A lovely client of mine came a few years ago having suffered an ectopic pregnancy resulting in the loss of one fallopian tube….. she had heard that Reflexology could be beneficial in encouraging the body to re-regulate, thus helping to conceive.   After only a couple of treatments she was delighted to find herself pregnant!  What a result.

Of course as a Therapist, you know that you can’t ‘claim’ the pregnancy, so you delight in the fact that your client feels Reflexology played a significant part. So much so that this lady returned again this year (even having moved further away from my clinic) for help with number 2, having suffered another miscarriage, and again with an unpredictable cycle.

Well, you guessed it, it took only another two treatments and the email pinged in – pregnant again!!… ‘we’ are delighted.

It is a wonderful result but is it just coincidence? Well my lady doesn’t think so and nor do I.  Whilst it is true that you cannot predict how each individual client will respond to treatment, and I should add that not all clients do fall pregnant but cycles do improve and many hormonal imbalances are reduced or alleviated.

Many clients do experience very positive results in all manner of hormonal work, such as:

• Reduced discomfort and regularised cycle (endometriosis)
• Eczema rash clears
• Monthly periods recommence after long periods of absence,
• Hot flushes and night sweats are reduced
• Oedema and puffy ankles instantly reduce
• Labour is encouraged to start or to further progress
• Cycles regulate
• Ovulation occurs

What is different about Fertility Reflexology?, well firstly we like to treat the client more often than a ‘standard’ treatment, so as to closely monitor the cycle and the responses.  We specifically work with the natural cycle (or IVF protocols), adapting the treatment to encourage hormonal rebalance and regulation, or adapting the treatment to encourage improvement in specific conditions, such as Endometriosis etc and we provide extensive information on how to monitor, chart, and understand your cycle so that you are well informed as to understanding how your reproductive body is behaving, what are possible underlying problems, when your most fertile time is and how to read your monthly symptoms.

If you would like to consider Fertility Reflexology as the next step in your fertility journey, please do get in touch.

Alison is a Reflexologist and Hypnotherapist based in Weybridge, Surrey.  She specialises in Fertility, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Menopause and all things hormonal.  She is a Member of the Association of Reproductive Reflexologists.  You can contact her on 07811 123494 or click ‘contact’ if you’d like to send an email.  If you live outside of her area, do contact the Association as a Member nearer you will be able to help.

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Pregnancy is a very special time in a woman’s life, but it is not without its share of ups and downs, as the body goes through a lot of physical and emotional upheavals. Did you know that Pregnancy Reflexology can be an effective natural solution?

Reflexology promotes deep relaxation, balances the body’s energy and prepares the body for labour.  Regular Reflexology treatments during pregnancy help to alleviate the discomforts that pregnancy can bring – both physically from symptoms such as morning sickness, lower back ache and puffy ankles, and emotionally by helping take the edge off the hormonal imbalance and bringing deep relaxation instead, allowing the nervous system to soothe and calm.

Treatment can take place during the first 12 weeks to support the pregnancy and alleviated morning sickness, or can commence from the 12 weeks scan all the way through to labour.

During their pregnancies, women may experience some of the following:

• General Pregnancy Discomfort Anxiety
• Shoulder tension and lower back ache
• Constipation
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Heartburn
• High blood pressure
• Morning sickness
• Oedema, particularly puffy ankles

As you get closer to your due date, treatment can help to encourage the onset of labour and again, ease symptoms if you are over due.

Post Birth the benefits are as follows:

• Boosting energy levels and circulation
• Rebalancing the hormones
• Alleviating the affects of Post natal depression
• Rebalancing the emotional disruption that hormones can bring
• Stimulating bowel & urinary function Bringing relaxation and a little ‘me-time’

If you would like to consider Pregnancy Reflexology , please do get in touch.

Alison is a Reflexologist and Hypnotherapist based in Weybridge, Surrey. She specialises in Fertility, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Menopause and all things hormonal. She is a Member of the Association of Reproductive Reflexologists. You can contact her on 07811 123494 or click ‘contact’ if you’d like to send an email. If you live outside of her area, do contact the Association as a Member nearer you will be able to help.

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The response to the question is often quite emotionally ‘telling’. When it comes to the issue of fertility – a good answer would be ‘I love it, I care for it, I see it as a very receptive nurturing vessel, rich in eggs and blood and ready to do its job’, however this is rarely the given answer.

So, why do we often feel so disconnected? Nowadays it seems that fertility is often a long frustrating and complex journey – an emotional and physical roller coaster if you like. As a result, the relationship with our reproductive organs becomes poor and negative, possibly due to a medical history of ops and procedures, possibly due to failed assisted conception, or repeated pregnancy loss or often because of ‘unexplained fertility issues’ – a diagnosis which only goes to further add to the feelings of failure.

As time goes by, these feelings develop into a lack of love and positivity towards our wombs, tubes and ovaries, causing us to view them in a negative or disconnected way, psychologically speaking. These feelings are not just caused by infertility issues but also by other conditions such as PCOS, Endometriosis, Fibroids and very irregular cycles which cause the owner to become disenchanted with this lovely, nurturing organ.

During excessive periods of stress, ill-health or emotional trauma our reproductive organs may become sluggish, excessive (inflammation, cramps), cystic, or choose to shut down completely if the body is not functioning optimally. In order to restore health to the reproductive organs, all areas should be addressed on an emotional, physical and energetic level which is why this treatment can be so effective when treating fertility issues, miscarriage and hormonal disruption.

So, what can be done to help the relationship between owner and organ? Fertility Massage (Abdominal-Sacral Massage) can be key to helping bridge the emotional and psychological void.

The massage breaks down stress and tension held within the abdominal-sacral areas and aids in releasing stored pelvic trauma that can have been stored in tissue for many years. Blood, lymph and oxygen flow to connective and organ tissue is increased, as tension held in ligaments, tendons, and muscle is released. Bloating, toxic build-up and water retention is alleviated. Massage encourages internal abdominal and pelvic organs to re-align into proper position, relieving a variety of organ displacement symptoms. Treatment increases circulation to the digestive system too, thereby enhancing the immune system. It promotes hormonal balance and helps the body clear old stagnant blood, old tissue and scar tissue. Many women suffer from the effects of a mis-aligned Uterus, most evident around the onset of menses – when the uterus is heavy – and this treatment helps to alleviate the impact of these symptoms. Ideally Fertility Massage is optimum pre ovulation, but is also effective and adaptive post ovulation.

Please call or email regarding treatment. If you are struggling with fertility either naturally or from assisted cycles, then Fertility Massage can help you. If you have abdominal discomfort from digestive or reproductive issues then Abdominal-Sacral Massage can help you, and if you suffer from stress or anxiety, or have ever fallen badly on your lower back, coccyx or had lower back or abdominal/reproductive surgery, then Abdominal-Sacral Massage can help you.

Do call get in touch on 07811 123494 or email [email protected].

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Studies suggest about 10 to 15% of women suffer depression, anxiety, or mental distress during their pregnancies¹. These issues, if not dealt with, cannot only affect the health of the mother, the father, but also the relationship between mother and child and impact on a child’s long-term mental health ².

Pregnancy is not without its emotional ups and downs but the third trimester can start to bring anxieties about the forthcoming labour and birth. During the final weeks anxieties and fears may increase. The physical discomforts can interrupt sleep and mums-to-be often experience feeling more vulnerable towards rejection, loss or insult at this time – usually these are offset by uplifting feelings too. But for some women, these emotions can become overwhelming and can lead to long labours and difficult births as fear impedes labour.

Whilst depression is thought to be associated with postnatal mothers, it is in fact, as common in pregnant women. Focus has been towards Postnatal Depression and has therefore meant that Antenatal Depression has been largely ignored, although evidence suggests that it is often the precursor to Postnatal Depression³. Antenatal Depression, occurring more commonly around 6 weeks before birth, can be accompanied by antenatal anxiety, and may predict birth complications such as premature delivery/low birth weight. If left undiagnosed, recognised or treated, Antenatal Depression may lead to Postnatal Depression.

Postnatal Depression, in its mild form, is often termed ‘baby blues’ and tends to occur a few days post birth. Up to 85% of new mothers feel emotional and tearful during a short period after birth and it is therefore considered quite normal and is generally manageable. However around 10-15% of new mothers develop a much deeper and longer-term depression, which tends to develop within 6 weeks of giving birth and develop gradually or suddenly. The symptoms include depression, fatigue, irritability, sadness and insomnia, can vary from mild to severe. Some fathers also experience these feelings too⁴.

Sufferers are often left feeling deeply afraid and anxious, having lost faith in the Health Care Professionals or Health Care system that was meant to be there to help them. Symptoms may persist for a long time and can result in Depression, although the two disorders have clinically different origins.

Previous experiences play a part in the stress-worry cycle and can compound when another pregnancy or birth is pending. Sufferers from post natal depression or general depression will be more at risk of potentially triggering the condition again. Birth was originally a natural ‘home’ event in this country until it started to be seen as a medical condition needing hospitalisation in the late ‘1950s’ when anaesthesia was introduced. However we have over medicalised the process, surrounding the mother-to-be with clinical strangers and made the environment cold, sterilised and too open, the experience now is often one of fear often leading to traumatic birthing experiences.

A great deal of research that shows mind-body techniques and hypnosis have a very positive effect on reducing the fears associated with childbirth, reducing labour lengths, the need for medical intervention and medication and providing new mothers with tools and techniques they can use to allow them to enjoy the experience of natural birth⁵. Births where the mother has been trained in hypnosis seem to progress naturally and without great need for interventions producing very healthy babies.

If we can give greater help, support and advice in the Antenatal period as well as providing a better understanding of the natural process of childbirth right through to the environment then we could alleviate a great degree of stress, anxiety and fear, allowing parents to be to have a much better experience and reducing the trauma that fear can trigger – preventing greater levels of anxiety developing to Postnatal Depression.

If you are experiencing anxiety in your pregnancy, about birth or from your birthing experience, do consider the benefits of Hypnotherapy and Hypnobirthing.

¹Royal College of Psychiatrists’, Mental Health In Pregnancy, 2012; ² O’CONNER, T. G., BEN-SHLOMO, Y., HERON, J., GOLDING, J., ADAMS, D., and GLOVER, V., (2005), Prenatal Anxiety Predicts Individual Differences in Pre-Adolescent Children. Biological Psychiatry, 58:211-217; ³ HOFBERG, K. and WARD, M.R. (2003) Fear of Pregnancy and Childbirth. Postgrad Medical Journal, 79, pp ; 505-510; ⁴ Inger Hatloy, Understanding Postnatal Depression, MIND, 1994 revised 2013⁵Jenkins and Pritchard, (1993), Abramson and Heron, (1950), Gallagher, (2001), Harmon, Hynan and Tyre, (1990).

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Can I have treatment?

There are situations when you may want treatment prior to your 12 week scan, to help ease morning sickness for example but generally most clients opt for treatments after the first 12 weeks have passed*.  Reflexology in particular is a favourite of both ‘mums to be’ and midwives alike.  As it is such a relaxing treatment it seems to never fail to bring relief from the natural aches and physical discomforts that pregnancy brings.  Treatment also helps to settle and balance the hormones and most clients report great feedback from each treatment.

The Benefits

Reflexology may bring relief from the following:

• morning sickness, nausea and headaches
• swollen ankles, hands and legs, particularly 3rd trimester
• back and joint aches
• stress and anxiety
• relaxation
• digestive issues & constipation

Over Due!

In the last remaining weeks and days, Reflexology is said to be great at encouraging the body to commence delivery closer to term and support a natural labour and birth. Many of my clients have been delighted to have treatment to help relax them and ease some of the anxiety and worries that can build at this time.

Post-Natal Treatment

Once you are home and coming to terms with your new arrival, your body will be adjusting too – in an hormonal way!.. Treatment around this time is wonderful at helping the body relax again, bring about a state of homeostatis (balance) and encourage the hormones to settle – plus it’s a lovely treat after all that hard work and helps to stave off the signs of post-natal depression.

*assuming that there are no complications with the pregnancy....

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The main aim of any holistic treatment (for fertility) is to help create, improve and maintain a healthy environment within to encourage early foetal development.  This may be achieved by balancing the body hormonally, where possible, thus reducing the impact of any problematic menstrual cycles (irregularity), Polycystic Ovaries (PCOS), Endometriosis, poor lifestyle and stress etc.

Worrying about fertility can cause stress and stress can be a fundamental cause of infertility, thus you can find yourself in a vicious circle.  Not only that but if you have been unable to conceive for some time, you have probably visited your Doctor, you may have been for tests, you are likely to be regularly and diligently monitoring your cycles and you are simply constantly thinking about trying to become pregnant.

By having treatment, many clients tell me that they feel ‘more in control’ of their fertility and this in turn helps to ease the stress.  This reduction in stress is likely to have a positive impact on your endocrine system and, in turn, reduce any hormonal imbalance.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine our reproductive system can be associated energetically with emotional stress such as fear, worry, anxiety etc.  Therefore working towards a position of relaxation and dealing with stress is often very effective.

Can Treatment Help With Assisted Conception?

Fertility Reflexology can be used to support your Assisted Reproductive procedures such as IVF/ICSI and IUI.  Treatment can reduce the effects of stress and brings about relaxation as well as preparing you both physically and emotionally during this procedure. Specific techniques are used to mirror ‘your’ protocol, providing a completely medical and holistic integrated treatment.

Fertility Reflexology can be effective in encouraging the body to conceive naturally. See Reflexology for more details or have a read under Articles.

When Should I Start Treatment?

Ideally starting three months, depending on the issues to address, prior to attempting natural or assisted conception to allow the body to adjust, rebalance and prepare. However, treatment can be started at any time and still have very beneficial effects.

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How Stress Can Impact Fertility In More Ways Than One!

Stress affects our overall health and wellbeing and this is no exception with infertility.  Why  do couples fail to conceive when there is no known medical cause?

NICE Fertility Report (February 2013) advises GPs to inform potential infertile couples of the following – 80% of couples conceive in their first year of trying naturally (women under 40 years).  Of the remaining 20%, 10% go on to conceive within a total of two years of trying – therefore 90% of couples (woman under 40 years) conceive within two years of trying.  With Assisted Reproductive Techniques, (ART) 50% of couples (women under 40 years) conceive within 6 cycles of IUI.  A further 25% conceive with another 6 cycles of IUI.

These statistics are clearly designed to give hope to couples, however HFEA Fertility Facts & Figures Report (2008) states that 1 in 7 couples experience infertility which is approximately 3.5 million people in the UK.

Stress, in its many forms, wreaks havoc with our hormonal and nervous systems and certainly impacts upon fertility.  Here are the 5 main causes of stress in fertility but don’t forget, they overlap, interrelate and are virtually impossible to separate.

Age Factor And The Pressures of Time

Infertility is the most common reason women age 20-45 seek advice from their GPs. (HFEA Fertility Facts & Figures 2008).  Fertility declines with age in woman and more recently shown to be declining in men too.  Draft NICE Report on Fertility (October 2012),  states fertility declines with age in both women, and to a ‘lesser extent’ men.

The proportion of women having their first baby at, or after age 30 has steadily increased since the mid-70s.  The probability factor for potential fertility issues increases from the age of 30 onwards (HFEA. Register Data 1991-2006 Report 2008).  If couples only start their fertility journey at this age or later, then there is already a potential issue.

Not only that but the NHS will reduce the ART funding available to women aged 40 – 42 and stop funding to women over the age of 42, NICE Report on Fertility (February 2013), which will therefore affect couples that are unable to finance their own treatment.

As couples start to experience problems, they feel the pressure of the time factor and the need to try to conceive as quickly as possible to avoid either missing out on funded treatment and/or to ensure that they do not further complicate the issue as age impacts on their fertility.

Physical Stress

Physical stress can affect a couple in many ways.  A significant decrease in sperm quality has been reported in research (Carlson 1992; Sharp & Skakkebaek 1993; Irvine 1996).  Male factor as a percentage of infertility has increased from approximately 27.5% in 2000 to 32.5% in 2006 (HFEA data 1991-2006, extract 2008).

Other lifestyle factors affect fertility such as alcohol, coffee, weight, smoking, recreational drugs, some prescription drugs, exercise, nutrition, heat.  Couples try to improve their lifestyles by abstaining from behaviours but then often feel the pressure of ‘not being able to enjoy themselves’ or turn to these behaviours when failure or disappointment occurs, adding more guilt and stress.

Many feel that after a prolonged period of ‘trying to conceive’ sex becomes ‘on-demand’, routine and pressurised, resulting in further stress to the relationship.  Women particularly feel exhausted from going through a variety of tests, protocols, procedures, interventions, scans and drugs.  There is also pressure from daily monitoring of their cycles or from repeated disappointment of failed treatment.

Added to which, they can experience miscarriages which prove to be physically draining and emotionally devastating.  There then follows a waiting period before the body recovers and is able to start the whole process again causing more delay and more time pressures.

Emotional Stress

The pressure starts quite soon after couples begin to try for a baby.  Healthy couples naturally assume that their fertility journey will be relatively straight forward.  However after just a few months, doubt and concern start to creep in, resulting in visits the to GP, a string of tests and finally being diagnosed with either ‘unexplained fertility or a medical diagnosis’.  This often results in a search for further assistance which can be overwhelming, time consuming and exhaustive.  So, by the time the couple realise that there is a problem, they have been trying for some time.  If they are not successful, the time factor increases and most if not all the stressors mentioned here start to play a part.

Physically the body is now struggling to perform or behave and the emotional stress is evident in many forms.  Women particularly experience a feeling of failure and often begin to dislike their reproductive body.  Depression can affect both parties. Sadness, constant disappointment and total grief are most familiar to these couples.

Some begin to withdraw from their social network as they are unable to explain their emotional state.  Some suffer anxiety on may levels.  Some turn to coping behaviours or such as drinking, eating etc to cope with their situation – knowing that these will only impact further on their infertile state.

Some may have subconscious blocks or fears about being a good parent or from their own childhood experiences.  However, if they didn’t have any fears at the beginning of this process, they often develop them as the failure builds.

Miscarriage causes terrible emotional stress.  Fear then builds as they wish to try again but are worried they will experience the same outcome all over again.

One constant pressure for many women is the inability to share their infertility problems with friends, families and employers.  The process is simply to raw and they feel too vulnerable, or they fear for their careers – something that they want to keep constant in case the do not become parents.  Often they have to lie about their fertility appointments – all adding to the pressure.

In his forward for Dr Sammy Lee’s, Counselling in Male Infertility, Rex Cowen wrote ‘Dr Lee points out Male patients often develop serious depression and sexual impotence following diagnosis of infertility.  Once seen only as a woman’s problem, it is now clear from research that, in around 50% of all cases, a male factor is involved.  Health Care professionals need to address this development and increase their knowledge and understanding of men’s feeling in coping with this difficult situation’.  He goes on to describe male infertility as one of society’s taboo subjects.

Financial Stress

After trying for some time, couples often require medical intervention in the form of IVF/ICSI.  Whilst they may be eligible for NHS funding initially, this funding soon runs out.  Also they may want various additional tests and/or to try forms of complementary treatment.  The cost of acupuncture, nutrition, hypnotherapy, reflexology, homeopathy etc can add financial pressure when in addition to private medical procedures.  Multiple courses of ART, together with additional costs of donor eggs/sperm or treatment abroad can be phenomenally expensive and cause great pressure on the couple both jointly or can form a pressure between them.  If they’ve had to take time off work, they may also fear for their job security too!

Relationship Stress

The pressures of trying to conceive affect relationships emotionally, sexually and financially.  Throughout their entire infertility journey, they make sacrifices and changes to their lifestyles and this can lead to relationship stress.  There may be disagreement about their course of action, the reason for infertility may be specific to one of them causing feelings of guilt and inadequacy, it may be the stressful stretch on finances or the lack of lifestyle ‘freedom’ that finally leads to a difficult decision of when to continue, and when to stop, or when to look at alternatives such as surrogates or adoption.

These pressures were unlikely to be present initially but build over time – most couples are unaware that they are going to experience problems with fertility and have therefore never discussed what they feel about the subject before they are already some way into the issue itself.

Many couples experience some, or all of the above pressures, which compound and may potentially account for the continuing failure to conceive despite subsequent treatment/intervention in the form of drug protocols and ART and procedures.   The overall chance of a live birth following IVF treatment falls as the number of unsuccessful cycles increases.  (Draft NICE Report on Fertility October 2012).

At this point they begin to feel they have run out of options – the final stress in itself.  All the time there are options then there is hope, but when they have exhausted everything, they finally have to face a decision to give up, or to adopt.  The adoption process in the UK is exhaustive and lengthy and not one to be considered lightly when you are already shattered from your emotional and physical roller-coaster.

Sjanie Hugo comments in her book ‘The Fertile Body Method’ (2009) ‘The role of the mind and the emotions in fertility is a vital one that is often overlooked.  ‘A truly integrated approach is far more likely to give people the best possible chance of having children.  Mind-body medicine is an approach to health that recognises the effect that our mind has on our body and vice versa’ …….

…….and that is why many do consider natural therapy and Hypnotherapy to help reduce the impact of Stress!!

If any of the above resonates with you and you would like to consider natural therapy such as Reflexology or Hypnotherapy to help alleviate fears, anxieties or clear emotional blocks, please do view the therapies or contact me if you’d like to make an appointment.

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Help is at hand…

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Are you getting a good nights sleep?

As you’ll recall I decided to use an app called ‘Sleep Cycle’ to help me monitor my sleep over a 21 day period.  Throughout the 3 weeks I was to try different techniques and tips to see if I could improve my sleep.  So, what were my findings?

Firstly the exercise proved to me that my quality of my sleep varies and is, at best, reasonable – not good or great.  This is what I believed and the 21 day test proved this to be the case.

Ideally what I was hoping to achieve is a good night of great sleep!  The app cannot measure your sleep quality but simply your movement throughout the night and this it does really well.  My sleep graphs were really interesting and reflected each night as I remember it.  However the app scored the quality of sleep and apparently I frequently hit 90% and above but this is definitely not my perception of the night!  Over the 21 days I scored 2 nights as good (84% – 94%), 12 nights as okay (between 63% – 96%) and 7 nights as poor (47%- 98%)…. So you see my perception was, and still is, that I have, on the whole, an okay nights sleep or rest on average.  Here are 3 examples of the ‘sleep cycle’ charts, 1 for a good night, 1 for a so-so night, and the chart for my worst night!:

So, what about the results for the behaviour changes etc.  Week 1 was the control week where I did not change my behaviour, Week 2 I started to use certain sleep tips such as bed earlier than usual, no alcohol before bed, no caffeine, no tv in bed, read before bed, bath before bed etc and Week 3 I added exercise in the daytime and listened to a relaxing hypnotherapy cd before bed….

Did this mean that I experienced greatly I proved sleep?  Well not exactly and I believe that the reason why is down to what I call ‘head chatter’.  This is neither good nor bad but it is pretty common for me and consists of things running through my mind. They can be about my day, or about future concerns or ideas, they can be exciting or worrying…

Did the techniques mentioned above help with this?  In parts yes… However the biggest change I noticed was from abstaining form caffeine.  I did this during Week 2 and I must say that I really noticed an improved feeling of calmness, which makes sense… I only have 2 coffees a day, both before midday –  to avoid caffeine in the system later in the day – caffeine can remain in the body for anything up to 14 hours, but it does seem to depend on the individual! Still, when I swapped to decaf, I had a sense of calmness.

I definitely felt improvement with slightly earlier nights and reading in bed, I also noticed that warm baths (including a soak in Epsom Salts) also helped…. The nights when I used relaxing hypnotherapy also sent me off to sleep before the cd had finished! (which is a great improvement) although I did wake with headphones still on but did manage to fall asleep again…. So all in all there were improvements but on the whole the quality of the nights sleep did not dramatically change.  I should also add that on 2 nights I was abruptly woken by the screeching of foxes right outside my window, which was a shame as they were potentially good nights, and also some nights were disturbed by hormonal imbalance/heat but these things can happen at anytime.

So that brings me back to the head chatter…. There is no question that my sleep improves when my mind is in a good place!!… In other words I can do all these lovely things but if my mind is elsewhere worrying about other issues then they are all possibly in vain.

Time, therefore to address my worries and concerns… I have decided to adopt the follow technique – I have written down everything that currently concerns me…. You might be thinking ‘oh that’s just one or two things or you might be thinking oh god, that would take me ages…. well, I found it very interesting and not exactly what I thought it would be…. I made a list… Actually the list was harder to do then I expected… Because I really didn’t have THAT much on it…. I managed 10 things in general but only 2 are real worries right now and the 2 others are concerns – the rest remain ‘stuff’ that needs addressing but is not a huge worry.  Alongside all of them I then wrote solutions…. Now here’s the thing… I managed to write something against everyone of them!! Where I could not find a direct solution I did have an action… Something I can do to help me get towards the solution!!  So as I did the exercise I realised that only 2 things are of real concern to me and that there is always action you can take towards a solution…. Not only that but “nothing stays the same” meaning that I can take some actions now, if no solution is within my grasp then I can pop my list away for say 1 or 3 or 6 months and then have another look and see is other things have changed that may affect my actions/ solutions… hey presto!  I have taken action.  There is no doubt that when we ‘feel’ a little more in control of our concerns then we ‘worry’ less….

Here’s to a good nights sleep!!…  If sleep is a problem for you, please do look at my other Sleep Blogs, Week 1 and Week 2 and try some of the suggestions.  Also do try Hypnotherapy, as this can address specific sleep issues and also Reflexology is a wonderful relaxing treatment and many clients always comment how well they sleep afterwards - if only I could it effectively on myself!

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Do you take your hormones seriously?

Many of my clients tell me that they find great support, help, advice and guidance from the web when experiencing many of the emotional and physical ups and downs that increased infertility, pregnancy anxiety, pregnancy loss and hormonal imbalance can bring.

I therefore felt that writing about these subjects, referring to ‘real’ experiences, or highlighting information can only prove to be beneficial and also, can reach so many – I often forget that when publishing posts etc, they reach all over the world and not just us, in the UK!

Some of the subjects I discuss are becoming increasingly highlighted in the media – assisted fertility procedures such as IVF for example, however, other areas such as disruptive hormonal imbalance in the form of PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), severe Breast Tenderness (Mastalgia), and Menopause are less often written about and yet are so common amongst women.

I have become increasingly surprised and frustrated by how little we know about the hormonal workings of our bodies.  So little information is provided to teenagers experiencing puberty, ladies in their 20s struggling with hormonal fluctuations, couples in their 30s desperately seeking fertility support (although this area is changing dramatically), 40 somethings careering towards menopause etc, and yet hormonal balance is such an integral part of our health and well being!

Despite learning and researching keenly for the past few years I still feel completely inadequate in this area but I am genuinely driven by a thirst for more understanding and information.

I therefore write in an attempt to release the frustration, and impart as much knowledge as I may to my readers.  The purpose therefore is to provide a safe, nurturing informative environment for women experiencing the hormonal challenges that infertility, pregnancy, menopause and miscarriage can bring… Men also experience hormonal issues, share the fertility concerns, suffer the emotional distress of miscarriage and often feel at a loss to support their partners through the stress that these issues can bring.  My posts and my site are for them too!

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