I am passionate about supporting individuals & couples to get to the root-cause emotionally & physically, of their (in)fertility, unexplained-infertility, and recurring miscarriage/pregnancy loss.
I have had the privilege of supporting individuals and couples successfully on their fertility journey since 2014.
Offering a preconception care plan to those who are struggling to conceive, and wish to improve their chances of a positive outcome.
Supporting in all aspects of natural and assisted conception (IUI/IVF/IMSI/ICSI/FET/donor (egg, sperm, embryo).
FERTILITY CONDITIONS I HAVE PERSONALLY SUPPORTED
Primary and secondary infertility, recurring miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, PCOS, anovulatory cycles (absence of ovulation), endometriosis, endometritis, irregular cycles, autoimmune conditions, unexplained infertility, low AMH, poor egg quality, and elevated Natural Killer Cells (NK Cells).
Male factor infertility, such as poor sperm quality, low motility, high morphology and DNA fragmentation.
Putting all my experience and knowledge into offering a pre-conception whole health, holistic mind-body care plan; to those who are struggling to conceive, and wish to improve their chances of a positive outcome.
SUPPORT AFTER PREGNANCY LOSS
I am particularly passionate about supporting women wanting to try again after pregnancy loss(es), through recurring miscarriage, ectopic and stillbirth, and fortunately I’ve been able to support many women in this area to go on and carry their healthy babies to term.
If you are looking for support in this area. I will gently guide, and empower you to nurture yourself both emotionally and physically, and take into account any further testing that could help in identifying any underling issues, supporting you on your fertility journey every step of the way.
FERTILITY COACHING
Trained in the Freedom Fertility Formula, approach, which provides psychological and Emotional healing embedded in a life planning and accountability journey.
I have been blown away by the positive impact, growth, and long lasting changes, this has had on my clients lives and emotional well-being.
Many of which have gone on to conceive their long awaited baby, due to the positive effects the mind body connection has had on their emotional and physical health. Because what positively impacts the mind, naturally has a positive impact on the body.
CLINICAL REFLEXOLOGY
I initially trained as a Clinical Reflexologist, specialising in fertility & women’s health. Achieving the highest level in Reflexology, CRM Level 5 Mastership, advanced level diploma, including anatomy and physiology. I am also a full member of Professional Reflexology(PR), and registered with CNHC.
Completing CPD courses in Reflexology Lymphatic Drainage (RLD), Vertical Reflexology, and Reiki.
Using a combination of techniques in my holistic treatments to encourage the flow of Chi (energy) to organs and systems in the body, helping to release emotional blockages, and restore balance to the body-mind.
THE REPRODUCTIVE MICROBIOME
Learning how an imbalance in the vaginal and penile microbiome can impact pregnancy outcome, by increasing the risk of miscarriage, implantation failure, placenta eruption, and preterm birth. A real eye opener!
The vaginal microbiome, the environment of the vagina also known as the vaginal ecology, can hold a lot of unanswered questions for women who are struggling to conceive, have experienced repeated implantation failure, recurrent miscarriage, and placental eruption. It’s an area I’m really passionate about sharing, having suffered with recurring urinary tract infections (UTIs) for many many years due to vaginal dysbiosis (not enough of the good bacteria), as soon as I restored my healthy vaginal microbiome I never got another UTI.
Many women I’ve worked with have not been aware that they had endometritis, inflammation in the uterus, this can often be as a result of medical interventions disrupting the natural vagina and uterine flora. Increased inflammation in the uterus makes it very difficult for a fertilised egg or embryo to implant, however there are a few solutions to this problem which I can go into in more detail on a 1:1 if this was a potential concern.
To summarise the microbiome, whether that’s your oral, gut, or vagina microbiome, is about the good bugs, and the bad bugs, and passing down the good bugs to the next generation.
DIETARY & LIFESTYLE SUPPORT
I am also a Nutrition Student, with the Nutritional Healing Foundation, using Naturopathic techniques. However I have put this on hold in favour of following my passion in psychological & emotional healing..
In a nutshell naturopathic nutrition is about nourishing the body at a cellular level, to get the good stuff in, and cleansing the body to get the bad stuff out, in-order to restore health to the body-mind.
It also delves a lot deeper to get to the root cause, looking at internal and external stressors such as our exposure to chemicals/toxins and very importantly, emotional stressors.
I incorporate these principles and techniques into my own life, as well as in my client work, supporting women to optimise their natural fertility.
Preconception Care & IVF Preparation
Taking a whole health holistic approach I provide guidance and support, about how to optimise your fertility through lifestyle changes & nutrition, making recommendations for further investigative testing, & interpreting your blood test results.
The optimum time to prepare for pregnancy is ideally a minimum of 90 days, as it takes 90 days for men to develop healthy new sperm, and women to develop healthy new follicles. Making some positive life style changes is not only going to improve your overall health to optimise your chances of conceiving, but it can also help to reduce your chances of miscarriage, help to support and improve your chances of a positive outcome when undergoing your fertility treatment, and crucially for the long term health of your developing baby.
But please don’t worry if you are starting your fertility treatment sooner, I can still support you to get in a good place emotionally and physically ready for your treatment.
Some specific benefits to be gained from that are as follows:
🌸 Optimise Your Emotional Health
The mind-body connection is real, what’s happening in the mind, our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions, impacts the body, and fertility.
When we support our Emotional Health it sends your Brain a signal of safety, activating the parasympathetic nervous system, and directing the body’s energy towards Fertility and reproduction, rather than to eliminate or escape danger.
🌸 Optimise Your Nutrition
Understand what foods will help to optimise your fertility, and what foods to avoid to reduce inflammation, support gut health, and stabilise blood sugar levels, to balance your hormones.
🌸 Optimise Your Lifestyle
Understand more about how you can improve your chances by making some key lifestyle changes.
🌸 Optimise Your Health
Understand more about what might be driving your symptoms and getting in the way of your fertility.
🌸 Functional Testing Recommendations
Advanced Reproductive health testing, and help with interpreting results, including hormonal bloods.
It always helps to get copies of any recent blood tests you have had, as I often hear clients say they were told their bloods were “okay”, or “adequate”, or “normal”, when in fact they were not “optimal” for fertility, because the NHS range is to broad.
Typically I will often see this with thyroid results, folate, B12, and Vitamin D levels. it’s crucial your thyroid is in tip-top condition for ovulation, a healthy regular menstruated cycle, and for supporting your future baby until they develop their own.
Making little tweaks here and there to your diet, lifestyle, supplementation, looking at gut health (so often overlooked), and crucially your partner with DNA fragmentation testing, can make a positive difference to optimising your fertility success.
Help with charting your menstrual cycles to learn when the optimal time is for intercourse, and to recognise any problems showing up in your cycle that need to be resolved. You will feel more in control and be able to monitor your progress.
Discuss the importance of your partners health and what they can do to enhance their fertility.
Please ask me
HOW DOES GUT HEALTH IMPACT FERTILITY?
Have you heard of the gut-brain axis? It refers to the constant two-way communication of information between gut microbes and the central nervous system.
Have you ever felt butterfly’s in your stomach when seeing someone you love, or lost your appetite when you’re stressed? Advanced research have described the importance of gut microbiota in influencing the interactions between emotional & cognitive health.
The gut-brain axis (GBA) can easily be disrupted by many different factors, such as environmental toxins, stress, antibiotics, triggering gut dysbiosis (IBS, SIBO, colitis) which impairs absorption of nutrients therefore impacting fertility. and can lead to other chronic health conditions like pain, fibromyalgia, UTIs, and has a profound impact on mental health and the functioning of the nervous system.
Testimonials
EMOTIONAL & WELL-BEING SUPPORT AFTER PREGNANCY LOSS
“I found Gaynor during the depth of my despair following two miscarriages.
I was at the beginning of my journey to try again and I strongly believe that Gaynor’s support has got me to where I am now.
Much of my frustration came from seeing different drs without anyone really joining the dots.
Gaynor not only gave me the emotional support I needed, but pieced together everything I had been through physically.
This included advice on nutrition, vitamin supplements and general support.
Most importantly, Gaynor got me to an accepting mindset and i don’t think it was a coincidence that I fell pregnant following this.
My experience with Gaynor has been far more than I expected. I walked in expecting some great reflexology and continue to walk out with just that, but also with the added bonus of a fertility coach and therapist.
I have always been so impressed at how Gaynor will drop me an email just to check in on me or to send something I might find helpful. My journey with Gaynor will definitely not end here!”
DONOR EGG CYCLE
“I first met Gaynor after we had been trying for a baby for just over 4 years and on our 3rd round of IVF.
We had done 2 rounds with my own eggs but due to having such poor results with embryo's developing and not surviving thaws, we knew we couldn't go through another round of heartbreak with such low chances and so looked into an egg donor.
After research and talking through with close family members the decision felt right and this was still a chance that I could carry and grow our baby. We went into our third round of IVF feeling slightly more optimistic about our chances but after our 1st transfer didn't work we had reached rock bottom and I knew I needed to do something to change my frame of mind.
I did some research into alternative therapies and that is how I came across Gaynor. Gaynor went to work straight away helping me re-set my negative thoughts through talk-throughs and breathing exercises.
From our first session she taught me that it is so important to have nurturing thoughts and tell your mind and body that it is safe to carry a baby, imagine the baby growing inside you, imagine it kicking and holding it on your chest, these are thoughts I would never allow myself to have previously as I thought I would be building myself up for more disappointment.
Gaynor helped me through the many early stages of IVF from testing days to the early scans and the tools/techniques she taught me to handle these I still use today to help me stay in the positive mind set and block out any negative thoughts. The scripts that Gaynor read to me have been extremely useful and after a few sessions I felt so much more positive about the next transfer.
I am now 14 weeks pregnant and I can honestly say I don't think we would be where we are without the help, support, advice and guidance from Gaynor, I just wish I had met her sooner in our journey!”
EMOTIONAL HEALTH & WELLBEING SUPPORT
“My FFF sessions with Gaynor have been invaluable. We have been trying for a baby for 7 years, 5 of those have been through IVF, and we have had 3 losses along the way. When I started the sessions with Gaynor I was in a dark place, feeling anxious about the future and fearful of our next steps. Many friends have children and many have had babies recently which has been tough, and left me feeling isolated after our last miscarriage. Triggers were everywhere and they were sending me into a spiral of anxiety and depression all the time, meaning I was either avoiding situations or pushing myself to enter situations then falling apart afterwards.
When Gaynor told me about FFF I knew I had to give it a shot and find out if living in the present and enjoying life again was possible. I felt hopeless but this gave me hope that things could feel different, that I could live in the wait and gain my life back, in fact gain our life back!
Gaynor is so empathic; she just gets it and that to me is a huge thing as it means I can say anything that’s on my mind without holding back. Infertility can be a lonely place, and I feel very lucky that Gaynor has been there for me as she is for so many women and couples. She dedicates so much time to clients, contacting between sessions to see how things are, and she has an absolute wealth of knowledge about fertility.
The techniques Gaynor has taught me throughout the FFF sessions have been great. I’ve tried so many things throughout our fertility journey to try and move out of the negative feelings about life now and the future, but I have never had techniques to practice myself. I was open minded to see where this took me, and I have to say it has been a challenging and incredibly positive journey with Gaynor alongside me.
After all this time I feel I am coping better with triggers by using the techniques regularly, I am allowing myself to say no and look after myself without guilt, and I feel stronger and more resilient again. I am so much more hopeful that our time will come, it’s just not right now, but right now we can live our lives in the wait, and feel excited about the future and what comes next for us.
Thank you for everything from the bottom of my heart xxx“
My client went out to have a successful round of IVF and is expecting her longed for baby in May 2023.
IVF SUPPORT
When I first visited Gaynor, I was about 2.5 years into our trying to conceive journey. After testing etc I had been diagnosed with PCOS and I had begun a course of 3 cycles of clomid which I had been fortunate enough to meet the requirements to be prescribed on the NHS. I had also been doing acupuncture sessions weekly for about 8 months but wasn’t sure it was totally for me and had been recommended to look into the potential holistic benefits to fertility of reflexology. I was determined that if I was going to try reflexology then I wanted it to be with a specialist in fertility which brought me to Gaynor.
At my first appointment she went through my medical history really throughly and was thoroughly empathetic with my situation, something that I had underestimated how much I needed. Fertility treatment is often an isolating and lonely place to be but Gaynor really helped put me at ease and for the first time I began to feel more in control of what was happening. She talked me through exactly what she was doing and explained how this would change at different parts of the cycle (stimulating follicle growth etc). She gave me tips and techniques as to what I could do at home with simple exercises that would support the work she was doing as well. I was also asked to fill in a questionnaire that helped with suggestions for food / supplement recommendations that are proven to help with fertility issues and pcos particularly.
As soon as I began my treatment sessions with Gaynor I noticed a difference in the results I was getting at follicle scans and I actually began ovulating which I hadn’t been doing before on the clomid alone. I also felt better and more relaxed about what was happening and generally healthier.
After I had finished the rounds of clomid my husband and I made the decision to pursue private treatment which resulted in us is starting an IVF cycle. Again the reflexology paid a key part in working alongside the drugs I was taking in promoting and controlling follicle growth. I am certain that my regular sessions with Gaynor were a key factor in helping us to secure our positive pregnancy test on our first full cycle of treatment and something that we will be both be eternally grateful for.
By the end of my session I felt that I had gained a friend in Gaynor who as well as treating me during the process, had listened, supported and given me impartial advice at times when I very much needed it! I cannot emphasise the importance of helping your body in every way possible during fertility struggles and although we still needed medical intervention alongside, I would never discount the vital part in the limiting of the effects and the success of the treatment that reflexology had. If we ever decide to add again to our family the first appointment I will make will be with Gaynor and I would urge anybody in the same position to do the same.”
“Gaynor is wonderful! Extremely knowledgeable about reproductive health, as well as lots of health issues in general. I love that she really wants to get to the root cause of issues. Gaynor is calm and approachable and would also check in with me outside of our appointments. Love her holistic approach to life! I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Gaynor again in the future.” Nicola
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