Natural Fertility: A Holistic Journey to Motherhood

be so critical because the amount of neurons that babies are making in utero, I think it's like 250,000 nerve cells per minute during pregnancy and more than 100 billion neurons by the time your baby is born.

I also think in egg, you know, really priming the environment and I feel like a big trend and nutrition being such a part of that. The fear mongering around infertility is something that I really cringe at.

This is Dr. Talks. Dr. Marisa Snyder, you are a functional practitioner and women's hormone expert, and you're the author of eight books. In fact, You had your super baby boy, Kingston Carter, at 41 years old and published your eighth book right around that time, which I am so in awe of.

Your newest book, The Essential Oils Menopause Solution, focuses on solutions for women in perimenopausal and menopas. And the number one national bestselling book, The Essential Oils Hormone Solution, focuses on balancing women's hormones naturally.

You've been featured on Dr. Oz, in Oprah Magazine, Fox News, Mind Body Green, and so many other places. And you're also the host of the top rated energized podcast with over 11 million downloads.

I want to welcome you to the Super Fertility Summit. Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Cleopatra. It's such a pleasure to get to see you, honey, and so proud of this.

So good to have you and I'm really excited for you to be part of it. You have so many things to teach women about balancing their hormones across their reproductive lives and especially women who are interested in having super babies at 35 plus and 40 plus.

So I'm so excited for you to be here to share your incredible wealth of professional wisdom and also your incredibly personal experience of having your delicious super baby Kingston Carter whom I love to talk about.

One of the things that I want to do is start from the end and ask you, what's the one thing that you want the woman, the person listening to us right now to take away from this interview?

I want women to walk away with knowing that they have agency when it comes to their health journey and that there is so much that we can do with guidance, with support that really lines us up not only to have healthy babies, to just really thrive.

And so I know so often we're told a lot about ways that should not trust our bodies or that don't have a control over what's going on and that it's out of our hands type of situation.

And I have not found that to be true. Working with so many women over the years, for over 14 years. I think it is that level of agency and really tapping into a deep intuition that can guide us towards the health desires that we want.

And I think when we can imagine ourselves kind of as that future healthy version of us, whether it's a pregnant version or it is a, you know, a mama version, that that really becomes a beautiful North Star on our journey.

And that was very much a North star for my journey that, really, aligned me with the right people, including you, to really put it in motion. But I was, very, much, part of that journey and I, that journey as well and I just that's what I really want to speak into today.

I love that so much. We have so many agency when it comes to our health journeys and there's so that we can do. i just want underscore what you said and also you touched on something that feels really important to my soul which is that as women as humans it feels like we're really conditioned and socialized to not trust in our bodies and to think of our body's almost being at odds with us and our desires and goals.

And you said, that's not true. We can befriend our bodys, we can trust and we trust our intuition about our own body. So I love that so, so much. Dr. Marisa, you are an incredible advocate for women and incredible guide and support to women in your work.

And you also have your own incredible journey when it comes to your health and hormones and fertility and pregnancy. Would you teach us a little bit? Tell us about your journey and how it's informed the work that you do today.

how it's informed your personal life and how you're living your life. Oh, thanks for that question. I just love that. And yeah, I mean, Scott, if I ever took it all the way back to when I was a teenager where hormones are coming online, ovaries are It really is.

And I even think back to that time where we just had a lot of misconceptions around how girls came online in terms of their ovarian function and those critical reproductive hormones.

I call it the first puberty. That's right. And we just got a lot of it wrong. Every girl had all these issues and I remember getting birth control was pushed on to me at such a young age when…

That's right. In the knowing of today, I was like, actually that's what my body… was really supposed to be doing. You almost have symptoms of polycystic ovarian syndrome.

It looks like that, but really it's just the inconsistency of your body really coming online for the next 30 years in our reproductive age. But even then, probably as I look back in hindsight, it felt like a hot mess of a journey.

I mean, are there things that we can do for girls to really optimize their reproductive health? Because it is tied to every other system in the body, every organ system, absolutely.

But also extra grace required to the little girls and to my little girl self. You know, when I was navigating, being taught at an early age that I shouldn't trust my body at all.

And even if I was told not to trust my body, the only solution being birth control. And I just, in hindsight, from that experience and how awful of an experience that was, I put on hormonal birth controls.

I did put the Depavera shot. I lost my period for over a year after I came off of that shot. If I could go back to that little 19-year-old girl right in college and I would tell her, your body isn't failing you.

Your hormones aren't sabotaging you, I always tell people your hormones are doing the best they can with what they've got. They're in, and now I know that there are so many things that we can look at to really optimize our health, which I can talk about.

And I that's in your Primester program and everything that you educate on. But if I could go back to that little 19-year-old girl, I would have never used birth control as what I consider to be a terrible band-aid option.

Yes, we nourished and loved my body in a very different way and really trusted that my Body at that age really had full capacity to Reregulate and heal and again, I don't even know if I was honestly having issues per se It's just what I told was going on and I would have really tried it into myself And throughout my life I'm not going to pretend like I haven't had other issues.

I struggled with severe chronic fatigue in my late twenties. Um, I had insulin resistance in 20s as well. And I just had major energy issues and that has a lot to do with the trauma of my childhood.

It was, it was basically racing against the clock in survival mode. You know, you only can run that fast for that, for so long. And so, you know, again, really tending to the parts of me that needed love and needed nourishing versus trying to escape them, which I think we've all been really told and taught to do.

But even through the chronic fatigue, even though the Hajimoto's diagnosis, really knowing my body, making pivots to support my, body nutritionally, movement, sunlight, spiritually, self-care, you know, supplementation when needed, just really focusing on those big pillars and really being intentional with how I show up for my.

Body and how. I. Show up. For my my energy and vitality, how, I, show, up, for, my little mitochondria, who are really. Yes. stars of the show in so many ways.

You know, there's more mitochondria in our ovaries than any, any cell in anybody's body, male or female, and so loving up on them. But even throughout it all, a lot of doctors at that time, I remember going mid to late 30s, were warning me of geriatric pregnancy, that I had all these underlying conditions, and that it was going to be hard.

And there was never a time where I actually believed any of that. Obviously, I have amazing friends like yourself who never said anything like that, quite the opposite.

That's right. really good I felt really confident you know it's so funny in hindsight my son my little super baby is three years old and and he is so super and so delicious if we have we need a photo flashed up right now he's He goes to a forest preschool, a Scandinavian forest school.

I'm sure in Europe, there's actually a lot more of them than in the States. So he's outside playing all day. They're also learning. And we just had our little, it's so hilarious to me that there are parent-teacher conferences at this age.

Anyway, so we had our parent-teacher conference this last weekend. You know, the teachers just love to tell us how advanced our son is, like how connected he is.

How loving and sympathetic he, is how he includes everybody. But really it's his languaging and his rationing. I mean, my goodness, he's already like a little attorney in our house.

He's just… I love that. He's so super, right? I mean, there really is something unique about the super babies. I always say, don't let people force your children into a box.

Don't let them force us into a box because they don't have to just be smart or just being great athletes or have good socio-emotional functioning. They can have all of that.

The goal isn't being perfect, but having as much of as possible in life really does give us a leg up in and make life easier. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and so I had, I got pregnant at 40 and it wasn't for, as I ended up having a miscarriage with the first baby.

But then three months later, got pregnancy again, just going back to the same protocols that I followed in your program. So within three month, we were pregnant again with Kingston and A lot of people in hindsight, a lot people were like, you didn't freeze your eggs.

You didn' do IVF. So they were just like you had your baby at what age? At 41. And naturally, just double, triple checking all the things. People are so amazed that that's possible.

Yet that is so absolutely possible! And it wasn't for a lack of intention. I was very intentional. Priming up my body was important to me. Priming my husband's body up was equally as important.

And I'm so grateful that it was all game on in terms of all of the things. Really nourishing my own body during the pregnancy. If there was ever a time to really tend to ourselves, well, it's every day.

If there was a time to be very intentional about how you tended to yourself, how your nourished yourself whether it was supplements and food, it's very much in those months leading to conception and then throughout that pregnancy.

I will say that the talk track around women, pregnant women just getting to eat whatever you want, I am not of that mindset at all. I really nourish your mitochondria, nourished your gut health, and nourishes your metabolism, because every millisecond they're just building neurons at a rapid insane rate.

And so I think I just really came from a place of like, what does it look like to really serve my highest self? and serve the highest, highest way of growing this beautiful baby.

Like, how do I show up for both of us in a way that I know that it's, I am only, it, It's all health beneficial. And so there was an intentionality in not only taking care of my body and nourishing my buddy during the primester time, even a little bit before and then pregnancy and even postpartum.

I was breastfeeding up until he was a bit over two and a half years old. So proud of you. Yeah. I'm not gonna lie, I was taking choline. Like 500 milligrams of cholene, every day for three years.

Yes, yes. But I just think about all the things that I so fully committed to. Making sure my vitamin D levels were optimized, making sure I had enough omega fatty acids for the DHA and the EPA.

So I really mindful about the different areas where I could just optimize. my health, but not from a place of scarcity or concern, more from this is what my higher mama self looks like.

And I remember the biggest question that I asked myself in the journey was, who do I want to become? Who do i need to really become this little light being's mama?

And it was a mama who, you know, help was at the epicenter of our lives and play and gentle, loving compassion. It all wrapped into that, my little ones got a little cold and I swear to goodness, I had no idea toddlers got this.

I didn't know. No one told me that they ran through viruses like nobody's business. And it's so hard to watch them going through that. It's hard on them.

They're just rubbing it 24 times. But today we did a little bit of liposomal vitamin C. We did our probiotic. And so there's all these little ways to kind of boost his little system, keep his detox pathways open, and to really support his immunity.

But that's always been the mindset, you know, even before I was pregnant with him was just, how do I create the most beneficial, metabolic and reproductive system to bring in this little baby?

And so again, it all came from a very positive mindset and a kind of forward-facing, highest self mindset. And just doing that one step at a time, bringing in the right people to support, And really like nailing down the pillars.

Those are the big pieces. And obviously there's always, I get that there are women who are listening to this who, are having struggles in their fertility journey and who aren't having to take other steps and other measures.

But I just want you to, at the end of the day, if anyone's hearing this, that, there is a divine intuition in every single one of us that is constantly being told to be diminished.

but that we get to listen to. And I had so much confidence in that internal voice that no matter how many health challenges have come up for me, that I've always known that there was a way through.

I gather the right people and I really attune to my body. Again, looking at labs and taking all these pieces into consideration, there is always a I know and I can speak to all the journeys that I believe 100 in all of the women that i've taken care of and even in my own journey.

Yes, so beautiful. So, and I just want to come back to that, the nutrients that you focus on all the time that your primestering, pregnant and postpartum, those foundational nutrients, right?

Having the right pre-pregnancy and prenatal formula because the pre natal isn't just for once you get that positive pregnancy test, it starts before that and it has to have the write blend of vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients and then you have your omega-3 fatty acids with an emphasis on DHA, and then you have your vitamin D, then your choline.

And actually, scientific studies show that the greatest neurocognitive benefits of cholene for the developing super babies and as they're breastfeeding and continuing to develop is actually comes from twice the dosage that is the recommended daily allowance, right?

And then the probiotics, these are foundational, making sure you have the methylated B vitamins. And for some people who have compromised methylation and detoxification or have a history of known or suspected chromosomal abnormality, they need even more.

So I just want to really emphasize those things that you said. I actually did a full I know I had you on the show right after that show so much back then just talking about all this thing that there's so many mamas who were having children in early prairie menopause or heading into yes, there was a consideration.

But I went deep into I am a researcher. So I'm not you know, it's what you'll definitely be aligned with your higher self and mindset. And you don't have some research to back it up to Yes, yes.

What I'd love to share some of the world what my kind of my protocol was and based on the research and please by all means You know piggyback or correct if I remember us talking about this in detail But I guess it's so critical because the amount of neurons that babies are making in utero I think it like 200 250,000 nerve cells per minute during pregnancy and more than a hundred billion neurons by the time your baby is born and Amazing, right?

Talk about the miracle of all of that. It's just mind blowing. Such a miracle. There's so incredible and there are a lot of concerns around fertility.

And now, especially with social media, there a a of people out there giving information about fertility, and many of whom maybe don't have the right credentials to be giving out information.

So when you look at the trends, the fertility trends what are the best trends that you're seeing when it comes to fertility and what the worst trends are or the most concerning trends you are seeing?

Good question. Some of the bigger trends I think that are important or that I see is just really dialing Dialenine metabolic health, you know, especially polycystic ovarian syndrome is one of the, probably the biggest driver of infertility.

It is. The thrust of that, we see about 75 to 80% of women struggling with level of insulin resistance. Really, what does it look like to support our blood sugar?

to really nourish our metabolic health. Again, nourished our mitochondrial health, you know, I believe that every thought we have, everything that we do, every effort that you put out into this world is based on the quality of our cellular energy, our ability to process cellular and so, helping and supporting women in that direction of like really supporting our cell energy or mitochondria function I think is a big part of that fertility journey.

I think proper supplementation and nourishing our bodies. Yeah. I'm curious to know what you think about. Oh my gosh. We're going to think of a book that just came out that I am super excited about from, is it Lisa Hendrickson or Lisa?

It's the Fertility Friday Girl. And I try to remember. Hi. Do you know, I have not read the book, but I just heard about it recently. What is the name of the.

Real food for fertility. Okay, I'll have to look at it. Real food for fertility. I'm a very strong proponent of eating whole one ingredient real food.

So if it's centered on that idea, it is probably something that feels really aligned with what we do in the Primester Protocol. But I am going to take a look and I have heard about it recently.

I think also in egg, you know, really priming the environment and really focusing on egg quality is a big, I feel like a trend and nutrition being such a part of that.

The fear of the fear mongering around infertility is something that I really cringe at and it really kind of, It's a real bummer that women, that they only have these options, more severe intervention options like egg retrieval and egg freezing and IVF.

I think that moving directly, scaring women into a lot of those types of procedures just feels so heavy to me. And I get that there are instances where that's very much the case.

And you know, I have a friend of mine who went down the journey recently and has finally decided that they're just not going to anymore. So I know in my heart, so many women in those struggles, but also I just feel so fear-driven.

Yeah. I think that that is really true, that the popular discourse is focused on interventions that take the control outside of you and put it into someone else's hands instead of once again saying you know best for your body and you can work with your to get to where you want to go.

That doesn't mean that You working with your body can also mean try mastering or preparing and then going into IVF if that feels like the right thing, but not trusting our bodies as the first answer feels not the answer, right?

And it feels the conversations in society are really pushing women in that direction. It's almost like it's not safe to trust yourself. And I think that's why I've gotten so much surprise even this last two years about going having a baby naturally.

Because yes, like what like that? Yeah, that doesn't we don't do that anymore. Like yes that age and I was just like, but what if we could like yeah, yeah.

There wasn't to me that was the only option initially. Yeah. And so to be I would like well, what What if that was possible? What, what if, that door?

So I think a lot of women are being like, I have one of my other best friends who I shared your information and really opened the door for what was. But she just immediately went into egg retrieve in and went in to freezing her eggs.

She's 36. And I was like girl, it was not even on my, wasn't even thinking about that. That is so young for us. Oh my gosh. I off to say, so you have referred so many women in their forties to us and they've all gotten pregnant and One of the most recent ones gave birth to her super baby at 47 years old.

Conceived naturally, had a home water birth. All these things, and she came through your referral, all of these that people think are not humanly possible.

And it's really incredible what is possible for our bodies. It's always been possible, people have been having babies for a long time, well into their 40s.

The oldest verified natural conception is to a 59-year-old woman. I'm not saying that's the norm in every 59 year old woman who wants to have a baby will be able to That's a data point about what's possible too, but we're not hearing about those things.

So I think it is really, really incredible to have this conversation. And for someone like you to come and share, Dr. Marisa, I remember that you. Primestered for almost a full year before going into getting pregnant and people could have said to you, that's crazy.

You better hurry. At 39 years old, you don't have time to wait until you're 40 to start trying for a baby. But you were so clear. Like you said, You didn't do it from a place of fear or lack.

expansive place that was like, not, I better hurry up and do this so I don't miss out. It was, like how good can I get? How ready can be? how nourished can i be to support this light being that I'm growing?

Like you said, and I think that's so powerful and so beautiful. Okay. So I love the trends, the trend on focusing on food. and especially a focus on egg quality through targeted nutrition and nutrients like the foundations we talked about in the complete mama bundle that we just talked.

And then on the flip side, the trend that is worrisome is this fear-mongering and really the push to looking outside of yourself immediately for help.

I love that. Thank you so much. What do you think, Dr. Marisa, is the most disruptive, and I mean disruptive in the best way possible, part of your work in women's health and hormones in a way that you're doing your job today?

Because, of course, as experts and practitioners, we're lifelong students, and the way that the work is unfolding is always evolving. But what do you think is the most disruptive thing that you're doing in your work today?

terms of how women are being affected. Yeah. My big focus right now, because I'm very much in it. I mean, it's so crazy to be in perimenopause and to have a little three year old, you know what I am saying?

It is very interesting. You were saying, I actually was going to ask you to come back to that because you said I've been my second puberty. And I was like tell us about your second It's a dissension and I don't know I you know, I was I remember a lot of my teenage years and i'm sure it was a mess You know everyone talks about teenage girls, right?

And I think extra race required to those girls who's whose whose system of reproduction is coming online whose receptor sites of estradiol and progesterone are Coming online and pretty much every single cell in the body and our neurochemistry that there are three times in our life where our brain gets remodeled massively, like a massive remodel, I think most women can attest to the second one.

Number one is puberty. I don't think we knew then that what was happening to us, and definitely no one was honoring me as a 14-year-old because my brain was remoteling itself.

But that's number one, your brain majorly rem models. to get ready to be into reproductive age. Number two, and I think this is the remodel that every mom knows, it's the pregnancy and postpartum remodels.

Your brain will never be the same. Even just the re-modeling to keep your child alive. But the reason why we see postpartum depression and post partum anxiety is you're talking about such a massive remodeling and then the decline of those hormones.

Postpartums is really a default menopausal state in a lot of ways. It is, absolutely. And so, no wonder. No, everyone's like, we're giving women such mass, and I'm like my brain is going through a massive reconstruction.

Like my entire, I can't even live in my house right now, because you know, that level. And then the third remodel is in perimenopause. So, you know, and that that's, again, tending to yourself, loving yourself.

You know if also you are in postpartum and impairing menopause, that is a double remodeling. It's you moving into an Airbnb kind of situation. your house gets finished.

You know, a lot of, not only in my own personal experience, the brain changes that I've undergone in the last several years, but also in all the women that i'm talking to.

There's the major brain reconstruction and the feeling at times mood changes and brain fog, inability to focus. And I was telling my team today, as I do all these webinars and I connect to women every single day, I ask, when is the most disruptive symptom?

And they say, energy. I'm like, well, tell me about that. All they're measuring it is their ability to fire. That's so interesting and all of a sudden their brain isn't moving as fast as they can and so a part of that energy is that brain capacity and I was like that's how I measure my energy too I can you know my I think of like I could still lift the really really heavy weights I still have energy to chase my son around what I'm struggling with more is my the amount of mental bandwidth I need to have And that feels like a bit of an energy drain.

And so I would say that's probably, besides the energy in general, our brain capacity is shifting, and there's ways to really support that. But I think as long as women understand that that is a part of the remodeling process in perimenopause, we can be more well equipped.

Women should know that their brains are remodeling, you know? And then what can we do proactively to support our brain during that process? That's an area of focus that I'm seeing a lot of.

Women are really scared. They're scared that maybe it's early dementia. And with the rate of dementia being so much greater for women than men, it is an understandable concern.

So that's what I am working on right now with my women and myself. I love that. I love that so much and that they feel like they're going crazy or something's wrong and they are afraid, but if they just had this information they wouldn't be.

So I'm so thankful that you're talking about this. It's so important. Okay, I know we're about to wrap up. I want to ask you two questions. One question quickly is, If you could only tell the woman, the dada, human being listening right now, one thing about taking care of their fertility and their future children's health, what would it be?

The one. I think I always lean towards nourishing and replenishing nutrients and really just making sure that your metabolic health that is really dialed, that you're really nourish your body in a beautiful way.

And obviously, there's many facets to optimizing our cellular energy, even being outside in nature in the morning. is making sure that you're getting the kind of sleep that's restorative.

Making sure, again, if you were building that many neurons in a little human, in utero, what does that look like to support those neurons? Yes. But that was the thing, movement that feels good and nourishment that is really supporting.

Remember, food is molecular information, so that we're giving the product the right information. I love that. Food is molecular information. Let's make sure we're giving our bodies the right information, I loved that so much.

Okay, last question before we wrap for today. What does super fertility mean to you? So what do you think of when you hear the term super-fertility, but even more, what does it feel like?

I mean, I think it feels energizing. It's like a feel good component. I feel like the word that really comes to mind is alignment. Love that so much. So beautiful.

Thank you so for being here. You have blessed the people listening right now. Dr. Marisa, so happy to have you as part of the Super Fertility Summit. Thank you for tuning in to Doctor Talks.

We hope today's episode has enlightened and inspired you on your path to optimal health. Each day is a new opportunity to make choices that empower your well-being.

For more insights and strategies, subscribe to our podcast and visit our website, www.doctortalks dot com. Stay connected, stay healthy, and join us next time on DoctorTalks, real talks from real doctors on the issues that matter to you most.