Jamie joined the Food Freedom Fertility Society in April 2024 after being told IVF was her only option. She is a 28 year old nurse with a love for running, living in St. Louis MO. She dove in and started diligently following the FFF Method. In just 2.5 weeks, Jamie saw a return of her period! 2 months after that, she got pregnant naturally.

In this episode:

• Why rapid weight loss should be met with concern, not praise 
• Losing your period when on the pill and why that’s not normal
• Is ovulation induction a waste of time with HA? 
• Overcoming the fear of gaining all the weight back
• Why it’s unhealthy to restrict and overtrain during fertility treatment 
• The power of community for motivation in your recovery journey
• How to approach your fertility journey with confidence 

Connect with Lindsey Lusson: 

Instagram:@‌food.freedom.fertility
Website:www.foodfreedomandfertility.com/
Twitter: @LindseyLusson
Tiktok:@food.freedom.fertility

Transcript:

Lindsey Lusson  00:00

When you came off the pill, I’m curious, were you anticipating that you wouldn’t get a period back?

Jamie  00:05

I had anticipated that it might take me around three to four months to get it back. Some providers had told me that it wasn’t concerning if it took that amount of time, some people come off of it and get their period back right away. Some people get theirs back in three to four months, and that’s still normala.

Lindsey Lusson  00:20

Man. And you know, what’s wild is, from my perspective, knowing what I know, 90% of people will ovulate in a month off of the pill. 95% of people will ovulate after six weeks off the pill. I think that there’s a huge gap. Whenever doctors are telling women, oh, just wait three months, wait six months, wait a whole year, wait around and see if we’ll come back. What are you talking about? 

Lindsey Lusson  00:44

You’re not cycling regularly after a couple of months off the pill. Let’s do a full workup. Let us look at thyroid. Let’s look at all of your sex hormones. Let’s figure out where the gap is. I can’t believe that there’s so many people that are just left to figure it out or wait. 

Lindsey Lusson  00:58

Welcome to the Period Recovery and Fertility Podcast. Here, we discuss the challenging, rewarding and life changing process of recovering your period and finding freedom with food and exercise. Whether you’re hoping to regain your cycle to get your health back on track or you’re ready to become a mama, this podcast is for you. While the recovery process isn’t always rainbows and butterflies, it’s my hope to bring you both information and inspiration during your own recovery journey. I’m your host, registered dietitian and fellow HA woman, Lindsey Lusson. 

Lindsey Lusson  01:29

Jamie joined the Food Freedom Fertility Society in April 2024 after being told IVF was her only option. She is a 28 year old nurse with a love for running, living in St. Louis MO. She dove in and started diligently following the FFF Method. In just 2.5 weeks, Jamie saw a return of her period! 2 months after that, she got pregnant naturally.

Lindsey Lusson  01:51

Welcome back to another episode of the Period Recovery and Fertility Podcast. You guys, we have such an amazing story to walk through and share with you today. And so I am bringing on my past client, Jamie. 

Lindsey Lusson  02:01

Jamie, welcome to the podcast. 

Jamie  02:02

Thank you for having me.

Lindsey Lusson  02:04

Jamie, we were talking before we pushed record. You are now 20 weeks pregnant, about to have your anatomy scan. How has pregnancy been for you so far?

Jamie  02:11

Yes. So I am halfway there with a baby due in the spring. Pregnancy for me has been pretty easy. I had the first trimester nausea early on. But luckily for me, that was kind of short lived, and I got over that quickly. But yeah, no real problems throughout this pregnancy. I’m very blessed to be able to say that.

Lindsey Lusson  02:34

Oh, yes, nothing better than a completely normal, boring pregnancy. Nothing remarkable to report. You are a nurse and work in healthcare. So do you feel like, going into pregnancy, you already had a pretty good idea of what was to come, or had you read about, heard about things, and then now you’re experiencing it in real time, and you’re like, Oh, this is not what I thought at all? 

Jamie  02:55

So I went to nursing school about four to five years ago. I remember things from my OB rotation, and it was one of my favorite rotations, I love it. I hope to go into OB nursing one day myself. But it is something you don’t necessarily kind of realize all the things until it happens to you. You know, there’s a lot of knowledge about things that I have related to nursing that sit in the back of your mind and maybe worries or something,. But for the most part, yeah, I have nothing to complain about. I’m grateful for my healthcare knowledge and to be able to have some really good providers right now.

Lindsey Lusson  03:31

Yeah, amazing. I know as a dietitian, going into my first pregnancy, I was like, I’m gonna eat so healthy. I’m gonna provide the baby with the best nutrition there’s gonna be so much color on my plate. All these nourishing foods. And that whole first trimester I just felt like such a failure. Because I was like, the only thing I can eat is carbs, and I’m eating all day long. It was a shocker. It was one of those things where I was like, how bad could it possibly be? How hard is it, to eat healthy during your pregnancy and tell you what I had some things to learn.

Jamie  04:04

Yeah, that is exactly how I felt, too. It’s funny, the way you feel in the first trimester, there really are no words to describe it, because it’s hard. You can have all these good intentions of, oh, I’m going to exercise, I’m going to go for walks. All these things that I love to do before getting pregnant. Then you just feel different. And I think going through the program helped me realize the importance of listening to my body. 

Jamie  04:31

You don’t have to do certain things if you don’t feel like it. To just kind of ride that wave, and it doesn’t last forever, and you eventually do feel better. And so when I did get over that, I did make it a point to I was actually,  craving more fruits and vegetables and really looking forward to that. So I’ve been kind of leaning into that as well, and  incorporating more walks and all that with the increased energy. So that is great.

Lindsey Lusson  04:55

I always remind people that this too shall pass. You know, whether it’s. 1213, weeks, or it’s 1516, weeks for you with the nausea and the fatigue. W e do hit that sweet spot in pregnancy. And that’s such a much easier time to be incorporating in some gentle nutrition and movement and things like that. But yeah, you gotta rest when your body’s telling you that you need to rest. And sometimes you just gotta nourish with whatever you can stomach in the moment. So let’s get into how we even got here in the first place, because your fertility journey was not an easy one, right?

Jamie  05:27

Yes. So I would take it back to when I was in high school. I was a junior in high school, and I was overweight, and I wanted to take it upon myself to lose some weight. So I kind of did get into a drastic measure of caloric restriction and then exercise. And funnily enough, I remember being 16 years old, and I remember I was getting regular period since I had gotten my first period in middle school. I remember my periods were actually pretty heavy. And I remember thinking to myself, Man maybe this is something I need to get checked out. 

Jamie  06:03

Then the next month, I did not get one. And I was like, Oh my gosh, problem solved. As a typical 16 year old would think. And then I still was not getting them for about a year, year and a half after that, was still continuing to lose weight. Got lots of compliments about the weight loss. Something that was probably needed, but I took it really extreme. I was overweight to begin with, and then when I continued to lose and lose and lose, I ended up being clinically underweight, according to a BMI calculator. 

Jamie  06:34

And I was very symptomatic at that point. Very low energy. Hair was falling out, didn’t look good. And so I ended up getting on the pill when I was 17/18, years old, to kind of jump start or get a regular cycle back. I kind of did, but I was on the pill for 10 years.  While I was on, it only had a bleed, not a real period every about three to four months. Every time I would go in to see the GYN, no complaints. 

Jamie  07:07

Never heard from a doctor that that was abnormal. Just kind of like, Oh, you’ve been on… Especially when I had been on the pill for eight, 910, years. They’re like, this is not abnormal for somebody who’s been on it so long. And up until that point, I had not been desiring her pregnancy, so there were no issues that were ever discussed with a doctor. 

Lindsey Lusson  07:26

Yeah, this is such a common backstory of the going on the pill to jump start and just The miseducation of  this is what you need to do to get your period. And it’s almost going on the pill is the whole problem. Because what it allowed you to do was to go on your merry little way, continuing to overdo it and not feel appropriately. Thinking that, okay,cool. I get my period. No big deal. 

Lindsey Lusson  07:51

And it is interesting. I know you have an appreciation for this working in healthcare now, just kind of like the the misnomer among doctors of like, Oh yeah, well, it’s normal to not get your period. We even though we’re giving you synthetic hormones, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be getting a withdrawal bleed every month. That, to me, is a red flag. 

Lindsey Lusson  08:08

And yes, there are certain types of birth controls where it can be normal to not get periods very frequently. But with the hormonal contraceptive estrogen and progestin combination,  there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be getting withdrawal bleed. So sounds like some red flags were missed. Do you feel during the time that you actually lost your period? You’re kind of mentioning, in retrospect, their word some clinical signs of malnutrition going on in your mind? Did you think you had a problem with food and exercise? 

Jamie  08:40

Looking back, it was so long ago. thing that I remember the most… this is embarrassing to admit, but I just rememb I did get attention or compliments for losing weight, and I thought I looked better. I was getting this external feedback, and it was good. I started in an unhealthy place and moved to a healthy place, but took it a little bit too far. And I think I was really, at the time, having body dysmorphia. Even though I was underweight and did not look good, and looking back at pictures of myself. Definitely not happy with how I looked. 

Jamie  09:20

Even family members saying that you’re too thin. When I looked in the mirror, that is not what I saw. I did not see somebody who was too thin. I just saw all the hard work in the results that I had put in, and how much I was exercising, and how little I was eating, and how long I could go without eating. Was so consumed with that at the point that it was hard to kind of think about like, oh, do I have a problem? 

Lindsey Lusson  09:44

Yeah, for sure. Did friends, family members, anybody raise concern, or was there more praise and validation for the air quotes, hard work?

Jamie  09:54

There was some concern raised. When I went to college is when my freshman year of college, I did gain some of the weight back. I hate to use this as a measurement, but  in a clinically healthier BMI, and I did feel better. I had more energy.  It didn’t hurt to sit down. My hair wasn’t falling out as much. I was doing really well in school. And so I was like, Okay, this is great. This number range is where I’ll stick with. 

Jamie  10:23

It was kind of odd went in that freshman year of college, because I had eaten so little to get down to that weight, that when I started eating more, it just rapidly piled on. I’ll be at 10 pounds. People may not blink an eye at that, but to me, I was like, Oh, wow. I’m eating more. It’s coming back on. But no All in all, those, those years of college, I pretty much stayed within what I would consider a healthy weight, healthy BMI. Still on the pill, getting a bleed every three to four months. No concerns raised with any doctors. It just kept getting encouragement and praise from them for eating healthy and looking clinically appearing as a healthy patient. 

Lindsey Lusson  11:09

This is a huge problem with most women who experience HA is that they will be walking well. They will have really good metrics. From my perspective, sometimes these are red flags. But low resting heart rate, low blood pressure. I think, and you can speak to this more than I can working in a clinical setting, usually, what healthcare providers are seeing is clients with elevated resting heart rate and elevated blood pressure and kind of all these metrics. And they’re kind of like giving out all of this health advice. So when they finally get a patient who is fitting whatever these standards are. Maybe on the low end, I feel like they don’t raise the same level of concern for when somebody’s in the other side of them.

Jamie  11:49

Absolutely, yeah. So I even remember going to the doctor, and they’re looking at my low resting heart rate, and saying,  you’re doing endurance running or endurance sports? This is a reflection of that. And I was like no, but Oh, wow. Maybe I have the heart rate of an endurance runner. Look at me this is so great.  I should keep going. Yes, I did have very low resting heart rate and very low baseline blood pressure, which sometimes would lead to fainting, or dizziness even that.

Lindsey Lusson  12:20

Yeah, for sure. But I think your doctor probably isn’t going to somebody who out of checkup. And that’s the other thing too. Is how often are you going to the doctor once a year? Maybe, right? But somebody who’s presenting with a normal BMI, what appears to be healthy metrics, especially compared to what they’re probably used to seeing. 

Lindsey Lusson  12:39

If you’re not mentioning like, Oh, I’m and I’m passing out, oh, and I’m exercising for three hours a day, and, oh, by the way, I’m eating 1000 calories a day, right? If that information is never volunteered, a doctor’s never going to think to screen for an eating disorder because the BMI is normal. And so where did things start to become evident to you that something was going to have to change, and that you couldn’t keep doing this?

Jamie  13:05

It is true that I don’t necessarily blame them for not questioning it or not looking into it more. When I started working with an REI, I was very honest with them about my history and diet and exercise, and I also was training for a half marathon at the time. I asked the REI, and I asked my OB, GYN, if that could have anything to do with this, or if it was, okay for me to keep doing that. And the responses I kept getting from primary care doctor too was, No, you’re doing great. You exercise, you’re a runner, that’s great. Keep doing what you’re doing. It didn’t really occur to me that related to my fertility, there was an issue with the diet and exercise until I actually got the diagnosis of HA. Nobody had ever told me that before.

Lindsey Lusson  13:53

Okay, so tell us about how you even ended up in the reproductive endocrinologist office. Do we come off the pill and there was no period? Was it a referral from your OB? How did we get there?

Jamie  14:04

Yeah, so in the summer of 2023 I came off the pill with the intention of kind of giving myself three months or so, to kind of restore my fertility and try to, get my period back after being on the pill for over 10 years and not having, what I thought most people, or the average amount of time is a few months. And then we would be ready to start trying for a baby. So I did get off the pill, did not get a period, went to my annual OB GYN appointment and told her about that. And so we did the Provera challenge, and no results with that. And then she referred me to an REI.

Lindsey Lusson  14:43

So when you came off the pill, I’m curious, were you anticipating that you wouldn’t get a period or that it would take you a while to get your period back?

Jamie  14:51

I had anticipated that it might take me around three to four months to get it back.

Lindsey Lusson  14:57

Why did you think it was going to take you a while to get your period back after?

Jamie  15:00

I believe some providers had told me, that it wasn’t concerning if it took that amount of time. Everybody’s different, some people come off of it and get their period back right away. Some people get theirs back in three to four months, and that’s still normal. Looking back, I know that I would have never gotten mine back had I not made any changes. I know that now, but I didn’t know that at the time.

Lindsey Lusson  15:23

Man, and you know, what’s wild is from my perspective, knowing what I know, 90% of people will ovulate in a month off of the pill. 95% of people will ovulate after six weeks off the pill. So if we’re telling women that not getting your period three months later. And this is not to say that if you come off the pill and you don’t have your period in three months, you automatically have HA.  Absolutely not true. There’s a lot of other things that can be going on. But you’re already in the 5% right? You’re already not 95% of women. 

Lindsey Lusson  15:53

And so I think that there’s a huge gap. Whenever doctors are telling women, oh, just wait three months, wait six months, wait a whole year. Or do literally, just,wait around and see if we’ll come back. What are you talking about? If it’s if you’re not cycling regularly after a couple of months off the pill? Let’s do a full workup, let’s look at thyroid. Let’s look at all of your sex hormones. Let us figure out where the gap is. I can’t believe that there’s so many people that are just left to figure it out, or wait or get that referral, which probably was a good next step, because you weren’t getting that withdrawal bleed from Provera. 

Lindsey Lusson  16:25

And so what, timeline wise, where are we now? So we came off the pill, you said in the summer of 2023 is that right? 

Jamie  16:33

Yes. 

Lindsey Lusson  16:34

And then when did we get in with reproductive endocrinologists?

Jamie  16:37

I started working with the REI in November of 2023. At my first appointment, it was an assessment and intake, and I was very honest with them about my history with the diet and exercise, with the eating disorder. And they didn’t really have a lot to say with that. But they did ask, how do you personally feel about your relationship with food and exercise right now. And it was right around the time of my half marathon and I said, I think I’m good. I’m at a healthy BMI. I feel like I eat very well, I feel like I’ve gained that weight back from when I was 18, and at a very low weight. 

Jamie  17:18

I feel I’ve been at a much healthier weight for the past 10 years. I’m exercising, I’m running. So, they didn’t really raise a lot of concerns about that. I did an HSG that was normal. My husband was tested, he passed with flying colors. Um, they didn’t note that my estrogen was low. We did some labs. Not a whole lot of them came back abnormal. But then we started with ovulation induction, with the oral medications.

Lindsey Lusson  17:48

Okay. And was it determined that you could and should respond to ovulation induction? And how did that go?

Jamie  17:55

Yeah, nobody really told me the… I was just kind of going by what the REI said. And I thought that because this is what he suggested, that this might work. I was looking back very, very hopeful that it would work, and then this would kind of be my answer, or this would, at the very least, even restart my period to be every month. None of that happened. So we started that.

Jamie  18:20

I wasn’t really looking at the success rates necessarily, with it. And also, I hadn’t been given any diagnosis at this point. up until this I had been told that it was just unexplained infertility. Yeah, I didn’t have PCOS. None of my labs reflected any of that. So I was just, kind of going off the unexplained definition, hoping that this would be my answer.

Lindsey Lusson  18:44

At any point. Did you ask or do you feel like it ever came up the fact that, you weren’t actually getting a period at all? Was anyone concerned about that? Were you concerned about that? 

Jamie  18:55

I wish I had been more concerned. Because in conversations this whole time, no provider had ever said to me a period is a vital sign. This is something that you should be getting. Nobody really told me that. So I just thought, okay I’m good. All I need to do is find out a way to ovulate or a way to get my period back and then I can be fertile. 

Lindsey Lusson  19:19

Were you told ovulation induction meds would bring your period back, or was that something you assumed? 

Jamie  19:23

That was something I assumed. 

Lindsey Lusson  19:25

Okay, gotcha. And so what happened from there? You did ovulation induction? Did you do multiple rounds? Did you do trigger shots, did you move to IUI what? What kind of hoops did we jump through after that kind of first initial meeting? 

Jamie  19:38

Yeah, so in the winter of 2023 is when we started ovulation induction. We did clomid, we did letrozole, we did tamoxifen. None of those worked in one round. We also did trigger shots as well. With a couple of them. I was having ultrasounds right before the trigger shots. And so if things looked good then we proceeded with the trigger shot. And all of those ended with a bleed and not a pregnancy. I did bleed and was not pregnant. And I asked if I could take credit for any of that. 

Jamie  20:14

Was it my body healing or getting better? And they said unfortunately, no, this is all medicated, and you can’t really take credit for that. So that was frustrating. One of the cycles I did hyper respond and was ultimately canceled. And I believe it was a total of about four medicated cycles. And at that last one is when I finally got a call from the REI office, and they told me that unfortunately, none of these have worked. We have tried each medication. None of them have worked for you. And you have something called hypothalamic amenorrhea. We have had a few clients who presented very similarly to you, patients who ultimately decided to go through IVF. 

Jamie  21:04

And unfortunately, Jamie, that’s kind of your only option, so either you can proceed or not. I remember getting that call, I was at work, and it was in March, and my stomach just felt like it went to my shoes. I was in shock, I was angry.   felt betrayed. Was hurt because I had went through all this and, devoted all this time and energy and money to all these appointments the last five months, only to be told that I had this all along and that ovulation induction doesn’t really work for people with HA.  

Jamie  21:41

Was really upset, but also so importantly, there was a part of me that just knew this was something I needed to hear. As upset as I was that day, and just felt like crying. I knew that this had to be some kind of blessing, because it was a diagnosis, and I knew deep down in me that IVF was not the only option. And it really would be worth me doing my own research. So that’s what led me to your program. 

Lindsey Lusson  22:09

Okay, when you got that diagnosis, did you know what HA was, or did you get off the phone call and go Google?

Jamie  22:18

I did have to Google. Yeah, I maybe had heard of it once before, but no, I definitely had to google and find out more about it. Because it was my first time hearing, this is what you have, and this is why this does not work. 

Lindsey Lusson  22:31

So we may never know the answer to this question, but I’m just curious, why do you think it took them five months to diagnose that?

Jamie  22:39

 That is something I ask myself. Yes, I think I don’t know if they thought that there are statistics that the support that ovulation induction can work. So I don’t know if it was a means of, appeasing me, or trying each medication, or, just going along with the process. Because I presented to them and this was something that I wanted to pursue. But no, I did not know that all along. And if I had known that, I don’t think that I would have gone through four of those cycles. I wish I would have known that.

Lindsey Lusson  23:14

Yeah, and that was kind of my point too. So you go to the reproductive endocrinologist, I feel like it’s important that we get the diagnosis out there as soon as possible. And then once we know, I think it’s important that the patient is then faced with the decisions. Hey, there’s IVF. These are the success rates for people with this condition. This is what these are the clinical outcomes we’ve seen in patients with your condition or who have been presenting similarly. 

Lindsey Lusson  23:39

We understand that’s a big investment and invasive, etc. We can try some lower level things. It has a lower success rate, but we’re happy to let you choose, kind of how you want to proceed. It feels like to go back to how you were feeling in March was just that there was a betrayal. There was information kind of withheld. Had you had that information sooner, you might have done something differently about it. 

Jamie  24:04

Absolutely, yeah. And this is in no means any hard feeling against REI as a type of medicine. I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s an excellent branch of medicine. It has helped so many people. I have nothing against it. My experience, my particular experience was just in that I wish that they would have been more upfront with me. And that’s just one provider that I worked with, one medical clinic. 

Jamie  24:29

I still am very grateful for all of their work with me. They were so supportive of my decision to not pursue IVF and to instead pursue this program. And on my exit appointment with the REI, I was very frank and honest with him, and I said,I think this is my, my best bet, and what I feel like is right for me to pursue this program. He was so supportive of it, and I think he would be… He told me in that appointment, it would be absolutely amazing for you to have a natural pregnancy. If that were to work, that would be wonderful. And he would be so happy to hear that. And here I am, 20 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby.

Lindsey Lusson  25:09

No, I think that that’s amazing. I’ve connected with some really, really, really amazing reproductive endocrinologists that are like, yeah, absolutely. This should be boots on the ground work before somebody’s entering a cycle. Because we have some clients that we’re working with right now who are doing IVF cycles for various reasons. But at the end of the day, whether you’re doing a clomid cycle, a trigger shot, an IUI or an IVF, your body is going to respond to those cycles a lot better when it’s not super stressed. You’re not over training, you’re not in constant fight or flight mode, and when you’re nourishing properly. Not constantly getting by on the bare minimum, not having a ton of stress and anxiety around food, around your body changing, right? 

Lindsey Lusson  25:47

We do have to do that foundational work if we’re going to do a fertility treatment cycle. We want it to be successful. And so you withdrew from IVF. It was a blessing and a blessing in disguise with recognizing, I finally have a diagnosis, I don’t have unexplained infertility. I’m going to go figure out what the heck this thing is, and I’m going to fix this. So tell us more about your Google search, how we came in contact, and a little bit more about kind of joining the program, and what your experience was like. 

Jamie  26:16

So it did not take me long. I remember that day, so clearly being at work and getting that call. And immediately, when I got home that night, I Googled, I went on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok. All the social medias. It was not long, I will say, probably not even a week before I came across some of your tiktoks. And I saw one that just absolutely resonated so well with me. It was exactly my situation. 10 years on the pill, being told that IVF is your only option not getting a period, and then getting this diagnosis of HA. My jaw was literally on the ground. 

Jamie  26:55

I remember I sent that Tiktok immediately to my mom and my sister, and I said, Oh my God, this is me.  I cannot believe that somebody out there went through the same thing that I am going through right now. And they have healthy children, natural pregnancies. I have to check this out. And so I talked to my husband, and told him that I was interested in doing this. Not long at all, just within a matter of weeks. 

Jamie  27:21

By April 1 was my first day in the program, and I was just so excited. I went from that anger, hurt, betrayal, confusion. Just so many emotions about what did I invest in the last five months? Was all this for nothing? Did I learn anything coming out of it to just being going into the program so hopeful. Just so full of energy. And I think that was what I needed. Of course, it was hard the months of getting a bleed and not a positive pregnancy test. 

Jamie  27:54

But going into the program with so much hope and optimism and just feeling so seen by other people, not just you, but the other people in the group. Finally meeting people who were so like minded and had such similar stories.

Lindsey Lusson  28:09

Yeah for sure. And I feel like you go from feeling like this unicorn, or maybe where that’s painting it almost more in  a positive. You’re this person stranded on a desert island. You’re like, nobody understands what I’m going through. Nobody has this issue. Doctors don’t even know what’s going on with me. They’re just saying I need IVF. To recognizing that, this is a widespread problem that a lot of active women deal with. A lot of women are struggling with infertility as a result of this. And just feeling that kind of like sigh of relief,  Thank God I’m not the only one.

Jamie  28:40

Absolutely. Yep, that is exactly how I felt. I felt so seen. And even, friends and co workers and people in my environment, I would look at them and think what is wrong with me? Why is it so hard for me to get pregnant? Why am I going to these appointments? And  they don’t even know what’s wrong with me where, maybe they did, and  didn’t tell me for months or so. 

Jamie  29:06

But I truly believed that in the program, and I seeing all the clients that you had worked with, yourself, who was so successful. All the clients you’ve worked with who are so successful. I was so dedicated and willing to do whatever it took to be successful and to eventually become pregnant. Because I was one of those people who wanted to be pregnant like yesterday

Lindsey Lusson  29:31

And that was the next thing I was going to bring up, is I feel like you…Well, first of all, you got your period back really fast in under a month, which does happen, but that’s incredible. That doesn’t happen for everyone. Call it dedication. Call it your body being in the right place, call it the perfect combination of all of those things. What do you think… And that you might have already kind of answered my question a little bit, but it doesn’t sound like up until this point. We’ve had a whole lot of reservations with what to do. 

Lindsey Lusson  29:57

Because it’s all about changing your exercise, which is a huge part of people’s lives who develop Ha. And it’s about kind of facing your biggest fear of gaining weight in your body changing and not being very, very, very, largely out of your control. Do you need to gain five pounds? Or do you need to gain 35 pounds? Do you need to give up… All there’s all of these things that I think people get consumed with and sometimes get paralyzed with. 

Lindsey Lusson  29:57

Because I think that a lot of people go through a really similar story. Hey, I’m not getting my period, Hey, it’s a referral. Hey, it’s higher doses of this, let’s add in a trigger shot to, hey, let’s move to the next step. And then, oh boom, IVF. Maybe getting that ha diagnosis somewhere in between all of that, taking to Google, being excited and then being like, oh shit, I’m gonna have to change my entire personality. 

Lindsey Lusson  30:53

But you actually just  jumped right in and, I was like, jumped and you were like, how high. You just really, really embraced it. What do you think gave you the ability to do that without getting stuck in all the spirals that most people do? 

Jamie  31:09

I mean, you’re totally right on that. One of my biggest fears up until this point was gaining weight. It stemmed from 10/11, years ago. And something worth mentioning too is, you mentioned all the stress your body was going throughwhenever I was working with the REI. I was in graduate school, full time. I was working full time, I was training for a half marathon. Running six, seven miles a day after work, eating probably 1500 calories a day or less. 

Jamie  31:40

And also, during the time I was working with the REI, I kept telling myself I need to get as thin as possible. Because I’m going to gain all this baby weight. And so I was actively trying to maintain or lose weight. I was like, I’ve just got to,be as skinny as I can, because what if I blow up during pregnancy? And you know, it’s funny but it’s not funny.

Lindsey Lusson  32:05

I really just kind of appreciate your candor there. Because I’ve had several clients that have admitted that to me and going through IVF and different processes of fertility treatment. Talking about how they almost become more restrictive and more obsessive because they’re fearing how their body’s going to change into pregnancy. That alone is something that needs to be dealt with before you’re pregnant. Because that’s kind of a whole crux, right? 

Lindsey Lusson  32:31

If you’re scared to gain weight… If you’re scared to nourish to best support your fertility, because you’re scared you’re going to gain weight, and then you’re heading into a season of nine months where the only thing you’re doing is gaining weight. How does that compute? So I’m so glad that you brought that up. I think that that’s really important to know that that’s a thing and using fertility treatment or not you do have to nourish to make a baby. You can’t be constantly restricting and expecting to literally build this baby from scratch on 1500 calories running seven miles a day. It’s just not gonna work. 

Jamie  33:07

And looking back, I realized that now, and going through the program so much that I learned, I realized that. I didn’t know that at the time, I didn’t care to know it. All I cared about was, maintaining that weight or losing that weight. It’s so true. And I am so grateful that I went through the program before getting pregnant. Because, let’s just say that one of those cycles, those medicated cycles, did work, and I went from running seven miles a day to all of a sudden being pregnant and gaining all this weight in pregnancy.

Jamie  33:40

I wouldn’t have had the mental processing, the mental the emotional side of getting my body to a healthy weight to get pregnant and kind of going through the mental adjustments of gaining that weight. I remember early in the program the first time that I had to buy new clothes, or notice that my stomach was a little rounder or something. Or that the scale was going up. I did tell a friend, I’m okay.  I’m doing okay, but I’m, am a little self conscious about these changes. 

Jamie  34:14

And she said to me would you rather have delayed that and just… It was inevitable. Would you rather have delayed that until you were pregnant, or go through it now, before you’re pregnant, when you kind of have more time to process it? And she made a really good point with that.

Lindsey Lusson  34:28

Yeah, 100%. One thing that I always had to remind myself going through recovery too when I would be like, Oh, well, I’m I miss my smaller body, or I miss this, that and the other. You would have never gotten pregnant at that size. It was just never going to happen. So delay it all you want, or miss it all you want. But that wasn’t healthy for you, and that wasn’t going to be sustainable or healthy. 

Lindsey Lusson  34:52

And it was quite literacy getting in the way of the next chapter of my life. So you’re right, like, Yeah, it sucks to have to go through that. But at the same time there’s nothing but good on the other side. So tell us more about getting your period back, how that felt, and then what the next kind of couple of months looked like for you?

Jamie  35:12

Yeah. So I got my period back within about like two weeks of starting the program. When I started I was kind of still reeling from those five months of unsuccessful treatments. And that did teach me patience, and that was some lesson I needed to learn. And so I told myself, if by the end of these three months, if by the end of 10 to 12 weeks, I don’t have my period back, I’m not going to be upset. I’m just going to keep working. And so I just kind of had it in my head, it may take me that long. It may take me longer. So I was just absolutely stunned when I got mine back in such a short period of time. 

Jamie  35:55

And I felt like my hard work was, coming to fruition. It motivated me to keep going in the program and to keep doing what I was doing. I was like, at home, oh my gosh, I can’t change anything. I wanted to, keep up with my food logs and doing well. Because I eventually wanted to get to a point where I could ovulate and then get pregnant. And I think something the emotional and the coping side of it too, and the motivating factor was being in the program with other people, being in the Facebook group. 

Jamie  36:31

Before joining, I guess I didn’t realize how important that was going to be. And especially things like when you have to buy new clothes, or if you do go to the doctors and you see the number… I mean, everybody has hard days. Recovery is not just this, everything’s rainbows every single day. Some days are great. And then you may have some setbacks that you need the people in your life and the support to get you through.

Lindsey Lusson  36:59

Yeah. And you need your people who understand. I think so many times people think like, Oh, I’m just gonna, I just need to get over this. And they’ll internalize everything, or they think I have support, I’m gonna talk to my husband about it. Like they cannot get it. They will, sweet as they are, support you through anything that you want to do, for better or for worse. Because what I hear from a lot of people with spousal support is they’ll be like, well, maybe you could go for a run maybe that would be fine. Or you’re probably not going to have to gain that much weight. 

Lindsey Lusson  37:30

Kind of saying enduring things, but almost like, the wrong thing for somebody who’s trying to set up really strict boundaries and really recover. And so, yeah, the community piece is important. I think people forget about it or maybe don’t totally recognize how much they needed until they have it. And then they’re like, Well, thank God I have this.

Lindsey Lusson  37:48

Something that you said. I think it’s actually really, really helpful that I’d like to leave listeners with, because I can relate to the time frame. When I started my recovery journey, I like have a lot of similarities with you. But I think that I knew I didn’t want to get into fertility treatment without giving period recovery my best shot. And I started my recovery journey thinking I’m gonna give this six months. I need to give myself some time. This isn’t an overnight process. And so I was shocked when I, too, got my period back in two weeks. 

Lindsey Lusson  38:22

And so I almost wonder if it’s better to play the long game and overestimate how long it might take your body to recover, just to lower the stress and expectations.

Jamie  38:34

I love that you said that, and you kind of went into it so open minded. Telling yourself, I want to give this a thought. I want to give it six months before I embark on fertility treatments. I wish I would have found you before, etting a referral. That would be wonderful in an ideal setting. It all worked out for the best. I ended up getting my diagnosis from the REI. So in that aspect, I am ever grateful. But yeah, I agree with you. Because everybody is so different. And some people also…  Clients that you may have worked with, they may show up to the program and not be 100% there mentally, not be ready to commit. Everybody is so different.

Lindsey Lusson  39:22

Yeah, for sure. And there’s, I mean, even beyond, I don’t mean to say that this is a reflection of how hard you work, in some ways it is. But also, there’s a lot of variables that can play into how long it might take your individual body to recover. So just know that everyone’s a little bit different. After working together for three months, you had had a couple of cycles and you were like, Okay, I’m gonna be working on trying to conceive. Do you feel like you felt pretty confident after getting was it… you got pregnant on your fourth cycle? Is that right?

Jamie  39:53

Yes, I got pregnant on my fourth cycle. Second confirmed ovulation.

Lindsey Lusson  39:59

Good. Do you feel like after you had your cycle back, after you had confirmed ovulation, how confident did you feel that you were going to be able to get pregnant naturally? 

Jamie  40:07

Very confident. I felt so good after getting my period back. After confirming ovulation, I was like, wow. My body is in a really good spot. It finally feels safe. I wasn’t holding on to, okay this next cycle,  it this is going to be the one. But I kind of, like you said earlier, giving myself okay it may take six months. It may take this. And something that was encouraging to me that I learned during the program is, the more your body ovulates, and the more cycles you get, the more it gets used to, okay, wow. We haven’t done this for the past 10 years. But it’s, it’s starting to learn. It’s starting to get used to. That was really encouraging to me in the aspect that, if it were to take a while each cycle, you’re just getting more and more used to it. 

Lindsey Lusson  40:56

I know people always ask me,  how do I improve low progesterone, or how do I make my gluteal phase longer? And it’s honestly, the best way to boost progesterone naturally is to have regular ovulatory cycles. So  let’s figure out how to get you to do that, and everything will fall into place. And so you are now 20 weeks pregnant. When is your due date? In 2025?

Jamie  41:16

I’m due March, 29.

Lindsey Lusson  41:18

Okay. And so what’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to about labor and delivery, having a baby at home, taking a maternity leave? When you think about March of 2025, what are the exciting things that hop into your hat? 

Jamie  41:33

I feel like part of pregnancy, it goes by so fast. But then you want to meet your baby. Especially for me, this is my first go around with it, and so parts of it go slow. I’m so excited to meet the baby and to spend time with them, and to have time off work and enjoy maternity leave. My husband and I are going to start working on the nursery and getting that all together and just enjoying this as this is my first pregnancy. And it’s so desired, and it’s been wanted for so long, and we’re just so blessed to be here and grateful for everything that God has given us, and led us to this point.

Lindsey Lusson  42:13

That’s so amazing. There is nothing like the birth of your first baby and the experience the whole first year. I’m so excited for everything that is in store for you. You’ve worked so hard for this. Very deserving, very serendipitous, how everything came together for you. I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to work together, and thanks for just your willingness to come on and be raw and share your story. 

Lindsey Lusson  42:36

I know it’s going to help so many people just in feeling more connected, not feeling alone, and hopefully a little bit of glimmer of hope that even if you know, we’ve been faced with that ultimatum of IVF, that it doesn’t have to end there, and there are ways to get to your end goal without having to go down that route if you don’t want to.

Jamie  42:53

I’m so grateful for you for being transparent about your own journey and for doing this and for the outreach. Because, I can’t say that I would be in this spot right now if it weren’t for you and for your program. And I will just be ever so grateful for going through it and learning so much. Hopefully one day I have a daughter, and I’m so looking forward to…If I have a daughter, teaching her all these things that I didn’t know, and showing her good habits. And hoping that she never has to go through what I go through, and setting good examples by what I’ve learned in the program. 

Jamie  43:34

I did think it made me think long and hard about what the outcome of this is getting pregnant and having a baby, and what do I want them to see about how I interact with food and exercise? There are some really bad habits that I had I don’t want them to see or to catch on to. So it taught me a lot about life and how I need to adjust, as an adult and as a parent. And yeah, I’m so grateful that I went through it, and for the longest time, didn’t think that a natural pregnancy was going to be possible for me. In awe of in a relatively short amount of time that I recovered my period and was able to get pregnant. 

Lindsey Lusson  44:12

I know what a beautiful, wonderful plot twist after being dealing with infertility for almost an entire year. Thinking I’ve got this diagnosis, all I can do is IVF to recognizing, oh, wow, something else is in store for me. So that’s amazing. Thanks again, Jamie and we wish you safe and healthy delivery in 2025.

Jamie  44:33

Thank you.