I'm joined in this episode by my colleague and co-teacher, registered herbalist and fertility specialist Liane Moccia, to talk more about the responses to the question, "Are you ovulating?"

We cover what signs to look for, how to interpret tracking data (cervical fluid, LH strips, temperature), and why ovulation is a vital marker of hormonal and overall health even when someone isn’t trying to conceive.

We also discuss practical intake phrasing, common misunderstandings, and introduce our Menstrual Health Intensive: a physiology-focused course with live teaching and case observation groups for clinicians who want to support clients experiencing menstrual health concerns.

Key Takeaways

• Many clients have never been taught to recognize ovulatory signs/symptoms

• Cervical fluid is a reliable, free marker of rising estradiol, though some clients may mistake it for infection

• Having a baseline understanding of ovulation before perimenopause makes later changes easier to interpret and may reduce the need for expensive testing

• Clear, specific wording on intake forms prevents misinterpretation

• The luteal phase length and confirmed ovulation timing help us place premenstrual symptoms accurately on the timeline

Links referenced in this episode:

• Liane's website: https://lianemoccia.com/
• Liane's book, The Herbal Fertility Handbook: https://lianemoccia.com/book/
• Menstrual Health Intensive: https://www.camillefreeman.com/menstrualhealth/

Let's talk about a "normal" menstrual cycle. What counts as "normal," how can we spot concerning signs, and when does it make sense to consider medical referral or further testing? We'll dive into this and more in this brief episode. For more information and clinical strategies to support clients around menstrual health, join the upcoming Menstrual Health Intensive.

Key Takeaways

• Bleeding longer than 8 days warrants referral for possible clotting issues, fibroids, or other concerns

• Heavy menstrual flow is often subjective, but if it interferes with daily life or causes soaking through protection, refer for assessment

• A stable luteal phase is a good sign; significant variation may indicate something else is going on

• Many clients were never taught basic cervical fluid physiology - this is valuable clinical information to share

Reference

Bahamondes, L., & Ali, M. (2015). Recent advances in managing and understanding menstrual disorders. F1000Prime Reports, 7, 33. https://doi.org/10.12703/P7-33

Upcoming

Liane Moccia and I are launching an 8-week Menstrual Health Intensive for Practitioners starting September 15, 2026 (you can join later!). Review the sales page and join us if you're interested in more education on this topic. 20 NPCE available.

It might help to think about this in terms of mindful eating. When you feel the urge to sign up for something, stop and ask: is my practice actually hungry for this?

• If you've decided newsletters are your main marketing focus and you're specifically hunting for newsletter training - amazing. Dive in.

• If you're just responding to a sale email, a fear of missing out, or a vague sense that you "should" know more? Take a step back. You might find the urge is actually about avoiding visibility work, not about needing to know this information right now.

When I'm tempted by a program but my business isn't actually hungry for it right now, I keep a running document with the link, price, and details. About 80% of the time, I realize that I don't need or want to do the program right now. It's a "nice to have eventually" versus a "I need to implement this right away and I think this course will help." Programs and classes are almost always offered again later.

Before you sign up for anything this fall, ask yourself:

• Is this a hunger in my business right now?

• Am I going to implement what I learn, or just collect more information?

• Am I using learning as a way to avoid the harder work of being seen?

We want synergy between what we're taking in and what we're putting out. Make sure there's a balance between the two.

• Submit a question for a future episode at intheclinic.com

• Sign up for my weekly Practitioner Notes newsletter at intheclinic.com or camillefreeman.com

• Find all episodes and show notes at intheclinic.com

I'm Camille Freeman, DCN, RH, and I host In the Clinic with Camille, a podcast for herbalists and nutritionists building and growing their private practices. I've been in clinical practice since 2003 with a focus on fertility, pregnancy, and menstrual health.

I've gotten several questions lately about whether or not I recommend Substack to clinicians who want to start a newsletter to help promote their clinical practices. TLDR: it's not the best tool for the job.

In this episode, I spell out why I don't think herbalists and nutritionists are well-served by using Substack as a way to promote a private practice.

Essentially, it all boils down to:

1. It's not designed for promoting services, classes, workshops, etc. and it shows.
2. It's free, which is great, but you do pay in other ways - for example, in control over you readers' experience.
3. Support is basically nonexistent.

I go into a few other reasons in the show, but these are the big ones.

Go ahead and use an email service provider that's designed for the type of promotion we do when we write a newsletter. I use MailerLite, but there are tons of great options with similar features.

For more on writing newsletters, check out my book: Write Better Newsletters: Grow your 1:1 practice with newsletters people actually want to read.

And/or join my newsletter for practitioners to get a new note from me every Thursday.

Thanks for being here!

- Camille

A behind-the-scenes update on a change I've been making at Bloom & Grow: after years of offering my freebies as open downloads, I'm now requiring an email address to access them. I wanted to share my full (evolving) thinking in case it gives you permission to change your mind on something in your own practice.

Key Points & Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Welcome and intro

• 00:18 - The backstory

• 01:10 - Why I've had a change of heart

• 01:35 - People don't click on web search results anymore, apparently

• 02:24 - Web traffic is down overall

• 02:53 - AI roadblocks

• 03:52 - Freebie set up

• 04:53 - Keeping an eye on results

• 05:13 - New website navigation

• 06:07 - It's okay to change your mind

Resources Mentioned:

• My freebies page: camillefreeman.com/freebies

• My book: Write Better Newsletters: Grow your 1:1 Practice with Emails People Actually Want to Read

• My weekly practitioner notes: sign up at camillefreeman.com (or grab a freebie and join the list at the same time)

If you want to check out the new setup, head to the freebies page; some are still in transition, so you might see a mix of old and new setups. If there's something in your own practice that doesn't feel in alignment anymore, I hope this gives you a little wiggle room to change it. You can always change it back 🖤

I got a great question from Cora about whether I recommend that practitioners put their prices on their websites. Short answer: yes, I think it makes sense to publish your prices. In this episode I walk through why I feel strongly about this, what can happen when you don't share prices upfront, and how transparency frees up time and makes discovery calls more meaningful.

• Sign up for my weekly Practitioner Notes newsletter at camillefreeman.com

• Submit a question for the podcast at intheclinic.com

• Find all episodes and show notes at intheclinic.com

I'm Camille Freeman, DCN, RH, and I host In the Clinic with Camille, a podcast for herbalists and nutritionists in private practice. I've been in clinical practice since 2003 with a focus on fertility, pregnancy, and menstrual health, and I love sharing the business and clinical lessons I've learned along the way.

I got a question in a recent Q&A call about wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) cream and progesterone. A client felt the cream was helping raise their progesterone, but the practitioner had questions about whether that was realistically happening. So what's the deal? I share a few thoughts on why a client might be noticing a difference and things to be on the lookout for as an herbalist or nutritionist if your client is using wild yam cream.

• Wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) contains diosgenin, which can be converted to progesterone in a laboratory setting, but the human body does not have the enzymes to make that conversion.

• If a wild yam cream seems to be helping with progesterone-related symptoms, the cream may actually contain progesterone (check the active ingredient label - some do).

• Lower-quality or less transparent products can sometimes contain undisclosed ingredients or contaminants, including hormones, so it's worth investigating the brand and looking for third-party testing.

• The placebo effect is a thing and may be at play here.

• Wild yam does contain phytoestrogens, and while topical absorption levels are unclear, this is a more physiologically plausible mechanism than progesterone conversion.

• Progesterone blood levels are pulsatile (they fluctuate roughly every 45-60 minutes), so a single lab draw in the luteal phase should not be interpreted as evidence of "low progesterone" without proper clinical context.

• Sign up for Camille's weekly Practitioner Notes newsletter at camillefreeman.com

• Submit a question for the podcast at intheclinic.com

• Find all episodes and show notes at intheclinic.com

Camille Freeman, DCN, RH, is the founder of Bloom and Grow, offering continuing education and community resources for herbalists and nutritionists in clinical practice. She has been in practice since 2003 with a focus on fertility, pregnancy, and menstrual health.

As I was out on a walk this morning, something I heard on Cal Newport's podcast resonated with me. I'm sharing a small takeaway point regarding over-optimizing and how I think that applies both to our clinical work and to everything that goes on behind the scenes to keep a clinical practice running.

• The optimization paradox: over-optimizing a single area can throw the whole system out of balance

• In client work, you don't need to move every health pillar from a 2 to a 10. Moving several from a 2 to a 5 or 7 often produces better outcomes.

• In your practice, "good enough" marketing across multiple channels beats getting one area in tip-top shape.

• This framework is especially useful for solo practitioners without formal business or marketing training as it takes some pressure off and offers multiple ways to improve

• Cal Newport's Deep Questions podcast: Optimization Paradox episode with Brad Stulberg

• Sign up for Camille's weekly Practitioner Notes newsletter at camillefreeman.com

• Find all episodes and show notes at intheclinic.com

Camille Freeman, DCN, RH, is the founder of Bloom and Grow, offering continuing education and community resources for herbalists and nutritionists in clinical practice. She has been in practice since 2003 with a focus on fertility, pregnancy, and menstrual health.