Home Podcasts Fertility Friday | Fertility Awareness Mastery for Women's Health Professionals
Fertility Friday | Fertility Awareness Mastery for Women's Health Professionals

Fertility Friday | Fertility Awareness Mastery for Women's Health Professionals

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack, FAE, HRHP 300 Episodes Jul 3, 2026

Fertility Friday is a podcast for women's health professionals who want to master fertility awareness. Host Lisa Hendrickson-Jack, FAE, HRHP, covers menstrual cycle chart interpretation, hormone balancing, and fertility challenges through evidence-based discussions and expert interviews. With over 20 years of experience, she aims to help practitioners use the menstrual cycle as a vital sign. The podcast also draws from her books, including "The Fifth Vital Sign" and "Real Food for Fertility."

Episodes

FFP 633 | Is Your Period Draining Your Iron Stores? Jul 3, 2026 25:52 Lisa examines a recent review paper on iron deficiency in women, covering the role of heavy menstrual bleeding, updated ferritin reference ranges, and why non-anemic iron deficiency still carries meaningful health risks. She also addresses iron deficiency in pregnancy, the case for preconception nutrition focused on iron-rich foods, and racial disparities in iron deficiency anemia prevalence among
FFP 632 | Can Your Period Predict Heart Disease? Jun 26, 2026 22:46 In this episode, Lisa reviews a landmark 2023 study that followed over 700,000 women across 26 years to examine the association between menstrual cycle characteristics and cardiometabolic outcomes. Lisa highlights how different types of menstrual cycle irregularity appear to be associated with distinct cardiometabolic risk factors, reinforcing the case for treating the menstrual cycle as a vital s
FFP 631 | Are You Really Ovulating? | Luteinized Unruptured Follicle Syndrome (LUFS) Jun 19, 2026 19:25 In episode 631, Lisa explores luteinized unruptured follicle syndrome (LUFS) — a lesser-known ovulatory dysfunction in which the dominant follicle fails to rupture and release the egg despite a normal-appearing LH surge and progesterone rise. Because LUFS can mimic a textbook ovulatory cycle on a fertility awareness chart, it represents one of the more challenging silent contributors to unexplaine
FFP 630 | Does The Pill Impact Fertility? Jun 12, 2026 23:45 In this solo episode, Lisa takes a critical look at two recent studies examining the return of fertility after stopping hormonal contraception, one published in 2020 and one published in the BMJ in 2023. Rather than accepting their conclusions at face value, Lisa walks through the methodology of each study and identifies significant design flaws that call their findings into question. Lisa discuss
FFP 629 | Is Eating Liver More Effective Than Supplementation? Jun 5, 2026 23:34 Lisa examines a peer-reviewed study that tracked liver consumption and vitamin A status in young children from an impoverished South African community — and what the findings reveal about food as a nutrient delivery system. Lisa unpacks a striking paradox at the heart of the research: the poorest households consumed the most liver not for health reasons, but out of economic necessity and were cons
FFP 628 | The Nutrient Gaps Behind Female Infertility May 29, 2026 27:27 In this solo episode, Lisa breaks down the findings of a large cross-sectional study analyzing nutrient intake data from just under 4,000 women aged 18 to 44, drawn from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The study compared dietary intake between women who self-reported infertility — defined as difficulty conceiving for at least one year — and women who had conceived wi
FFP 627 | New Research: Women With PCOS Don't Actually Have More "Cysts" May 22, 2026 25:58 In this episode, Lisa  continues her PCOS series by reviewing a newly published research letter titled "Ovarian Cysts in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome", a cross-sectional analysis of nearly 2,000 women asking one key question: do women with PCOS actually have more pathological ovarian cysts than women without PCOS? Contrary to what the name implies, the study found no statistically significant differe
FFP 626 | What is Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome? | The New Name for PCOS May 15, 2026 22:33 In this episode of the Fertility Friday Podcast, Lisa down the landmark renaming of PCOS to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), published officially on May 12, 2026, following an 11-year global consensus process involving input from over 22,000 patients and clinicians. Lisa explores the rationale behind the name change, explaining how the term PCOS has long been criticized for implyin
FFP 625 | The Case for Progesterone in Perimenopause | Dr. Jerilynn Prior May 8, 2026 59:23 In this episode, Lisa welcomes back Dr. Jerilynn Prior, endocrinologist, UBC Professor Emerita, and founder of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (CeMCOR), for a thought-provoking conversation that challenges mainstream narratives about perimenopause and hormone therapy. Dr. Prior shares her research-backed perspective on why perimenopause is often characterized by erratically h
FFP 624 | Is Hospital Birth Really Safer? | Dr. Stuart Fischbein, MD May 1, 2026 01:24:47 In this episode, Lisa sits down with Stuart James Fischbein, MD — obstetrician, homebirth physician, and host of the Birthing Instincts Podcast — to examine one of the most consequential questions in modern maternity care: is hospital birth actually safer? Dr. Fischbein draws on more than 40 years of obstetric experience to trace how the medical model came to frame pregnancy as a high-risk condit
FFP 623 | Cycle Charting as Primary Care: A Midwife's Perspective | FAMM Practitioner Series | Harriet Thorn Apr 24, 2026 01:02:16 In Episode 623 of the Fertility Friday Podcast, Lisa sits down with Harriet Thorn, a Switzerland-based midwife and recent graduate of the Fertility Awareness Mastery Mentorship (FAMM) program, for a wide-ranging conversation about cycle charting in midwifery practice. Harriet shares her personal journey from biotechnology PhD to midwife — including her own experience navigating heavy and painful p
FFP 622 | Healing Your Cycle From the Inside Out with | FAMM Practitioner Series | Carol da Selva Apr 17, 2026 44:09 In this episode of the Fertility Friday Podcast, Lisa sits down with Carol da Selva — founder of Sacred Womb Rites and a practitioner completing her Fertility Awareness Mastery Mentorship (FAMM) certification — for a candid conversation about spiritual approaches to menstrual cycle health and where they intersect with evidence-based practice. Carol shares her personal journey with irregular cycles

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