EP 276 Why a Woman’s Menstrual Cycle is a Mirror to Her Health The Wholesome Fertility Podcast

Holly Leever is a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, Arvigo abdominal massage therapist and Fertility Awareness Method educator. She works with women to optimize their menstrual cycles and their fertility. She founded her practice, Rosebud Wellness in 2014, and works with clients locally in Ojai, CA and virtually all over the world. When Holly isn’t solving period problems, she is spending time with her sweet daughter, practicing yoga, gardening or cooking.
 
Website - rosebudwellness.com
IG - https://www.instagram.com/rosebud_wellness/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hollyrosebudwellness
Free FAM Video - https://rosebudwellness.com/opt-in-free-training-how-to-track-and-chart-your-cycle-to-support-your-body-for-optimal-health-and-fertility
Holly’s Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fertile-womb-natural-fertility-optimization/id1568908543
 
For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com
 
For Fertility Resources: https://www.thewholesomelotusfertility.com/fertilityresources
 
The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/
 
Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility
 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/
 
 
 
Transcript:
 
Michelle (00:00)
Welcome to the podcast, Holly.
 
Holly Leever (00:02)
Thank you so much, Michelle. I'm really excited to be here.
 
Michelle (00:05)
I'm excited to have a fellow acupuncturist here. It's always fun talking
 
to my
 
Holly Leever (00:09)
It is
 
Michelle (00:10)
my acupuncture family.
 
Holly Leever (00:10)
Yes. Yeah.
 
Michelle (00:12)
Awesome. So give us a little background on yourself and what got you into women's health specifically, infertility,
 
acupuncture.
 
Holly Leever (00:20)
so it's a long and winding road, like all of our stories, right? But I started studying acupuncture when I was pretty young. I was just naturally really interested in yoga and holistic health and nutrition. It just kind of came out of the womb that way for some reason. And I went to acupuncture school and I learned about how hormonal birth control...
 
could potentially be impacting some of the issues that I was experiencing at the time. And when you're really young, you can get away with a lot. And so I didn't feel terrible, but I hadn't had a natural period. I probably had three in my whole life at that point and I was 24. So I started, yeah.
 
Michelle (01:10)
Wait, so give us a background. So when did you first get your period? When did you first start and then when did you get on the birth control pill?
 
Holly Leever (01:18)
Yeah, so that's the tricky part, the annoying part, is that I got my first period when I was 14, and I was already on birth control by the time I was 15. So I don't remember exactly how many months, and I would only get it every three months. So I went to the gynecologist and I was like, oh, is that, I mean, I had enough of an awareness to know that it was supposed to happen every month at the time, and they were just like, oh, that's really...
 
Michelle (01:29)
Uh.
 
Mm-hmm.
 
Holly Leever (01:46)
problematic and here you can just have the birth control pill to regulate your cycle, of course. And I did have pretty significant period pain too. I think it was just young bodies don't just start menstruating perfectly right away and having significant period pain I think also was partially related to my diet at the time. I grew up really just eating
 
Michelle (02:00)
Yeah.
 
Holly Leever (02:10)
Total crap food, just convenience foods, only snacky kind of things, really had no guidance around nutrition at all. And I think the period pain was partially related to that, and also just being young and my body doing something new for the first time. I did become sexually activ