Uncover the truth about women's fertility myths - Dr. Aumatma Simmons
Episode 533, released 30th January 2026.
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Dr. Aumatma Simmons. Dr. Aumatma is a double board-certified Naturopathic Endocrinologist revolutionizing fertility care. After witnessing countless couples struggle with invasive treatments, she pioneered a functional approach that addresses root causes—without drugs or financial strain. She's helped hundreds of "medically hopeless" couples conceive naturally.
Listen or watch on:
Or if you prefer to read: Scroll right down for the transcript
Beyond her clinical practice, Dr. Aumatma has trained hundreds of physicians, authored a best-selling book, is the host of an award-winning podcast, and created Madre Fertility—the world's first Smart Fertility Analysis. Featured across major networks as the leading Holistic Fertility Expert, she's expanding her "fertile systems" approach to help professionals create abundance without burnout.
In this episode, Lian and Dr. Aumatma explore fertility through a lens that most women are never shown. They touch on the moment her body refused pregnancy in a relationship that looked perfect on paper, the years of painful cycles that only made sense in hindsight, and the cultural myths that tell women their bodies are failing when they are often communicating something vital.
From there, the conversation turns to what fertility is really responding to… safety, stress, sleep, hormones, relationships, and whether a woman’s life is in alignment. They look at how birth control can mask deeper issues, why endometriosis so often goes undiagnosed for years, and how menstrual cycles act as early messengers long before fertility becomes a concern.
Listen if you have ever had your symptoms dismissed, worried you were “too old”, or sensed that your body was telling the truth before your life caught up.
We’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
How fertility fear is shaped by age myths, and what changes when you look at real hormonal signals instead
Why painful or irregular cycles are often early warning lights, not inconveniences to suppress
The way safety, nervous system regulation, sleep, community with other women, and nourishment quietly shape fertility and overall health long before conception is even on the horizon
Resources and stuff spoken about:
Join Dr. Aumatma on:
Dr. Aumatma’s Book: Fertility Secrets: What Your Doctor Didn't Tell You About Baby-Making
Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul’s calling to truly live your myth.
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Thank you!
Lian & Jonathan
Episode Transcript:
Please note: We are a small team and not able to check through the transcript our software provides. So you may find some words are out of place and a few sentences don’t make complete sense. If you do see something utterly ridiculous we’d love you to let us know so we can correct it. Please email any howlers with the time stamp to team@bemythical.com.
Lian (00:00)
Could it be that fertility is less about age and more about whether a woman feels safe and aligned? Hello, my beautiful souls and a huge warm welcome back. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Aumatma a naturopathic doctor and fertility specialist whose work sits at the meeting point of women's health, intuition, and the deeper intelligence of the body. Together, we explore fertility through a lens that most women never shown.
We touch on the moment that Dr. Aumatma's body refused pregnancy in a relationship that looked perfect on paper. And we explore the cultural myths that tell women their bodies are failing when they're often communicating something vital. We talk about what fertility is really responding to safety, stress, sleep, hormones, relationships, and whether a woman's life is in alignment.
We look at how birth control can mask deeper issues, why endometriosis so often goes undiagnosed for years and how menstrual cycles act as early messengers long before fertility becomes a concern. So this episode is for you. If you've ever had your symptoms dismissed, worried you were too old or sense that your body was telling the truth before your life caught up.
And before we jump into all of that good stuff, if you've just arrived here, welcome. If you have come back, welcome home. And if you keep finding yourself here without subscribing, your soul clearly knows what it's doing, honor that call and go ahead and subscribe. It's challenging to live in this crazy modern world. The wild sovereign soul path is what we know will help.
And so if you're struggling with the challenges of walking your soul path in this crazy modern world and your heart longs for guidance, kinship and support, come join us in UNIO, the community for wild sovereign souls. UNIO is the living home for the wild sovereign soul path, where together we reclaim our wildness, actualise our sovereignty and awaken our souls. We meet twice each month in our community guidance circle.
In which Jonathan and I will meet you exactly where you are and with whatever challenges you're experiencing. And honestly, the types of things that our students bring to the guidance circle really encompass all of life, relationships, money, health, you name it. So if you are called to really journey your soul path in an intentional way, come join us. You can discover more and walk with us by hopping over to BeMythical.com/unio or click the link in the description.
And now back to this week's episode. Let's dive
Lian (02:58)
Hello, Aumatma welcome to the show.
Dr Aumatma (03:01)
Lian thanks for having me, it's great to be here.
Lian (03:04)
Oh, I am really looking forward to diving into this topic. As I was saying to you, it feels like it's a slightly different one to perhaps some that we have on the show. But I have this sense that we're going to have a conversation that's perhaps a slightly different take on a topic that I think has so much misunderstanding and is often kind of pushed out of sight until we need to look at it. And so it felt like something I really wanted to dive into with you. So I'm looking forward to that.
Dr Aumatma (03:36)
amazing me too
Lian (03:38)
Before we do, I would love to know a bit about your origin story. How did you come to be passionate about fertility in the way that you are?
Dr Aumatma (03:43)
Yeah.
You know, I never thought that I would be where I am today. 20 years ago, I was a general naturopathic doctor doing all the things that a generalist would be doing. And I was about four years into my medical career when my ex-husband wanted to have a baby. And when every time he would bring up babies, my uterus would be screaming, no.
And that was the start of me really looking at what's happening. Like, is my body saying that I don't want to have children? Is it saying that I don't want to have children with him? And either way, it was a wake up call to say, okay, where where have I gone awry in what like my intuition body?
all of the wisdom that we have within us as women, for me that was guiding to something different than where I was at that point in my life. So.
Lian (04:53)
And when you say your womb was screaming, how was it doing that?
Dr Aumatma (04:56)
I literally felt like there was something inside of me that was like, it, you know, I think that like looking back at it now, and sometimes, you know how we look back and we see more than we did in the moment. So I had been in this relationship for seven, eight years at that point. And I realised that since that relationship had started, I had had the worst periods of my life. I was not feeling well. I was exhausted. I had a migraine that would not go away for nine months. Right. And and like, I wasn't taking anything because nothing would touch it. It was just like constant headache, always there. And like looking back at it now, I'm so grateful that my womb was so averse to this idea of having children with him because had I not had that, I think that I would be in a very different place right now. But that call was literally the wake up call that I needed to finally be like, okay, I need to take a hard look at what is happening in my life because something is really out of alignment. And if my body is screaming this loud, then there's a reason for it.
And I kind of followed that to really deep, have some introspective time and say, is it me? Is it him? Is it no children? What's the, what is the gist of the intuition here? But it felt like a really visceral like response that I did not expect. And it was almost as if you would if you were to talk to your friend and your friend is like, God, no, like, are you kidding me? And like that kind of response, but it was coming from within myself. Yeah. Yeah. So I went into that and I realised that it was not that I didn't want to have children. actually would have really loved to have children, but it was him.
Lian (06:56)
You're like, not him, that kind of thing.
Dr Aumatma (07:17)
And when I realised that I was like, crap, because I'm in my thirties and there's a possibility that I'll never have a child if I've already been in this relationship for so long. It's taken us so many years to get to the point of getting married. We were only like six months into our marriage at that point. And here I was like, shit, I really made the worst decision ever. And there were
Lian (07:39)
Wow, gosh, yeah.
bless you.
Dr Aumatma (07:46)
There were so many other things in that relationship that were out of alignment. And again, in retrospect, I had I seen all of the things and really like took stock of what was happening. I think the intuition was always there, but I was ignoring it because on paper this man looked perfect. Right on paper, we checked all the boxes, I was like, this is exactly the person that I need to be with. So my intellect was overriding what my my intuition was saying. And and I let that go on for so long. So it's on me, right? It's not his fault. But it I call it now I'm like, that was my practice marriage. Because in
Lian (08:28)
Wow, yeah.
yes.
Dr Aumatma (08:38)
It did not last very long. And I really, as I realised that it was not going to be him, then I said, OK, so that means I need to really figure out what I'm going to do for my fertility, because if I do want to have children one day, it might be 10 years from now. And I'll be well into my 40s by that point and maybe not able to have children at all.
Lian (08:41)
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (09:07)
So that was why I dove into the research and I sat like, I literally spent nine months just researching what I could do to support my fertility so that I could feel confident enough to be like, okay, we're done. Like, we're not doing this anymore and I'm going to find someone else and like do the separation and do all of that.
Lian (09:34)
can I just ask a question? it, it seems to me, cause if I get this, I've had this right, you already were in, you're already kind of in that field, not the facility field, but in the health field. Yeah. Yes.
Dr Aumatma (09:34)
Mm Yeah. Yeah.
In the health field. Yeah, I was already a naturopathic doctor. At that point, I was doing, I was doing what I loved, you know, like I was helping people, mostly women. So I've always worked with women, but it was never so specific. And it was never around fertility. So it like the fertility thing was kind of new. And the weird part is that the only thing I remembered from medical school about fertility
Lian (10:05)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Dr Aumatma (10:16)
was that it drops off of a cliff at 35. And that was it. Yeah.
Lian (10:19)
Hmm. So you had that kind of big impetus. Gosh, bless you. I was just, the reason I checked that, I was thinking, I wonder had you not been a doctor already, whether you would have kind of made that link between what was going on with your body and what was going on with your life or not. I mean, one doesn't know, but these things are hard to face, aren't they? At the best of times. But I wonder if because you already had that connection, I guess,
Dr Aumatma (10:32)
Mm.
Yeah, right.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Lian (10:49)
to your body and to health overall, you were kind of like, there's something amiss and yeah.
Dr Aumatma (10:56)
Yes.
Well, even I think I would have still come to the same awareness because I have always like my intuition is the one thing that I very much listen to and respect forever throughout my life. So I was in my 30s at that point. And like, I think
Lian (11:18)
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (11:21)
I have a very interesting relationship with intuition, which is like, I will listen, but it's usually eventually. So you know what I mean? It's the feedback has to keep coming for a while before I let it override my intellect. And I'm getting better about it. You know, I think that over the years I have learned
Lian (11:36)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (11:47)
like, I need to check with my intuition first, not like after the fact. I've already made a decision by that point. Like, it's not useful to check intuition after I made a decision. So I really have started to try to retrain myself to where can I be listening to intuition more proactively and like allow it to guide my life better than what I have done so far because
Lian (11:50)
Hmm. Yeah.
Dr Aumatma (12:17)
as much as I love that we all have intuition and we're all getting these messages. But I think that for me, it's just been like, need to follow through faster. And if I can do that, then it limits the amount of time that I spend making mistakes.
Lian (12:34)
Mmm.
Ain't that the truth? Ain't that the truth?
Dr Aumatma (12:45)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Lian (12:47)
So coming back to your story, it sounds like then there was this kind of clear call to, well, actually I'll let you, because it sounds as though first, as often as the case, we kind of give our own medicine first to ourselves and then we serve it to others. So would you like to talk about that? Like what that then took place for you?
Dr Aumatma (13:03)
Yes, right, yeah.
Yeah.
Lian (13:10)
And then what that's looked like for helping other women in the same way.
Dr Aumatma (13:14)
Yeah, absolutely. So at that time, like I wasn't necessarily ready to have a child right then, because obviously he was the wrong person. He like it took us almost a year and a half from that point to get a divorce and like finalize all the things. And and then I did meet someone else. And within weeks, we were talking about children, but we didn't actually like go and actually have a child till five years after that point. So it was a long point after that decision that I made that I actually started having children or I have one child. So until I was like, OK, I'm ready. Let's do this. But what I realised in the part where I was researching was really that, A, there were so many women around me
Lian (13:47)
Mmm, interesting.
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (14:12)
in my life that were actively dealing with fertility issues that I had no idea about because they were like, she's a doctor, but like she doesn't do fertility. And when I started talking about it and I was like, yo, did you guys know this? And did you know this? And did you know this? And I just started, I was, was flabbergasted by how much I, A, I didn't know. I didn't learn it in medical school. And I was just,
Lian (14:23)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (14:41)
kind of woken up to the fact that we as women are taught things about our bodies that are actually far from truth. And one of the biggest things was that fertility drops off of cliff at 35. And I was like, actually, there's no data to prove this. That cliff is more like a 3 % decline, which I will take all day long. And
Lian (14:51)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (15:10)
there isn't actually like enough proof that this is going to be a problem. And the other part is I went to my OB and I was like, hey, I just wanted to get my hormones checked and she was like, why? I was like, well, I want to plan for my fertility. And she was like, yeah, you can't, there's no testing until you've already failed at having a child for 12 months.
you've been trying for 12 months and you cannot conceive, then we'll do testing. And I was like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. So I started looking for things that were like, should I freeze my eggs? Would that make sense? Back then it was this is old old data. But back then, the success rate for egg freezing was one percent. One percent of frozen eggs were turning into live babies. So
Lian (15:41)
Wow.
Mmm.
Whoa.
Dr Aumatma (16:10)
Yeah. So it was really new technology at the time. I think it's improved since then. But I think that for me, I was like, well, I don't have the financial means to take a 1 % chance for that's like saying, I have car insurance, but 1 % of the time, they will cover what I need to get done. Right? Like that nobody would nobody would sign up for that car insurance. So
Lian (16:14)
Mmm.
Yes. It's not a good bet.
Dr Aumatma (16:38)
I really was like, okay, so then if that's not going to work, then what do I need to do to ensure that I can have a baby when I'm ready? So I started applying those things. And a lot of other things happened simultaneously where I ended up ⁓ getting hired at an acupuncture clinic, mostly because my friend called me in desperation was like, I really need you to step in our doctor just quit. Can you take this on?
Lian (16:48)
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (17:06)
So I ended up working at this acupuncture clinic that where the lead acupuncturist was a fertility specialist, And that was the moment that I got to connect all the pieces. I was doing all the research. I had my naturopathic doctor medical training background. And I was putting together the stuff that I never got in medical school.
And it was like a crash course in fertility to have hundreds of people that really had struggled with fertility between three and 10 years that were getting pregnant in like three months. And that was the first moment that I was like, oh my gosh, like, this is amazing. And all of the research that I've been doing, I know, because all of the research that I had been doing was finally like working and showing up as
Lian (17:42)
Mmm, wow.
got your shoes then
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (17:58)
gosh, I can really make a difference for people that are struggling with this. I never did, it was eight years after that point that I finally had my own baby. But in that period of time, I really got a lot of experience and a lot of really just helping people through fertility based on what I was learning and sharing about it was becoming just like, gosh, there's so much in the fertility world that
Lian (18:01)
Mm, gorgeous.
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (18:28)
I think we are not taught as young women. So yeah, I've been wanting to just keep sharing it. Keep sharing.
Lian (18:31)
amazing, what a story. Yeah, yeah I can so see why you've got the passion you have. So let's dive in, what are those, ⁓ and I get the sense there's a lot that we misunderstand and get wrong about fertility in our culture. What are those main ones that are just really creating the struggle that so many people have?
Dr Aumatma (18:45)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Well, I think the first is the mindset. So we are so freaked out when we're in our 30s, right? Especially in that like early, early 30s to 35 ish where doctors are now telling 32 year olds that they're too old and their eggs are too old. After 35, it's also a shift because we get told that we're geriatric.
Lian (19:17)
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (19:27)
that it's never gonna happen, your egg quality's too low, so many issues. And that message is really detrimental, I think, on the fertility journey, right? I think that when there is a whole culture around you're too old, and that's the reason you're not getting pregnant, ⁓ that it becomes really easy to take on that mindset and ⁓ have an effect that...
Lian (19:51)
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (19:55)
Oh, gosh, this is going to be hard. So right out of the gate, we're working against ourselves. We have lost the trust in our bodies that our body can do what it was designed to do. and second, we don't have a way to assess it outside of age. So when age becomes the only factor that we depend on for assessing fertility, rather than actual true hormones,
Lian (20:00)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (20:23)
then we're telling women, ⁓ you're too old. That's why. But like, let's look at your actual numbers. like now, I've seen, although I have a patient all the way up to 48 who has gotten pregnant. And for them, like, we're not looking at age alone. We're looking at age plus hormones plus like, what can we do to assess egg quality?
Lian (20:27)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (20:52)
and really have kind of a more scientific perspective about it rather than just saying, sorry, it's never going to work. So that is the second piece is like really moving towards away from just willy nilly telling women that they're, they're the issue, they're the problem, and it's their fault to what's actually happening in your body. And let's have a way to assess it. And let's even have a way to assess it sooner.
Lian (20:55)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (21:22)
right? Like, let's get on that train way sooner than you want to have a baby. So there are young women, for example, that are having irregular menstrual cycles, painful menstrual cycles, those are probably the two most common symptoms. And most of the time they get put on birth control, come back when you're ready to have baby. And it's like, okay, well, you knew there was a hormonal problem.
Lian (21:42)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm
Dr Aumatma (21:48)
before you put them on birth control, you didn't tell them that. And they're walking around thinking, my hormones are fixed, because now I'm having periods every month, and I'm not in pain. So we, we really like blanket over it until we get to that fertile period. And then we get off of birth control. And we're like, shoot, I still have all the symptoms that I had before I got on birth control. And now they're 10 times worse. So
Lian (21:59)
Yeah, so true.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (22:17)
we really have a culture that does not understand women's hormones, and it does not want to do anything to empower us, but rather, let's put you on birth control so that you don't have to deal with it. So I think that those kind of mishmash of things is the culture that fertility is driving women towards interventions that are extremely expensive, that
Lian (22:30)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (22:47)
No, I'm not against the interventions. I'm against interventions that are unnecessary. And when we haven't dealt with what is actually happening in our bodies, when we don't realize that there is a whole host of things that could be happening under the surface that is indicating to our bodies that something is out of alignment, you're not safe. And if you are not in a place of safety,
Lian (22:52)
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (23:17)
Reproduction is shut off. Your body will not allow you to reproduce if you're not safe. that in a nutshell is what I see as the biggest issues with the fertility world and kind of the miseducation that I think we have gotten as women and we continue to get like that message is not shifting. ⁓
Lian (23:19)
Mmm.
Hmmmm
Yeah.
Dr Aumatma (23:45)
And then if I could add one more thing to it, it's ⁓ the This is what is shifting in research, which is the the gaining of awareness that the male is actually 50 % of the equation. And like, to me, that sounds crazy. Because when I started doing this 15 years ago, I was like, of course, the male is 50 % of the equation. What? And we have, like the pressure that I feel often
Lian (23:59)
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (24:14)
from women that are like, no, it's just me, just deal with me. And I'm like, absolutely not. If your partner is not on board, you are not a fit to work with us and they will keep pushing back. And every single time I have been proven right, right? Like there is very little testing that we offer to men. Most of that testing revolves around basic sperm.
Lian (24:16)
Mmmmm
Yeah.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (24:44)
semen analysis, which I think is like the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we should be doing for men. And they get kind of ignored through the whole fertility equation. And then they come to us and I'm like, sorry, it's you. It's not her. It's you. And they're, they're like, wait, what? My doctor said my sperm are great. I'm like, nope, sorry, not great, not great at all.
Lian (24:55)
Mmm.
Wow, goodness me.
Wow, you must have just had like, it's almost like putting on a pair of glasses and just seeing all of this clearly, like what on earth? I'm really ⁓ struck by what you said, particularly, I think what you just said there about men, I think is really important. But what I was ⁓ really struck by is when you were saying, when a woman doesn't feel safe, and also just like your story, isn't in alignment, those are things that in some ways as a culture we've been trained to ignore and just to keep going on. But they're actually a bit like the canary in the coal mine in that if we pay attention, I've really seen this, I've done a lot of work with myself, but also with other women around really becoming kind of in tune and aware with our menstrual cycle and just in the same way and obviously very linked to the same topic.
Dr Aumatma (25:52)
sure.
Mm-hmm.
Lian (26:11)
But in the same way, the things that show up in our menstrual cycle as a problem are often really that kind of canary in the coal mine that are saying, this isn't working for me, this isn't the right life for me, this is out of alignment for me. And having that awareness, again, whether it's through our menstrual cycle or in your work with our fertility, it really allows us to like...
Dr Aumatma (26:35)
Mm.
Lian (26:37)
Okay, what's this showing me more widely about myself, about my life, about my soul even and whether this is the life I came for, which is such a different lens on this. Wow.
Dr Aumatma (26:49)
Yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
I completely agree. And I think that our menstrual cycles are, when we are tuned in to our menstrual cycles, there is a lot of wisdom there. There is wisdom about our bodies. There's wisdom about what our soul wants and what's true, what's in alignment for us.
Lian (27:06)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (27:18)
And when we ignore it or override it, which is unfortunately what a lot of women are doing, then it's really easy to go awry. It's easy to like make decisions that are out of alignment that you one day wake up and say, what the F is going on? Right. And I think that I know that you wanted to get into this like that.
Lian (27:31)
Yes.
Hmm. Yes.
Dr Aumatma (27:46)
perimenopause and menopause periods, like 50 % of women that get to that age will get a divorce. Why do we think that is? It's not because she's going bat shit crazy. She's waking up to the fact that her life is completely out of alignment. And she's like, F this, I'm done. I'm at the halfway point and if my life is out of alignment now, I'm getting out.
Lian (27:53)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (28:12)
And that menopause shift is really the waking up of her soul to what is her truth. But if she has lived out of alignment for that long, it's going to feel really drastic. She's going to make some drastic decisions that feel like, she's gone bat shit crazy. And I think it's actually the awakening to our soul and saying, nope, I'm not taking this bullshit anymore. Right.
Lian (28:22)
Mmm.
Yeah.
Mmm.
completely agree. Again, unfortunately, because our culture says this is everything going wrong with you and your body, do what you can to kind of like, let's quieten all that up. you don't want to be feeling any of that. Let's do what we can to get rid of it. I'd love to know your sense, actually. So you mentioned about when women are struggling with the menstrual cycle when they're younger, before they get to the point of wanting children.
Dr Aumatma (28:48)
Yeah. Yeah.
Lian (29:06)
they might then be put on birth control. What do you have a take on both birth control and also HRT and their impacts in context with everything we're talking about here about fertility?
Dr Aumatma (29:21)
Yeah, well, I have mixed opinions on both. And I think that like, that early menstrual period where a lot of the endocrine system is still developing at that stage, and it's in development till we're about 25. So that early development stage of the endocrine system is vital to how this woman's life is going to go.
Lian (29:24)
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (29:47)
So if she gets put on birth control at that very young age, it is usually problematic and it's going to show up much later in life. So I think that that's the awareness that I operate with. And of course, like I, I'm not trying to bring us back into the dark ages where, you know, abstinence is the only way. Like that's not necessarily what I'm saying, but what, what I'm aware of is
Lian (29:56)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (30:17)
that too often the choice that we have to go on birth control or not is not really being driven by whether or not we're ready to have children or we're trying to prevent pregnancy. It's that we're trying to fix hormonal issues with the birth control that we're going to be put on. So if that's the reason, then we really need to have a look at why are we prescribing this as doctors? And if the woman is
Lian (30:26)
Mmm.
Yes.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (30:46)
choosing birth control for the actual reason that it's designed, then choose a different birth control method, right? Like you have lots of birth control options that do not involve high doses of hormones that shut off the development of the endocrine system, which is essentially what's happening with oral contraceptives. So I think we're living in a day where there are lots of options for birth control as birth control.
Lian (31:04)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (31:16)
there are not a lot of options for birth control as the hormonal fix. So when a woman has it for hormone issues, it's my question is, why aren't we looking at that and saying, well, what can what else can we do about it? And in my opinion, I think there's a lot we can do about it. But we don't look at it from that lens. We just look at it as like, what's the easy fix that's going to get her feeling better? And
Lian (31:19)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (31:46)
women with endometriosis one in three will have fertility issues. And so many women have menstrual cycle pain that is an early indicator of endometriosis. But on average, it takes 10 years for a woman who's complaining about menstrual pain to get diagnosed with endometriosis. Right? Exactly.
Lian (32:01)
Mmm.
Wow.
Dr Aumatma (32:18)
why, but
Lian (32:18)
And in part, I guess, because instead of looking at that, they might be put on the birth control pill and it's kind of like a sort of quiet storm.
Dr Aumatma (32:24)
Exactly.
Yes, they will be put on birth control pills and if they're still in pain they will be put on antidepressants.
Lian (32:32)
goodness.
Dr Aumatma (32:35)
So now we have like kind of a blanket on top of blanket. Let's just cover it up. We don't wanna deal with this. And then she gets to her fertile period. And ⁓ one of my teammates was just telling me yesterday that there is a woman that we are working with right now who, ⁓ when I met with her, I was like, I think you have endo.
Lian (32:39)
Hmm, yes.
Dr Aumatma (33:03)
And that is all I just kept repeating. I think you have endo. I really need you to go get this worked up. And she was like, no, no, I've already like I've been to so many different doctors. She did the test and it's positive for endo. And I'm like, listen, it's okay that you have endo. We can help help you deal with it. But if we know that you have it, we're going to approach it very differently than if we don't know. And she's like, I've been complaining of the same things.
Lian (33:26)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (33:32)
for 20 years, no one, no one has helped me with this. And it took one appointment with me to be like, I think you have endo, where I'm going to like push and push and push for you to get tested because I am going to fight for you to have the truth. ⁓ So that I think like, it's just so heartbreaking when you see the women in this field that
Lian (33:33)
bless her.
Hmmmm
Dr Aumatma (34:02)
that we get the opportunity to meet and like really like no one looked at this like why aren't people paying attention and she's like.
Lian (34:10)
Yeah, it seems baffling when it's a story like that and presumably she was there because she was struggling with her fertility. You'd think it was one of the first things to look at.
Dr Aumatma (34:15)
Yeah.
Yes. Yes.
Right. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, you have menstrual cycle pain, you have gut inflammation that comes up around your menstrual cycle, you have pain with sex, you literally have the checklist of what for me is like, you have endo. And, and then I looked at there's some functional labs that we do that came up positive for the marker that I often look at for endo.
Lian (34:23)
Wow.
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (34:49)
So there was enough confirmation to be like, you need to go get this diagnosed. And she just was like, I don't think that's true. Like, wouldn't my doctors have done this already? And I was like, listen, maybe, but maybe not, right? Like maybe they didn't do the workups. So it took a lot of pushing. And even the rest of my team that was like, are you sure? Like, Endo is annoying because ⁓ it's a hard diagnosis.
Lian (34:54)
Yeah.
Dr Aumatma (35:20)
It takes kind of intensive tests that are slightly expensive. But again, like if we know versus not know, we can work in the blind. It's just not as effective. So I would rather us know and then be able to deal with it. And my teammate was like, thank you so much for pushing her because it was very likely that she would have waited and waited and we wouldn't have known what was happening. ⁓
Lian (35:29)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (35:49)
So.
Yeah, I know, it's just one example. Yeah.
Lian (35:50)
Yeah, just on Endo, I'm about to ask a question that I don't actually know if what I'm about to say is true, but please do correct me. I'm getting the impression that Endo is quite common, potentially even getting more common. I have friends who have it.
Dr Aumatma (35:58)
Hehehehe
Lian (36:16)
A, is that true? Is it common and getting more common? And if so, why might that be? Why is this happening?
Dr Aumatma (36:25)
So I don't think it's getting more common. I think it's just getting more awareness than it has before. I think that I've seen a lot of women who are like, wait, my mom had all of the same symptoms and she told me it was normal. Right. So yes.
Lian (36:31)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Hmm. So it's awareness more so, but it is quite the part where I said it's common. I'm supposed, you know, define common. It seems common. Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (36:48)
It's common, it's common. Yeah, think it's, statistically, think it's like 18.9 % of the population. I could be misquoting this, but 18.9 % of the population is likely having endometriosis. So it's a pretty big issue. And there's a part that's genetic. So that we can't do much about.
Lian (37:05)
Wow. Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (37:17)
But there's a part that's environmental that I think is getting like, if you have the genetics, that doesn't automatically mean you have endometriosis.
Lian (37:27)
Hmm. It's like they get switched on or not. It doesn't necessarily have to be as binary as that or they could get switched on a lot or less. Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (37:32)
Yes, yes, yes, exactly. And I think that the environmental interaction with your genes is often triggering the on switch more likely than not. So that's why I think that we're seeing it more. then like,
Lian (37:50)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (37:55)
I don't know if this is true or not, because it's still on average 10 years to get diagnosed. But ⁓ I think that there is a bit more awareness in the medical field of not pushing it off to wait for the diagnosis. So hopefully we're getting to a point where it's more in the awareness of practitioners who can say, ⁓
Lian (38:10)
Mmm.
Yeah.
Dr Aumatma (38:22)
like, let's see if this is what's happening before we put you on birth control. And gosh, like if a woman with endometriosis was getting that diagnosis at age 15 rather than 25 or 35, the difference that she would have in the quality of her life, the difference that honestly, like there's a bit of developmental stuff that
Lian (38:25)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (38:51)
if we could help support the endocrine system in that early stage where the endocrine system still developing and we get that awareness quickly, we keep that disease from progressing. So it's not gonna go away, but it's going to be, well, can we help you manage it better? And can we help your hormones better so that not only are you not in pain anymore,
Lian (39:03)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (39:17)
But you're not making the problem worse so that when you get to 25 or 35, it's not a fertility issue. And that's the shift I would love to see. Yeah.
Lian (39:18)
Yes.
Yeah, finally, one of my friends, yeah, she was probably fortunate and she was more like what you're describing in that ⁓ I didn't know her then, but when she was, I think even early 20s, she was diagnosed with endo. And I think she just had a really good doctor who was very much proactive. And I think just in her mid 20s said, you know,
Dr Aumatma (39:35)
Mm.
Yeah.
Lian (39:50)
this is the time to really start to think about having children if you want them. And they actually managed to have two children quite quickly. ⁓ you know, it's been a success story. Her endo has been a challenge, but I think had it not been managed and identified the way it had, it could have been a very different story. So
Dr Aumatma (39:55)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Lian (40:13)
She's a kind of happy
Dr Aumatma (40:14)
Yep.
Lian (40:14)
version of what you're talking about, but I've seen via her story how important what you're saying is. So looking more widely then, so not just at endometriosis, but women generally, their fertility. So actually I want to ask a question first and then the question I was about to ask you. So for women that either maybe don't want children,
Dr Aumatma (40:20)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sure.
Lian (40:41)
or don't know they want children, why might the things we're talking about still be important for them? Why might they care about this even if then babies aren't in their minds?
Dr Aumatma (40:44)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I think for me, I feel like the menstrual cycle is such an indicator of our overall health. So even if we're not trying to conceive, our menstrual cycle is an indicator whether we're on track and things are aligned or we're off track. And it's for me, it's been the one place where I get the feedback very quickly, right? I could.
Lian (41:13)
Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (41:24)
literally, like that relationship I was telling you about where with my ex husband where for years my menstrual cycle was off. And why wasn't I paying attention to that? And and it also was in my early early period in life where my childhood was challenging, to say the least. And ⁓ that period of time, my menstrual cycles were also extremely bad.
Lian (41:35)
Mmmmm
Dr Aumatma (41:54)
And then when I went off to college, got better, med school, fine. I was stressed, but it wasn't, it wasn't showing up in my menstrual cycle. And then I met my ex-husband and boom again, like worst periods ever. So I think that we, we often ignore it because it's, ⁓ I'm not trying to get pregnant. Who cares? But if our cycles are regular,
Lian (41:56)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (42:24)
if they're healthy, if the blood flow is healthy. All of those are little blinking lights of whether or not our body is in an optimal state of health and whether or not we are in a soul alignment with our spirit. And the reason that I know that this is true is
Lian (42:37)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Dr Aumatma (42:53)
Fertility is the one part of our body, our physiology that we don't need for our survival. So, and I think of this as an on-off switch, right? Fertility can go on and off very easily. Anytime we need to conserve resources, anytime that our survival as a human is threatened, the body goes up, time to shut off fertility.
Lian (43:01)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (43:22)
because it's the easiest thing to shut off, right? It's not gonna affect anything. You can't shut off heart function. You can't shut off the brain. You can't shut off gut health. Like all of those are pretty critical to human existence. So the first thing to shut off is fertility. But as soon as that ⁓ fight or flight threat response goes away, we can turn the fertility switch back on.
Lian (43:22)
Hmmmm
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (43:51)
So for women that are like, some cycles are really bad, other cycles, not so bad. And I'm like, okay, well, what's happening in your life around these cycles? And they're like, I don't know. Like, okay, let's observe. Let's take some stock about what's going on in you in and around your life when you have those bad cycles. And almost always, it's the month before was not great, you're going to have a bad cycle. Right. So
Lian (44:05)
Hmmmm
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (44:21)
kind of your report card of whether or not your body was in survival mode or in safety mode. And I know that the health, our health is going to be optimal when we're in safety mode. So anytime we're in survival, it's a problem. And if we use this as an indicator of how much time am I spending in survival versus safety, then I have an overall view of am I in health?
Lian (44:29)
Yeah.
Dr Aumatma (44:50)
or am I in existence and what do I need to do to survive?
Lian (44:51)
Yes, yes. gosh, so much. So agree with everything you've said there. It really strikes me how disconnected from our cycles we are as women and the way that if it's kind of functioning fine, I remember myself, ⁓ I used to at points get pain.
Lian (45:21)
Um, sometimes quite a lot of pain, when there wasn't a problem, it wasn't really like I had a particular connection or anything. It was almost just like, Oh, it's not a problem. It's kind of outside out of mind. And it was only as I started to create this relationship where I was kind of like, got to the point where, um, being almost in awe of my cycle, you know, in love with my cycle and really sort of.
Dr Aumatma (45:31)
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Lian (45:49)
almost in the way that I might be with one of my dogs, for example, you know, like paying attention, caring, loving. ⁓ this is different. Why might that be a completely different way of orientating? And it strikes me that culturally, we just, it's either a problem to fix, or it's just a thing that's happening and I can just ignore it. And
Dr Aumatma (45:54)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lian (46:15)
my own path has been realising, no, something else is available. And I love the way your work is showing there's a kind of, you know, a very real reason if we care about fertility, we care about our health, to also pay attention. Yeah, it's such, such an important message, I think that we have, I believe as women, we always had, you know, for most of human history, and it's something we've forgotten.
Dr Aumatma (46:30)
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, we've been I mean, I feel like not only have we forgotten as women, but I think it's become culturally decided that we should not pay attention to it. Right? Like, it's our society works on a 24 hour rhythm, not on a 28 day rhythm. Right? So automatically, we go to work, go to go home, go to bed, do the thing the next day, right? Like,
Lian (46:55)
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (47:11)
We do that again and again and again. And we start learning that from a very early stage. And then when we have symptoms, quote unquote, it's I'm hormonal, not my body is trying to tell me something is out of whack, but instead it's I am hormonal. So we're really in a place of.
Lian (47:32)
Yeah.
Yeah, like don't listen to it because it's my hormones. Not my hormones might be trying to tell me something. Yes.
Dr Aumatma (47:39)
Yeah, right. Bingo, bingo. Yes, exactly. So we have been taught that it's normal to ignore. It's normal to have symptoms and it's normal to feel shitty for however long you feel shitty during a month and that you should override that signal to continue doing whatever it is that you're doing in order to produce for society.
Lian (47:53)
Mm-mm.
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (48:06)
So I think we're in a stage where more and more women are waking up to the fact like, I'm not doing that shit anymore. And I really need to pay attention to what my body is saying to me. So I'm excited because I feel like we are coming to an age where more and more women are waking up to the fact that, hey, we're not meant to be little men. Like, that's not our role in this world. We are meant to be women.
Lian (48:16)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (48:32)
And women are powerful, men are powerful, and we have different powers. And if we can adapt to a society that acknowledges both of those, that brings them both into balance, then I think we have the potential to create superpower amongst ourselves.
Lian (48:36)
Hmm.
Yeah, so agree, so agree. So we are coming up on time and appreciate what I'm to ask you is, you know, probably a whole episode in itself, but if you could wave a magic wand and have all women doing certain things differently that would be so much more...
Dr Aumatma (49:14)
Mm.
Lian (49:17)
honoring of their health, their cycle, their womb, ultimately their fertility. What would those things be?
Dr Aumatma (49:26)
That's a great question. think I would. Yeah, I have the power wave the magic wand. I think that the first would be something very, very, very simple, which is get good quality sleep, right? Prioritize your sleep. And I think that that sounds super basic, but I will tell you that almost 100 % of the people that we work with need to pay attention to this. So.
Lian (49:28)
You have the power, use it.
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (49:56)
It is the easiest thing to, if we're able to put into a consistent rhythm, wake up at the same time, go to bed at the same time, wake up same, like the consistency is going to help support reproductive hormones by a 23 % improvement just from doing that. It's free. took.
Lian (50:17)
Goodness.
Dr Aumatma (50:21)
five minutes for you to adjust your calendar to be like, I go to bed at 10 o'clock every night and wake up at six every day. Right? Like it sounds boring. It sounds like, wait, I'm not allowed to have a life anymore. But that consistency will be rewarded in a really big way. So that's the first thing. The second is do the things that are going to support safety in your body. That means
Lian (50:27)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dr Aumatma (50:49)
nervous system regulation, it means getting out of fight or flight, it means like really doing practices in your day to day life that support your body to feel safe. And for women, I think one of the easiest things that we forget is that being with other women in connection in circles of women is the way that we have traditionally for generations supported safety in our body. And there is a hormone called oxytocin that is released when we're with sisters that we forget about. like, I am the poster child for this because the number of times I reach out to my friends and I'm like, hey, we haven't had a hangout in a while, it's time.
Lian (51:23)
Mmm.
Dr Aumatma (51:43)
and everyone's like, I'm busy, I've been so busy, I've been so busy. And I'm like, I get it, but we're doing it. Make it happen, right? Like, we are doing this.
Lian (51:49)
I love that. had a, yeah, so important. I had a great day and night out a, friendship group on Saturday. ⁓ and there's four of us and we just had the best time, just so much laughter. And I feel like we all just almost had this like huge top up of oxytocin. It was just incredible. And I feel like I'm still charged with it even now. Yeah. So important.
Dr Aumatma (52:12)
Yes, yes.
Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely. So I think at least once or twice a month, like that restoration is a necessity. And then the third would be the food that we eat and paying attention to the quality of that food, how we prepared that food, where are the thoughts that are going into our food as we're preparing it? And is it nourishing?
Lian (52:43)
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (52:44)
is it the right foods for our body? So on the physical level, I would say the food makes a big difference, but ⁓ doing all of the things, right? Like not just the energetic, not just the physical, but do a blend of it so that we can really support and nourish our bodies into health.
Lian (53:06)
And it's crazy really, isn't it, that...
These are things that I wish women were able to be aware of and choose any time. you know, the fact that it often will take a woman to have fertility problems, to need to pay attention. That's if she's lucky to find someone like you to make her aware of these things. But let's hope you did wave that magic wand. And women everywhere suddenly wake up to this. Yeah.
Dr Aumatma (53:36)
Yeah. Yeah. You know what, and I think if we were waving that magic wand, I like brought it down to earth. But I think that it would be really that we as women could embrace our 28 day or moon cycle as the foundation of our life. And and that is a whole episode on its own. But I think the idea of
Lian (54:02)
Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (54:09)
reclaiming I am hormonal. And like in my head, the response is like, yeah, bitch, I'm hormonal. You know what I mean? Like, it is not so weird or different or like, annoying that I'm hormonal. But actually, like I embody the hormonal as the gift that I am in the world. And that would be amazing.
Lian (54:34)
Hmm. So agree. I've, in the last year, I've had the blessing of my daughter beginning her menstrual cycle. She's 15 and to have her enter that part of her life with this awareness, with me talking to her about things in this way, it's, it's incredible to think that she hasn't got to go through, you know, years or decades of, know, I'm hormonal, this is a problem.
Dr Aumatma (54:38)
huh
Mmm.
Lian (55:07)
But to, know, whilst she may be feeling hormonal, while she might have pain, the way she's orientating to, I can already see is so different, so different to certainly how I was when I began or how most women are. ⁓ that makes all the difference. It's simple, but that way of orientating makes such a difference. Hmm.
Dr Aumatma (55:08)
Yes.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I would love that for every woman on this planet.
Lian (55:33)
Yeah, me too. So this has been incredible and I'm sure listeners who are in need of the work you do will want to reach out. Where can they find more about you and your wonderful work you do?
Dr Aumatma (55:46)
The best place would be Instagram at Holistic Fertility Doctor. And ⁓ for all the women that like this resonated, maybe they're starting their fertility journey, or they're struggling with hormones. We have a place that you can go to assess what's happening in your body. So this idea of like your body's always sending you signs and signals and we're not often taught how to interpret those signals. So the tech that we've created helps you understand what your body is trying to tell you. It's like the translator. And ⁓ that tech is free to use on madrefertility.com.
Lian (56:13)
Mmm.
amazing.
Brilliant. what a wonderful thing you're creating in the world. I so appreciate what you're doing. Thank you so much.
Dr Aumatma (56:38)
Thank you so much for having me, Lian This was awesome.
Lian (56:40)
Really well thank you.
Lian (56:44)
What a wonderful show. Here were my favourite parts. Fertility fear is often shaped by cultural age myths rather than actual hormonal reality. And clarity begins when those myths are questioned. Painful or irregular menstrual cycles are not just inconveniences to suppress, but can be early warning lights that something deeper is asking for attention.
Safety, nervous system regulation, sleep, nourishment and connection with other women. Shape, fertility and overall health long before conception is ever part of the picture. So if you'd like to hop on over to the show notes for all the links, they're at BeMythical.com/podcast/533 And as you heard me say earlier, if you're struggling with the challenges of walking your soul path in this crazy modern world, and long for guidance, kinship and support, come join Unio, the community for wild, sovereign souls. You can discover more and join us by hopping over to BeMythical.com/unio Let's walk the path home together.
And if you don't want to miss out on next week's episode, head on over to your podcasting app or platform of choice, including YouTube and hit that subscribe or follow button. That way you'll get each episode delivered straight to your device, auto magically as soon as it's released.
Thank you so much for listening. You've been wonderful. I'll catch you again next week. And until then, I'm sending you all my love and blessings as you walk your wild sovereign soul path.