Maybe you’re like me and are getting older and realizing that your hormones are a thing that you can’t take for granted anymore and you are starting to tune into how you can support them better. Or maybe you are on a fertility journey and trying to figure out things within your control that can support your ability to conceive. Regardless, the more I learn about hormones and their crucial role in our health, the more I realize that I have to learn.
In this exclusive interview, I sit down with Jenni Sills who is a Certified Nutrition Coach and Functional Hormone Specialist. Jenni’s own fertility journey prompted her to dive deeper into functional health and the role of hormones. You can read more about her story on here. I have worked with her on understanding my cycle more and how to use that to optimize health, and I think she has some really important insight on how we can support our hormone health.
What are three things that you wish everyone who was trying to conceive knew?
1. It takes 90(ish) days for an egg follicle to reach maturation. So the egg that releases and is fertilized has been impacted by what was happening in your life about 3 months prior. If you are actively trying to conceive, it's best to spend those 90+ days, finding ways to support the best quality egg. This includes, nutrition, intentional movement, endocrine disruptors, stress levels and mindset. Think of those things as the building blocks or foundation for your egg's health.
2. Start taking a prenatal at least 90 days before conception. Ideally one that is 3rd party tested. I like Arbonne and Needed.
3. Understanding your cycle by cycle syncing is the best way to understand your body and recognize symptoms before they lead to more complicated symptoms. This will help you to understand when you're ovulating best! I have created a simple to follow, yet comprehensive guide that will help you learn more about this method and provide resources to get you started. Along with the guide, I highly recommended a wearable like Oura ring that tracks your waking temperature to help determine more specifically when ovulation has occurred.
When thinking about hormone health, it can be really overwhelming to even know where to start. If someone is just getting started on this journey of learning more about their hormones, where would you have them start?
I hear you! Our hormone systems are more than just for conception and go beyond Estrogen and Progesterone. In fact, those hormones are impacted by and impact so many of our other hormone systems in our bodies (adrenals, thyroid, pituitary, etc). But ovulation is a VITAL sign of health. So starting with Cycle Syncing to learn your body's rhythms and support them as you age is key to supporting your overall hormone system.
What are things in our everyday lives that are contributing to our fertility and hormone health that most people probably don’t know about?
I hope most people understand that nutrition is a huge factor in hormone health, but type of exercise, compounding stressors, lack of sleep, and environmental toxins like PFAS, plastics, glyphosate, fragrances, and harsh chemicals, all create inflammation in the body which will suppress hormone production. This can eventually lead to unwanted symptoms like PMDD, Extreme PMS symptoms, brain fog, constant fatigue, anxiety and depression, troubles sleeping, weight gain, stubborn belly fat and more.
If you could encourage every single woman to make one small change, what would it be?
Take out seed oils from your diet. It's small in concept but unfortunately, they are in everything we eat. So...start small. Start swapping brands and buying organic. It shouldn't be all at once, but start paying attention to what you're consuming. See how different brands change your appetite, stress levels, sleep and productivity.
Jenni and her family in North Carolina Photograph taken by Taylor Wheeler Photography
There are 3 ways you can work with Jenni:
1. Snag her Cycle Syncing Guide and begin charting your monthly cycles to find ways to improve your monthly rhythms, be more productive, reduce stress, decrease your PMS symptoms and more.
2. Dive deeper into the what, why and how of hormone health and invest in Jenni's Course: The Hormone Balancing Building Blocks. This course is designed for the busy woman, which lessons under 15 minutes and modules that are easy to complete in a week or spread them out over 2 weeks. You'll learn invaluable information about your entire hormone system and be provided step by step solutions to implement researched based strategies that will improve your hormone health.
3. If you are someone who has been struggling to conceive, Jenni works 1:1 with a few select individuals wanting to dive deeper into their specific hormone balance and discover what root causes might be impacting ovulation and a healthy pregnancy.