Welcome to Episode 30!

In episode 30, we interview functional nutritionist, Krista Barlow, about her journey through infertility and IVF. When Krista started struggling to conceive, she was fully committed to using nutrition and natural medicine to work through it and get pregnant on her own. But after 6 long years, she finally decided to seek help from a reproductive endocrinologist to investigate further. And it turns out that, despite doing everything in her power to overcome infertility naturally, she would ultimately need IVF to start her family. In this episode, Krista shares her entire story and we also talk about when you should consider conventional testing/treatment, how to maintain your health and sanity while going through IVF, and why it's so important to always trust your intuition!

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Connect with Krista

Website: http://www.kristabarlow.com/

Beautycounter: https://www.beautycounter.com/kristabarlow

Instagram: @nutritionallove and @mthfrdietandlifestyle

Facebook: Nutritional Love and MTHFR Diet and Lifestyle

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Show Notes:

6:00        Krista’s background and how she got interested in holistic nutrition

8:55        How she met her husband and got married

11:10     Spending years avoiding pregnancy and experiencing troubling side effects from birth control

16:45     When Krista was finally ready to start trying and what was going on with her health at that time

19:45     Working with a naturopathic doctor to try to address health challenges during preconception

21:10     Finding out she had an MTHFR genetic variant – what it is and why it matters

26:40     Moving on to seeing a reproductive endocrinologist after 6 years trying to conceive naturally

31:25     How it felt for Krista to find out she had blocked tubes and would need IVF

32:30     Krista’s advice for women on the fertility journey

35:15     Dealing with negative thoughts/emotions and why it’s important to talk about our experiences

38:45     Remembering to connect with and involve our partners during fertility challenges and treatment

40:00     What it was like to go through IVF and what the outcome was for Krista

43:00     How Krista feels her success was influenced by her support system and how she cared for body

45:30     IVF is a numbers game – going from 13 embryos to 2 and the fear that caused

48:10     Transitioning to the focus on staying pregnant and her care in maternal fetal medicine

52:50     Closing words of wisdom from Krista

53:30     Wrap-up