Katie Ward Nutrition

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Katie Ward Nutrition

Hi, I’m Katie, a nutritionist specialising in fertility. I help couples struggling to conceive to have the family they dream of.

10/11/2023

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If your luteal phase is 12-14 days, that’s ideal.

If it’s >10 days, that’s ok, but room for improvement.

If it’s

06/11/2023

Day 21 progesterone (7 days post ovulation) might tell you that you have normal or even optimal progesterone levels.

BUT it’s only a snapshot in time.

It is possible that you have normal / optimal progesterone 7 days after ovulation, but that this drops away too early.

Progesterone is produced from the corpus luteum (the “yellow body” that is the leftover follicle after the egg has been released).

Optimal levels of progesterone are needed to sustain a pregnancy (progesterone = pro-gestation i.e. pro-pregnancy).

One way we may know this is an issue is by cycle tracking and measuring the duration of the luteal phase (after ovulation).

Ideally we want to see this at 12-14 days long. This phase in your cycle doesn’t tend to differ much from cycle to cycle - it may differ by +/- 1-2 days.

For pregnancy, we definitely want the luteal phase to be longer than 10 days. Any shorter and you’re talking about “luteal phase defect”.

Signs of low progesterone / progesterone dropping too early:

🩸 Spotting before period
❌ Lack of positive pregnancy test (progesterone might drop too early for implantation)
😭 Pregnancy loss / chemical pregnancy
⚡️ Mood changes - anxiety or low mood
🤯 Headaches
😴 Difficulty sleeping
🥵 Hot flashes / night sweats
⏰ Short cycles (but not always!!)
💧 Fluid retention
🍑 Breast tenderness

So what to do?

First - track your cycle with temperature so that you can identify if there’s an issue or not. I recommend tracking for 3 cycles to establish your trends (beyond that, some people may prefer to stop tracking as it may be anxiety inducing).

I’ll do a new post on what to do if you identify short luteal phase.

I offer FREE fertility calls to discuss your case and see if my signature 121 programme might be a good fit for you right now. I’ll tell you if I don’t think it is and try to make a referral for what I think is the best course of action for you.

03/11/2023

📢 Day 21 progesterone test - shouldn’t always be taken on day 21.

It should be taken 7 days after ovulation.

👉 And you need to track your temperature to be sure of when you ovulate.

That’s why I always start my clients off with cycle tracking including temperature.

🧐 You’d be amazed at the insights it gives us.

DM me PROGESTERONE if you’d like to arrange a free fertility call to discuss your case.

30/10/2023

💌 Save this post & refer back to this later!

I hesitated in my earlier practice to include tests in my programme even though I’ve always felt it would be the best thing to do.

I’ve been working recently on tweaking and improving my signature 121 programme - Joyful Fertility - and have decided to include what I consider to be the basic set of tests I need to run with every couple.

🧐 Why?

Because I want our work together to be as efficient as possible for you. You’ve most likely already spent many months or even years waiting, going round in circles, being passed from pillar to post. Enough is enough.

You might look at this list & think a bunch of these have already been checked and you’ve been told they’re “normal”.

I do often have clients coming to me with test results, but what I often find is:

Not everything in this list has been tested
They’re out of date as they might have been checked much earlier on in a couples journey

The vaginal microbiome definitely will not have been checked unless you’ve worked with another holistic practitioner before such as a fertility trained nutritionist or acupuncturist.

If you’ve only had ferritin checked (and maybe serum B12 and folate at a push) but not full iron panel and not in combination with a full blood count, it is pretty much impossible to tell what your iron, B12 and folate needs are.

Vitamin D is often not checked but is SO important in fertility.

Thyroid - at best you might have had TSH and FT4 checked - not enough to know how the thyroid is functioning & not looking at autoimmunity. I see autoimmune thyroid come up a lot.

Then there’s the idea of “normal” vs “optimal” and “optimal for fertility”. These can vary wildly.

This might not be the full set of testing we do when we work together - but it’s a fantastic start & means that we can start making more targeted plans earlier in the process - which is more efficient & saves time & money in the long run.

💌 DM me TESTING if you want to arrange a FREE fertility call and discuss your case.

27/10/2023

So. Much. Waiting. It’s exhausting. I see you.

Have I missed anything? What are you waiting for at the moment?

Comment below 👇

DM me “Enough” if you’re sick of waiting for all these things to happen to you and you want to start living this fertility journey with more joy now.

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https://linktr.ee/katiewardnutrition

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