for turning for health, also for, those even if you're just starting your fertility journey or haven't even started yet, simply finding if you're ovulating or not, can be, you know, so much relief.

I can't tell you how many patients say I'm just so relieved that I'm ovulating. And my, you know, more moans are following the pattern that they're supposed to.

So you then you don't have that unknown. You can just simply begin testing, see your data, and then move forward. But it's also very helpful for those who are now starting to try to do, intervention.

So maybe they're doing lifestyle changes, diet, exercise, working with, a fertility coach or a provider or a program like yours. because if you, stop tracking or just do a one time, let's say blood test or as you mentioned, Dutch things like that, you really don't see if you're continuing down the path you want.

Are you moving towards better balance or did you go off. You know, so I've had patients who begin, let's say, exercising every day. That's a general recommendation.

And actually then their cycles become irregular and, you know, then we have to have the discussion what went wrong. You know, maybe they're not keeping their calories high enough or healthy body fat, high enough.

And so if you're continuing to track, you're making sure that you're staying on the path that you want to be on. Absolutely. I think that's really beautiful.

And I think it also can be very motivating because sometimes it's hard to sustain motivation for the modifications that you're making in service of your fertility and your super baby goals. And, one thing that's really beautiful is that your period and your cycle, they're they are vital signs that give you pretty immediate feedback about what you're doing.

And so it can be that maybe you lost motivation, and then you see that change reflected negatively in your cycle. And so then it helps you to stay motivated to come back to what you were doing that helped you to achieve positive changes in your your cycle and you and the dance of your hormones and what your period looks like.

So I think that that's that's very powerful to the way that it can give you this pretty immediate feedback about what's going on. Yes. And we all know that at some point we're going to become discouraged or as we say, fall off the bandwagon. Yeah.

but as you said, it is truly that monthly report card or feedback back to you of how is your body doing? and are you listening to it? And of course, you can always you know, that people say, well, we're taking a break and that's okay.

You can take time away. You can stop from testing for a while, but you can always return back and don't give yourself a hard time that you took a break from anything.

You can immediately begin testing at any point. It's not like I think some people think it has to be very linear and I'm going to do this, then this, then this, and it really does not have to be like that.

Our bodies are not robots. We're real human beings with real life situations that come up and, right now might not be the best time for you to continue trying to conceive.

And that's okay. That's part of that, support that we are talking about, of no one should be making you follow this very, linear pathway. They should all be personalized and individualized to you. Yes.

And and to feel right for where you are in the moment. Absolutely. So what do you think is the most disruptive thing about the mirror? And I mean disruptive in the best way possible.

So I know it's the first tool that it gives you that allows you to have quantitative measurements at home. And that in and of itself is incredibly disruptive and in and in a wonderful way.

Anything else that you want to highlight? so talking about like the benefits or some of the challenges, which one would you like? Yeah, I would, you know, I would be more about benefits, but I would not.

Who benefits from hormone tracking and why consistency matters

But we'd love to hear both. Yeah, absolutely. of course we, we have to be realistic and talk about your testing. Your testing. Your hormones can be disruptive in the negative sense of you do have to collect first morning urine samples.

So we want to be very upfront of how this is done. But I think most people would prefer collecting a first morning urine, versus going to the lab every day or every other day or even once a month.

That's that's really disruptive to people. So, you know, it does take that commitment on your part of you are going to collect those first morning urine, you're going to insert it in the analyzer and then wait for the results.

and the just like it's a benefit that you can see real time data. there's also the disadvantage of thinking one data point is the end of the world. This you know, my progesterone just dropped.

Why did it drop? What's happening? and so we always want to encourage you to understand, I loved how you worded it, that your hormones play a dance. They're dancing. Yeah.

Your hormones do fluctuate a lot. And just as they fluctuate in the blood, you're going to see them fluctuate in the urine as well. And so remember we're always looking for overall patterns and trends versus a single data point isolated on its own.

And so be rest assured that continue testing. Continue looking at that overall pattern and trend. And if you do see, you know, a data point that you're concerned about, that's okay.

Log it. But don't, hyper focus on that one data point because, your hormones are expected to fluctuate. And when you are working with, a program such as yours or a provider directly, they'll be able to look and see.

Are your hormones balanced or the following the correct pattern and trend? Absolutely. And I just have to say from our experience working with thousands of mamas that we have seen people conceive successfully in all kinds of cycles, including include cycles when things don't look perfect. And and the mama was worried about what the numbers she got and etc..

So I think, I think that's a very it's really important what you just shared, Rose, that it it really is. It's not just in the, collection of our biomarkers and our fertility data, our cycle data.

It's really a blessing and curse or double edged sword of the modern world that we live in, which is that we have more access to information than ever before, more access to information in an hour than people had probably in their lifetimes.

Many in many cases. And that's a wonderful thing, because we get to be so much more informed. We get to have so much more choice. We have to be, you know, careful and scrutinized the sources of information like you were talking about going down the rabbit hole of Google.

Well, that's enough to make people crazy. But then you add in the variables of anybody can be putting information out there. And, you know, just because something is a top hat doesn't mean always that it's a credible hit right on Google. So, so it's wonderful that we have the access to information and with it choice and decision making.

And sometimes the the amount of data and the amount of information can be really overwhelming and can really fuel, anxious and kind of obsessive tendencies, which are very much a part of the fertility experience when people are having difficulty getting and or staying pregnant or, it's, it's it's just, a really common thing for, for every people to get hung up on every detail because they're trying to solve the equation, they're trying to solve the puzzle.

So thank you so much for that. I think that's really, really important to say. Thank you. What about what about disruptive. And on the positive side, the benefit.

Yes. Yes. so I think the disruption on the positive side is you may be shocked when you see what your data looks like. So, you know, maybe you're having a regular cycle and a normal amount of bleeding.

And then lo and behold, you start testing and you find that you have low progesterone, or you have an issue. And sometimes that can be, you know, a little bit alarming and, but you don't have to view it as a negative.

You can see this is now something that I get to work on. I think we feel powerless, when we don't know what to do next or, is, you know, is this clinically significant or not?

Well, you can take that information and start making different choices and watch your data improve. And so it can be very empowering. I can't tell you how many patients that, you know, I start helping and I see their chart and I tell them, I can't diagnose you with anything, but I am concerned that you have, metabolic dysfunction such as PCOS.

And then they go see their provider get a workup and come back, and they're like, you were right. I do have PCOS. and I'm like, that's, you know, now you you know, you know, now what are we going to do about it?

So what steps are we going to take now to improve your hormone balance so that you can, you know, just be healthier if that's your goal? or if you're trying to achieve or trying to avoid whatever your fertility goal is.

I'd like to help you on that. So I think, you know, to summarize that it's, it really is back to that empowerment of you now, know what your hormones are really doing.

And then you can decide what do you want to do with that information? Yes.

Benefits and challenges of at-home hormone testing

Taking the power back into our own hands, which I feel like is really the trend in fertility and everywhere in life, that we, we want to be heading in, knowing that our fertility is innate to us and that we, we have the power to access it and make the most out of what we were given, especially when we when more informed and we have data about what's happening with us.

So that's so beautiful. If you could tell people just one thing about taking care of their fertility and their future children's health, what would that one thing be?

Rose? Oh, that's a hard one. It's a. Big one. It's a big question. Oh, I think what I always go back to is you deserve to have the resources that you, you need.

And, of course, that that's not really one thing. Right? A resource on nutrition and then a resource on best exercise, you know, that can really bloom into a lot of things. But, ultimately, you should always be advocating for yourself to have those resources.

So whether you seek them out yourself or, you get them from a program like yours or a provider, but always not settling for what you are. just told outright, advocating for yourself and getting those resources you deserve.

It's just as important as the support you need as getting the right resources. So, that's what I, and I think Mira is that as you mentioned, can be that catalyst for you, when you start testing, you start seeing what's really happening.

You can take that and springboard yourself into better health and, of course, reach the fertility goal that you're, seeking. I love that so much. Okay, one last question before we wrap up for today, Rose, what is the feeling of Super Fertility to you when you hear the term Super Fertility?

What does it evoke for you? I think it feels like, healthy power. Thank you. Yeah. Like, yeah, I think, you know, like the superheroes and like those strong women who we know they want what's best for themselves and they want what's best for their children and for their communities and for the world.

And when we stand up for what's right and important, we can change the world, you know, one, one person at a time yourself. And so, yeah, stand up for yourself and get what you need.

And, if that is trying to conceive, then, you know, live in a way that you can, be proud of your super baby. I did, because I took care of myself and, you know, did all these things.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I love that so much. Healthy power. That, to me is so beautiful because power.

Healthy power and closing reflections

Power is such a critical part of our life force and our creation. And I think sometimes the word gets a bad rap or is used for, for negative things. And really being our most fertile selves and living our most fertile lives is always going to ultimately be about stepping into our full, fertile power and self authority, whether that's in our bodies, in our minds, and what we're creating and producing to put out into the world our contribution to how we give back to the community.

Like you are saying. So gosh, I love that so much. Rose. stand up and get what you need so that you can live in a way that you're proud of and live with pride as you look at your super baby.

Thank you so much, Rose, for being here with us today at The Super Fertility Summit. And thank you to our incredible sponsor, Mira once again. Yes, thank you for having me.

Thank you. Rose.

Rosemary MacKenzie, RN, CEN, BSN

Discover Mira For Effective Fertility Health