Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - “Birth Control, Infertility & Understanding Your Hormones.” - Interview with Dr. Leah Gordon

Episode Date: July 8, 2022

Is hormonal birth control bad for you? What about a copper IUD? Can certain ingredients in personal care products be wreaking havoc on our hormones? Is birth control responsible for a rise in infertility in young women? You asked, and we’ve got answers. Alex Clark asks natural fertility doctor Dr. Leah Gordon all of these questions and more. Trust us, by the end of this episode, female listeners will feel informed and more confident about what we are or aren’t putting into our bodies.TRY GARN...

When I was in high school, I worked three jobs. I worked at Hollister for a little bit. This was all together. I worked at Hollister. I worked at a dinner theater as a hostess. And then I also worked at this little Cajun restaurant. And it was in Indiana. So I'm not really sure that it was that great.

But it wasn't bad. And that was the first time that I ever ate fried alligator nuggets. Have you ever had that? Have you ever swam in a canal with little crocodiles? Tried to find a Florida man in a minivan. I want to see President Trump do his little dance on stage, then get your ass to sass. From July 22nd through 24th in Tampa, Florida, TPSA is throwing a rager and you are invited, guys and girls. Just go to TPS.com slash SAS and use code Alex today to get your tickets to the biggest conservative summer party in the country.

We're going to have Governor DeSantis, Congressman Matt Gates, President Trump, and lots more. A few months ago, I assigned some. homework, as I like to call it, on my pop culture daily show Poplittics. I had watched the HBO documentary Not So Pretty, which is all about the beauty products that we love, makeup, nail polish, skincare, et cetera, and how toxic they are. And honestly, the doc is pretty chilling because after watching, I found out that literally every single makeup product I use is toxic. So I told Kutervatives that you had to watch. I mean, I knew that you would probably be just as horrified as I was, I also knew that many of you would want to know about how everyday products that we use

can contribute to fertility issues, which the dock sheds light on. As some of you may know, I am incredibly passionate about the conversation surrounding fertility, infertility, and also hormonal birth control. And I know that this is a hot take and a controversial opinion, even in conservative circles. But I believe hormonal birth control is poison. It is absolutely wrecking our bodies. It's contributing to an explosion of mental health issues. And a lot of women don't know this, but it hinders our physical attraction to men.

Yeah, according to psychology today, you could be on birth control and get married. And then get off of it because, hey, you know, you realize I want to start trying to have a baby. And then all of the sudden out of nowhere, okay, ew, I'm not attracted to my husband at all. So that is freaky. And I brought up that documentary not so pretty because, One of the professionals that's interviewed in the documentary is here with me today, and I could not be more excited. Not only to talk about hormones and fertility, but also hormonal birth control. She is both a functional medicine and naturopathic doctor that specializes in fertility and hormones and has helped countless women throughout their reproductive journeys.

She is also the founder of womanhood wellness, which is where her passion for helping women through a variety of reproduct. issues comes to life. And we're going to talk about her personal story of infertility to talk all of your questions surrounding hormonal birth control, the dangers of it, the repercussions, physically and emotionally from it. And much more is Dr. Leah Gordon on the spillover. I said I didn't want to do a birth control episode until I got a doctor that I trusted. So congratulations, Dr. Leah. It's you. Thank you. What are your credentials for those who are not. familiar with you on Instagram because you're like an Instagram famous doctor. So I'm a naturopathic doctor specializing in women's hormones and fertility.

And so my training, I had four-year undergrad and nutrition and biomedical science. And then I went on to a naturopathic medical degree, which is four more years after that. And my medical training then allowed me to start my own practice. And I've had a practice ever since where I specialize and focus on women's health and hormones. And our type of way of understanding the body is really getting to the body. the root cause and really understanding why there's hormonal imbalance, why there's imbalance and function and disease, as opposed to just treating the symptoms. And so we really try to understand how everything is interconnected.

And so you might be having an issue with your hormones, but it actually might be a gut issue, or you might have a mood issue, but that's actually a hormone problem. And so everything is interconnected, and there's a root cause in a underlying factor that's involved, which is what makes us a little bit different than the conventional doctor you might go to. Why working with women and hormones and fertility and things like that? Why was that important to you? So it really stemmed out of my own personal journey and struggle and I've always had issues with, let's call it womanhood problems. So I had painful periods growing up. I've always had issues. I had issues with birth control and the pill.

I've had issues with low libido. And then we actually went through infertility. My husband and I actually due to male factor, but I had a lot of other issues as well, like fibroids and polyps. And so I've always had struggles myself. And that sparked my own passion. And I really can see the women that I see in practice. I can feel their pain and I can understand what they're going through. And I have a really big drive to try to help them and try to bring something to them that maybe they aren't getting helped in other places. And so, yeah, a lot of it stem from my own personal journey. I think that makes a difference too.

I think as women, sometimes we go to the doctor and we do feel just kind of like a patient and a name on a chart and that they can. really empathize with what we're going through. Yeah, and you don't have to. You know, there are excellent doctors that haven't been through like cancer, let's say, who, you know, do oncology very well. But I do think there's another element, especially with women, especially around our reproduction. And I remember the first time I ever had a guy in exam was with a male and it was so weird

and awkward. And I just, it was not a good experience for me. And then I've had positive experiences, you know, with female doctors and it can make a huge difference. How long have you been helping women with their reproductive journeys. So this is my fifth year in practice. So, you know, I'm a seasoned doc in certain ways, but I've been working on my own health journey for many years. And a lot of what I help patients with has come from that journey. A lot of times when I'm helping my patients, I really am pulling

from my own personal experience. You know, I obviously have the medical training and the experience in that regard. But there's so much more. And there's so many other factors that are involved, especially when it comes to hormonal health and reproductive health, that I feel like I can bring to the table and my patients really appreciate. So how would you describe your own kind of story and complicated relationship with hormones and reproduction? You brought up birth control. Could you share a little bit about that and when birth control came into your life and what the reasoning was? Yeah.

So I had painful periods growing up. When we went to the doctor, you know, the pill was always the solution, as it is for almost all women. hormonal issues these days. However, I never went on it at the time because I just didn't want to. I was exposed to natural medicine really early on and I actually worked in an alternative spinal rehab clinic from the age of 13 until I went to college. Really? Yeah, which is another reason that sparked my interest in a different paradigm of looking at health. I was exposed to a paradigm shift really early in my life, which I think was a big factor in what made me go down this route. And so I didn't want to take the pill for that and I wasn't sexually active. And so I was like, why would that

be the solution? And in college, when I met my husband, my first sexual experience actually wasn't my choice. And that was really hard and has played a big role in my hormonal journey as well, but I've done a lot of healing there too. And so that's another really wonderful thing that I feel like I can help women with. However, when I became sexually active with my now husband, I didn't want to get pregnant because I wanted to be a doctor. It was always on my heart to be a doctor. And I just didn't want that to ever get in the way. So I never saw myself actually going on the pill, but it was something that, you know, everyone just does. I was in college. The doctor just put me on it. I knew nothing about it. They didn't tell me anything about it, what to expect, what side

effects to expect. And, you know, I had a complicated story in that there was a trauma that happened. And then later on in life, you know, I was on the pill. And it really destroyed my mood, my hormonal health, I would just break down crying all the time and I never knew why. And I would look at my husband and be like, this isn't me. Like I don't know what this is. I'm such a happy person. I don't understand what's going on. And I would oscillate from really low moods to just flat. Like I would just feel nothing. No happiness or no sadness. It was just like flat. And did you try other different brands of medication for birth control to see if that would help? I did. You know, I'm looking back. I wish I knew more now. I wish I had

the knowledge that I have now of what I if I could have brought that to the doctor and really understood what they were doing. You know, there's different types of progestions that are in the birth control and they do different things. And I wish I would have advocated for myself more. One of the brands that they put me on actually lowers testosterone, which is a good thing if you have acne. Like a lot of women go on birth control because of acne, even though in my opinion, there are other things underlying acne that we should be working on. But they go on it and so they're like, this is a magical pill because it lowers testosterone. I was put on that and I did not have acne. And so what it did is it dropped my already okay testosterone to even lower.

And there's something that happens with the pill where it actually upregulates what's called a binding protein. And we have different binding proteins that bind to our estrogens and our testosterone and our thyroid and cortisol. These are all hormones that circulate in the body and do different things. And when it's bound up, they can't do their work. So it's like they're locked away in a door. You know, they can't get out and do their work and do their thing. and birth control makes more of those binding propoetines that bind them all up so they can't do anything. And so this type of birth control did that.

And it also lowered the testosterone. And so it killed my libido. And that was a big factor in player for me in my relationship with my husband. And it was a really big problem that a lot of women actually experience is that low libido from birth control. And so I wish I would have known at the time because I shouldn't have been put on that. It was an inappropriate choice for me. and I wish I would have known. So what are the different ways that hormonal birth control can affect women from a physical standpoint and emotional?

So I know you talked about some of that. Yeah. So there's different factors. So the traditional birth control pill is a mix of both a synthetic estrogen, which estrogen is the typical hormone that we think of for women. And it's what makes us have big boobs and long, luscious hair and clear skin. And it's what helps us have a baby. it also rules a lot of our menstrual cycle. So the pill actually has a fake type of estrogen at a lower amount. And then it has a what is called a progestin, which is a fake progestone. And progestone is the other hormone that rules our menstrual cycle. So every month when we have a period, the hormones, estrogen, and progestone are a big part of that cycle. And in birth control, they give you two amounts of the estrogen and the progestin. And they basically tell the brain to not make your own. They're like, you're good. We don't need to do this.

We're taken over. We're hijacking your body. You're done. You don't have to do this cyclical thing anymore. And it actually tells the brain to stop making hormones to the ovaries and it won't let you ovulate. And so that is a good thing if you don't want to get pregnant. I mean, it's by design, even though I think there could be better ways and we can get into all of that. Yeah.

Oh, we will. We will. But what it does is it shuts off that rhythmic cyclical hormonal rhythm that we as women are designed to have. And so we are cyclical creatures. Men and women are. Men have more of a 24-hour cyclical hormonal cycle, and we have more of a monthly hormonal cycle. And so every day, really, of our month, we could have a different experience in both our mood, in our ability to want to have sex or not, in our, you know, feelings of aliveness or wanting to go inward.

Like, it's different based on our hormones. Wow. So when you're on the pill that just makes it flat, you don't have that cyclical change. And so it can cause things like apathy or low mood or depression. It also can change your gut microbiome. So we have bugs all over us on our skin and our gut everywhere and our vaginas all over. And the pill actually can change the type of bacteria that we have, which can cause gut issues. So a lot of women experience bloating and constipation and, you know, all sorts of issues with your gut.

Can this affect the amount of times or how often you go number two? Yeah, absolutely. Really? Well, this is playing so much. Yeah, exactly. And that's a big deal because it's not just about going number two, right? Yeah. But you have to get rid of toxic things that way.

So if you aren't having a bowel movement, you know, two to three times a day, then you build up all of these toxins. It's not, well, I know this episode is not about poop. We should do a whole podcast about poop. I would love to do an episode of poop. But is it not, wait, are we supposed to be going two to three times a day as a sidebar? Yeah. So. Holy cow! If you go at least once, that's good. That's a good goal.

But yeah, we should be going more than that. If you're not going at least once a day, that's a problem. And it should be addressed. I go like TMI, but I go like once a week. Yeah, no, that's a big problem. They're looking at, you can hear like through the soundproof walls even. They're like, shook. They're like, what?

Yeah, no, this is a big deal. And a lot of women do, and they don't know it's any different. And this is why we have so many issues with hormones because we not only make our own hormones. We're exposed to a lot of hormones through birth control or our personal care products, you know, the things that we lather all over our skin, spray all over us. And if we aren't getting rid of the excess, it builds up and builds up. And that's what can cause issues with hormonal issues like heavy bleeding, painful periods, fibroids and cysts that can impact fertility, PCOS, like all of these things that we're then seeing women

who can't get pregnant later or have all of these menstrual problems. a lot of it can be tied back to all of these basic things like being able to have a bowel movement. Well, I feel like, you know, when you talk about the misconceptions that women have about hormonal birth control, one of those is that for things like PCOS, you need to be on it, because it helps with your symptoms. And I, through kind of looking more into hormonal birth control, it seems like, well, that doesn't really do anything. It just kind of puts a band-aid over it. So could you talk about the different misconceptions that women have about hormonal birth control? Yeah, I would say the number one is that they think that birth control makes them have a regular period.

And I hear that all the time. Is the period fake? It is fake. And so, you know, my patients will be like, oh, my periods are really good when I was on birth control. And I'm like, well, that's actually a medical withdrawal bleed. So you're basically taking hormones. And then when you stop them, you have the placebo pill pack time. So let's say if you have a normal birth control pack, then you take pills for three weeks.

when you have a week of you can still take the pills, but there's nothing in them. It's just placebo. And that's when you have your period or you bleed. But you're just bleeding because you've taken away the synthetic hormones and the body's like, oh, this is like a chance for me to bleed. It's not a typical period that we have as natural menstruating women. And so it doesn't actually regulate your cycles. You just have a medical control of them. And so that's a huge misunderstanding. And so when people say, oh, yeah, I have normal cycles now because I'm on the pill. I'm like, you're just being medically managed. What I always ask is, what was your your period like before you went on the pill?

And so some of them, though, they'll say, well, it was irregular. Yeah. And then being on birth control finally helped it become regular. So what do you say? Well, it didn't help. It helped you have a medically managed withdrawal lead. However, you haven't fixed the underlying problem that led to the irregular periods in the first place.

And so there's a root awakening that a lot of women who have that situation, let's say they have regular periods, then they were put on the pill to regulate their periods. When they stop the pill and want to get pregnant, for instance, they go right back to that irregularity because there wasn't any addressing of the underlying causes of those regular periods, and then they might have a hard time getting pregnant. Because our bodies are amazing, and they're designed to do amazing things, but there are things that can go wrong. And our body's symptoms are intelligent, and they're talking to us and telling us, hey, something's not right. A perfect, you know, situation, or I don't like using the word perfect, but an ideal situation is a woman who has a normal

period that's not painful, that's not overly heavy or overly light, and they're ovulating on time, they have a desire for sex, and that is the kind of woman who can become pregnant quite easily. But when you have a sign early on in your life, like painful periods, irregular periods, even acne can be a sign that there's an issue. And then you're on the pill. You think that you've solved it because your period seems normal and regular, but you have not solved the underlying problem that's contributing to that. So then when you stop it and you want to go do the thing that your body's designed to do and get

pregnant, you can't because the hormones are all messed up and the pill never fixed it. it just kind of bandaged it up for a while. How damaging has it actually been for girls to have been prescribed hormonal birth control from ages 13, 14, 15, being on it till their mid to late 20s, even sometimes early 30s before they want to get married, have a baby, and then they get off of it? I mean, is this really jacking up our hormones and our fertility? So I want to be clear, I am not anti-birth control. there is a time and a place, you know, we can get into this whole political thing, especially this is really hot right now, you know, there was a time when women had no ability to, you know, stop getting pregnant. There were a lot of things happening. Right. And there is a time, even in my practice, sometimes I have a patient with severe endometriosis, and we've done everything, root cause of everything, and like she's miserable. Maybe her stress can't be managed because she's in grad school or whatever. And like the pill is an okay option and I'll prescribe it for her. However, the problem with the pill is that we are using it as a band-aid catch-all to solve all women's hormone problems, especially early in their life, that's the inappropriate use of the pill. And so when a

woman, let's say she's, you know, 15 and she maybe had irregular cycles or an acne, like that's a really classic one. So I had acne, my cycles aren't super irregular. Most likely she has a PCOS type of pattern. So just give you an example. Most likely she has high testosterone and some sort of metabolic issue, maybe from the diet that she has or maybe some of her genetics, maybe she has an unbalanced microbiome. She has some sort of PCOS issue, and PCOS is a type of hormonal imbalance called polycystic ovarian syndrome. But when you put a woman on the pill, you have just let her go for one to two decades with this underlying metabolic issue that's still brewing underneath, you know, unbalanced gut microbiome, potentially poor dietary habits, you know,

nutritional deficiencies, all of these things are still underlying. It's like being in a fire and the alarm is going off and you're like, let's just unplug the fire alarm. We solved the problem, you know, and that's what people think when they prescribe the pill for these problems. So when the pill is used as a hormone catch-all cure-all rather than just purely a contraception, then these women have issues that are underlying and brewing for years and years and decades. And so when they come off later, that's been, you know, many, many more years of this causing damage and problems. That's just from the issues you had before and during the pill. The pill itself then also can cause issues with your mood, with your microbiome, with your nutritional deficiencies. A classic one

is the pill definitely depletes certain nutrients. You can't absorb them as well. And we need vitamins and minerals to do everything in our bodies. In particular, becoming pregnant and then growing a baby. So a classic thing is a woman goes to the doctor when they're a teenager. They maybe don't even have a fully functioning reproduction yet. Those me. Yeah, their cycle's not fully formed. And then they're put on the pill for two decades. And they're in their mid to late 30s. And they're like, I'm not ready to have a baby. And their doctor's like, perfect. You just stop the pill. And then you'll get pregnant. And then they stop the pill. And they feel like horrible because they haven't addressed any of the underlying issues. They thought that they had a normal cycle for

the last two decades, but they haven't. They've just been taking a medication. And then they try to get pregnant. They're nutritionally depleted, so they don't have the vitamins and minerals needed. And then maybe they'll have a miscarriage because they don't have enough, you know, vitamin B12 to make the DNA needed to replicate the embryos cells. Or maybe they have irregular cycles because they had PCOS like they did before they started the pill. And now they can't get pregnant, even though, you know, they don't even know when to have sex because there are cycles all over the place. Yeah. And so that's a big problem. Okay, true or false, is there a rise in infertility problems going on right now?

Oh my God, 100%. Is hormonal birth control to blame for the rise in infertility problems? That is a, it can't be solely blamed on birth control. There are so many factors involved with infertility, but I think it is part of the puzzle. Yes, I think there are so many multifactorial problems with infertility, but I do believe. that it is part of the problem because it's the main endocrine disruptor. For young girls who did get prescribed birth control, like what I was talking about in your early teens, is there such a thing as stunting her hormone development, like where

she almost goes through some puberty symptoms years later or no? I mean, you could say that. It depends on at what age they were put on the pill. So let's say a woman, you know, just is starting to come into her menarch or her menstrual years and has barely had any cycles. Like I have some patients like this. We're like, oh, I had like one period before I went on the pill. You know, the body has to learn how to have that situation.

And there's surges of hormones for a reason. You know, when you see a teenager who has raging acne or you see, you know, a woman who has crazy, like, hormonal changes when she's a teenager, the body's trying to get used to these new hormonal levels that you're coming into contact with. And so if you kind of stunt that initially, there can be a level where your body just never really got it together. And it doesn't mean that it can't happen. It's not that every woman who was put on the pill as a teenager is not going to have a normal reproduction and can't get pregnant. That does happen. Some women really do stop the pill and get pregnant right away.

I personally don't think you should. I think you should take time to heal from the pill and replenish your nutrients and things like that. How much time? Gosh. I mean, minimum, I would say three months. Okay. Because any time there's a hormonal shift or change, like when I make dietary or herbal or any sort of recommendations that impact a body's natural. system. I don't even check labs or do anything for three months because it takes the body a while to

kind of reset. Let me just ask you a totally random wild hair question. Brittany Spears announced, the week that we're recording this episode, she announced that she had a miscarriage. And she also had testified in court that in her conservatorship, she was forced to go on an IUD that she didn't want and all these different things. And I kind of just speculated, obviously, we have no idea we're not you know, her medical team, and I'm not even close to being a doctor or anything, but I was just saying, I just wondered if her being on birth control all those years, if that maybe had something to do with it, right now she immediately is trying to get pregnant. Yeah, I mean, it definitely can play a role. And there's two different factors going on. You know, birth control can definitely impact that system.

When it comes to miscarriages, there's a few root causes of miscarriages, and some of them can be worsened by the pill. For instance, you need to have enough progesterone. And that is that. that hormone I was talking about, the pill gives you a fake progesterone called progestin, and you need to have enough to hold baby. When you have low progesterone, those are usually really early miscarriages. So when it happens right away, before you even really, you know, you know you're pregnant, but it happens and it happens right away. So that can be because if you don't have healthy eggs and you don't have a healthy follicle,

which is what goes around the egg when you ovulate, you can't make enough progesterone. And those healthy eggs come from healthy amounts of hormones like estrogen, which you need to make a large amounts of to have that, which the pill can impact, and nutrients. You need to have these micronutrients. You have to have enough vitamin B6 and zinc and all of these things that the pill can deplete. So a woman who miscarried right after being on the pill, an IUD can be copper or a hormonal base. Usually the IUDs are just progestin. They don't have the estrogen, but they can still shut down that whole system. So it's complicated. It's hard to say, you know, Britney Spears was on an IUD and that's why she had a miscarriage. There's so much.

more going on than that. And it also has a male factor. So we haven't even talked about that. But, you know, aside, miscarriages, a lot of miscarriages can actually be the man's sperm issue. Wow. And that's something that does not get enough attention. I've never even heard that before. So, yeah. Yeah. And women blame themselves often and they're like, there's something wrong with me. And that is what breaks my heart so much is when there is actually, there's two to tango, right? And when it comes to quality of embryos and eggs, then that can play a factor. So it depends on when a woman miscarries and what's going on. Okay, so let's run through a couple hypothetical scenarios.

You've got a young girl middle school age bleeding through everything. I mean, she just is experiencing super heavy period. What would your initial response be if you were treating her? What is a possible solution for a girl in that situation? Yeah, that was me. Okay. So if I could go back, yeah, I was literally bleeding through tampons, pads, clothes, everything. One, I would look at her diet.

So looking at where she could be exposed to. to synthetic estrogens in her milk and her meat products and the toxins that she's exposed to, the personal care products she's using. What is she spraying on herself, lathering on herself? So what are some examples of things that would produce that, that we're eating or ingesting or something? Yeah. So BPA and plastic is one. So I would get rid of all plastic in her life. So not drinking out of plastic water bottles, heating things up in plastic Tupperware, just being very careful about plastic because plastic has certain chemicals, including BPA, if you've

heard of like BPA-free. However, if you have a BPA-free anything, they've just replaced it with a more toxic chemical that does the same thing. We'll never win. I know. So you just have to choose other alternatives, you know, stainless steel, glass, ceramic, you know, all of these other options. There's a way to do it. I live this way and it's fine. And, you know, there's exceptions. We're traveling. I had to buy a plastic water bottle at the airport. I'm not going to, you know, die from that. But it's what you do all day every day. So I'd get plastic out of her life. I'd pay attention to our other personal care products, things with parabins and thalates. So any, personal care product that you use if you look on the back in the ingredient label and it says

the word fragrance or perfume do not use it. Because I'm thinking of like tampons, for example, that say they have like lavender fragrance and all this. No, that is a no. Is it important to use organic tampons and feminine products? Absolutely. Because for one, the vaginal tissue absorbs really, really well. Ooh. Ooh is right. I'm being freaked out by what I've been putting in me. Yeah, and so, you know, women love to make things scented, but any time that there's a fragrance or a scent, that basically is a catch-all phrase in the industry for phallates. And phallates are endocrine disruptors, and they can definitely cause issues, leads to more painful periods and fertility, all of that. So two simple things, get out plastic, get out anything with fragrance. I would look at her diet, obviously limiting, you know, herbicides, pesticides, and eating whole foods.

So the packaged process stuff, you know, the pizza that comes in the plastic and the other things that are all packaged and, process and they're not real. You can't find them on the earth. You know, you can't pick them from a tree. They don't eat what comes from the earth. Anything that is a whole food is something that your grandmother would have eaten or your great grandmother would have eaten. That's what I would have her focus on and get all of the junk food and the crap out. Did you just clench your little butt cheeks together when Dr. Leah said we absolutely need to be using organic tampons? I was like, okay, the doctor said it. Now what? Because, you know, it's been the name brand tampon companies who have refused to acknowledge what a woman is or even that it's only women who get periods in the first place. So now where are we supposed to go to get our feminine products? I found the solution, G-A-N-U-U-U-com slash Alex with code Alex. Not only are they the prettiest, coolest branded tampon company I've ever seen. They sell 100% organic tauts. tampons that you can buy one time or via recurring subscription every month, which I recommend so that you

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Code, Alex. So you think even like one of those Whole Foods pieces that's all, you know, I don't know, Tudy-Fruity, I'm saying, I'm just saying like it's very organic and all natural and all that. Even if it's a pizza that comes in that box or whatever, it's probably still not that healthy. I mean, again, I'm not an extremist. Yeah. So being careful, but I wouldn't make it your everyday. So it's better just make it homemade.

Yeah, make it homemade. I mean, if you're going to get pizza, it's fine. But I wouldn't be like my diet consists of pizza and processed food. So, you know, eating cleaner. is a big deal. And then for some women, they have different genetics that actually impact their estrogen. And so if she was my patient, I would run those and see how she's metabolizing her estrogen. And then there are certain herbs and other things that we can do to actually shift her ratios and get her estrogen getting out of her body. Pooping is one of them. Okay. So, all right, here's another

scenario. A college student or just a young woman in general, you know, I have my own thoughts on like when you should or shouldn't have sex. But let's just say, a young girl, a, not young girl, but a young woman wants to be sexually active, but she doesn't want to take hormonal birth control. What are your, what are her options for staying safe, but also not putting life-changing hormones into her system? Yeah, this is the hardest one is when we want to use birth control for purely contraception if getting pregnant is the very worst thing in the whole world for this woman. And so this is where I'm not black or white on everything. And so on the one hand, you can use birth control. And if you choose so, I am really wanting everything else in her life to be great.

You know, again, no plastics, working on gut health, making sure she's pooping, making sure she's on a really good high quality, you know, prenatal or multivitamins to make sure that she's not depleting all of her nutrients. If she is okay not being on the pill, you know, the next level would be the IUD, something like a copper IUD does not have hormones. However, it has copper and it inflames the uterus and can cause certain issues. Some women love the copper IUD. I switched to the copper IUD after I was on the pill, and I loved it. It was great, and my sister did it, and it almost killed her.

Oh, my gosh. I have patients along the whole spectrum, but that's a hormonal free option. I'm not a huge fan of a lot of the other forms of birth control, like the ring and, you know, the shot, the depo shot, all of that. I think they have a lot of side effects and issues. But then if we keep going down the spectrum, my dream is that the woman would learn body literacy, learn how her own hormones work, how her own cycle works, and she knows when she's ovulating. This is more of the fertility awareness method and understanding, you know, her body temperature and her cervical mucus and maybe doing LH tracking and understanding these different hormonal ups and downs.

And if you're watching and you don't know what I'm talking about, you know, there's a lot of things that you can do to educate yourself on that. I have a course on it as well. But learning how your body works and then pairing that with a barrier method, like a condom or something like that, so that around the time that you could get pregnant, which is only about three to five days out of every month. You know, we're put on the pill to prevent something that can only happen three to five days out of every woman's month. So if you know when that could be for you, then just be extra cautious and careful around that time or really at any time, you know, if you feel really strongly about it and using a barrier method. So I always recommend that. I always tell girls track your periods

and you basically do the natural family planning method. Would that be accurate? I'm more of a fan of fertility awareness rather than natural family planning. The difference is because usually natural family planning is just going off of the calendar dates. Okay. And saying, okay, this is the time that your cycle is. You're probably going to be ovulating around this time. Like, for instance, let's say from period to period is about 28 days. The natural family planning method is usually like, okay, about 14 days, halfway between that is when you ovulate.

So don't have sex at that time. The difference with fertility awareness is you're actually taking charge of your own symptoms and your own body and saying, I'm actually tracking my temperature. I'm actually seeing my cervical mucus the changes in me physically. Because let's say you're doing... Just to pause you, cervical mucus is discharge, correct? Yes. Okay, I'm going to make it really basic because, you know, all ages and people that have,

they really are not aware of their own cycles and everything, even as women. So that's why I can back it back. Clarifying. Okay. So, yeah, cervical mucus is discharge that comes from the vagina. It's different than like clumpy, smelly, green discharge. if that's happening, not good. I know that I know the guys in fraud rumor cringing.

Yeah, but this is important. And like this, I want to bring this up because we cringe at this stuff because we see the woman's body is this like icky, gross thing. And this is why women don't learn about their cycles. And this is why we are put on the pill. Because most doctors will say women don't have the capacity to learn about their body. They don't know how to do that. We need to medicate them with the pill.

And for some women, that's the case. For some of my patients even, you know, they are not in the headspace or in the life season to be responsible enough to track their own cycle and be mindful about it, you know? And they're a great candidate for the birth control pill if they're doing it appropriately. But I think having a blanket statement across the board and denying women access to other alternatives and making them feel wrong for that is inappropriate and not okay. So with that family planning, how I understand it, and I could be wrong, but it's more based on the way. the calendar days rather than understanding your own physical body. Because for instance, let's say you travel and it's like really stressful. Maybe it's even fun stress. You're like going to Europe or whatever. That amount of stress or change can actually change when you ovulate. So you might in your family

planning or in your calendar being like, this is when I should be ovulating. That can actually shift a few days because of this new change in your life or whatever. And so then you get accidentally pregnant and that's not good. See, great tip. This is a great tip. So learning how your body works. It's very similar. It's just one is based on you as a person and the other is based on an external, you know, calendar thing. If a married woman comes to you, Dr. Leah, and her and her and her husband have been struggling to conceive, whether for a year or even a few years, what are some of the first steps that you might take with her to get to the root cause of what could be causing their fertility issues? Yeah, the first is testing. So I'm a huge fan of testing. In particular,

we always, well, we don't always. I try to get the man to test his sperm because he's often and ignored in the fertility conversation. And a lot of times my patients will come to me and the woman is alone, you know, she's married, but her husband's like on a business trip. It's like so common. And I'm like, doesn't he want to like see what's going on? So test his sperm. You can do that either with a doctor or even on your own. There's a lab called Give a Legacy where you can just order it on your own, do it in your own, you know, time. So we at least make sure he's not a factor because if you can try to help yourself as much as you can and if sperm is a problem, that's going to just delay your time getting pregnant. So test him. Then I'm, then I'm

I recommend testing your hormones as a woman and really understanding what's going on with her hormonal imbalance. So every woman is different, but if she has, you know, PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, if she has endometriosis, if she has, you know, low testosterone, poor egg quality, if they've had miscarriages, these all play a role in understanding what could be going on. And then each person's imbalance would be dealt with a slightly differently, which I know is a frustrating answer, but I treat each person as an individual. as we all should.

So it depends on what has happened so far. Let's say they've never been in for a workup with any other doctor. I would definitely run a full hormone panel making sure that we're ruling out all of the different imbalances. And then if there is a hormonal imbalance like PCOS, which is that irregular cycle that a woman had

before she started birth control, then there are certain things like balancing your blood sugar and making sure that you're eating really well and using different herbs to help to bring down insulin and bring down your testosterone, because these are things that are infacting your ovulation. so you can't actually get pregnant because you're not ovulating correctly. What are some of the things that a woman trying to get pregnant are really good for her to be eating?

Yeah, good question. First, I'm going to answer that question with how she eats rather than what you eat. So how you eat is really important because you want to balance your blood sugar. And what that means is when you eat food, just because you chew it in your mouth and, you know, it affects your body differently the types of foods that you're eating. And so what I mean by that is if you eat a donut for breakfast. and you chew it, it gets absorbed into your body, into your bloodstream, and it will spike a hormone called insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is sensitive to the amount of sugar that you have.

And if you're eating donuts over and over again, let's say you eat like a pastry for breakfast, or I used to eat cake for breakfast. Or a cheesecake or tiramisu. Yeah, I used to a cake for breakfast, so no judgment. But if you're eating higher sugar foods, even like juice and a bagel, you know, things... She's calling me out. Which is like most Americans, right? And so you will have a higher amount of insulin.

And that over time causes a issue with your hormones. In particular, PCOS is very much rooted in an elevated insulin issue, which is related to your blood sugar. So skipping meals or eating high sugar foods alone without protein or fat can be a huge havoc on your hormones. So the number one tip I always recommend and make every woman do in my practice is to eat three square meals. Your great grandma was right. You want to eat three square meals with protein, fat, and carbs at every meal. And a protein is like, you know, good quality meat, you know, nuts and seeds. If you eat dairy, I'm not a huge fan of dairy, but that can be a protein.

Fat's like avocado, you know, olive oil drizzling it on everything. And then carbs are, you know, root vegetables, potatoes, fruits, those kind of things. So I'm bread? Bread is a carb, yeah. Okay. So but I'm... I was confused. But the biggest thing that you want is to have protein.

Okay. So the number one thing is protein. And what I tell my patients is eat your dinner food for breakfast. So a lot of people eat a really good dinner. Okay, wait, Dr. Leo, when I was in high school, there was this girl and we would have sleepovers all the time. And she ate, which you wouldn't like this because it's processed, but one of those like frozen chicken Alfredo type of things. She would put that in the microwave and eat it for breakfast. And I thought that was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen.

But not that the fact that it's like processed in one of those like frozen meal microwave things you probably wouldn't like. But if that was homemade, you would say, that's a good breakfast? 100%. My favorite meal is your dinner food leftover for breakfast. Wow. So when you do that, when you flip it, like some people eat really great dinner. They'll be like, oh, I have a protein and a vegetable for dinner. I'm like, eat that for breakfast because you're having crap for breakfast.

You're drinking coffee and having some sort of pastry. Our world is so backwards why we do that. Because when you start your day off with that caffeine and sugar, it spikes your blood sugar and you go through this oscillating up and down all day and it destroys your hormones. So the number one best thing that you can do is balance your blood sugar by eating protein and fat at every meal, protein and or fat every meal, and not skipping meals. So I'm not a fan of fasting and intermittent fasting for women of reproductive age. Do products like condoms, diaphragms, contraceptive sponges, I don't even know what that is, but I have it in my notes. Are any of those a danger to women's or even men's bodies because they're ultimately forced?

foreign objects that are being placed inside you and they're made out of synthetic materials. Yeah, some of them for sure. Like spermicide, you know, a lot of people will be like, well, I don't want to use a condom. I'll just use spermicides and those kind of things. And that can be full of toxic chemicals, just like some of these other products that we talked about. And so you're shooting them up there, you know? Lube, yay or nub. Loub depends on the type of lube. There are good quality companies that are making good products and there are not. And so you really want to be diligent about that. A lot of, if you go to like a traditional like store where you buy lube, most of them not good. You have to seek out these better companies that are making good

products. And that can actually disrupt the microbiome in your vagina. So a lot of women who have chronic UTIs or yeast infections or BV, which is kind of like a smelly fish when people say like, my vagina smells like fish. I know this is like really graphic. But that can be, I mean, we're targeting primarily women on this podcast. It can be a microbiome issue. And that can come from the lube that you're using or spermicides and other things like that. Diopharmes, again, it all depends on the quality and the type. And so being really careful. about which brands you choose makes a huge difference. Which brought up the should you use organic versus non-organic tampons question.

But just a follow up on that because it just popped in my head. If you are somebody who's like, well, I really just love my non-organic tampon brand. I'm going to use it anyway. Is there a limit to how long you should leave that in? Oh, yeah, for sure. Like not more than an hour, not more than five hours. So with tampons across the board, you just want to really be mindful of leaving them in. I would say no longer than five or six hours is max.

And you don't have to change it every hour, but you just don't want to induce what's called toxic shock syndrome. Right. And, you know, sometimes people forget that they have a tampon. And so I've even had a patient who's put in two because she had one up there and didn't know and put in the second one. And so just being really mindful. I mean, obviously, if you sleep through the night and you choose to have a tampon in, that's almost, you know, eight to nine hours, that's fine. You're okay. But just be really mindful of going longer than that.

I would say, you know, that's more of an exception. And that's what conventional doctors talk about that all the time. What they're not talking about are the chemicals and all of the different things that you have in your tampons. And so, you know, maybe overnight you choose to use like a pad or doing something to just give your body a break from not having something in it all the time. Right. Are there long-term dangers associated with taking plan B? That's a good question. So it disrupts your hormones, you know, just like everything else.

So I would say doing it routinely, yes. If you did it once in your life, are you never going to be able to be pregnant? No, it's not to that degree. But it is a hormonal disruptor just like anything else. And it has its own side effect profile, just like everything else. And so, you know, one thing that people need to remember and women need to remember, all of these things, the birth control, the plan B, you know, we're kind of, and I get it. We're encouraged to do them in the sense of like not one. wanting to have on pregnancies and, you know, that's really hot right now too. And so I get why

it's encouraged and promoted. But we've created this culture that doesn't think of them like a medication. You know, I'll ask my patients, what medications are you on? And they'll tell me, you know, I'm on an antidepressant, blah, blah, all this stuff. They don't even tell me birth control because it's so much integrated into like who they are that they don't even see it as a medication. And every medication has risk and every medication has side effects. Plan B is no different. Birth control is no different. Will it be in every single person that? Not necessarily, but it's something to be mindful and aware of that you are taking a medication. You're taking synthetic hormones. I've known women who just, you know, being stressed out and just worried about being pregnant

that they've taken multiple plan Bs in a short period of time. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I would say, you know, if it's already done, if the damage is done, do the best that you can to rebalance your hormones, help yourself out, I wouldn't plan on moving forward with that being your solution. You know, I wouldn't say plan B is the solution to, you know, not getting pregnant. If someone has taken multiple rounds of plan B, again, checking your hormones, doing labs to make sure everything's looking good, making sure that everything is functioning well, because some person might have that experience and have an imbalance and somebody might not. That's where the bio-individuality comes in. So I'm not going to stay across the board.

Anyone who's done, you know, five rounds of plan B is like they really get pregnant. It just doesn't work that way. Some people can eat like crap, smoke like crazy, drink like a fish their whole life and have no problems. And some people barely can do any of those things and have infertility and all these issues. It's because our genetics are different. Our exposures are different. Our stresses are different. And so, you know, they always say the environment loads the gun, but the exposure pulls, or your genes loan the gun and the environment pulls the trigger.

So we do have bioindividuality that makes things. different. So, okay, for these girls that have been on birth control most of their lives and they want to get off, are your hormones kind of permanently affected by being on birth control for so long forever? Or once you fully detox from birth control, can you be completely back to normal? So again, some women can go completely back to normal. A lot of it depends on where were you at before you started the pill. Got it. So if you had heavy periods, which would be a high estrogen picture and you go out on birth control and your periods are great, they're late, and whatever, and then you stop. That can come back because that's kind of your genetic predisposition or your environmental

exposure. And then some women will start birth control. They stop it and their hormones never come back. They never seem normal. The one that we see more than anything is probably the low testosterone leading to low libido. Because these binding globulins that I talked about earlier where they bind up all your hormones and don't let them do anything, those can stay elevated after you stop the pill. For some women, once you stop the pill, if your body can get back on track, it can recirculate

itself, but there are a lot of women where that doesn't happen. And they'll stop the pill and they don't have a period for a year. And they're like, where's my period? I can't get pregnant. I don't feel good. And that's a problem. It's called an HPA access dysfunction. So the communication of the brain to the ovaries is actually disrupted by the pill.

So it makes the hormone conversation from here to your ovaries stop. So some women have a harder time turning that back on. So basically when they stop the pill, you'd think, oh, it should just like start back on, like a factory that's been dead for a long time. And then you turn the lights back on and you're like, everything should just start working again. And it's like dead. It's like broken. There's a cog in the wheel that's not right. So again, everyone's different.

Some women stop the pill and their hormones are back to perfect. And some women do not. And that's where you want to do a lot of like rebalancing like I've talked about with different. and diet, lifestyle, all of those things. And for some women, it can be a really big challenge. So for those listening that are like, okay, I'm on board. I do want to get off hormonal birth control. There's other methods that I want to use so that I don't get pregnant or I just want to be off of it because I feel like, you know, I didn't really need to be on it in the first place. What are the steps that you advise women on the best ways to detox from birth control?

Is it totally cutting it out cold turkey or is it like weaning off or what's the best practice? So I have my own approach, which I think women should start working on their health before they stop the pill. Oh, okay. I haven't heard this yet. Yeah, because I feel like when you pull the pill right away, again, let's say you are a fire and everyone's fire is different. Yours was raging a certain way. Then you unplug the fire alarm, and that was equivalent to being put on the pill. No more fire alarm is sounding. We've solved the problem, but your fire's still brewing. Okay. As soon as you pull the pill, as soon as you plug the fire alarm back in, your fire is right back where it was started. If you had painful periods, they're back.

If you had, you know, acne, it's back. Like, all the things can come rushing back. But if hormonal birth control is like a band-aid on it and you're saying, don't get off of it cold turkey, then how do you know what those things are to work on? Well, so that's where I usually ask women, what was your cycle like? What was your experience like before you started the pill? So if it's, I had no periods and low periods, then you want to probably work on boosting your hormones. So eating more fat, improving different factors in your life.

as far as stress and things like that go, maybe reducing your exercise. Some women were like hyper-exercisers. There's different herbs and things you can take too. If you had acne, you know, working on inflammation, inflammation and high testosterone, if you had high estrogen, looking at your products, your personal care products, you're pooping, make sure you're pooping, all of these things. So I recommend getting sure, making sure that your diet is really good and you're eating really good nutrient-dense foods, making sure that you're put on a really good high-quality like multivitamin or supplement that can replenish all of the nutrients that birth control is depleted from you. making sure that you're not in a really stressful time in your life.

You know, if you're like the most stressed you've ever been and like, you know, this is the time I'm going to pull the pill. Like you're planning for a wedding and so that's why you're like on the honeymoon. We want to start for a baby. Let's take, get off birth control now. Yeah. And it's if you stop, it's fine. You can work on all of these things at the same time. I find more success when people feel because it's a lot to change your lifestyle.

It's a lot to change your diet. It's a lot to change your products, all of these things. And to do that on top of all of a sudden now you've pulled the pill and your whole life is kind of unraveling. It can just be so stressful. And that's when a lot of women then get put back on the pill. So what about for girls like me? I'm not ready to be a mother yet because I'm not married and I want to be married first. And, you know, maybe they're single, but they know for a fact that they want to be a mom someday.

What natural healthy steps can they start taking today to better prepare themselves for reproduction in the future, whether that future is in a few months or a few years? Yeah. So a lot of what I'm going to say is similar because it's the foundations of health. Our body is designed to be healthy. Our body's designed to be fertile. Our body's designed to be alive and happy and well. And so we work on the foundations first, and that's having a healthy diet, making sure that you're well hydrated, sleep, making sleep a priority.

A lot of people will stay up binging, you know, Netflix and waking up really earlier, doing all of these things and really creating a lifestyle now that is conducive to sleeping seven to nine hours a night and figuring out a way to make that work in your lifestyle. making sure that you feel safe in your home and feeling that you have a really good response to stress. You know, if you're the person who's like, I'm just stress out of my mind, but like as soon as I want to become a pregnant, I'll just stop all of this. And it's like, don't because it's destroying your hormones now. Live now as if you would if you found out you're pregnant. What things would you eat?

What personal care products would you take? Get the crap out of your personal care products, the toxins and things like that. Making these steps now will be the foundation for balancing your hormones. And then if you're on birth control, checking some of your hormones in labs isn't as effective because you're taking synthetic hormones that are affecting that. So making sure eating whole foods, making sure that you're sleeping, hydrating, getting plastic out of your life, getting the toxins out of your products, those are the foundational things that automatically when you're living that way and doing that way, your hormones will be in balance.

So as soon as you're ready to pull the pill, then you already have a foundation in place that's going to be conducive for your body to bounce back and have a really good. good, healthy balance and working on your gut. Like for you, I would make sure that you put more than what's a week. People, every time I, if I say that to people, but they always are shook, but I have been that way since I was in middle school. I mean, well, my whole life, really. I mean, so it's not like abnormal for me. It's normal for me, but you would still say it's correct. I would still say it's not good. Oh, okay. I think it's very common. Honestly, I am a really crap eater. And I think that it probably is that I don't have enough to fight.

Yeah, increased fiber, decreased dairy, increase water. Definitely not enough water. I've started drinking, oh, you know what I've started doing is drinking chlorophyll water. Do you think that's good or bad to do? Yeah, it's good. Okay, I have been ordering chlorophyll drops from Amazon putting in my water, putting lemon and strawberry in my water. Yep. And this is kind of bad reasoning.

You would be like, you should do this for health in general, but I heard that it makes you tan faster. Oh, interesting. sunlight and turning into tan better. So that's why I started doing that. I'm the least healthy person on the planet. Oh my gosh. Well, chlorophyll is what's in plants that helps them, you know, absorb sun. But it's really good for your liver and detoxing. And that's the other thing I didn't talk about with birth control is supporting your liver. And there's certain herbs like milk thistle. Again, I'm not your doctor. Talk to your doctor before you start anything. But things like milk thistle or burdock, dandelion. These herbs are really beautiful. Our body loves herbs. And so really looking to herbs as opposed to just pharmaceuticals and drugs to help your body handle. deal birth control and prepare for pregnancy. And then the other key thing is if you ever do you want to become a mom, I am a huge fan of testing, again, I'll bring this up again, your male partner before you go down the trying to conceive route because it breaks my heart when people try for

over a year and the turmoil that they go through and all of that when at the end of the day it was their husband's sperm. And that's such a bigger factor now than it has ever been before in fertility and they're still being ignored and not really being brought into the conversation and women feel a lot of shame when they can't get pregnant. And sometimes it is female factor, but two-thirds of the time, it's either purely male factor or male and female factor. So two questions. Prenatal vitamins, yay or nay. So different types of brands do different things. Oh, really? I mean, I'll give a shameless plug because I designed a prenatal vitamin and I really love that one. It's from Needed, which is the brand that I helped design. Okay. But not all supplement companies

are created equal. Absolutely not. Across the board, there are a lot of crappy supplement companies. Are there any supplement companies that you're like, stay away from this? Centrum. Okay, good to know. Which is the classic one that it's like, this is like the most popular. It's the one that has commercials on TV. And most of the supplements that you see in like conventional grocery stores are crap. I wouldn't buy them.

So I would definitely do your research, you know, find people that you trust and look to the supplement companies that you have vetted them because they put crap in there. Like I went to when my husband, he had male factor infertility. And I asked all of the infertility doctors, you know, what do you recommend for supplements and dietary things? You know, can we do anything to help our fertility? And all of them are like, no, you can't do anything, which I highly disagree. I'm like, you don't even read your own medical literature. But the one doctor said, they don't really do anything. But why do they say that?

If the medical literature would say otherwise, then why do so many doctors say supplements don't matter? Or is it because they're, you know, being approached by pharmaceutical companies to push other things? I think so. They don't learn it in school because they, you know, in a certain way. way directly compete with pharmaceuticals. They don't learn anything about supplements or nutraceuticals in school. And so unless they're doing their own research on their own time and diving deep and reading these literature articles, which a lot of doctors just don't do, they just wouldn't know. And it's a paradigm shift. You know, it's kind of

like what happened with this last two years. There are some people that see the world a certain way and some people that see it differently. And once you've had a paradigm shift, it's hard to go back. But if someone hasn't had that paradigm shift, they just can't understand and see. But a lot of it's their lack of training. And they've been told, by their school, by their colleagues, and by the pharmaceutical industries, that they are crap. And some supplements are crap. I'm not going to deny that. But there are certain brands that are designed by people who know, you know, physiology and biochemistry

beyond anything that they're very highly in quality. And they're not typically the ones that you find in the grocery store. And that's probably why there's a problem. Something that I have been toying with for years is the idea of going to get my fertility tested now before I marry, before I'm having kids, just to know if there are issues that I'm and a half. Do you recommend doing that for single unmarried women or no? Absolutely. Really? Oh, let's go. Let's do a field trip, a pop, let's do a field trip, a spillover field trip where I go test my fertility. Yes, I would love to have everyone test their fertility. So I'm such a big

fan of preparing ahead of time and finding out if there's an issue now and fixing it. Like, the worst thing is a couple is like, you know, we're getting ready to start trying and then they just start trying. And then they try for six months a year. And then they're like, hmm, is something wrong? And then they go in and then they find out that they have a thing, which, let's say it's a hormonal imbalance or a sperm issue or an A quality issue or whatever, to actually make changes. This is why the conventional medical system is a little bit more challenging with actually helping women with PCOS or, you know, hormonal imbalance or even sperm issues to some degree because you need time. You need time to make these changes. Your body isn't going to change

like that. So they often will funnel you into IVF or whatever because that's what they have. That's the quick solution to get you a baby right now. But if you do testing and you really understand what's going on with you and your body long before you start getting pregnant, this is my favorite thing, because then you can make changes to your life, your hormones, and really get in a place where you're optimal and you're ready to be pregnant in the moment, but you're just choosing not to quite yet, rather than doing it the opposite and not knowing what's going on, not making any changes, and then go for a year of trying and then figure out that you have a problem. To me, that system is really backwards. And that's what we do. Most people can't even get testing from their doctor

until they've been trying for a year, which I think is bonkers. And this is why, you know, at my company and stuff, I have different resources and options for women to do testing on their own or some of these, you know, direct-to-consumer labs can be empowering because we need to know what's going on with our health. Okay, so hopefully this whole episode, you have been listening and with your notepag taking notes. This is one of those episodes that I think it's really important to write stuff down or keep it in your phone or whatever. So to go off that, what are everyday products that men and even women are actively using that are making reproduction more difficult? What are the ingredients that we should be watching out for, you know, that are causing problems for couples trying to conceive? Yeah. So, again, it's the type of ingredients that are in certain brands rather than like, all deodorant is bad. So things that you want to be looking out for are, again, salates that you would see on the back if it says fragrance or perfume.

Anything that says fragrance, even if it's scented with essential oils, but there's fragrance on the back, do not use it. What about using perfume? Oh, no. This is terrible for me. I love perfume. I know. I know. A lot of people do, and we have a lot of infertility.

It's so sad. So there are like cleaner brands and different things that are popping up. But yes, for perfume is just straight thallates for the most part. You're just spraying yourself with all that. Sorry to be the Debbie Downer. That is. Yeah. Okay.

What other ingredients? Okay. So thallites are a big one. And you can just, again, anything that says fragrance. BPA, obviously, there, BPA is more in, like, plastic items and plastic things like that. But anything, if you can buy a product in a glass bottle versus a plastic bottle, better. Not all of my products are in glass, but that leeches into your sunscreens, your creams, your creams, your lotions. So anything with paraben's, paraben's is a product that helps to stabilize so they don't go bad. So your lotions and sunscreens like that.

nail polish, like conventional nail polish, has so many things in it. So if you get your nails done, being really mindful of going to a cleaner salon using cleaner nail polishes. And the best thing is to download an app that helps you just scan products and see what's in them. You know what any are called? Oh, I sure do. Tell us. So the Environmental Working Group has one called Healthy Living. It's green and it has like little circles. And then Think Dirty is another one. There's a few others that are out, but either one of those are great options. And you can actually scan on a barcode, the product, in the grocery store or whatever. I used to sit, you know, in the aisle, like, scanning products. Now I just kind of know what is what. But when you're learning and seeing what chemicals are in here,

because there's so many different things. Things like antibacterial hand soap or hand sanitizer has triclosan, which is impacting fertility. Things like formaldehyde, which is in nail polishes and Brazilian blowouts and hair sprays. Oh, I get a Brazilian, I get a blowout every week. Oh, no. But I know I'm just the Debbie Downer here. But there is. is a way there are a lot of companies coming out that are making cleaner products and sometimes they don't perform as well. There's a reason why there's certain chemicals, but you have to decide like what's more important. Your fertility, your hormonal imbalance, your, and I want to make this point clear, it's not just about getting pregnant. The exposures that we have as women impact

our babies' development in utero. So when I was pregnant with my baby girl, anything I was exposed to impacted her and her eggs, meaning my grandchildren, were being impacted by about a baby girl. I was being exposed to when I was pregnant. This is the juiciest scoop that I think has ever been said on this podcast. Yeah. So if you, let's say you want a baby boy and you're pregnant with a baby boy, if you're, you know, getting your nails done, using hairspray, all of these like thallates, we are seeing that those little baby boys are being born with reproductive issues.

Their, you know, genitalia isn't normal and they are having sperm issues. So why all of these men are having issues right now? A lot of it was because their mothers, 30 years ago, were exposed to. all of these chemicals and we are just now seeing the reproduction effects of that. So know that your children, especially your baby girls, so your baby boy in utero is impacted, but if you are pregnant with a baby girl, your exposures are actually changing through epigenetics her children. So you are impacting your grandchildren with every decision that you make. I said this in the intro, but I learned about you through the HBO documentary, Not So Pretty,

and I was like, I got to have this girl on. So as someone who loves beauty, I mean, I was horrified, especially since my dream is to be a mom someday. And, you know, you were on the documentary, not just because of your medical expertise, but because you really have, and you kind of touched on this a little bit, you have your own experience with infertility. So, you know, I think a lot of people listening up into this point may not really expect that. Just because of you, well, this girl, she must be doing all this right stuff. So why would you experience it?

You kind of said how your husband struggle with some stuff. So could you talk about your infertility journey, how that began? And then once you found out that your husband actually was the one, you know, what transpired after that. Yeah. So I actually found out about my husband's zero sperm count when I was in medical school. We were in a sperm analysis class. And under the microscope, we needed a sample. So he gave me one. Which is, you know. That is so like doctors in love. It's like, honey, I need a sample. He's like, I got you. So, you know, we were looking under the microscope to evaluate sperm and he just, there was not any. There was none. And I kept making slide after slide.

I mean, my heart was sinking. It was the worst day of my life because I wanted to be a mom more than anything. Yeah. And I had to break the news to him that night that he had no sperm, which. How did you tell him? He actually picked me up that day, which was super weird. I don't know why he was picking me up in his big truck. And I have done.

He's like, so how is my sample? And my heart just like, it was one of the worst days in my life. And I had to say, honey, I don't know. but you have no sperm. And I don't know when we're going to figure it out and we're going to do all the things. And like, I put on the doctor hat, even though that's a really shi hat to put on when it affects you. Like, and, you know, there are certain things. You know, you hear tragic stories being a doctor and people, you know, have a lot of intense experiences and you can't lose it, right? You have to hold yourself together to be a space for them. And so that's something that you have to learn to do.

And it was hard because I kind of had to play that role for him because I couldn't lose it in front of him. And like even throughout our infertility journey, I really, you know, I try to be as positive as possible. Like, we're going to figure this out. We're going to solve the problem. Like, we find the root cause. Like, this is what we do. I was still a student in school. And so I couldn't run labs.

I couldn't do this kind of stuff yet. And so we went to all of these different doctors trying to figure out what was going on. And God, I wish I would have known what I know now then, you know, but I didn't have a me. I didn't have what was, you know, all of these different things. And so we did all of this different testing. We found really high levels of plastics and mercury and lead and all of these toxins and things. He had some anatomical issues, so he had a lot going on, some genetic issues. And eventually, after almost six years of investigating it, doing all the things perfectly,

and we did do those, we still had to go through IVF because there was an issue with the sperm coming out as well. But all of the work that we did, detoxing and getting him in a really healthy place, made the quality of his sperm. So it's not just a count thing, but it's a quality thing. And that can impact miscarriages and embryo quality and any. Anyone who's ever gone through IVF knows that. Quality is important.

And so when we eventually went through IVF, then we have four embryos. And we implanted the first one. And, you know, I did all the things for my own body to be as healthy as I could. And she took. And now I have a seven-month-old baby girl. And I love for more than anything. That's so great. You brought her here.

And I was like, oh, my gosh, she's still a little baby. She was flying on the plane. But you said she did well. She does so well. She's such a great baby. So is there, you know, the same type of rules for men, as there are for women who want to make sure that their reproductive health is all good to go before they get married? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, we are both impacted by, it's basically things that

break down DNA. So our little sperm and eggs are little blobs of DNA. So certain things like the chemicals were exposed to, for men, there's more things like heat. So men that are bathing in hot baths or saunas or hot tubs, that can really impact sperm. Men are actually more impacted by alcohol than women. So men who are drinking a lot, probably want to cut down a little bit on that before they get Is it a myth that affects sperm count or no? It does seem to impact fertility. There's still more research that needs to be done. I don't think it's to the level and degree of certain things, but yes, it does impact.

You know, anything that, especially like the smoking of it, because it's the oxidation, it's the smoke part. It's that part that's not good. And the other thing to remember about sperm, which if anyone takes this away, is men's sperm, when it leaves his body, was actually made three months ago or about 74 days before. Wow, I did not know that. Yeah. So let's say you're like, oh, honey, I'm ready to start trying. That night, he actually, whatever he was doing two and a half months ago is what will impact the sperm.

Okay. This is pretty interesting. So if you want to make a change, if you want to, you know, be as healthy as you can before you conceive, I want to give you and your partner a three-month window of really making those changes before you actually start trying. Because otherwise, let's say you get him on a really healthy diet for like a month and you get pregnant. It was when he was still on his unhealthy, you know, high drinking, you know, whatever diet. So you want to make sure that there's that, you know, 74 to 90 day window.

For you and your husband, because it impacts your egg quality as well as your eggs are developing, but men in particular, you want to give yourself that window. For acute servitives listening that are like, okay, wait, Dr. Leah is amazing. I really want to find a doctor in my area that's just like her. What sorts of things should they be asking doctors when doctor shopping to find who would be someone like you? Yeah, so naturopathic doctors, functional medicine doctors are really the type of doctor where we get to the root cause and understand that. There are still, you know, some conventional doctors that understand this, but most of them would call themselves a functional medicine doctor. Or they would have gone through naturopathic training unless they're very progressive and still love their ideas.

You know, a traditional endocrinologist isn't going to know as much. Some know more than others. That's a doctor that typically works with hormones. typically they're working with prescriptions and things like that. So you really want to find someone who understands like natural medicine, root cause medicine. So I would look for functional medicine or naturopathic doctors. And so for those who do want to work with you directly, they're like, no, I don't care.

I don't live where Dr. Leo lives, but I still want her. Where can they find you and your amazing resources and to learn more in the classes you talked about that you offer and all that stuff? Yeah. So I am in California. So if you're a California resident, I can see you as a doctor. otherwise I do do consulting as well across the country. Womanhoodwellness.com is my website, and I also have courses, programs.

You can order your own labs. I have supplement protocols, all of these different things where you can educate yourself on how to track your cycle and know when you're ovulating and all of these different things are there. So at womanhoodwellness.com and you can, you know, schedule to work with me as well. And what's your Instagram, too? At Dr. Leah Gordon, D-R-L-E-A-H-H-G-O-R-D-O-N. Thank you so much, Dr. Leah for coming on the spillover. Oh, thank you for having me.

Since last summer, I have been very, very vocal about my thoughts on hormonal birth control. And because of that, I have fielded hundreds of DMs since the spillover launched from you begging me to have a doctor on to discuss birth control and hormones. And it took a long time because I wanted somebody that could be seen as credible and fair on an issue that is very personal to many women. And also a topic that transcends politics. Women on the left and the right have their own pros and cons when it comes to hormonal birth control. And what I like about Dr. Leah Gordon is that she isn't just anti-HBC,

no matter what, but she really encourages you to look deeper into the pill and ask more questions before getting on it. And I felt like she was a guest that the pro and anti-birth control people would respect and be open-minded about. I mean, she was on an HBO doc for Pete's sake. I hope as a woman who may be on birth control that this episode prompted some questions for you, helped encourage you to be brave and get off of it if it's not been right for you. I hope that if you're a mom, a grandma, or an aunt with a young woman in your life that you consider all the things that Dr. Leah said about hormones, fertility, and birth control to put the safety of their bodies and reproductive systems first. When Dr. Leah said, it's not just about getting pregnant. The exposures that we

have as women impact our babies' development in utero. So she said when I was pregnant with my baby girl, anything that I was exposed to impacted her and her eggs, meaning her grandchildren were being impacted, but what was being exposed to her as a pregnant woman, that completely changed my life. What things I do and put in my body now and what things you do and put in your body now will affect our granddaughters one day. And I hope that that sticks with you the way that it did with me. If you learn something, if you feel empowered, or even if you feel like, you know what, I'm pissed off. I was sold. Half-truths about the birth control pill and now you're coming to terms with it. You're not alone. Support this podcast and the conversations that the spillover team works really hard to put out for you by subscribing and leaving a five-star review.

It is the one thing that you do that supports us since this podcast is not behind a paywall like other conservative companies' shows are. The spillover is back next Thursday at 9 p.m. Pacific, midnight Eastern on Apple and Spotify with a. huge guest and I know in my heart of hearts it's going to become a new favorite episode for a lot of you. If you prefer to watch episodes, you can subscribe to Poplitics on YouTube. I'm Alex Clark and this is The Spillover. Love you, mean it. Bye.