The Natural Womanhood Podcast

Dr. Lauren Rubal, M.D. is a board-certified OB/GYN and Reproductive Endocrinologist (REI). She was also once one of the top full-scope REI providers for the Kaiser Health Network, which meant that she frequently provided in vitro fertilization (IVF) services to patients struggling with infertility, and provided birth control to women struggling with menstrual issues like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). But after several years of this kind of practice, Dr. Lauren began to feel a pull towards practicing another way—a way that would holistically restore a woman's health or a couples' fertility, so that they could cycle and/or conceive naturally. So, a few years ago, Dr. Lauren took a leap of faith and started her own boutique practice in Newport Beach, CA, where she now only offers restorative reproductive medicine. A one-two punch of expertise in both conventional gynecological and fertility medicine, and holistic and restorative practices, Dr. Lauren is also an exceedingly lovely person whom her patients love—and whom we were absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to interview for our very final episode of Season 1 of The Natural Womanhood Podcast! We sincerely hope you enjoy this episode, and want to thank you for listening to the inaugural season of The Natural Womanhood Podcast. We had a blast, and are eagerly planning new content for next season. If you have any ideas, please shoot them our way! Until then, be well, and know that we can't wait to see you again next year for Season 2.The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. The podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark and Cassondra Moriarty. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Cassie is a certified instructor of FEMM, an IBCLC lactation consultant, and DONA postpartum Doula.The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists to help women discover safe, side effect-free natural birth control options, empower them to work with their bodies instead of against them, and to inform them about harmful birth control side effects.Learn more about Grace and her work here, and learn more about Cassie and her work here.Support the show (https://paypal.me/naturalwomanhood?locale.x=en_US)

What do you think of when you hear the term "self care?" Does it mean treating yourself to something special or expensive? Does it mean forcing yourself to maintain some semblance of personal hygiene (like showering), even though you're overwhelmed and exhausted? In this episode (Season 1 / Episode 7), we tackle the topic of self-care with therapist Julia Hogan, LCPC, and discuss the ways that fertility awareness can help us reclaim (and practice) an authentic sense of self-care. Especially as we gear up for the busy-ness of the holiday season, you do not want to miss this enlightening episode⁠—and did we mention, it's the second-to-last one of the season?! The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. The podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark and Cassondra Moriarty. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Cassie is a certified instructor of FEMM, an IBCLC lactation consultant, and DONA postpartum Doula.The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists to help women discover safe, side effect-free natural birth control options, empower them to work with their bodies instead of against them, and to inform them about harmful birth control side effects.Learn more about Grace and her work here, and learn more about Cassie and her work here.Support the show (https://paypal.me/naturalwomanhood?locale.x=en_US)

Living with your fertility feels radically different when turning off your fertility is the cultural norm. But couples often find when they make the switch to using a fertility awareness method (FAM), that it can be a wonderful tool for strengthening their relationship.In this episode (Season 1 / Episode 6), we have an enlightening conversation with  FertilityCare Practitioner and Natural Womanhood board member Jackie Aguilar. Listen to her story unfold as she describes how the birth control pill interfered with her newlywed relationship, and how her journey towards a fertility awareness method gave way to a greater understanding of her body and strengthening of her marriage. Jackie packs a one-two punch as both a FertilityCare Practitioner instructing women and couples in the Creighton model of fertility awareness, and (with her husband) as half of a Teaching Couple teaching the Sympto-thermal method through the Couple to Couple League. She is also on the board of Natural Womanhood, and as a speaker for the organization, Jackie shares her personal trials with artificial means of contraception, and the discovery of deeper intimacy and empowerment through the knowledge of her fertility. Jackie has 5 children with her husband Miguel, and together they live in San Antonio, TX (where Natural Womanhood is also headquartered).The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. The podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark and Cassondra Moriarty. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Cassie is a certified instructor of FEMM, an IBCLC lactation consultant, and DONA postpartum Doula.The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists to help women discover safe, side effect-free natural birth control options, empower them to work with their bodies instead of against them, and to inform them about harmful birth control side effects.Learn more about Grace and her work here, and learn more about Cassie and her work here.Support the show (https://paypal.me/naturalwomanhood?locale.x=en_US)

Fertility Awareness Methods have come a long way from your great grandma's rhythm method. As Grace puts it, comparing today's Fertility Awareness Methods (FAMs) to the antiquated rhythm method is like comparing Jerry Seinfeld's car phone to the smart phone you are probably listening to this podcast on. Who first discovered that basal body temperature rises after ovulation? Who put together the pieces of cervical fluid patterns? How did the various methods of fertility charting come to be? We talk about all of that and more in this episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast! In addition to the history of fertility and reproductive science, in this episode (Season 1 / Episode 5) we dive into who the masterminds behind modern fertility awareness methods are, and what modern femtech has to offer to women today. You can also find out about the “fertility museum” Cassondra's got accumulating in her house….The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. The podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark and Cassondra Moriarty. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Cassie is a certified instructor of FEMM, an IBCLC lactation consultant, and DONA postpartum Doula.The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists to help women discover safe, side effect-free natural birth control options, empower them to work with their bodies instead of against them, and to inform them about harmful birth control side effects.Learn more about Grace and her work here, and learn more about Cassie and her work here.Support the show

Birth control is so ubiquitous and so easy to procure, that many women have not stopped to think about how it prevents pregnancy, and why it matters. The history of birth control, from the very first iteration of the Pill to the modern options available to women today, provides some interesting clues about what birth control is, how it works, and what its creators intended it for.  In this episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast (Season 1 / Episode 4), our co-host Grace Emily Stark discusses the history of hormonal birth control, based on research she conducted for the Novak journalism fellowship she was awarded in 2019. As you'll come to find from listening to this episode, the history of the Pill is much more unsavory than most people realize (or will admit). If this episode gets you mad that literally nothing has changed when it comes to transparency (or the lack thereof) about birth control risks and side effects, the good news is there is something you can do about it—today. Head over to the Natural Womanhood website, where you can read about and sign our petition to the FDA, which demands greater transparency about birth control side effects from Big Pharma.  The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. The podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark and Cassondra Moriarty. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Cassie is a certified instructor of FEMM, an IBCLC lactation consultant, and DONA postpartum Doula.The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists to help women discover safe, side effect-free natural birth control options, empower them to work with their bodies instead of against them, and to inform them about harmful birth control side effects.Learn more about Grace and her work here, and learn more about Cassie and her work here.Support the show (https://paypal.me/naturalwomanhood?locale.x=en_US)

Although FEMM is one of the latest fertility awareness methods (FAMs) to take the world of women's reproductive health by storm, it's built on a long history of established science. Complete with a sleek mobile app and established restorative reproductive medicine protocols—and a growing directory of healthcare providers around the world trained to administer those protocols—FEMM is what you might call a "next generation" fertility awareness method. And with a growing list of FEMM teachers worldwide (including our very own Cassondra Moriarty!), learning to use FEMM for health and family planning has never been easier. In this episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast (Season 1 / Episode 3), we sat down with Anna Halpine, CEO and founder of FEMM, to learn more about this increasingly popular method of fertility awareness, and how it is revolutionizing women's hormonal health. The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. The podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark and Cassondra Moriarty. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Cassie is a certified instructor of FEMM, an IBCLC lactation consultant, and DONA postpartum Doula.The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists to help women discover safe, side effect-free natural birth control options, empower them to work with their bodies instead of against them, and to inform them about harmful birth control side effects.Learn more about Grace and her work here, and learn more about Cassie and her work here.Support the show (https://paypal.me/naturalwomanhood?locale.x=en_US)

Some of our most popular articles on the Natural Womanhood website have to do with painful sex. A growing area of interest is how pelvic floor physical therapy can be utilized to heal the causes of painful sex, but as we discover in this episode, it can do so much more.  In this episode (Season 1 / Episode 2), we interview Dr. Jen Tippmann, PT, DPT, owner of Tippmann Physical Therapy in Fort Wayne, IN, about her work as a pelvic floor physical therapist. Both Cassie and Grace learned a lot in their conversation with Dr. Tippmann, especially how pelvic floor physical therapy can be used to promote better reproductive health for women at every stage of their fertility. We hope you'll tune in and learn something new, too!  The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. The podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark and Cassondra Moriarty. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Cassie is a certified instructor of FEMM, an IBCLC lactation consultant, and DONA postpartum Doula.The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists to help women discover safe, side effect-free natural birth control options, empower them to work with their bodies instead of against them, and to inform them about harmful birth control side effects.Learn more about Grace and her work here, and learn more about Cassie and her work here.Support the show (https://paypal.me/naturalwomanhood?locale.x=en_US)

The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. From pelvic floor physical therapy, to surgical interventions, to relationships and mental health, no topic is off limits for Grace and Cassie, as they seek to bring the empowering truth about women, their bodies, and their cycles to their listeners: that is, that women's cycles are essential, powerful, important, and do not need to be "controlled." The Natural Womanhood podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark and Cassondra Moriarty. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Cassie is a certified instructor of FEMM, an IBCLC lactation consultant, and DONA postpartum Doula. In this episode (Season 1 / Episode 1), we'll be delving a bit deeper into both of our backgrounds, and describing our own personal journeys as we came to learn about, use, and eventually teach fertility awareness to other women and couples.   The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists to help women discover safe, side effect-free natural birth control options, empower them to work with their bodies instead of against them, and to inform them about harmful birth control side effects. Learn more about Grace and her work here, and learn more about Cassie and her work here.Support the show (https://paypal.me/naturalwomanhood?locale.x=en_US)