If you've ever been told "IVF just works" and then found out the hard way that it doesn't, this episode is for you.

I sit down with Katelyn Hardman, who shares her journey to motherhood after meeting her husband Tom later in life. Katelyn and Tom started trying for a baby at 39 and were quickly moved to IVF. Like so many of us, she thought it would be straightforward. It wasn't.

Katelyn takes us through the failed cycles, the physical toll, and the moments she had to fight to be heard by her medical team, all the way through to our work together and her successful pregnancy at 42 (and she is now pregnant with baby number 2!) .

We talk about what it actually feels like to be in the thick of fertility treatment. The naivety going in. The grief that builds with every failed cycle. The exhausting work of advocating for yourself in a system that doesn't always make that easy. And how Katelyn found her way through it, including the role naturopathy and joining my Your Fertile Pantry Program played in helping her not only get pregnant, but supporting her through a healthy pregnancy and to their beautiful healthy baby.

What we cover:

• Why IVF isn't the guaranteed fix so many of us are led to believe and why going in informed matters so much
• The emotional and physical weight of treatment, and why you need people around you who get it
• How small, consistent changes can significantly shift your fertility outcomes
• Why advocating for yourself isn't optional
• Holding onto hope even when everything in you wants to brace for bad news

Some quotes Katelyn shared with me:

• "We thought, like a lot of people, that IVF just works. To say that we were naive was an understatement."
• "Any glimpse of hope is amplified because the troughs of depression, heartache, desperation were continual and deeper each time."
• "You have to advocate for yourself because no one else will."
• "You get conditioned for bad news. That's all you know, so that's all you envisage is going to happen."
• "You don't want to leave a stone unturned”

Thank you, Katelyn, for trusting me with your journey. If you're in the middle of your own journey right now, I hope this one makes you feel a little less alone.