If a flower doesn’t bloom - the problem is the environment - not the flower.
I’m Mollie, I’m a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner living in Austin, TX. I help women who have been trying to conceive naturally for over a year finally get a handle on their hormones.
Like most women I had very irregular, painful periods growing up.
Cramps, gut issues, fatigue, acne, PMS, and mood swings were all part of my everyday life and I thought it was perfectly normal. After all, my mom had painful periods so why wouldn’t I? My doctor wasn’t concerned about any of symptoms, so why should I be?
I had assumed that despite my irregular periods I’d have no trouble getting pregnant when the time came.
In fact, it had been so drilled in to my head that pregnancy could happen at any time, under any circumstance, that my husband and I waited until we were absolutely 100% definitely finally ready before we started trying.
Then in July 2016 I got pregnant. And as fast as it happened, it was over. I miscarried at 7 weeks at home.
I was devastated. My husband was devastated.
Our family didn’t know what to say or do. I went to my doctor to find out why this had happened and what I needed to do to stop it from happening again. He told me miscarriage was incredibly common and if it happened three times in a row he would run some tests.
That wasn’t an acceptable answer for me. I had already started learning about nutrition and functional medicine “for fun” (yes, I’m a total nerd) and so four months after my miscarriage I started my training to become a nutritional therapy practitioner and I graduated from the Nutritional Therapy Association in November 2017.
What I’ve discovered since then is that our world is in a fertility crisis.
None of us are taught how to preserve our fertility. We are taught to fear and hate our menstrual cycle, to fear child birth, to use drugs to suppress our hormones. And then when we don’t get pregnant right away we’re taught to seek expensive medical procedures.
This isn’t right. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Women in ancient cultures cared for their fertility their whole lives. They prepared for pregnancy years in advance.
Why do we wait until the last minute to make sure we’re healthy enough to grow new healthy humans?
Problems with our menstrual cycle and fertility are red flags. They’re signs that something else, something deeper, needs attention.
For me, I discovered that my acne and eczema stemmed from a gut dysbiosis (too much bad bacteria and not enough good). I learned that my incredibly painful periods (like stay home from school every month painful) were related to mineral and fatty acid deficiencies.
Finding out what’s really going on has been an incredibly empowering process.
It’s like walking into a room you haven’t entered in years and turning on the light. There’s a lot of junk in there, but now you can see it and you can do something with it. Sorting through the stuff in that room will kick up some dust and it’ll take some time. But it’s so much better than turning the light off, shutting the door, and pretending it’s not there.
Now I know which foods help me, and which make things worse. I know what supplements help and I know how to assess their effectiveness so I’m only taking what helps. I know how to chart my cycles to keep an eye on my hormone levels every single month.
I’m now mom to two beautiful girls. Pregnancy and postpartum have lifted me up, broken me down, and changed me in ways I never could have imagined. It’s been the honor of my life.
