896. The truth behind “unexplained infertility” + the wellness habits that matter with Dr. Ann Shippy

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32:35That's absorbmore.com, enter code ALMOST30 at checkout for 35 % off your first order. And what most people don't realize is that their bodies are getting overloaded.

32:47Dr. Ann Shippy:They don't realize that what's coming in has to come out, and it's like a barrel filling up. And it's when that barrel really is starting to overflow that we see things like autoimmunity, infertility, even diabetes, cognitive decline. So many of these things, chronic illnesses that we're also seeing escalate are from these environmental toxins. So, you know, there's links with a lot of the childhood illnesses, the increase in autoimmunity, the increase in childhood cancers, the developmental delays in autism, which are rapidly escalating. So that's the other thing that I really want both men and women to understand is that as they're doing the things that can improve their fertility, they're giving their child the best chance at avoiding some of those things.

33:37Dr. Ann Shippy:Some of the best research is actually on the sperm because it's easier to measure what the toxin levels are in the men and then how that's affecting the sperm and then future generations. And we know that things like air pollution, plastics, the phthalates, the PFAS have little dials that can get influenced in the genes that then increase the risk for these things in children. and the thing that's been the best studied is over obesity. You know, we're seeing such a crisis in the metabolic issues and obesity in children. And, yes, some of it is what they're eating, but a lot of it their genes are coming in pre-programmed to increase their risk.

34:24And it just, it's like starting with, you know, you're trying to be in life and you're already starting out with a handicap that you don't even know.

34:37Dr. Ann Shippy:Sure, sure. I want to be careful how I say things, so I'm trying to choose my words carefully. So hopefully that lands without. No, it definitely lands. It gets such a huge opportunity. And honestly, this book and this program that we have out is what I wish I had been able to know for my kids. Yes. Because, you know, they both had some health challenges at times along the way. And I know that they're now, based on the research that's available now that wasn't available then, that some of it was, yes, some of these detox genes that I passed on to them and inflammation genes that I passed on to them.

35:18But some of it's probably also I just didn't know.

35:23Dr. Ann Shippy:Sure. Of course. Of course. I think about that a lot where, you know, I'm thankful I'm overall pretty healthy. But I just think about, wow, like our parents didn't know any of this, you know. and yeah it's just it is really empowering and I do want to say that sometimes when we have these types of conversations especially around fertility and it involves taking the power into your own hands and really I mean this is work you know this isn't just like overnight it's it's doing the labs it is making time and putting energy into making changes it is being consistent it you know it's a lot so I don't want to like take away from I know this is you know can be an intense process and I think that the process of it is also preparing you to have this be how you be with yourself with your children like I think over the years I've just kind of this has been how I approach things because I've learned through so many conversations on Almost 30 and trying so many things and learning so many things that, you know, cleaning up my kitchen for toxins and all the things and eating clean and it now is second nature.

36:51And so I just want to encourage people that so much of this is going to become how you live your life and you and your children you know will be better for it but I understand if in the beginning it feels overwhelming and you just want to do the quick thing whether that's IVF or whatever and I'll just extra say that I understand that there are instances where IVF is incredibly helpful and effective and the only scenario in which you could have children and maybe we can talk about that but yeah I just want to honor kind of like where people are in this process like I flash back

37:30Dr. Ann Shippy:to the fear that I had that I was about to do IVM I was so afraid that I wasn't going to be able to provide a sibling to my son like I it was devastating to get that information yes like I could not imagine that possibility it is so scary and I really wanted to leave people with it is so worth it to do the work so worth it because even if you do end up doing ivf by doing this preparation ahead of time your likelihood of ivf being successful is going to be so much better and the potential for the healthier baby and the better epigenetics for the baby like it's so exciting i want to share just a couple of things one is um a study that just came out on sperm.

38:21Dr. Ann Shippy:And what it showed is that in three weeks, by switching from a highly processed food diet to a whole foods diet, dramatic improvement in sperm quality. Like sperm takes 74 to 90 days to create. So the fact that 21 days could make a huge difference in the quality and quantity of sperm is like over the top exciting. Wow. Right. And then there's the research showing what a difference exercise makes and what a difference getting sleep makes. And so just even doing some of the things can make a huge difference. So I just want to be inspiring there. It's harder to measure the egg, but I think it's the same kind of thing for women.

39:01Dr. Ann Shippy:So it's not about perfection. It's about progress to pick the things to start with and just get going. And then the other thing that so touched me was I was doing a book signing at one of the big integrative medicine conferences and there's a little bit of a line going and this man comes up and asks me to sign one of the books and he was kind of looking down a little bit but then he just kind of got like really you know dialed in I see you and he said I'm an IVF doc and I started doing all these things that you talk about with my patients and I basically gutted my practice

39:55Dr. Ann Shippy:for IVFs. So it was so encouraging because I'm functional medicine. I take care, like, I'm not an IVF doc. And so to have somebody who is seeing, you know, 20, 50 couples a day kind of thing saying this works it was such wow so like it was like okay this is this moment is so precious to me because this really acknowledges what I what I see happening on a smaller scale in my practice and so I just want to like share that because because it really it really does make a difference So kind of back to IVF, there are some situations where it totally makes sense to me. And that would be like if you know that you are a carrier for a recessive gene and so is your partner.

40:52Dr. Ann Shippy:So something like cystic fibrosis where then you have a 25 % chance of having a child who has a very serious illness for their entire life. And you want to be able to pick. Right. I have friends who did that. That absolutely makes sense. Then I used to say also like if you have blocked tubes or if you've had to have a tube or two removed, then that would, you know, obviously IVF could be your only option. But there's even technology now that's coming where really, really amazing surgeons are able to sometimes get the tubes back open. Oh, wow. So there's all kinds of amazing things happening to give people hope.

41:39Isn't, like, if someone has one tube out, you can still conceive.

41:46Dr. Ann Shippy:So the idea is that we probably alternate the ovaries between cycles. I think sometimes you have an egg coming from both ovaries. Oh, wow. And I think the body's just so wise that if you've lost a tube, you might just have more eggs coming from the other ovary. And there's this whole conversation that, like, even by the time you start puberty, you've lost the majority of your eggs and that they're just decreasing every month. But what I see, again, is when the body's super healthy, even if you've had an AMH reading that's super low, a lot of times the body just finds the eggs and ovulates and gets them going.

42:29Dr. Ann Shippy:AMH, what is that? So anti-malarian hormone, so that's supposed to be a measurement. That's the one that failed me so badly. And now I've seen so many patients where it really wasn't. It's supposed to be an indication of how many eggs you have left. Okay. But it's really not a very good measurement of how fertile you are. Okay. And you can have a very low AMH and still get pregnant like I did. Yeah, because I guess I think about it just takes one. No, but like, and also what we're talking about, the environment. And so, yeah, it's just something to think about where I think we're so concerned about number of eggs.

43:10And it just takes one to do this. Is that correct, though, in what I'm saying? I love the expression on your face. Is it only like one egg being released?

43:19Dr. Ann Shippy:Yes, usually there are several developing. Okay, okay. And then one is really the main one that's released. Got it. So it's like the ovaries are kind of creating every cycle. You know, it really is quite incredible how much of our life force goes towards our cycles each month for decades of our life, right? So we're basically creation machines. So, yeah, just each cycle that we're ovulating, it's one main egg being released. Sometimes there can be two. So you can get twins from having two eggs get fertilized in a cycle or an egg that actually breaks into two and creates two. But yeah, usually it's just one main egg each cycle.

44:07A lot of women in our audience, and we talked about this way back in, I think, 2017, 18, about birth control. um and obviously I know there are instances where birth control is is helpful for people and various symptoms that they have but um I think a lot of us myself included were just kind of put on birth control for my skin uh because I started to have sex with my high school boyfriend you know like these willy-nilly like gone birth control I felt like oh I'm a woman now but I wasn't told kind of the effects of birth control. What are you seeing in your practice as far as the effects of birth control go, the long-term use of it?

44:59What generally do you recommend around that, especially as we approach like a preconception window?

45:05Dr. Ann Shippy:I think it's really fascinating how we go from thinking we need to suppress the ability to get pregnant and then all of a sudden we're like okay we're ready and we expect our body after being it's being told like literally being told don't get pregnant for years or decades sometimes and then all of a sudden we're like okay let's turn let's turn this on so I think if you're put on birth control for symptoms that you're having if you're having acne or you're having heavy periods or painful periods, instead of just taking the birth control pill, we need to figure out why. And yes, we need to help the body to actually get back into balance rather than band-aiding it.

45:49Dr. Ann Shippy:And I think there are pretty significant consequences of being on the birth control from a fertility standpoint. It really does suppress your ability to get pregnant. Now, we can get that back by building up the nutrients. by helping the hormones to get balanced, by putting in high nutrient, low inflammation food, by helping the body to detoxify. We definitely, the body's ability to repair constantly amazes me. And I think we shouldn't be just passing on birth control pills the way that we do. I completely agree. The other thing that's so alarming is the number of men that are going on testosterone.

46:28Dr. Ann Shippy:Tell me more. Do not go on testosterone. Wait, tell me more. Until you're done having your family. You decrease your sperm production. Oh, wow. You continually turn off your sperm production. So what does testosterone do? Why are they going on it? Like muscle gains and stuff? Muscle gains. Well, if your testosterone is low and you're a 20, 30, 40-year-old man, you feel terrible, right? Okay. You need testosterone to feel vital and energy and life force, right? Does that give you a better sex drive? Better sex drive. Better sex drive, but lower sperm count. Yeah, turns it off. Wow. So I really caution men to go on testosterone until they're done having their families.

47:13Dr. Ann Shippy:And then after that, it's up to them. You can get your sperm production back, but it can take some work. And again, we want to add. It's just like with the young women that are being put on birth control for symptoms. It's like, well, why is your testosterone low in the first place? more than likely you have a buildup of environmental toxins that's interfering with your testosterone production. So we need to just, we need to find out what it is that's, um, overloading your body and then help your detox pathways work to, uh, to get a clean body again, and then build up your nutrients that help you to make your hormones.

47:51Dr. Ann Shippy:Yeah. Wow. Um, that's a good PSA. Tell your boyfriends and your husbands and your brothers and your fathers. Um, the, you said detox pathways. I actually just want to like go in a little deep there. So for men and women, how do we clean up detox pathways? So there's so much information out there that I don't agree with on how to detox safely. So if you, there's this idea that you got to go through the detox and it's got to feel hard and terrible, you know, you're going to feel terrible where you detox. Well, the safest way to detoxify is to just assist your systems that are already in place to detox better.

48:30Dr. Ann Shippy:Okay. In addition to not having so many environmental toxins come in. Got it. So things like liposomal glutathione that are the best way to build up your own cellular glutathione and to take some binders that actually help to pull the toxins out through your gut and supporting our methylation pathways, those two, three things are super, super important, as well as you can add things like saunas, hyperbarics, and then eating a low, high-density inflammation, a low-inflammation diet to support your detox pathways from a nutrient standpoint. Okay. Okay. That's doable. That's so doable. It is so doable.

49:11Dr. Ann Shippy:It's taking a few supplements, doing a healthy diet, and cleaning up your environment. And there's, you know, so many other options, and I've outlined a lot of it in the book. But if you can do those things, you'll make a huge difference. And what's so fascinating is then thinking through, like, the aging process. Like, at the point that I'm at, I just want to, I mean, I'm done with the fertility part, so I just want to maintain as much health and longevity as I can. Sure. These things that help with fertility help with longevity. So then the other thing that's really, really important for both men and women, that if you're going to just pick a few things to get started with, this can make such a difference, and that's feeding our mitochondria.

49:55Dr. Ann Shippy:So our little mitochondria are the organelles inside our cells that make energy. And the sperm and the eggs need really healthy mitochondria. And part of what's happened is the environmental toxins building up in our body are poisoning our mitochondria, so they just don't make energy very well. So by doing the detox and then feeding the mitochondria with B vitamins, CoQ10, things like carnitine, and other antioxidants, NAD, can really make such a huge difference for anybody that's listening that's not ready to start their family yet, and they want to protect their fertility, feeding their mitochondria is one of the best things they can do to sustain their fertility into their 40s.

50:47Dr. Ann Shippy:And then also have a safe, healthy menopause and beyond. Great. Yeah, because I think that's a topic of conversation too. We don't have to get in right now. But, yeah, the perimetopause and all of those symptoms kind of rolling in very soon after. which if your body's in good balance you just kind of go you coast kind of coast through it and yes it's an adjustment it's such an adjustment from going where you're managed monthly with your cycles right where the body's working so hard to procreate to not having those cycles it's an adjustment sure and yet there's some beauty and relief in it as well if your body's and balanced and strong and healthy.

51:31Dr. Ann Shippy:Okay. Okay. Great. Some inspiration. Yeah, no, totally. It's totally doable. And, and you can actually have like the most peaceful, enjoyable part of your life. It doesn't have to be hard. So Upwork, I talk about Upwork with my clients all the freaking time. I was on the phone with one of my clients last night and I said, girl, you are no longer going to edit your podcast yourself. You are going to outsource with Upwork. This was her budget. She wanted to stay under a certain amount. So we had to find someone that would be a perfect fit for her. Upwork is really the one-stop platform where you can find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across everything from marketing and business operations to web development, design data, and so much more.

52:14So you can basically browse their profiles, look through their work, and even get help scoping for a role. I was needing to hire someone for Kajabi within our business to help us do Kajabi. And so I saw this little profile, said, oh, she seems like a great fit. We got on a call. She was incredible with Kajabi. She was so incredible. Whether you're a smaller business or if you're growing really quickly, their business plus gives you an access to the top 1 % talent on Upwork with AI powered shortlisting that can match you with the right freelancer in under six hours. So this saves a lot of time.

52:43This is actually what I've been doing because it does take time to find people. It does take time to vet people and it's kind of a thing, but I want you guys to be outsourcing more so you can enjoy your life. You can do what you need to do and you can grow your business and still have time for freedom. And Upwork is that place to have that. At Upwork.com right now, you can post your job for free, what you're looking for, who you need to support you. That's Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to grow your business. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com. As we move into summer, I always want my skin to feel healthy, nourished, and glowy.

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53:54I show off my belly and it's just like nice and glowy and amazing. So Naturian believes skincare should be clinically effective, skin compatible, and affordable. It's luxury you can use every single day and that's what creates real consistency. I'm excited for you. So give your skin the affordable, luxurious glow up it deserves. Go to naturium.com slash almost 30 for 10 % off your first purchase. That's naturium.com slash almost 30. Love that. I think what's so interesting about the day and age we live in is that there's just so many narratives online, online, social media. And like, I feel like hashtag perimetopause is like a thing and it has a lot of negative, um, connotation around it and just energy around it so I'm always just weary to like dive into things like that because I'm like is that going to be my story yeah you know or does that have to be my story not not not not

54:48Dr. Ann Shippy:okay that's really sure balance it's trying to squeak out a one more baby right really hard around you know uh 45 to 55 boom let's go let's one more baby right um but so you do kind of feel your body pushing for that in a way, but it, it doesn't have to be hard. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Um, some one-off questions. Do you have any thoughts on, um, peptides or anything like that in the, uh, the process of conception or after you're done having babies or just at any point to support you or are there any risks that you know of yet? I know it's so early, sort of, in the kind of like the exploration of this.

55:43Dr. Ann Shippy:So the way that I think about peptides is that they're generally something that we already make in our body or something close to it. Okay. And so it's just another way to signal things in the body. So just like hormones are signals in the body, peptides are a signal in the body. So certainly there are times where it's nice to augment the signals in our body. And it is such a new area, so we're kind of learning how that all is going to unfold. The most prominent peptide that most people know about are the GLP-1s. And I have some very strong feelings about that. Yeah? Do you want to share? I do think that we're learning that there's a role in addition to weight loss with them that they can dial down inflammation.

56:34Dr. Ann Shippy:And if we think about fertility being highly dependent on how much inflammation is in the body and we want inflammation to be low, there is a role there. the way that peptides are getting used though i think is especially these glp1s can lead to a lot of damage so with the glp1s to keep your body safe there's a number of things you have to do or you're going to end up in worse metabolic state than you started so to do the glp1 safely you've got to be working out. You have to be doing some weights to stimulate muscle synthesis. Especially for women, you need to get 30 to 50 grams of protein early in the morning so that you start muscle synthesis.

57:25Dr. Ann Shippy:Then you really need to think about additional supplements that are going to help you to build muscle. There's some actual additional peptides that I really love by a company called Health Jevity that are called a particular product is longevity. And then there's another product called, um, Fortitropin by the company. Uh, the product is myos. So those combinations, eating the protein, working your muscles, doing the supplements, and then double checking to make sure that you're not losing muscle with a full body dexa scan that you can get for less than a hundred dollars every three to four months to make sure you're building muscle so it is very possible to lose the weight and build muscle but most people are not doing that yeah and so what happens is you you get more metabolically um adept at keeping the blood sugar and all of the muscle synthesis And I'm afraid that we're actually creating a lot of people that are going to have more health challenges in the long run because they don't understand the importance of actually building muscle while they're losing fat.

58:42Dr. Ann Shippy:And when we think about longevity, especially for women, we've got to start focusing on building muscle around our 40s because naturally we start to lose it more easily. Right. Right. Right. So then other peptides that I will use with patients sometimes are NAD, BPC-157, and then just depending on the patient, but I'm very cautious because we don't know the long-term implications of things. And then back to the GLP-1's preconception, it can make people more fertile because inflammation is going down. That's what I've heard. Now, would I prefer that we get the inflammation down by getting toxins down, building the mitochondria, getting the nutrient stores up.

59:26Dr. Ann Shippy:Absolutely. There is a place for it with some patients, especially when people have issues with mast cell activation. So high histamines, lots of inflammation that are hard to control. So to get things in check for a bit, but then I prefer there's a stabilization period where you've got your inflammation managed because we definitely don't know what happens to babies on the GLP-1 side. And since everything really gets, I mean, we used to think that the placenta was a pretty good protector, but it's not. Like what's in the mom goes into the baby. It's not a filter. Like we know from the cord blood studies, every toxin, all the hormones, like I think back to my second child where I'm, you know, managing the ICU and residency for several months, doing night float where I'm up all night, every night per month.

1:00:18Dr. Ann Shippy:Those, those are information signals getting passed on to him. But it's good to know. It's good to understand. Yeah. The, the implications of that, both positive and negative lifestyle, what you're putting in your body. And I wanted to touch on the peptides cause I've just, it's such a conversation right now. And I know that, yeah, I just, we don't know what we don't know yet, but I think there are some really incredibly positive things that can happen. I think my main question is, does it suppress what the body can naturally do or does it stimulate? Do you know what I'm saying? So if the body can naturally produce GLP-1, but we help it to do that, is it suppressing it or is it being like, hey, you remember, like, remember how to do this?

1:01:03This is how you do it.

1:01:05Dr. Ann Shippy:It's very interesting because with the hormone signaling, we know that taking things like testosterone or taking thyroid hormone, suppresses your own production of it. I don't think we fully understand all the implications of the peptides. And it is fun. Like there's certain probiotics that increase your own production of GLP-1. And so when I play around with taking those, I can actually feel like I'm on a GLP-1, like my appetite goes down, I feel satiated sooner. So for the situations that we can where we just get our own production of things better, I think we should do that first. Yeah, I love that.

1:01:45I think people are impatient. I know, I can't. Can you too? They're like, can't I just take a peptide for that?

1:01:55So if the preconception window, you recommend three to 36 months.

1:02:02Dr. Ann Shippy:Yes, and I'm even expanding that. If you're listening and you're 25 and you don't know when you want to start your family, start now. Right? Men or women. Why not? You can be protecting your fertility. And that light bulb didn't come on to a couple months ago. Oh, wait, this information is so great for anybody. And the light bulb came on with one of my kids. Actually, we were having dinner one night, and I was talking about the book and all the things. And he's like, his light bulb came on, and he's not anywhere close to starting his family. He's 28. And he's like, oh, I know I want a family, and I'm going to start now.

1:02:38Dr. Ann Shippy:obsessed with that what are the things that i should do and yeah it's like oh yeah it also just benefits you like it's going to enhance your health your life everything you know to your point what helps you from a fertility standpoint is also probably help you from a longevity standpoint just your sense and well-being yes and awareness like yeah i think i completely agree i wish i knew in my 20s about this stuff um thank god we know now thank god thank god um so the three to 36 and you're expanding that window i love that is there i guess for your patients who's coming to you are they coming to you kind of like at a point where they want to conceive right away and And then are you recommending, depending on their lab, say, how many months it's going to take?

1:03:35Is that kind of how it works?

1:03:36Dr. Ann Shippy:Yes, it's a little bit of a checklist to go through. Sure. The checklist is in the book. Love that. Yes. And then figuring out when to give yourself the green light to be ready to conceive. I've changed this from trying to conceive to ready to conceive. Okay. There's like a whole different energy around that. Like knowing your body's ready, it's like, okay, time to welcome the soul in. And so, yeah, and then in the online program, we're trying to do the same thing where people can check the labs. I can teach them how to interpret them and then know when they're ready. So it's everything. Like I'm seeing patients that come because they've read the book or they've heard me speak.

1:04:17Dr. Ann Shippy:You know, one particular patient is popping to mind. So he had had a normal sperm count. His wife had been going through all the fertility treatments, but then he did the sperm test that I recommend just because he got curious about it. It's called sperm QT where they can look at the epigenetics of the sperm. Okay. Like what does the sperm look like under a microscope? They can measure important factors about how the genes are getting expressed. And he had an abnormal sperm QT test. And so now we're working on why that would be. So he's got some things with how his body methylates. He's got some things with environmental toxins that have built up in his body, some low-grade infections.

1:04:56Dr. Ann Shippy:So it's just the body interpreting what to do in the environment that it's in, and we're reversing it. And then we'll get to a point where that sperm QT test will be optimal. And like you said, there's a pretty quick turnaround in sperm quality. quality. It is so fun to, another patient just popped to mind where they had done IVF with their first child before they saw me because his sperm count was so low. And then we found that they were living in toxic mold and there were some other things going on, got that fixed. And then they had their next two children, no IVF. Mold is such a thing now. Mold is such a thing.

1:05:34I know countless people who have mold toxicity. So that's another thing that you would see on the labs.

1:05:41Dr. Ann Shippy:Right. Okay. I can check for the toxin levels of the mold and see where that level is. Before we get into just reversing infertility or kind of like that diagnosis that I feel like a lot of people get and just feel so discouraged by, I did want to ask a random question. We touched on this topic earlier, but I've always been curious, does freezing your eggs, um, affect your health or fertility in any way? So that has been such a journey. So I do think that some women go through the process of the egg retrieval pretty easily. I've had a number of patients who've come to see me after doing that process that it's totally wreaked havoc in their body wow okay and it's not that we can't get the body back into balance but it's hard really yeah why do you think one patient that's popping to mind um oh gosh this really um she had had endometriosis and then went through IVF and it stimulated the endometriosis so badly that she had ended up with lesions that blocked one of her kidneys and she had to have a kidney removed oh my goodness so there's these stories of individual patients

1:07:19Dr. Ann Shippy:but I really this is very controversial to say what I believe but I think we're doing an experiment on women that we really haven't like I have looked so hard for I'm such a researcher and when I was writing this book I came up with over 600 studies to include in the book so I have heavily heavily research this and I feel like we have done women a disservice because we have not fully studied what these implications are yes there are women that fly through this they do great they get beautiful healthy babies and everything both egg freezing and IVF we're talking about okay and then there are other women that I think it's increased the risk for a lot of different illnesses as well as more complications during pregnancy as well as the children being less healthy.

1:08:08And I found some

1:08:11Dr. Ann Shippy:threads of the data, but to say, hey, this has been totally studied, this is totally safe or it's not safe, we don't have good data. Longitudinal data to really look at what's happened to women, what's happened to children, and really fully understand the risk. So that, to say that, I know I'm going to get a lot of pushback on this because it has created a lot of life that most people don't know there's another path. Sure. But what I would say to people that are considering storing some eggs or doing IVF is to really look at your options. and if you are considering doing it, find a reproductive endocrinologist that works on optimizing your health first.

1:09:06Dr. Ann Shippy:If you're going to go down that path, don't just put somebody that's picked somebody that's just going to put you through the IVF mill. Really find somebody that understands that your health is getting going to get pushed very hard through this process and do everything possible to protect you. Yeah, yeah. No, that's really incredible advice. I mean, that is, yeah, because I've just intuitively felt that, and I will say I haven't been through either process, so, you know, I'll probably get pushback for that too, but I just, I've heard countless friends just struggle after going through those processes.

1:09:49Dr. Ann Shippy:It's very upsetting to me. Yeah, I know it is. patients that I've had that I think have had harm done to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I always wonder about kind of the business of these things and we're not going to get into that, but I just, there's an internal alarm bell that goes off for me when it is just so widespread now. Everyone I know freezing their heads, half of my friends, IVF. The converse, it's just presumed now if you're 31 and you haven't had your kids yet, you need to store your eggs. It's just not what I see. And That's why I started with my beautiful family with a 48-year-old. That's what's possible when your body's super healthy.

1:10:31Dr. Ann Shippy:Yeah, it's wild. Healthy. And, you know, I think the things that she did to prepare her body to have a healthy baby at 48, it's probably going to, those things are going to help her to be healthy in her 50s and 60s and 70s and beyond. Yes. it's so worth it it's so worth it for anyone that's gotten say a diagnosis from a doctor or like has been told by a doctor sorry like you are infertile um or who feels like really hopeless or defeated because they've been trying to conceive for a really long time what message would you have for them about their fertility let's reframe it it's just the body putting on the brakes just saying hey what you know there may be some hidden things with the dad or with mom that aren't obvious on the outside so just dig deeper yeah it's just it's just the brakes you're trying to you know half the gas and the brakes at the same time and we just need to find out why the body's putting on the brakes and and help to remove those obstacles it's really the body being so wise that this isn't the right environment and we just need to change the environment yeah yeah I love that reframe two more questions if someone has experienced miscarriage one time more than one time or ectopic pregnancy or any form of loss during that process I think a part of me and I have experienced this I haven't talked about kind of the details publicly but I'm going to write about it but the the fact that I got pregnant I feel like is positive you know where like my body is able to get pregnant so that feels positive to me but then I wonder okay is what you're doing in your work beneficial to lower the risk of miscarriage or or the like is that connected is that just, you know, kind of, you know, an egg that's not perfect or like what is happening there?

1:12:40Because I think a lot of people beat themselves up. They overanalyze everything that they're doing when that happens. And it's a very, yeah, it's really upsetting. But I'm just curious from your experience and seeing patients.

1:12:53Dr. Ann Shippy:Yeah, no, I think that's such a great question. And it's complex. Of course. Because, you know, there's just times where the body realizes that this isn't going to be a healthy baby. And so it's just like, okay, let's, you know, let's stop the process now. And then there's sometimes genetic issues where maybe you clot a little extra easily. And so then we need to help your body thin the blood a little bit. or maybe there's a little bit of an immune system imbalance where the body's more reactive and the inflammation. So you're able to get pregnant, but there's still not a good environment for the body to finish creating life.

1:13:38Dr. Ann Shippy:And so as hard as it is to have the miscarriages, it is just part of those protective mechanisms that come up sometimes. And what's exciting is that that can, especially when we do the deep dive and start to work on what the underlying root cause is, we can do so much to prevent that from happening in the future, especially around the autoimmunity and the clotting issues.

1:14:09Dr. Ann Shippy:There's a lot of times there's an underlying autoimmune situation. So basically the body's making antibodies to a part of itself, whether it's Hashimoto's-type antibodies or lupus-type antibodies or rheumatoid arthritis. There's a whole subset of them. So that process is going on, but you don't have a full-blown disease yet. Got it. And so sometimes it's as simple as running a really in-depth autoimmune panel and then doing the work to help the body not be confused and attacking itself. and just getting the immune system back into balance and the body's like oh okay i know what to do it happens quite frequently actually okay this is that's yeah that gives people hope um last question i i did want to dive into just the metaphysical spiritual aspect or experience of conceiving um we connected before this just in that realm and i felt just like deeply that we should go there as we end this conversation.

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1:17:53So talk to me about what comes up when I say that.

1:17:56Dr. Ann Shippy:So I think there is a soul that comes in in this process. And the better place we're in to receive the soul, both individually and as a couple, the easier that soul's transition is into being. So that's part of what I write about in the first part of the book, is some of the things that we can do to be aware of our own internal state and ready for parenting the soul that wants to come in and to be aligned with our partner and the stewardship of the soul that's coming in. And one of my motivations for writing this book is this awareness that humanity is at a precipice. we we're in a situation where we've got AI coming so all of our lives are changing so rapidly we've made choices with our environment that aren't sustainable for life if we keep accelerating to this point and that there's so much pain getting created through the wars and all the different suffering that humans are after and I have this awareness that there's this whole group of souls that are ready to come in.

1:19:24Dr. Ann Shippy:And they have different ways of being, different kind of operating systems on how to move humanity through this change that we're on the brinks of. And what's fascinating to me, and this is all, you know, I'm the hardcore scientist, the engineer turned doctor, like, give me the data. And so this is just my belief system. But it feels really real to me. Yeah, of course. Like I really feel these souls. Yeah, I know you do. Have a different vibrational frequency. And I think the parents that these souls are wanting to come through, well, a lot of my patients feel the souls before they even get pregnant.

1:20:06Dr. Ann Shippy:So I feel like it's time for me to start talking about this. So thank you so much for me to be able to share this in a safe. It's important. with a safe audience because I know I'll sound crazy to some people but these souls have a higher vibrational frequency not that they're better or worse or whatever they're just a little different in how they're going to operate and so they need really strong bodies because their frequency their light is so bright yes that if they don't have those strong bodies from both the epigenetics of the egg and the sperm, they can't make it in. So I think my, again, just talking really freely, I think that's sometimes what happens with the miscarriages is like, wait, they're trying to come in, but they're not compatible with what they've got to work with, and so they have to try again.

1:21:01Dr. Ann Shippy:And I've heard this story multiple times now from parents, so it also feels validated by my experience. No, I feel that so deeply. And so I guess anybody that's listening that just feels this, like, knowing that there are these children that want to come be part of their families is to lean into the part of how to optimize their bodies as much as possible, their mind-body-spirit, their partnership, like to really be in this collaborative environment to help these souls come in because I it's the thing that gives me the most hope like I don't know how humanity is going to make it if we don't have some different ways of being and so it gives me a lot of hope to see these parents that are they're ready to relearn their parenting skills they're not going to take the parenting skills that they've learned and that they kind of are I think a lot of times we have these unspoken constructs that we use to even manage ourselves but these people that are brave and really willing to go into this whole space with these children and and relearn how to really love their children and and help them to survive and thrive in on this planet it's so beautiful to me it is so beautiful so thank you for being one of them thank you I appreciate that yeah I feel that deeply and um I think sometimes it shows up for me as like really deep hard work you know like so I it's not easy but it's it's just one of the most um fulfilling parts of becoming a mother you know I I feel it every day and it some days it hits me as a lot of pressure some days it hits me as this is like my purpose and um and I just know that this experience is taking me to a whole other level of like my own humanity and my own understanding of my soul like and it's not always going to be like ha this is amazing like part of that is being deep in reflection and new practice and and insane presence which I think for us in this day is very hard and so it's all of that and I think I've always said this and felt this that you know your the spirit of your child is working with you well before they come in and I've experienced that a few times and it's just it blows my mind every time I'm like so what do you want me to work on now oh this friend we got a chuck okay they're out or you know I think my husband too my husband too like I've seen him go through growth in various areas in between you know conceiving and like just looking at those windows being like ah that needed to happen actually before they came in that's so interesting I am so grateful for my children I really do feel like they are my best teachers yes created this soul expansion that I didn't even know was possible even at 24 and 28 You know, you just think, oh, I love my kids so much.

1:24:41Dr. Ann Shippy:I can't possibly love them anymore. And then there's this moment of true presence with them that a heart expands, soul expands even more. So sweet. It's so, so, so. So special. So special. And yet, at times, terrifying. Yeah, of course. Oh, my gosh. Terrifying. Oh, my gosh. I know. Even at 24 and 28, it's like, whoa, wait, can I do this? i thought i knew i thought i knew how to be the best steward i thought over this 24 28 or more years with your idea they probably joined me before they actually came into physical form like okay i thought i had this down and then all of a sudden it's like oh wait i get to learn something even more but that's part of it it's that's what it is so yeah it's not it's not being a you know like knowing it all at any point I think like parenthood is always they're always gifting you the opportunity to learn something new to be in that beginner's mindset to be so present that you're not just on autopilot of like no I got this like okay this is what we do this is what we say and you would think I would have learned this a lot earlier but the biggest thing that I'm seeing from both my kids right now is how important it is to have that just full presence with them yes like that is what they ate for is to be with another human that loves them unconditionally I can just cry yeah of course unconditionally and can be present to whatever is really true for them in that moment and what a gift you're giving them to then have that as like their standard you know especially again in this day and age I'll say it 500 times but people aren't present a lot of the time to be present and it's and it's and it's really making people upset even though they're kind of participating like it's so upsetting when you're with someone and they're not very present but I can turn around and probably be not present in a moment was you know it's like we're kind of perpetuating even though we're feeling kind of like off about things really this doesn't feel good but I guess you know this just is what it is like so for you to be that for them is so profound you know when you could just be like you know they're out of the house right or like if close to being out it's like they have their lives and it might be easy for you to like disconnect and just kind of be like go do your thing but to be so present really it's probably the most important part of my parenting journey actually is that gift that they're giving me because they're being totally present with me with so much wisdom so much grace so much intention like the the reciprocity of it oh wow like if you had told me like holding them as you know newborns like the birth of them that anything could actually bypass you know exceed that moment of like meeting them in the physical form for the first time that it's yeah like it's extraordinary wow wow what a gift thank you this has been beautiful i learned so much and i know people listening have too and have been um given a lot of hope resources this is not you know a diagnosis that you cannot reverse, work on, improve.

1:28:20The body's amazing. And I'm just so thankful for your work and for this book. Congratulations on the book. The book is The Preconception Revolution. And you can get it anywhere books are sold. This is a must read if you want to have children one day or you're in your kind of conception season. So, so helpful. Thank you. Thanks so much. You're so fun to talk to. All right, y 'all. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you on the next one. Bye. Thank you so much, Dr. Ann Shippey. We appreciate you coming on Almost 30. Awesome. The book is The Preconception Revolution, and you can follow her on Instagram at annshippymd and annshippymd.com.

1:29:03All right, guys. We will see you on the next one. Love you so much. Bye.

1:29:13Thank you.