The “Not So Pretty” Chemicals Impacting Your Fertility With Dr. Leah Gordon

Cassie: Thank you, everybody, for joining us again in part two of how to Reclaim Your Life While Trying to Conceive Series. Welcome back to the show. Today. I am so super excited to have a wonderful special guest with us today, talking about these terrible chemicals that are apparently in all of our beauty care products today. We are very lucky to have with us Dr. Leah Gordon, who was recently featured on HBO is not so Pretty documentary, is also a naturopathic doctor and a functional medicine doctor, a fertility consultant, and the owner of Womanhood Wellness. Welcome, Dr. Leah.

Dr. Leah: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here and to have a conversation with you about fertility. It’s one of my biggest passions.

Cassie: That’s just amazing. I’m amazed that we are sitting down here having this conversation. I think it is so, so important. And I was watching you on the HBO documentary, and I was just thinking I need to talk to you about all of this, about your own experiences, how you’re now helping couples who are struggling with infertility and how everyone can can just be aware of what’s going on in our products. How can we fit this piece of sort of like that fertility puzzle in our journeys? Right.

Dr. Leah: Yeah.

Cassie: So tell me a little bit more about yourself and how you support patients through infertility.

Dr. Leah: Yeah. So as you mentioned, I’m a naturopathic and functional medicine doctor. And for anyone who doesn’t know what that means, my training as a doctor is really based on understanding how the whole body is interconnected and all of the parts and pieces work together. And a lot of what I do is find the root cause of imbalance. And sometimes it’s something we just need to do different testing or understand what’s going on with the lifestyle or the diet or mindset or whatever it is that is maybe at the root of what is causing imbalance. Sometimes with unexplained infertility, we can’t always find an answer. But many times with my clients, it’s just that the doctors they’ve been to aren’t looking in the right places or asking the right questions. And what I do is really comprehensive intake, a lot of lab testing and really trying to understand what is contributing to imbalance in the trying to conceive journey and helping a person or a couple optimize as much as they can, both before they become pregnant, not only for their own health, but their future children’s health, which is something they can talk about through epigenetic shifts, but also their ability to actually conceive and carry a baby, to terminate and become a mother or the parents that they dream of becoming. So I work with patients one on one, and then I also have a lot of online education that’s my Womanhood wellness company to just bring more awareness and real life knowledge that people aren’t getting at their normal doctor’s office. And I see so many patients who have been to so many doctors, and we’ve done so many different things. And unfortunately, our medical system is just not designed to be super optimal for certain conditions. And I would say fertility is one of them. I personally had to go through IVF with my husband because of his firm situation. And we can dive more into that story. It took me about six years to finally come to that understanding that that was our only option after trying so many different things. And we optimized in so many different ways that we can talk about as well, especially around toxins. And I’m grateful for that system. But I feel like so many people are pushed into that system before they need to be. And other parts of the puzzle aren’t being addressed that not only impacts your ability to become pregnant, but also the quality of your egg and sperm, which ends up being the quality of your baby embryos and your future babies. And so I’m just really passionate about this topic, and I feel that there’s a big gap that needs to be filled, and that’s what I’m trying to do as much as I can.

Cassie: Yeah, 100%. And all of that sounds so unbelievably amazing what you’re doing. And I feel like so many couples out there are having similar experiences where they’re going to the doctor, and doctors are just sort of doing, like, routine stuff. Okay. We’re just going to start this sort of medical procedure or path for you without really digging into everything that’s going on in the body, mentally, physically, just without looking at women as, like, whole people and without getting to that root cause. I remember when I first told my OB that I wanted to start trying. The first thing I heard back was, you need to lose weight. And I was struggling with obesity at the time, but that was the first thing. There was no testing. There was no, let’s sit down and figure out what’s going on. She had no idea of what was going on really inside my body. It was just like, immediately like, okay, well, you have to do this. Otherwise you’re just going to have infertility. I think a lot of people are just having such bad sometimes traumatizing experiences through that path. So I think it’s amazing what you’re doing, trying to fill in that gap. Thank you for sure. So, yeah, let’s dive into a little bit more about your experience with IVF due to male factor infertility.

Dr. Leah: Yeah. So if any of you listening have watched the HBO documentary, I go a little bit into it. But I actually have our full infertility story at my website, Wellness or on my Instagram. It’s actually a Gordon because it’s kind of a long story, so I won’t go into all the details here. It’ll take probably an hour, but just high level view. I actually found out that my husband had no sperm basically in medical school when we were doing a sperm analysis class, and we were taking a sample in the microscope and looking, and it was just something. It wasn’t even on my radar that fertility was going to be an obstacle for us. And I didn’t see any sperm, and I made sample after sample. It was one of the worst days of my life. I had to break the news to him that there was no sperm, and he’s a Jacuzzi, essentially. And that kind of started me off on this many year journey of both of us trying to figure out the root cause of what was going on. Because of my training, I was still in school, so I couldn’t personally order labs or do any of that because I wasn’t a doctor yet. So I was going to so many different doctors and trying to find answers, and we were just going into so many different avenues, trying to understand why, what is going on. And I was very determined to find the why, because that’s my training, and that is I always believe that there’s a why. Like, if you can’t find it, you’re probably not looking in the right place, or we don’t have a technology to identify if it’s mental, emotional things. And there’s always usually a root cause, even if it’s, like past lifestyle. I mean, it’s like there’s something always contributing to imbalance, because our natural state of being is optimal health, imbalance and fertility. And so that led me down this path. Once I became a doctor, I kind of took his health into my own hands and ran a bunch of labs, and we found that he was really high in certain toxins and chemicals, some of which are found in personal care products like the documentary mentioned. He also had really high levels of Mercury, which is heavy metal, and some other anatomical issues, and some other genetic things. We found so many different obstacles and went through lots of different treatments and approaches. And at the end of the day, all of the work we did still didn’t result in a high amount of sperm. Really hardly any sperm in his ejaculate. So we had to go forward with IVF, but we did so much detoxing to get the chemicals out of his body and to optimize his health that I know to the core of my being that that is why of the very small amount of sperm that we could extract, we’re healthy, and we have more healthy embryos. We transferred one on the first time it took, and now I have a healthy baby girl, and she’s almost seven months old. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, it was a long journey. I didn’t talk about our infertility journey publicly for really the entire time we were going through it, because I had so much shame about it, and it was just a lot to go through and unpack and emotionally, it was really challenging to the point that even when I would work with my patients who had become pregnant. I was so happy for them, but also so sad. It’s like, why is it happening for you and not for us? And so there is just a lot of emotional things wrapped into that as well. And I did a lot of personal work and so now I feel really balanced and able to help other couples. When I maybe wasn’t even as prepared to do that before, I still helped a lot of people prepare for pregnancy and become pregnant. But now I’m like I have a new faith that it is possible and that there’s more to uncover and to look for people. And there’s a big awakening that needs to happen and our awareness around what’s impacting our fertility because it’s a big deal and people need to pay attention to it. People are often suffering in silence, alone in their homes, not realizing that they’re not alone and that this is actually an epidemic. And we need to wake up to that epidemic or things are not going to be looking very good for the state of the human race moving forward. So not to be like depressing, but especially when it comes to sperm, which is a big passion of mine. And what we talked about in the documentary, Things need to change. And a lot of it is the chemicals in our environment for sure.

Cassie: Yeah. There are just articles coming out. It feels like almost every week about just how fertility reducing in our populations. And it’s all this mystery about why is this happening. And the environment around us has changed so much within two generations that it just seems kind of like lights are flashing off like Ding, Ding, Ding. We need to pay attention to these things. I think it’s just so well, just really inspiring that you are able to use your and your husband’s experience into something that is so positive and meaningful for your own patience and for other people who are experiencing infertility right now. Because like you said, you felt so much shame and guilt and so many others are feeling that way. And I feel like the only way for us to sort of get rid of that stigma is to keep coming out here and talking about it. Yeah. Letting others know that they’re not alone and even that male factor infertility is affecting female partners so heavily as well.

Dr. Leah: Yeah. No, I did a post on this not too long ago where male and fertility is a female health issue because unfortunately, when a couple is going through trying to conceive in general and fertility predominantly, the burden always falls on the woman, not only from blame from the medical society like very few even look at the man. One of my biggest pet peeves is that the traditional conventional medical route often does not check a man’s sperm until they’ve been trying for over a year and are considered infertile where really we should be checking both partners immediately as soon as they have even an inkling in their eye that they want to conceive. Because the work that we do months to even a year or more before you want to try to conceive is really when you can optimize so that by the time you’re ready, you’re not being blindsided with all these crazy experiences. If it’s not working, what’s going on? And then it takes years and years to uncover it. And why it takes so long, especially with male factor, is the life cycle of a sperm is almost three months. So anytime you make a change, it can just take a while. And we should be doing this work ahead of time, and it should be built into our system much more than it is now. And women, again, carry the burden of that, of doing all of the work, of trying to optimize the conception, of often being blamed for infertility when the man isn’t looked at. And miscarriage rates are actually almost 50% male factor. And a lot of people don’t realize that the quality of the sperm impacts a woman’s ability to even carry a baby to turn. And again, a lot of that shame and guilt and feeling like my body is broken falls onto a woman. And that isn’t fair. And we just need to see it as it’s a partnership. Becoming pregnant, it’s important. I’m excited to talk about it.

Cassie: Yeah, absolutely. It’s so strange just how our society places the active role on different genders for different things. It always feels like sexually, it feels like the male has a more active role, like it’s spoken about, in a more active way. And then when it comes to actually being pregnant, it’s like all on the woman. And then whenever anything seems to, quote, unquote, go wrong, that blame lays there too, which is just so wrong and so upsetting.

Dr. Leah: And sometimes it is female factor. It’s about a third of the time is male factor only, a third of the time is female factor only. And the other third is a combo of the two. And so whatever it is, whether it is female factor or not, I think just more awareness and more communication needs to happen for all people and all couples about what they can do to optimize and support them along this journey. I know even along our IVF journey, I would ask the doctors, is there anything that we can do to optimize? Knowing the answer, but wanting to see what they would say. And many of them were like, no, supplements are a waste of money and time. There’s nothing you can really do. And I wanted to shake them and bring them the whole document of all of the research articles that I had read and be like, Are you not paying attention to your own literature? There is so much that we could be doing to help optimize these couples. And the act of getting pregnant isn’t just about having a positive pregnancy test. It’s that the baby survives, that you don’t have a miscarriage and that the baby is healthy. And all of these things are the work that the woman and the man does before they become pregnant. And so that’s what’s called preconception. And it’s just as much a part of the journey as just becoming pregnant, having a positive pregnancy test. So it all matters and it’s all important. And toxic chemicals play a big role in that.

Cassie: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s what I tell all my clients, too. Just your journey through this matters so much, like you matter right now. So, yeah, let’s talk about more about all of these chemicals that are disrupting our hormones. So in the HBO documentary series, did talk about some endocrine disrupting chemicals that are more well known and referred to as EDCs in the industry. So can you tell us just what EDCs are and how are they directly impacting fertility?

Dr. Leah: Yeah. So there’s actually two ways that chemicals impact fertility. The first is what you mention EDCs, which are endocrine disrupting chemicals. And endocrine means hormones. And when you go to an endocrinologist, that is a doctor who works with your hormones. And the body has these hormones, and they’re little messengers that are created by certain parts of our bodies that go around like little mailmen or like little delivery people, and they give little messages to different parts of the body. So, for instance, some hormones are made from the brain and they go to the ovaries to tell the ovaries to make an egg and ovulate. And that’s how we have an ovulation every month. All of this is dictated by our hormones, our stress hormones, our thyroid hormones. We are just a soup of hormones. And so they very much impact us on a real level. An endocrine disruptor is something that is made in nature or is synthetically made in a lab that when we ingest it, put it on our skin, take it into our body. It acts like a hormone in our body. It looks like one and it acts like one. So it’s an imposter. It would be like if you had a Mailman who was delivering the mail every day, but then some shady character was actually putting stuff in your mailbox but shouldn’t have been. It’s like they still have access to your mailbox.

Cassie: All the junk mail. All the junk mail.

Dr. Leah: I think of those junk mail because they have access to the mailbox just like anybody else does. They shouldn’t be they shouldn’t be putting mail in your mailbox that’s reserved for the official Mailman that’s paid by the government. So think of endocrine disruptors as they look like it, but they’re impostors. And what happens, for instance, is let’s say you have a lot of chemicals that you’re being exposed to for your personal care products that look like estrogen. They are not your normal estrogen, but they look like estrogen, their imposters that can actually impact your fertility because it can be pumping you full of estrogens. And that can mess up the whole signal of what is going on for men. For instance, if they are exposed to a lot of endocrine disruptors that look like estrogen, it can actually lower their testosterone and make them have it a lower quality output of sperm. And they aren’t able to make enough or healthy amounts because their body circulated full of estrogens when it shouldn’t be for a woman, that can lead to endometriosis or PCOS or hormonal imbalances that disrupt the ovulation cycle. And so anytime you have something in your body that’s acting as a hormone and it shouldn’t be, it can cause issues on the other end. So outside of endocrine disruptors, these are the classic ones that we talked about in the documentary are like BPA. So when people talk about BPA free water bottles and things like that, the thing is when industries are told to remove a toxic chemical like BPA, if you’re still using plastic, they’re just going to use another chemical that’s just as toxic, if not more so to solve the same problem, which is exactly what’s happening right now, which is exactly happening why all my plastic stuff? Yeah, that’s the biggest two biggest tips for avoiding endocrine disruptors are to get rid of all plastics and to avoid any product that says fragrance. So this fragrance contains chemicals called phthalates. And again, I talk about this in the documentary, but phthalates are another major endocrine disruptor, and they are often things that are put in cents to make them stick around. So if you walk into bath and Bodyworks and it’s just like you’re inundated with smells like that’s all salad. If you smell someone’s perfume or fragrance on clothing or any fragrance in the breeze and air fresheners, in your perfume, in any lotion, sunscreen, anything that has a smell most likely has fragrance. And it’s really easy to tell by just looking at the label and seeing if it literally says the word fragrance or perfume. That’s how the industry hides all these toxic chemicals is in that label. And those so much so that we see phthalates. For instance, if you’re a woman and you’re pregnant with a baby boy in utero, meaning the baby’s in you and you’re, let’s say using perfume and you have some brief spray and you’re using scented laundry detergent, we’re seeing that the phthalate exposure is actually impacting that baby boy’s development of his reproductive organs. We’re seeing babies being born with reproductive organs that are not optimal. And we are now seeing those little boys who are exposed in their mother’s womb to all of these salads who are now trying to have kids in their 20s, 30s and early 40s. And they are experiencing infertility because of the phthalates that they were exposed to when they were babies. So it’s really important as a woman to make sure that she gets these products out. It affects baby girls, too, because baby girls, like, I was pregnant with a baby girl. Her eggs, who will become her babies are being developed in her body when she is in my uterus when I’m pregnant with her. So what I’m being exposed to as a pregnant woman impacts my future grandchildren and my children’s ability to have kids. And that is really mind blowing. And so when people ask why all of a sudden is, like, infertility on the rise, part of it is like the actual products and chemicals that we are personally using. And part of it was that we are now the generation of the babies that were born to mothers when all of these fellas were, like, really coming on into the scene 20, 30, 40 years ago. The other level that toxins impact fertility is that they actually damage mitochondria and they actually act as toxins. So, for instance, herbicides and pesticides, we put on our food to kill bugs. Right. The way that we can kill bugs or plants is that we break down important parts of the living process of them. And so when we eat, let’s say pesticides, herbicides, or being exposed to them in different ways, that does the same thing to our cells. And sperm and eggs are very delicate little blobs of DNA that have mitochondria, which is like your energy, parts of your cell. And so when we’re exposed to chemicals, these chemicals also disrupt our cells, which can impact fertility. So it works on both a hormonal level and an actual, like, direct toxic level, which is crazy and hopefully motivating for people to pay attention to what they have in their environment.

Cassie: Yeah, absolutely. And what they’re eating and getting at the grocery store.

Dr. Leah: Right. As well. Just the process that our food goes through is sometimes so unnatural. And it’s just not helping us, just making us sicker and affecting our future generations, which is crazy.

Cassie: Whenever somebody makes fun of me of not eating regular non organic blueberries or something, I’m like, I don’t care. Yeah, right. Don’t care. No, not doing it. And it’s so crazy because, like you were mentioning before, the gaps between the evidence that we have and what our doctors are actually telling us, especially I follow a lot of people on medical Twitter. And just the amount of people saying, you don’t have to try to detox, you don’t have to worry about this or that or these chemicals. Your liver gets rid of all of it. But we’re seeing a growing body of evidence that says all of these horrible things are one impacting our health right now and the health of our children and grandchildren. But we’re seeing that it’s building up in our bloodstreams.

Dr. Leah: Yes.

Cassie: And it seems like that large portion of evidence is kind of getting ignored. So how can couples struggling with infertility or who just are ready to try to conceive who want to start a family. How can they go about finding out what is in their bloodstream, what’s in their bodies, what chemicals are in their bodies? How can we go ahead and test for this?

Dr. Leah: That’s a great question. So on my website, womanhoodwellness.com, I actually have a separate section called Labs, and you can actually order your own environmental toxicity or heavy metal panel. Usually, most conventional doctors do not have training in environmental medicine and toxicity, unfortunately, because a lot of their ideas about this is that they’re trained in toxicology. And what that means is they understand, okay, there was like a massive leak of this crazy toxic chemical, or let’s use arsenic, for example. There’s a huge, let’s just say a leak of arsenic. I don’t even know if that could be a thing, but let’s just say and it’s such on an extreme level that people are getting arsenic poisoning. And it’s like really high amounts. Most doctors understand that. They’re like, okay, really high amounts will kill you. These toxic levels. Toxicology is at what level do you need to get this to die or to have an immediate reaction? That’s what traditional environmental medicine and what conventional doctors are often taught. They are taught that unless it’s at that level, there’s no impact on you. You’re not dying, you’re fine. Right. And that is just not true. And that’s the difference of what we’re seeing in the literature, what we see in practices like mine, where we’re actually running the chemicals in your body, seeing what’s actually circulating, and then understanding the delicate systems in our bodies and how those chemicals impacted. And so you can test for those chemicals in your body. It’s actually a urine test, the one that I do to see what is being excreted out of your body. And yes, there is some truth that your liver handles chemicals, but what we call it is the toxic body burden. So the analogy that I like to use is a sink and imagine water coming into the sink or the chemicals and toxins you’re being exposed to. And you have the plastic that water comes in, and then you have the drain that water leaves, and you have the bowl of the sink. If your water overflows out of the sink, you have disease or imbalance, whether that’s infertility or cancer or chronic fatigue, whatever it is. Some people have a really clogged sink drain, and that might be because they don’t Cook well. Maybe their liver isn’t working well. Maybe they drank a lot of alcohol, and so it’s burdened. Maybe they’ve been on birth control, which impacts your liver. Maybe they have microbiome issues which impacts your ability to process and get things out of your body. And so some people, maybe they don’t sweat, maybe they put on antiperspirant deodorant, and it blocks them from sweating. They’re never doing any of the things that get chemicals and toxins out of the body. That means you have a clogged drain. And so if you pair that with a high faucet load, which is you’re using conventional personal care products, you have CABRIS and Bleach, and you shop at Sephora, and you do Bath and Bodyworks and all of the conventional products that you just see at the mall and the fragrance and you drink out of plastic, like all of the things you now have a huge amount of water coming in the sink and a drain that’s clogged your sink is going to overflow really fast. The thing is, for some people, they may have turned down the faucet. Maybe they’ve cleaned up their products. They’re not using plastic, nothing scented, but maybe their drain is still kind of clogged. You can still have an overflowing sink, even if you just have a little bit of water dripping in. And this is something that again, I love many doctors mean well. Our conventional system teaches our practitioners as specialists and segregated from each other. So if you’re an endocrinologist, you know hormones really well. If you’re a gastroenterologist, you know the gut really well. If you’re a neurologist, you know the brain really well. But very few of those know each other’s fields. And so they don’t understand that it’s actually a gut problem when your body isn’t able to get rid of these hormones and that you need to work on your gut health and make sure you’re pooping and make sure that all of that is working in order to bring down the hormonal level that endocrinologist knows about. And so we need to know how it all works together. And that’s the problem that’s missing and why this conversation is like, oh, it’s fine, your body gets rid of toxins. Birth control doesn’t affect you because people get pregnant all the time. It’s like, yes, sure, but it is impacting you on a deeper level. There’s a lot more going on, and there’s a lot more to the physiology and the biochemistry of your body than what meets the eye. And that’s the disconnect that I hope more people will wake up to. There’s actually a wonderful book if you want to read more about the research around all of this, written by Dr. Joseph Pozor. Now it’s about toxins. I can’t even think of it. I think it’s called The Toxins Solution by Doctor Joseph. Sorano he’s a naturopathic doctor like me, and he’s really deep into all of the research on all of this. And it’s a great resource if you want to share with your partner, read yourself or even share with your doctor. And I hope that more doctors are waking up to this, but there’s a very real possibility that you will be met with your crazy. This doesn’t impact you, but that is not true.

Cassie: Yeah. Don’t let anybody treat you like you’re being uber crunchy or anything like that. I think this is so important, too, because even if you go to your doctor, one having the research, reading the books, getting testing done with Doctor Leah, it’s important because then you have the knowledge and you have the information to go in and advocate for yourself, even if your doctors are not as responsive to that information as you would like them to be or if they’re not doing it themselves. Like, if you have the knowledge, then you can have the power to do something about it and get your care provider to work with you or find a completely new care provider.

Dr. Leah: Right. Exactly.

Cassie: Who knows what they’re talking about.

Dr. Leah: Find someone who’s open. I get it. It’s really hard to keep up on the literature. And if it’s not in your field of expertise, you’re not reading every single paper that’s put out there. You can’t know everything. That’s why we have specialists, and I’m grateful for them. I’m grateful for the reproductive endocrinologist that helped us do IVF. I’m grateful for the neurologist that helps my patients that have neurological issues. I’m grateful for them. And because we’re all so specialized in our conventional medical model, we are missing the person who can integrate it all. And so finding a practitioner who is open to learning and doesn’t say you’re stupid, you’re crazy, but says, this is really interesting. I’m either willing to look at this or let me connect you with someone who is to help you to find resources. And Unfortunately, fortunately and unfortunately, there’s so much information out there that patients are educating themselves more. And that can be stressful sometimes for certain doctors because the patient’s bringing them information that they aren’t sure about. And we just need to have more education or more resources. Maybe it’s not your primary care doctor. Maybe there are other people who can support you in that. But to just know that you’re not crazy and to find the resources and support have compassion for your doctor. But if they treat you like you are crazy, then maybe it’s time to find a new one.

Cassie: Yeah, absolutely. Always trust your gut with who you’re seeing, with your care providers.

Dr. Leah: Exactly. And know that it isn’t their fault. It’s not their fault. We are all stuck within the system that teaches very sort of black and white information.

Cassie: And I’m sure there’s also a lot of misinformation out there as well about fertility and conceiving. So it must be very frustrating for them to feel all of that as well. But it’s great to know all this information yourself so you can bring it to your care provider. And, you know, this process of being able to advocate for yourself and make some of these lifestyle changes and sort of detoxing from these chemicals and switching products, it can all just be so very stressful. I’m sure it was for you. It is for me right now. Like, even learning so much of this information and throwing out everything that’s plastic in our house, I’m like, oh, no, what did I do? Oh, my God.

Dr. Leah: I just did a post on this actually yesterday, and it’s really been trying to conceive there is balance. And what I don’t want for people to do is to swing so far on the other extreme, where they are so stressed and so paranoid that they never leave their house, they never travel. Because what if there’s an air pressure in the car or there’s not 1oz of plastic in their life where they can’t go to the grocery store and buy food? It’s like there is a healthy balance. I want it to be the 95 five rule or the 90 1010 rule, where 90% or 95% of your life is clean products, not just bringing in willynilly things. I have my non negotiable, which is like heating things up in plastic, drinking out of plastic water bottles. But like if a bunch of green beans are wrapped in Sullivan at the grocery store, obviously that’s not ideal, but I’m not going to not eat the green beans. It’s like there are things that we have to do. And at that level, our livers can support us. It’s getting our toxic body burden down. And I’m actually getting ready to launch my new course on this Atmosphere Wellness, which is all about guiding people through that detox of like, detox in their home and their bodies to prepare for pregnancy. But I also don’t want people to be so stressed that that impacts them on a psycho level either. So, yes, be aware, do everything you can to be diligent, and also don’t panic, because when it comes to fertility, we also don’t want to be so stressed and so afraid that we send the messages to our body and our hormones that life is unsafe out here, because that message on a cellular level often can prevent conception. And so this is like something that I think I do really well, that I help guide patients with is holding both ideas at the same time. And I know for some people that can be really hard to be like, well, I need to be perfect and not have all these chemicals and products, but I also need to be relaxed and be okay with what’s going on.

Cassie: Yes. And it’s so important to have your self compassion over that perfection. And that is, like you said, extremely difficult balance to sort of navigate.

Dr. Leah: Absolutely.

Cassie: I understand that it can be overwhelming and sort of maddening. And trying to conceive can be so overwhelming in general. And for all of our listeners out there. If you’d like to join as part of this series, we are ending the series with a five day event on how to reclaim your life while trying to conceive without it taking over your life without it making you so overwhelmed. So if anybody would like to join the free event, just go to thefertilitywitch.com/free and come sign up. Reserve your spot. We’re going to be going over a little bit more of all these different disrupting chemicals and some really great tips on how to avoid them, how to not make it all go crazy so you don’t feel crazy about all of these different products that kind of surround us in our environment and how to feel that. So yeah, I hope everyone can join us as well and I’m so interested in your upcoming course as well.

Dr. Leah: Yeah I think everybody needs as many resources as humanly possible throughout this journey. That’s great.

Cassie: Thank you so much, doctor Leah, for being here with me. I’m just over the moon to talk to you and to learn from you and I look forward to seeing what you do next.

Dr. Leah: Thank you. Yes. Thank you for having me on. I’m really excited about your program. That sounds amazing and yes people need the resources and again if you want more resources from me womenhoodwellness.com I also have a list of some of my favorite products that I use on that website as well.

Cassie: I was checking them out the other day and I was so excited. I’ve been using the detox market and buying stuff from them online and just trying to find and replace the products that I have here and building trust with those companies that care what’s going in their products a little bit more

Dr. Leah: and supporting those companies that are taking the time and the work because oftentimes they’re not the cheapest or the most accessible but it’s because they aren’t cutting corners and they’re doing things right so I’m a big believer in making change through commerce and capitalism in that regard

Cassie: yes absolutely. The more demand there is for it the more we’ll see change.

Dr. Leah: Yay. I know. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on.

Cassie: Thank you Dr. Leah. Thanks so much. Hope to have you back.