Welcome to the Brilliant Fertility Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Katie Rose, and this podcast exists to help illuminate the path ahead of you. With expert interviews, clinical pearls, and real client success stories, my intention is to bring you hope for what's possible on this journey and to give you tools and resources to navigate the ups and downs on the road before you. If you find this podcast helpful, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And I have a big request. If you have a minute, can you leave us a five-star review? And let us know what did you learn, what did you come away with? Did you leave with that spark of hope? This helps more people like you find the podcast. My mission is to support as many humans as possible on their path to become parents. And by you sharing and subscribing, you're part of that mission too. And I'm so grateful for you for being here. So even when I'm doing like a new patient inquiry or discovery calls, like no matter what, if that person's going to work with me or not, I want them to feel better having had these moments together. So as we discuss this today, I just want to give you full permission. If you're feeling like, hmm, I can't be here for this conversation yet, then like, hey, come back around next time. Uh, because I have my talking points, I have my notes, but I don't know exactly where it's going to take us. And what a metaphor for life, right? Like we can have our plan, and how often does the plan actually go that way? Or how often does life actually go to plan? I don't know where the statistics on that are, but I know it's not very often. So I invite you to hold the tension here with me. The tension between existentially some of the things that are happening right now and some of what you might be experiencing in life as kind of doom and gloom versus this is the planet we want to be living, this is the life we want to be living. So, where we're going with this today. Um, what are we gonna do about this? Because I think that's where we as humans often get overwhelmed is when there's something really big happening, is like we can tend to sort of contract our world. And I will admit I've been guilty of this, and I've been guilty of advising my patients and clients to just put yourself in a bubble for a bit. Like when you're in a really vulnerable spot, I do very much feel like it's okay to shut off the news for two weeks. It's okay to not hear the constant bombardment of negative things that are happening. But it's like it's a balance, right? Of knowing what's going on in the world and believing that you are powerful in creating change while also shielding yourself from 24-7 negative information. So I am gonna present some information that is unfortunately negative, and we're gonna talk about what we can do about it. Okay. So bear with me. I okay, just as like a side note of something kind of hilarious. I have taken to listening good hang with Amy Polar. And part of the reason I love this podcast is that it's it's just like it's Amy Polar talking to her best friends about funny things and life stories, and like people just they just have like the most genuine laughter and connection. And I love it. And when I was growing up, and this would have been like the circa like 1997 to 2000 time frame, one of the things that me and my dorky friends did, I was one of the dorks too, like 100%. We would create skits. We would like, you know, set up the old school video camera and we would create like SNL style skits. So, like Rachel Dratch, Amy Polar, Anna Gast Dyer, these were like my heroes as an 11, 12 year old. And I was listening to the episode that Amy Polar did with Rachel Dratch, where they talk about the creation of the Debbie Downer character. And I was like, oh my God, that's gonna be me in this podcast episode that I'm planning. So I don't I don't know if my VA can like put in that trombone, like every time I discuss something really depressing to just like lighten that information a little bit. But here we go. So when I graduated from medical school almost 13 years ago now, the rates of infertility were about one in eight. So one in eight couples would experience infertility. And in 2023, the World Health Organization reported that it was now closer to one in six couples. And that's alarming, right? This is a trend that we certainly don't want to go in that direction. And when we look at the reasons why it's going in that direction, some of it may be positive, like women being able to take more control over their health and their bodies and their careers. But largely the people that I work with are people who want to get pregnant. And if some of these statistics are indicating that it is actually getting harder and harder for people to conceive, then I think we have to raise the alarm bells on this. And where we look at, you know, why this may be occurring globally, the environment has to be something we consider. And as you know, one tiny little being on this huge planet of 8 billion people, sometimes it feels like, oh my gosh, like what can I really do to impact the environment in a positive way? Because it doesn't feel like a lot sometimes. Like I am someone who can very easily tip into the scale of hopelessness and really have to get the resource to pull myself out of it. There's so much to be said about finding community on this, remembering that we're actually not alone. But when we when we look at what's actually happening in the environment, let's talk specifically about that. So we need clean water, we need clean air, we need good sources of nutrient-dense food. And unfortunately, our current administration has been rolling back protections. So while we can't put any blame there for what's happening now, there's certainly some really important things happening that could increase the rates of infertility if they are allowed to continue. Number one, for example, the EPA just approved a pesticide that can be used that is in the PFAS family. So these are the forever chemicals. And when they say forever chemical, they mean forever chemical. These are chemicals that our body do not have the detoxification tools to rid these chemicals from the body. We do not have the enzymes to do so. Now, our liver and our kidneys are always working 24-7 to support detoxification, but there are some chemicals that we can't really do much about. And that's why it's so important that we not have the exposure in the first place. So that's one major concern is you know, the products that are being used without our awareness, without our control. And if we get to a certain point where the planet is so polluted, then it's like, I don't know, my Debbie Downer brain is like, what's the point? Womp womp. Like it's it's rough out there, guys. And and yet not much has really changed in, let's say, like 20 years. So I will I'll link some resources on that just as something that you can read up on on your own. And I highly encourage you with these sort of things like call your lawmakers. It takes about two minutes max to call and leave a voicemail or talk to you know their assistants and just let your opinion be known. This is going to impact our air, our water, our soil, our food quality as a result. And we can't just ignore it. The other, like really big thing that's happening right now that like I'm drawing a correlation to, but I couldn't actually find any research on is AI, artificial intelligence. Now, on one hand, I'm like way out of my scope talking about something like artificial intelligence. Like I am not a techie person. I I've always had a lot of resistance to growing technologies, like how I was like the last of my friends to upgrade to a smartphone. And it was purely because I was forced into it. My my blessed little flip phone, my tiny little Samsung flip phone that I loved so much that just texted and called perfectly. It's all I needed. One day fell into a cup of tea as I was I was sick. I had was home. I probably had the flu. It's like maybe my third year of medical school. And I was trying to make one trip from the kitchen to my bed and like not have to make more than one stop. So I was trying to carry everything at one time. And I had my cup of tea in one hand and my water bottle like tucked under my elbow in the other. And I just was like, oh, I don't have a really good way to hold my phone. I like tucked it under my chin. So I'm trying to walk with my tea and my water and probably something else and my phone. And my phone just slipped right out of my chin and right in plop into the cup of tea. And I was forced to upgrade because they didn't even make that little phone anymore. It was so out of date. And so I was the last person I knew to upgrade to a smartphone. And so it should be no surprise that when AI emerged and we could start, you know, using Chat GPT to write copy and you know, do some of the little tasks in our business that could be automated. I have also been like the last person to adopt these strategies. And so part of me wondered, is this just because I'm an old lady? Or is there because there's like some true ick factor behind this? I've really sat with this and tried to, you know, feel my way through it versus like trying to logicize around it. I really feel like it's a true ick factor. So I started looking a lot more into, you know, what are the pros and cons of AI? Like there's some things that it probably should just learn and accept and get over, but what could some of the downsides be? And over the last several months, I've learned a lot about AI and the data centers. And uh I've listened to a few really good podcast episodes about, you know, how if we don't make some serious changes in how AI is being used now, we've really got like two years before it's running totally out of control. And I don't think that all of this comes from my own existential anxiety or the fact that Terminator 2 was the first R-rated movie I ever saw. There are other experts who are putting this out there as well. I say other experts. There are AI experts who are deeply concerned about this as well. I think one of the best um people that I've listened to about this is Tristan Harris. He's an AI ethicist. And if you've ever watched the movie or the documentary Social Dilemma on Netflix, um he was behind that documentary, and I thought that was really insightful. That was from a few years ago. Um, he did a podcast episode with Stephen Bartlett from the diary of a CEO recently. It's a long one. I will link it in the show notes. It took me like a whole day of like listening on and off to get through the whole thing, but it was so necessary. And I really feel strongly that like if you are a human being living on planet Earth, you need to learn about this. Whether you are trying to have a baby or not, this is important. And especially if you're trying to have a baby, because as we step into these new technologies, these issues that could be putting more strain on planetary resources. I think we have to be very conscious about what we are bringing children into. And you know, my work has morphed so much from when I started 12 and a half years ago. And not to say that, you know, naive little young, what, 27-year-old Katie Rose was um, you know, not well informed about fertility. Like I certainly had a group, really good understanding of like the anatomy, physiology, endocrinology piece of things, but when we when we truly look at fertility holistically, we have to look at our environment. We have to look at what is this planet that we are raising our children in. And I know, and I am sure you feel similarly that I want my children to have clean air and clean water and have access to healthy food. Those things are pretty damn important. And in order for us to have hope for the next several generations, we need to do everything within our power to make sure that we have access to those for as long as humanly possible, for as long as planetarily possible. And I it's you know, sort of this odd intersection, right, between like being the person who's raising the alarm bells while simultaneously not wanting to trigger existential anxiety and overwhelm and people just totally shutting down, and also having this deep trust that we're exactly where we're meant to be on the timeline we're meant to be on, and that these souls who are wanting to come in right now, who are meant to come here and help be part of what heals this planet, they know exactly what they're doing too. And that's why I initiated this episode by saying, hold the tension here with me. Like, here is what we are seeing, here's the doom and gloom. And I really do believe that there's more of this story that is in our power, and that these souls who want to come in are like they're really ready to, they're like Jones and to get to work. We've got to clean up some of our bullshit first, and that doesn't mean we have to solve all of the world's problems today, and it doesn't mean that you have to carry all of it on your shoulders. So, like, what does that mean? What are the steps that we can actually take? I wish I had an exact roadmap for this, and maybe this is why I have had kind of a pause in my programs over the last couple months, is because I've been sitting in this. Like, is there a roadmap or are we just all grappling this together? And I truly think that that is part of this, is we are in this together. We were not meant to do this alone. We were not meant to human alone. We were not meant to tackle every hard thing that happens in life alone. We are meant to do this together. That is number one. That might be the most important piece of this. Because when we do outsource to technology, when we outsource to AI, we're we're really like it's it's not a true connection, right? And maybe that's where my ick factor has been around this. And I'm not sure if you've started to tune into this. Like, if you can tell when something has been written with AI, and like I'm a bit of a hypocrite here because I do allow my virtual assistant to use AI when it comes to like creating the transcript for the podcast as an example, or pulling the clips out for the podcast so that we can post on social media. Um, there are certain things that we have used in my business that my my virtual assistant preferentially uses because she has several podcasts that she supports. And I have, you know, I have to deal with my own conflict around that. That, but as a day-to-day, how do we be mindful of our engagement with that? Like, I'm very resistant to asking Chat GPT for direction on anything in life. And I'm very wary of situations. Um, you know, I've had friends who tell me, like, oh, they use chat GPT to design their workouts or design their meal plan. And it's like, I'm all for tools that make our lives simpler and easier. And I'm also very wary of how that is disconnecting us from the very real human people who are experts and are trained in these modalities. Like I would love for everyone to have access to actually see a nutritionist to create the meal plan. And I know that's not within everyone's access point at this time, but it's just looking at like, how can we be more mindful about that use? When there's an opportunity to connect to a real human being, I am always going to choose the real human being. I think maybe it's why I'm so obsessed with Trader Joe's instead of the grocery stores that have like the self-checkout line. It's like I want to connect with that human. And even though I'm an introvert and I recharge with totally alone time, I like real human connection. So number one, we said we're in this together. So we've got to find who we're gonna do this together with. Number two, we practice some mindfulness around our use of AI. I mean, it's everywhere, it's there's really no going back, but there are absolutely times and places when there are other options. And there are some deep concerns. And I'm gonna just put it out there to like, please listen to this episode of the diary of a CEO with Tristan Harris so that uh you can start to form your own, you know, education and opinions about AI. But that's kind of where I'm sitting with it today, is I'm very resistant to utilize it in an expanded way. I know I've got colleagues who are are using it a lot that I have have concerns about that as well because I worry about our you know medical critical thinking skills. And there's, you know, so many providers who are like teetering on the edge of burnout, who I think are using AI as a way to really save them, like really help save their mental capacity, but it's like also at what cost? It's like we're we're using it as a band-aid solution, as a quick fix for something there's like much deeper issues already with. And and maybe that is part of this conundrum, right? Is realizing that there aren't quick fixes, and this is true for fertility. As we talked about in the last episode, you know, with this kind of anxiety about like, oh gosh, end of year, there's gonna be this turnover into the next year. And wouldn't it be lovely if we could just take a magic pill, wave a wand, and poof, be pregnant? These aren't quick fixes, these are things that are gonna take time and are gonna require some deep foundations and some really conscious effort into it's not gonna be easy, but we're in it together. So go out there, find a real human to connect with today. If you are working from home and you're like, oh damn it, I'm not gonna see a person today. Send me an email. Like, reply to the email that we sent telling you that this podcast episode was ready and just let me know how you're doing. Please know that even if I can't respond to every single email, I read every single one. As a real human who likes to connect with real humans, I check in with all of my emails and I find email overwhelming. So I don't reply to everything. Womp womp. But um, I do love building these connections with you. And if we can really emphasize that as part of our healing, there's truly something to that. When you can remember that there are 8 billion people on this planet, and how much power there is in coming together with even just a few people who have similar intentions, and it doesn't mean you have to be in an echo chamber where you all have to have the same opinions about everything. But when you have this deep intention for wanting a better planet for your children and your future children, that's so powerful. So let's think about how we can do that together. That's my mission. And I think for better or for worse, that's that's just what I'm here to do in life. And having an a child is like the greatest act of hope that you can have in this time. So I'm here to support you in that, in mind, body, and soul. Thank you for being here. I'm sending you so much love as always. And if you feel like you need some real human connection today, you know where to find me. You can send me an email, you can DM me on Instagram, and uh let me know what came up for you throughout this episode. Until next time.