Top Fertility Trends Of 2024: What You Need To Know

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Thanks for having me. Dr. Cleopatra, it’s great to be here.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

It’s good to have you. I’m excited about everything that you’re going to share with the people listening to us today. I know that there are many women, men, and humans of all genders who need and are hungry for the information that you’re going to be sharing today. I’d love to start today from the end and think about if there was one thing that you want people to take away from this conversation that we’re having today, Dr. Aumatma. What would that one thing be?

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I think I would for couples that are struggling. I think too often they’re being told this and that and that from everyone around them, whether it be doctors or family or the random neighbor, that’s fine. Just relax. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Exactly. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Instead, I would love for women to walk away from this, couples of all genders should walk away from this by tuning out the noise and just going inward and listening to their intuition. Because 

it knows more than you think.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

I love that so much, doctor. That’s so much what we talk about in the Primemester Protocol—that our fertility is innate. It already exists in us. We don’t need anyone to give it to us. We need to turn it in to access it and accentuate it. Ignite it. I love that so much. I just felt this amazing weight fall off of me when I heard you say that. Turn inward and listen to your intuition, because it knows so much more about you, your fertility, and your future baby.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Your future baby. Your baby is trying to connect with you in this way, and we’re often so busy looking at the outside that we’re not connecting with that. That future baby that’s trying to communicate and trying to be, just get that play out of my office or whatever. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

I love that and want to get that thing out of here. It might be the plant, or it might be that it’s the wrong partner, or it might be the wrong job, or it might be. The wrong self-talk, but, because it’s with you already. I love that it’s so beautiful. It was such a beautiful exhale. Thank you for such a powerful, stress-relieving start to this interview that I know all of us need, whether it’s about fertility, having a healthy pregnancy, having our super babies, or anything else that we’re struggling with in the world. I think we’re being fed so much information that it suggests that the answers are outside of us when the answers are always inside of us. Or at least that’s the starting place. We can always use help, support, and a guide, but we know where the mama bears are; we know that we.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Absolutely. and it’s been said that the best teachers in this world, which doctors should be teachers, are the ones that connect you to yourself rather than the ones that try to impose their will onto you. I think that applies when you’re looking for a provider when you’re looking for someone that you can be, who’s going to be on my team to support me with this vision. You want to find the person who is helping you connect with that self and that inner wisdom because you have it within you. No one else needs to tell you. Most of this, most of our clients, are, you’re telling me the thing that I should be doing that I already knew I should be doing? I’m, yes, exactly. It’s that example. You already know it. You just need someone else to be, which is why it’s important if you, in particular, will do this thing.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes. beautiful. I love that teachers should be doctors, and that’s very much what and who we are. I mean, that’s exactly how I think of it. At the Fertility and Pregnancy Institute, we provide education and support; instead, we educate you so that you can tap into your innate fertility, make informed decisions for your fertility and pregnancy, and have informed conversations with your healthcare providers, your IVF doctor, your OBGYN, etc. I think that’s so beautifully said. The best teachers in this world are the ones who help you connect to your inner self and your innate wisdom, rather than imposing their will, their ideas, or their dogma on you. I love that so much. Thank you for that, Dr. Aumatma. What would you think are the best and worst fertility trends of 2024?

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I have a feeling you have some strong opinions here based on that. That chuckle. Well, I have, what? I’ll tell you, this is maybe not a 2024 trend, but it’s been a trend in the fertility world that I question every single day. That is if you can’t get pregnant or stay pregnant, just take progesterone. I’ve seen this go awry so frequently that there’s talk about it. Yes. It’s women who have this idea. I was just talking to someone yesterday. I think my progesterone might be low. Should I just take progesterone? We have this thought that it’s just this hormone. A -it’s a hormone. B – you haven’t measured it. You don’t know what’s happening with your progesterone. You just want to supplement it because you heard from your neighbor, your friend, or whoever else that she took progesterone and got pregnant and the biggest piece is, I think, realizing that progesterone comes; it’s made by the corpus luteum in the ovary after that egg gets released. 

If you don’t have progesterone, what is that saying about the quality of that egg? They develop that corpus luteum, and the egg develops together. They are part and parcel of each other. When that egg is released, it’s ovulated to the fact that the corpus luteum stays behind to produce progesterone. If it’s not producing enough progesterone, you probably don’t have the egg quality to support it. Then the last thing, if that wasn’t enough, is the last piece, so many women think that it’s progesterone because they all see little wavering on beat charts or even a lot of the new strips that the apps are measuring at home. This woman was telling me that my progesterone was going up and down. I said That’s not progesterone at all. That’s your gut health; your gut is inflamed. Then she’s got her things. She’s crying about it. It’s yes. It’s your hormones; don’t lie. But the solutions or quick fixes that we think are the fix are just Band-Aid. They’re covering up the real problem. That’s not a new trend. It’s been a trend. It’s been the trend in fertility forever. I use progesterone very much, and when people need it, they need it. But we don’t get to that point until we have worked on everything else. It’s rare that when you’ve worked on everything else, you still need progesterone supplementation.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Thank you for sharing that. The best trend of 2020.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes. The other trend is the trend of the new apps. There are so many amazing, technologically advanced apps that are helping women measure their hormones throughout the entire cycle.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

I love it; it’s almost a DUTCH Test at home.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Which I predicted it would happen. I dreamt about it and I’m so excited that it’s happening. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

It’s happening,

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes, I’m, in fact, one of our sponsors, Mira Fertility Monitor.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

I love Mira so much; everybody in the Primemester Protocol knows how much I love Mira. Exactly.  I love it.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

That’s my favorite too. I’m a Medical Advisor for them.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes. It’s wonderful. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Awesome. It’s the trends that are moving women towards more education and more self-knowledge again, are the ones that I’m a huge fan of.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes, I love that. The apps and tools that are moving women toward more self-knowledge. That is the best trend of 2024. It’s been on the rise for the last couple of years. I love that so much. Thank you for that, Dr. Aumatma. Tell us about the common misconceptions around conception.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I think the biggest misconception is that women are made to believe that our fertility drops off a cliff. That age used to be 35, and the trend in 2024 is that it’s moving even younger. I’ve heard women as young as 32 say that their doctor said, it’s because of my age. I’m 32. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

You’re 30? You’re so young. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

I didn’t even start having my super babies until I was 35. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes. I think that is a big misconception. That misconception started in the 1800s in churches, not science, that were noticing that women were not coming to get their children baptized after they turned 35. But if you think about 1800 France, you’re wondering: what else was happening during that time? 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Women only lived to the age of 40. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I think that. Yes, I feel it’s a big disservice because so many women go into fear when we hear that. I’m 38 and I want to have a baby, and I should just go do IVF because that’ll never happen on my own. A – She’s never tried. B – just because you were 38 doesn’t say anything about your fertility. If you move through the steps of understanding what’s happening with your body as an individual, regardless of age, then you will have so much more information that allows you to make more informed decisions, not out of fear but out of the love that’s bringing you forth into this parenthood.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

I love that so much. Stay connected not only to your innate fertility, your innate knowing, and your intuition but also to the love inside of you that’s calling you forth toward parenthood. That’s so beautiful. Thank you for that, Dr. Aumatma. I love that so much. 

It’s interesting because the Primemester Protocol is based on the science of epigenetics. Everything that we do is evidence-based. Yet everyone talks about this strong spiritual undertone of the Primemester Protocol because everything that we do comes back to us and comes back to who we are being and being in a relationship with ourselves, our knowing, the world around us, and our place in that world. I love so much how you bring us back to the love that’s the driving force behind our desire to have beautiful fertility. That we can have our super babies. Because I think in all of the conversations about egg quality, gut health, liver function, lymph, and all the components, it’s easy to forget about that, which is the bigger picture of all of this. Thank you so much for that. I love that. 

I want you to tell me, and maybe it’s related to some of the things that we’ve already talked about and touched on today. What is the most disruptive? When I say disruptive, I mean that in the best possible way. Part of your work. How did it come about in your life?

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Well, here we go. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Let’s go. I want to hear. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

That’s a good question. I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years, and I have personally analyzed the signs and symptoms of over 3,000 women. I have a good sense of what drives the underlying root cause of the struggles that they’re having. About three years ago, we started creating an app essentially that would put the power back into the woman’s hand and answer this question: What is the root cause? That’s where the Smart Fertility Analysis came from by the Madre Fertility. It’s completely free. You can go to analysis.madrefertility.com. Basically to answer a four-minute question. It will tell you what your drivers are that are creating the blocks for you being able to get pregnant and stay pregnant. 

I think that’s disruptive in the sense that, here’s IVF, thousands of dollars; even the diagnostic testing is at least $7,000. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

You can even work with me; it’s not cheap. Or you can do this analysis, and it’s completely free. What’s cool is that we’ve started rolling it out for our clients, and I know them well. I was, Hey, do this analysis as a pre-working with us and a post-working with us. The data is fascinating because we’re, looking at what percentage of your symptoms started and the things that we were saying where your underlying causes are disappearing in a very strategic way. We haven’t worked on, let’s say, a woman’s blood sugar yet. That number didn’t change. But we started working on her gut health. That changed. It’s cool to watch it come to life and be, I’m just blown away. There’s tech with my reading it.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes, that is exciting. I love that so much. This is powerful. As you said, it’s one of the things that contributes to the trend that you’re most excited about, which is the applications of technology that help to put power back into women’s own hands. I think that this is powerful beyond what we could verbalize and even comprehend, because the discourse, the common discourse around fertility and pretty much all women’s health challenges and all health challenges in general, is that you go to a doctor to fix your and that it’s out of your hands, and that your well-being and your fate are in the hands of somebody else. 

The flip side of that, so that’s the structural. The societal structural message that we’re indoctrinated with every single day. But I think the flip side of this, and this is important for everyone listening, is that in some ways it’s easier and less scary to relinquish control. It feels scary to people to engage in what I call radical living, which is stepping into your full power and self-authority and then also being accountable for your process and your outcomes. Not that we are responsible for all the things that happen to us, and certainly not that we can control everything that happens to us in fertility and in all things, but that we say, I’m going to be the one to be willing to make the commitment and get up and do the work every day. When the ship is going in the wrong direction to notice it, ride the ship, and have the guides and education to support me and the community to support me. I think the other side of this is that we, in response to this indoctrination, have become a microwave society where we are a pill society where we just want a quick fix and we want someone to prescribe that quick fix. But we have to be willing to be brave on behalf of our fertility, our super babies, our future family, and the life that we want to live and say, I’m going to be the one who sees this thing through to it.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Absolutely. I think is this, this ease of giving our power away. There’s the other piece that I’ve seen in the fertility world, and you tell me if you see this too, women become super control freaks over it. The aspect of fertility that we believe is a part of us we know intuitively; we know that this is innate, yet we are trying to figure it out. Why is this happening to me? Women have told me that they go to Google, Facebook, or whatever their choice of platforms is and research the crap out of what they can take themselves. The problem with that is that there’s a lot of noise. Everyone’s saying everything about this supplement.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

But completely throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes. The missing piece is this: What does your body need? What does your body think about what’s happening with your fertility? Forget the noise. If your body is bringing to the surface that your adrenal system needs a port, only do that. You don’t need to focus on everything else that everyone’s talking about. If your body is saying to focus on egg quality, do that. Don’t worry about everything else. I think there’s this way of thinking that my hope with that smart fertility analysis is that women can come to a better understanding of what the signals in their bodies are saying and why that contributes to fertility. Once you have those, you can hyper-focus on that one piece, or 3 or 5. 

How many other pieces are there? But at least you know where to start because the other option is to throw spaghetti at the wall. None of it works. Almost none of it works. People come in with garbage bags full of supplements; tell me what I should take. I’m. Let’s just hit the pause button. Yes, maybe that idea of this. Let’s figure out what’s going on. They’re, you’re not going to tell me what supplements to take. This is a waste of my time. I’m, no, that’s the job of your provider, which isn’t to tell you what supplements to take. That’s the easy part. The hard part is being the mastermind behind what’s happening. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

What’s going on? For who’s answering those questions? Making that the starting point instead of the endpoint. The time people come to see me or us. It’s probably been two, or five years. Yes.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Of trying it on their own, doing their thing that they might have even tried a few cycles of IVF and they’re, I can’t figure this out. I need someone else to help me figure it out. I’m suggesting, Let’s start that at the beginning. Let’s address those underlying things from the beginning because it’s not going to hurt your fertility. It’s probably going to support your fertility, and you’re going to feel better in the process.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

There is nothing wrong with that.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes, absolutely. That’s what I was going to say. Not just not having it be an endpoint, but come in the trimester, come and do this intentional work before you even start trying, so that you never have to know the pain of struggle of that two-week wait and, as you said, the obsession, the control of the pain that goes with the ups and downs of that two-week wait and getting your period again. I mean, it’s just difficult for people who are going through that. You said that most of the time when people come to us, they’ve been doing this already for three, four, or five years. Our record so far is someone who came to us having been considered infertile for 20 years.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

20 years.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

20 years, and then how is it when we’ve had that scenario twice? One who had never had a child previously and one who had a child previously, but their child was so unwell that it was so traumatic, having the child that they didn’t even consider having another one until many years later. Then, by the time they came to us, had been trying for almost two decades. I think that what you say about having this be the starting point rather than this, the last Hail Mary that people are throwing out, But also, I wanted to underscore something else that you said, which is that there’s a high there’s this, this ease and comfort that comes with relinquishing control and saying, Here, I’m putting it in your hands; you fix me. 

But then there’s also this other side of this almost obsessive level trying to control, and yes, I think this is common for women who have achieved a lot in many parts of their lives and are shocked by the fact that their bodies aren’t doing the most natural thing that a woman’s body is supposed to do, and just because something is natural doesn’t mean it will be easy, but the expectation is that it will be easy. There are trillions of things that need to come into order for a human so that you can be, yes, amazing that it’s so amazing. to try to control those trillions of processes. Cell division and all the other things can just make someone crazy. As you noted. One thing that you said was that they’ve researched the crap out of everything that they could take to fix themselves. I want to underline the take part. Then you talked about supplements. Supplements are important.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Have a place. But I think that it’s going back to this microwave society, this pill quick-fix society. It’s usually not as simple as just taking a supplement because the underlying root causes are nutrigenomics and nutrition; of course, that’s a huge part of it. But there are usually other factors. Of course, I think we developed our supplement line, Super Baby Nutraceuticals. We know that they have their place, and it’s an important place. 

But I always tell people that supplements are 1/1000 of the Primemester Protocol because there’s so much more to addressing those root causes. It doesn’t happen overnight. I think that’s the part that’s hard for people: that you want to give yourself 120 days to make the changes so that you see real results, and that those real results are reflected in your egg quality, the quality of your pregnancy, and how healthy your baby is. I mean, that’s why we call them super babies. I just wanted to underscore that part because I feel it’s important to stress to people that supplements are important supplements and that’s exactly what they are. I mean, they’re not the full solution.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes, exactly. I think there are so many pieces to preparing our bodies to conceive and have that healthy super baby, as you would call them.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I think it’s possible. I think we just need to start questioning how we think about things. I created a joke yesterday on social media. It’s because there’s no research. There is no research on what you put into your body to support fertility. You can smoke, you can drink, and you can do whatever you want. It was a joke. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

April Fool’s Day. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes, exactly. It was just meant to be humorous. But the number of people that I know. I almost unfollowed you because I knew you were serious. But the reality is, a lot of reproductive endocrinologists are out there telling women that their diet makes no difference and that, I think, most of them acknowledge that alcohol and cigarettes need to go away. But that diet is surprising. There’s so much study. There’s been so much research on this.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

This is crazy to me. I completely agree. We’ve had a similar experience, and people will come back and say, My reproductive endocrinologist said that diet doesn’t matter. My perinatologist said that diet doesn’t matter. We had a mama and a couple who came to us because they had a very late-term stillbirth, days before the baby’s due date. It was so devastating. When they found out that they were pregnant again, they were so terrified that something was going to be wrong with the baby. They started seeing a perinatologist very early, and they detected that there were issues in the development of the brain. 

They came to me, and their perinatologist said, There’s nothing that can be done for you. You two just don’t go together when it comes to making new lives. That’s what they were told. They came to me, and they said, Look, they’ve said, Our baby’s missing part of their brain has enlarged ventricles, and that there’s nothing that we can do and that we shouldn’t have any more children together. Is there anything that you can do to help us? We said, Well, we know that Primemester is the most powerful tool in the world. We have not had a situation like this before. We can’t say for sure that it will do the trick, but we know that if something can, this is it, and we know that they’ve told you that what you eat doesn’t matter. What you take doesn’t matter; what you do doesn’t matter. They said you could eat sugar all day. It wouldn’t matter. I said, okay. They don’t keep up with scientific research. But let’s put that aside for a second. Let’s assume that what they said is correct. Does it hurt to try?

Then you would not believe that the changes that happened in the brain of the baby over the rest of the pregnancy, and the baby is perfect. I mean, it was just, and we didn’t know the baby was going to be perfect, but we knew we were going to do everything that we could with the situation presented to us, that we were going to make a super baby out of this situation. I think it’s just such powerful proof of that. You can shape the experiences that you have in your fertility journey, in your pregnancy, and in the health of your children. That doesn’t mean that if something goes wrong, it’s your fault. It only means that let’s do everything known that has scientific evidence behind it to help things go as much as possible. so beautiful.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

If you think you’re doing everything right, talk to someone else.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

You’re not the expert, and you better mastermind it. Even if you were the expert, you couldn’t mastermind it for yourself because there’s too much emotional charge. I’m sure.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

True.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Even the mamas who come to us are exquisitely intelligent. They’ve masterminded everything in their lives, so there’s so much emotional charge around this. It’s why a doctor or surgeon doesn’t operate on their family member. They’re the experts there, but there’s too much emotional charge for them to mastermind this process and this progress. Don’t try to mastermind this yourself, even when you are very smart or an expert, because there’s too much emotional charge. I always say FPI is the place the doctors go because the doctors need support when they’re the patients. When they’re there.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

It’s the same. Most of our clients are doctors, educated women, and couples who think that We can figure this out. We figure it out. Everything else in our lives, and your analogy to my analogy is that if your car broke down, you wouldn’t go and get a degree to become a car mechanic so that you can fix your car. You would go to a car mechanic. That’s why there are specialists in this world. It’s their job to know how to fix your car. You don’t have to know how to fix your car. You just have to be willing to drive it into the lot.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes. That’s right. Yes, I love that. Yes. so beautiful.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Yes. and I feel the other thing you were saying about the piece of I’m doing everything that I know to do, and that’s perfectly fine, but I will tell you the number of times that it’s common that people get up and say, I’m doing everything. I’ve already tried everything. Yes. You could do it. That’s different.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Yes.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

The restorative fertility protocol is very different. Yes, but you don’t know what that difference is until we start working through it and, we see why you were taking that supplement. But it’s the exact wrong thing for you to take. Let’s shift it. or let’s put something else in for a little while, and then we’ll see what happens. It’s that collective, collaborative team that you create with your provider to navigate this journey in a faster, more easeful way than you could. You would probably figure it out yourself, but the clock is ticking, and we may not figure it out before the clock ticks.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

The biological clock loves and needs food. I always say that. Every day that if you don’t have it your super baby in your arms matters, and you don’t fully appreciate the extent of that until you have your super baby in your arms and you realize how much you love this being and want every second you can have in this lifetime with them. 

Dr. Aumatma, if you could only tell people one thing about the best way to take care of their care, of their fertility, and their future children’s health, what would it be?

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Just one thing. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

I know. 

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

All the things I know, and I talk. I think my top one will be sleep and getting your sleep to be where you wake up in the morning rested, excited, and ready for your day without caffeine, and if that’s the bar, then I think even myself, including myself, have a lot of work to do. We don’t always wake up in that state. I wake up in that state sometimes, but not always. I think mastering the sleep-wake cycle is at the core of our menstrual cycle. That’s why the circadian rhythm is informing our hormones about whether or not we’re safe in this world and whether or not it’s okay to conceive. If that signal is off, it’s our body’s thinking, I’ve got to fight or I’ve got to run from the tiger. That is not conducive to fertility.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

That’s why I love that so much. One last question before we wrap up for today. What is the feeling of super fertility to you when you hear super fertility? What’s the feeling that it evokes for you?

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

I call it the vital state. It’s the core of us that is everything in alignment, and it’s from that place where we feel love and safety, and it’s our body that knows what to do and when to do it to make a baby.

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

All the exhales today. I love it so much. What to do and when to do. The vital state. Because of being in alignment.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

That’s what to do in case that’s confusing for anyone to know because I know. The number of people who are micromanaging when to have sex. I would say, follow your intuition. Follow what your body’s telling you to do. It knows when is the right time and the number of times. People come back and say, I did expect to get pregnant. I didn’t even see that I was ovulating yet. I was; It doesn’t matter. Your body knows when it is time for you to get pregnant. 

Cleopatra Kamperveen, PhD

Well, your body does know. It’s very driven. You need to have some fun at the right time. If you’re tapped in, that’s right. 

Thank you so much for this incredible time together, Dr. Aumatma. I appreciate it. Thank you for being part of the Super Fertility Summit and blessing all of us with your wisdom.

Aumatma Simmons, ND, FABNE, MS

Thank you for having me. It’s been fun.