Elizabeth Stein 0:00
Hi everyone. I'm Elizabeth Stein, founder, and CEO of Purely Elizabeth and this is life purely with Elizabeth, featuring candid conversations about how to thrive on your wellness journey.
This week's guests are Ronit and Vida, the co founders of WeNatal, a prenatal supplement company that is transforming the fertility space with the first prenatal supplement optimizing for her and him. WeNatal's mission to change the narrative surrounding fertility and reproductive health is personal. After suffering miscarriages a week apart are, Ronit and Vida were given little direction on what to do differently. More importantly, the health of Vida’s partners, including the health of their sperm was missing from the fertility dialogue completely with doctors. Something had to change. WeNatal shifts the fertility journey from me to we and is backed by industry leading functional medicine doctors, nutritionists and fertility experts including Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Kelli. With 24 Key clean bioavailable nutrients, we need all steps up where other supplements fall short for all things preconception to postpartum for both parents and baby. In this episode, we talked about the story behind the birth of WeNatal after Ronit and Vida learned that men contribute to 50% of miscarriages, yet no one was talking about it. We talked about the worldwide fertility crisis and the top reasons why the ways that couples can optimize their fertility, key nutrients that impact reproductive health and overall fertility, what sets WeNatal apart from other supplements, we need those mission to shift the fertility narrative from me to we and so much more. Keep listening to learn all about fertility, and WeNatal. And if you want to try their products go to WeNatal.com/livepurely to get a free jar at their fish oil with any subscription. Enjoy.

Vida and Ronnie, welcome to the podcast. It's such a pleasure. I'm really excited to hear your story to share what your mission is. And I think so many women and men to really have their minds opened up and really take their health into their own hands. Because I think at the end of the day, that's what this is all about. So let's start with your founding story, which I know you guys met while working at Nike. I'm going to ask, do you guys remember the first time that you hung out together? Were you instant friends or did it take time?

Ronit 2:37
Depends who you ask. It's a funny story, actually. So I started off as an intern while I was getting my MBA and Vida was already at Nike.

Vida 2:48
Yeah, there's something called an E kin, which is like a tech wrap, very kind of entry level role. Super excited. And then I moved on to be in running.

Ronit 2:57
She was a brand brand manager for running and she was handling this massive race called the human race. And Kanye West performed. It was a big deal. And Vida was so stressed and my sister was visiting from Israel. And I was like, “Vita, can I get some tickets for my sister?” And she's like, “Yes. Sorry. No. I have hives. I can't.”

Vida 3:24
It was like maybe one of the most stressful points of my career. But it was amazing. I think we ended up getting her sister and don't worry, guys, but we like pretty immediately became fast friends just had a lot of living in our single lives moving up the corporate career. And I actually think most of the times we hung out, we were either like, going out, like trying to meet people like not working. So we have fun, just like minglers going out with friends being like single girls in LA was really, really fun. Some of my best memories are together, just we didn't know how good we had it before you have like husband and kids. It was fun.

Elizabeth Stein 4:01
It's nice. When you have a friend like that at work. I think it's just like heaven to be able to enjoy that and meet people that

Vida 4:09
truly because you get each other's work struggles and then you get to have fun and kind of let go. And so that's maybe the 10-15 years ago we met in that corporate world and really living such a wonderful fun life. And it wasn't really what brought us to our founder story. I don't think either of us ever envisioned ourselves to be in the supplement game. I think we always knew we wanted to work together. We had such chemistry and kind of yin yang in our like, work experiences. So we thought probably pretty naturally would always be in marketing or branding or business. But it really like most founder story that starts when something happens and you realize that you're not alone and something needs to be done to make it better and what you need doesn't currently exist and that is very much the WeNatal story. We had pregnancy loss miscarriages a week apart. It was my second Miss cared her first and really the medical system or OBS, and everyone kind of dismissed us. They were basically like just happens. You're one in four, very common. Keep going, keep trying, you’re luck you even got pregnant kind of thing.

Ronit 5:13
Or it's because you're old. We love that one. Well, I was kind of older, and I was 41 at the time, but I didn't feel old. I didn't look old. And I was working in the wellness space. And I was overall very healthy. And I started to dive into why people have miscarriages. And I was working alongside Dr. Mark Hyman, had access to the best doctors, the best research. And we learned that 50% of miscarriages happen because of sperm quality. And it's very easy for men to improve their sperm quality using antioxidants. So I called Vida. And I was like, why aren't any men taking antioxidants? And why aren't there any brands out there that have this product?

Elizabeth Stein 6:07
Why is nobody talking about it?

Ronit 6:09
Exactly. And I think when she called me it was legit, the brain blowing up emoji. I was like, this is like the most common sense thing that it takes to make a baby. And in fact, society is always like, we're trying we're in this together, we're having a baby. But where's the actual we like men are completely left out of the fertility conversation. And in fact, in both of my losses, I felt such a burden of shame and literally retraced every workout, everything I stressed at work, everything I ate the caffeine, like I inherently thought it was me and I was not alone. Majority of women take on this burden of fertility. And when she called me I was like, how could it be 2020 and literally, no one is talking about this? And so what kicked off our mission were like, we don't want any woman to feel alone in this journey. But also there is so much education that isn't being shared right now around both partners coming together to put their best foot forward.

Elizabeth Stein 7:07
Well, I love that you guys are so education focused, because that is certainly like the conversation is not there. And so shed some light on that start with back to like, why did miscarriages happen? So we know that 50% and go on from there.

Ronit 7:24
50% happened because of sperm quality as we talked about. But men have this tremendous ability to regenerate sperm every two to three months, the process is called spermatogenesis. And so every few months, they have a new batch of sperm, and it's constantly an ongoing kind of creation of sperm. And we know that sperm is damaged by oxidative stress, which can come from environmental factors or just overall stress, diet lifestyle. But what combats that oxidative stress is antioxidants. And so when men take antioxidants like vitamin C, COQ10, NAC, they can really transform how their sperm is reproduced. And so what we did initially was we kind of created the skeleton for what our prenatal for men is going to look like, we put our husbands on it. And back then they were taking, gosh, when we had to piece it together from different like multivitamins and stuff. They were taking like 12 pills a day. And actually I got pregnant three months later with Emma who's now three and a half. I had her for days after my 42nd birthday. And then Vida got pregnant six months later with Davina and so, all of this to say is that yeah, I think a lot of people think that when you're in your early 40s, or even late 30s or mid 30s, we even hear from early 30s. Sometimes that they're old and it's maybe too late for them. And our big message is it's not too late, there's a lot that you could do at any stage. And then for women just one of the ways to really protect yourself and prevent miscarriages is to focus on that timeframe when your egg is maturing. So we have our eggs that we're born with. And a lot of times people think like okay, that was the card that you were dealt, you have the eggs that you have, and your eggs are aging with you and now your eggs are old and that's it. But actually, the 100 days before you ovulate is when your eggs are maturing. And during that timeframe, there's a lot that you could do to kind of protect that maturation process. And so we talk a lot about preconception or trimester zero, being that three to six month window for both women and men. And for us being the fact that we created this supplement we learned so much about key nutrients that can help with this process can help with this kind of proper ovulation. But then we also go into the diet and the lifestyle so I think it's to kind of go into how can you prevent miscarriages? You can't 100% prevent them. But there's definitely a lot that you could do to at least know that you did everything. And then if there's a miscarriage, okay, there's a miscarriage. And it's sad, and it's devastating, and you couldn't control it all. But at least you know that you did your best.

Elizabeth Stein 10:51
So I don't have kids and I have not tried, but what is that conversation with your doctor? What did that look like? Are they educating you at all on this? Or is that conversation really not happening or happening in a select few places that are very forward thinking and more of the functional medicine type of doctors?

Ronit 11:11
Yes, the conversation is overall not happening. And when you look at our medical system, unfortunately, a doctor's appointment is about seven minutes on average. So how can a doctor squeeze in this information, even if they have access to the information, and a lot of times that we need all when we're meeting so many doctors, we are the ones that are educating them on the diet and lifestyle and some of the younger OBs that really understand this importance, or trying to find ways to embed it into their practice, but it's really hard because of insurance and all the things. So yeah, I would say probably people get access from naturopathic doctors, functional medicine, doctors, maybe they're doulas, but that is what we see a huge gap and opportunity to educate. And that's why we've been so focused on education. Even before we launched, WeNatal, we started to put out this information on social on our blog and our newsletter because we have a free guide, because we wanted to get this information out with so we're so passionate about it. So and hopefully though there will be a shift but for now, the conversation isn't really happening with your OB.

Vida 12:39
and the advice we got would just take a prenatal they're all the same. And really, in fact, they're not all the same. And that's another myth we're very passionate about falsifying.

Elizabeth Stein 12:49
So let's get into that. But before we get into what makes your product different than all those other NATO's on the market, I feel like you guys need to have a physical space or spaces. That's what I'm picturing for you. I

Vida 13:04
Love it. We've started with we need a lot calm, I think definitely our evolution will be to get into the right retailers. So to not comment about the doctors, let's go there. They are well intentioned, they haven't had the same nutritional background is maybe some functional medicine doctors and nutritionists. By the way WeNatal has a whole medical board of some of the best functional medicine practitioners and DS we have OBGYN that we consult on daily basis. We have neurologists that we speak to on a daily basis. And so we made sure our formula is backed by clinical science and every single ingredient every dose, if anyone wants to geek out is on our ingredient page with the research behind the why. So a lot of times when we came up with the idea started as a men's prenatal because we really didn't see any out there. And it was such a unique opportunity to start targeting men to be more part of the fertility equation. We actually didn't think the world needed another prenatal because there was a ton out there. But actually, it did when we were taking our own prenatal, really realize there was really like two camps of prenatals, really expensive ones that we were finding through Dr. Hymans’, private practice, there were a lot of capsules, which for some like me, it was very hard to take a lot of capsules, I just couldn't do it. She was a champ and downing a million nursing one per meal. So they're expensive. They were hard to get high capsule count, not a consumer friendly, real option. And then there's the more accessible ones at you know your local drugstore supermarket, but what we realize is, unfortunately, supplements are not regulated by the FDA and it was the Wild West when you look at some of these supplement facts almost as important as what's in it is what's not in it and we saw paragraphs of things that should not be in it, additives, fillers, real junk. And so in addition to that, while the price might be more accessible, the ingredients were either in non bioavailable forms and really lacking on dosages. So We reinvented, we want to start from scratch and reinvent, like what it looks like to do this right? In pure forms potent ingredients. And we got a nutrient density of eight capsules down to three. But it was important to us to try to get it to as low as possible, but no additives, no fillers and the most pure, potent ingredients.

Elizabeth Stein 15:20
That's amazing. I mean, even just that in itself, getting it down from eight to three is huge. It's not just taking it but then you're getting someone to actually make it a habit and take it daily, get their subscription and then never end up taking it back. So what are some of the key nutrients in the women's we made on them to the men's?

Vida 15:41
So just one other thing that about the difference. And one thing that's super important for your listeners to know about prenatals because they're not regulated by the FDA, it's important to make sure that they're third party tested. So WeNatal does third party testing, which means an outside agency looks at your prenatal? What's in it? Does it matter? What is what's in it? Does it actually match the label claims, looking at heavy metals, any sort of contaminants. So that's just like one thing. And if you ask a brand for their third party testing, they should email it to you like that. And if they're lingering, that's a huge red flag. So anybody who needs it, we send it to them. But what's in WeNatal for her that sets us apart? I would say folic acid is kind of the generic or synthetic form, which a lot of people hear about folic acid prevents a neural tube defects. And it's super important for baby for ovulation. And we have the bioavailable form, which is folate or methyl folate. And why that's important is because 40% of the population cannot take the synthetic form and use it as the bioavailable form. 40% of the population have a genetic mutation called MTHFR. And if you do, you cannot utilize folic acid. So WeNatal has the bioavailable form methyl folate or five MTHFR. So that's number one.

Elizabeth Stein 17:22
How do people know like what kind of tests are they getting to know if they have that gene or not? I think a regular blood test, you

Vida 17:30
know, it's a genetic test. So you can actually get I think through 23andme in probably like find out a few habit or a functional medicine doctor can probably run some sort of genetic tests on you. Usually it's a saliva test of some sort. I have it, she has it. I feel like everybody I know my husband has it, my kids have it. So it's common, it's very common, which is why we're very passionate about the folate versus folic acid thing. And our men's prenatal also has metal folate, which is the bioavailable form. And it's an important nutrient for both male and female fertility. And a lot of times if you're taking the wrong form it can cause you know delays in pregnancy. Choline is another big one. Choline is important for baby brain development. It's what you find in egg yolks, and you need about 450 milligrams a day if you're pregnant, and 550 milligrams a day, if you're breastfeeding, the average woman in America is consuming 180 milligrams a day, which is why we have 400 milligrams in our prenatal and I think we're the only prenatal on the market, there may be one or two others that have like 300. But the average prenatal has 50 milligrams, and some don't even have choline in it. Wow, that's wild. Another one is vitamin D, vitamin D, as we know is important for overall health. But the pregnancy dosage is 4,000 I use which is why that's what we have in our prenatal and I can go in we have overall we have 24 key ingredients and we wouldn't leave one ingredient out. And there's an explanation on our website on why we included each and every one of those. But it's very important to make sure that your prenatal is comprehensive and has all of those because really, they're all crucial. And it's important to think about your prenatals as taking them not when you get pregnant. But before you get pregnant so you can build those nutrient reserves in advance because the baby takes so much out of you. It is the most depleting process a woman will ever go through in their entire life. So you want to make sure that you go into it. Ready and kind of full of those nutrients.

Elizabeth Stein 20:02
What is the best like time to take that before you're gonna get pregnant?

Vida 20:07
we say like If a couple is in a rush, and a lot of times, that's how it happens like your whole life, you're like, I don't want to get pregnant, I don't want to get pregnant. And then when it's time, it's like, I want to have a baby tomorrow. But if a couple has time, we would say like three to six months, if a couple doesn't time, at least three months, three months is super important. And it's never too late, of course to take it. And if you do have time, a year is great. Six months to a year type of thing.

Ronit 20:38
50% of pregnancies are unplanned. So a lot of you know our practitioners recommend if you're in a committed relationship, you think something down the road that you want to do a great prenatal could also act as a multi because our food is just not as nutrient dense as it once was. So our grandparents generation are soils were richer and our food had way more nutrients. The best example I got recently was eating an orange back then at our grandparents generation is like equivalent of eating eight oranges today. So we have way more healthy clean organic food to get the same nutrient density. And so that's why I like to dispel the myth. Even my mom thought, well, if I'm eating a really clean diet, why do I need a multi and my mom was like so adamant. And we've learned through Dr. Mark Hyman and many of our board that you still need to back up and you have those nutrient reserves.

Elizabeth Stein 21:27
Absolutely. Totally agreement with that. When I saw you in LA Vida, I ended up bringing the WeNatal’s vitamin pack to one of my employees and I was like I know you're not ready yet but you should start taking them now.

Vida 21:41
I love that. whenever a couple gets married that I know, or someone is in like in a serious relationship like really serious and they're like thinking about getting married, I'm always like, is it too soon to give you guys a WeNatal welcome kit but it's such a great gift.

Ronit 22:07
By the way, a lot of our customers love the hair and the nails and all the things that become stronger and our men who like for a lot of our men who have their partners have conceive or they've even had their kids they're finding more health benefits mental focus, clarity, stamina, libido, like the men are loving WeNatal and it's a great multi for any any guy that needs a very clean

Elizabeth Stein 22:33
what is what are the key nutrients in the men's version?

Vida 22:36
We talked about folate, which is super important for both men and women's fertility, I would say like the foundation or hero kind of ingredient that most of your audience probably has heard of, is CoQ10. We have 200 milligrams of CoQ10. And CoQ10 really supports mitochondrial health, which is the energy of the cell which essentially improves all sperm parameters, motility, morphology, count. So I would say CoQ10. N-Acetylcysteine is another one that supports sperm quality. And then you go into your antioxidants, vitamin C, l carnitine. Vitamin D as well. And it's essentially a full spectrum men’s multi with kind of key nutrients that targets sperm quality. And it's funny because my brother was doing a functional medicine test. And he takes WeNatal as a multi. And a lot of times before you do these like nutrient tests, you have to stop taking your vitamins for a few days. And so he stopped taking the vitamins and he called me and he's like, honestly, my hair is shedding I feel depressed, I don't have energy. And it's true, these nutrients make such a big difference on your overall vitality. And of course we always say like, your fertility and your sperm quality is a barometer of your health. And if something is off, that's your body giving you a signal that something is off. And we always say like healthy sperm equals healthy man, so all of these things to say like we're so focused on preconception, but it ends up being like overall health, right? Like it translates to overall health of both men and women. And of course, like, once you have kids, you want to be healthy for those kids.

Ronit 24:32
It's all connected. I think a lot of times in modern medicine, we kind of separate our bodies, oh, I have to go to this specialist or my ear but really, if you look at the foundation, what functional medicine is about root cause and servicing that it it affects the whole connective.

Elizabeth Stein 24:48
It is all connected and it's also certainly not just what we're supplementing with or eating but also all the other things that we're doing. Yep. In life, especially stress and all the other things We'd love to hear a little bit about what you either for yourself or what you recommend. But what were some of those key things that you did after the miscarriage and that you recommend people doing today?

Vida 25:13
Yeah, so Well, we talked about putting our husbands on a regimen.

Elizabeth Stein 25:17
Was it like a game on the moment you thought of this idea?

Vida 25:21
My husband was. I think your husband may be a little bit more skeptical a little bit. But I mean that like, like most I had to put out the supplements after breakfast, and like just doing this. But I also think what's helpful when your husband is a little skeptical, Roni would send me the links to the research and the articles. And I would have him read that, like, it's better for them to read it straight from science than the nagging wife, which I would be at times maybe.

Ronit 25:49
And for me, I dialed in just overall, I was already doing all the things that we could talk about what all the things are in a minute, because I was working in the wellness space for years up until that point, so I knew the things that were important for overall health and all of those things translate to fertility to the other thing that I did on top of what I was already doing, was actually going to acupuncture a couple times a week. And there's actually science now that shows that acupuncture supports supports fertility in both men and women. And it is nice to hear that now, fertility doctors are actually more on board with like recommending acupuncture, and it even helps support IVF outcomes and things like that. But we could talk about what all the things are right. So we think about fertility, we talk about fertility blockers and fertility boosters. So the things that block fertility, we think about environmental toxins, where do we get the environmental toxins, it's the air that you're breathing. So let's clean that up. Invest in an air filter in your house, open your windows, get a plant that like spend time outdoors, because we know that time in your indoor is more toxic than outdoors. We like air doctor because it's affordable. But of course, like there's some like molecule is like super nice and beautiful. There's IQ air that's very high quality, it's just like a little bit more pricey. But I would say those and then water filters. That's something that you're also consuming all day. So investing in a good water filter, like a reverse osmosis or even air doctor has an over the counter reverse osmosis called AquaTrue. So that's for anybody who's living in an apartment or is renting and doesn't want to actually invest in a reverse osmosis, they could get an over the counter one, or you can get like a mountain value water or something like that. That's like clean water. So that's kind of like removing those environmental toxins as much as you can. And then when we think about the toxic places in our household, it's usually the bathroom of the kitchen. So cleaning up your kitchen. Meaning if anybody's using nonstick pans like Teflon, get those out of the kitchen, if anybody's putting hot food in plastic, you need to switch to stainless steel or glass cleaning products that you're using. There's so many great options nowadays. Like back when I was doing this with my first, honestly the cleaning supplies and the makeup and all the things were just so like, outdated or but nowadays, you actually have clean cleaning supplies that work and work well. So doing that as far as kitchen goes. And then bathroom like your hair products, your body products, just making sure that they're cleaner. And we always say like you don't have to throw everything out at once. Do it slowly. When you run out of shampoo, look for a cleaner option. When you ran run out of your lotion, and there are amazing brands out there that we love so much like oh staff for skincare or Ilia for your clean makeup. And you know listen, I also love perfume. So if you insist on like wearing perfume, spray it on your hair, spray it on your clothes, you don't have to spray it on your gland. There's easy ways to kind of do things. And then as far as like what you touched on stress, obviously stress is a big, big fertility blocker. So how do you combat the stress? Stress is not going to go away but how do you build resilience toward towards the stress and manage it and so at WeNatal we created a manifestation journal that has a section with daily gratitude. And for us that was is our solution to the stress part because this journey is stressful, even if it's super smooth, you have no issues. It's stressful to be pregnant and go through that… so using our three minutes of daily gratitude, because there is science that shows that when you're grateful, and you spend time to find what you're grateful for, you calm your nervous system. And so finding what works for you, it might not be the journal, it could be going on walks or meditating, or breath work, or whatever it is, find what works for you to manage the stress that's not going away.

Elizabeth Stein 30:48
What do you guys do personally?

Ronit 30:49
I honestly wish I have the journal because I am like a major stress basket and 20 years at Nike and a corporate career that really had me running on adrenals. On both days, I very often was burning it at both ends. For me, we handle journal every evening, it's three minutes. And even on the hardest days, I find it so nice to end on like a positive on the days where sometimes you have very little to be grateful for. So I've done that I have tried to re go on some more walks, and do walking meetings and walking zooms, who another thing that I did that somehow is so underrated but so important is sleep. So I am probably because of the stress, not a great sleeper. And I realized through my whole fertility journey, that sleep is actually foundational to your health, that it's foundational to your immune system, resetting itself. And having that restorative time and only a couple of years ago that we find out about the ordering and we purchased them. And we have learned so much about the quality of your sleep matters and finding what works for you what time of sleep, what time you should go to bed and what time that you can wake up and get that deeper sleep. But I would say in anyone's health journey no matter where you're at investing in your sleep, because nowadays, we're on screens, all day long, which effects are asleep, we are wired, we're staying up later, we're just there's so many more distractions. And it's taking a toll. So that's a big one.

Vida 32:20
then I would say like the last, the last one is movement and making sure that you know you're not super sedentary because we do live in sedentary lifestyles. And so investing in something like a walking treadmill, a standing desk, or walk a walking pad, just incorporating movement to your daily life, but also keeping in mind that you don't want to overdo it with workouts. Like if you are already stressed and you're trying to conceive going to a hit training class is probably not going to be beneficial to you. So if you feel good after you workout, if you feel energized, great. But if you feel depleted, that workout is too much for you. Just like everything in life not overdoing it. And then the big one just coming from my Dr. Hyman days, who always said food is medicine, what you're consuming in your body can really truly heal you or hurt you. And so there is research that shows that the Mediterranean diets approach supports fertility in men and women. So what does that look like? It looks like colorful fruits and veggies and lean proteins and nuts and seeds. And it does not include seed oils, high sugar, processed foods, ultra processed foods, all of these things, high glycemic foods, grains. And so shifting the diet is also super important. And we always say to our couples, like a good way to do it is to do it together, cook together. And it's a nice way to set the foundation to the type of food that you will eat as a family. I know that what we just shared is like a mouthful. So we actually have it all summarized in a guide. If your listeners want to go to wenatal.com/guide They can get our nine tips and read it share it with their partner give it to whoever they want.

Ronit 34:32
I think it's so important also for your listeners to know that yes, it can be overwhelming but there is so much optimism in this space. And we are here to shed some of the light and I think from all of our message our other mission is really about empowering anyone on their journey about what they can do and what they can learn. And it goes back to what we learned on this journey that we have to educate ourselves in order to really do what's right best for us. Do you need to learn how to read labels just the same as like a clean granola or a clean supplement, you kind of need to do the research yourself and know what's best for you and your growing family. And so much of our education is to teach people that whether you choose, we need it or not. We want to choose what to look for, and what not to look for. And it's so important to be your own advocate in your health journey.

Elizabeth Stein 35:23
100%. Being that own advocate, because you're gonna go into a doctor who may not have this information and tell you that yeah, it's normal, to have a miscarriage and just like send you on your way, or, yeah, it's normal to have a stomach ache. And there's so many factors that people are dealing with in their lifestyle that we tend to think is normal, that we tend to live with for a long time. And we're not getting the answers necessarily with someone that we're putting our trust in. And so becoming that own advocate is so critical at this stage, I

Ronit 35:57
think, agreed, agreed. And we like to say just because it's common doesn't mean it's normal. And for the longest time I was doing my lab work and I wasn't feeling well and it would kept coming within range or what they consider normal. But I knew myself that I was not on my optimal like I had brain fog and I was fatigued and all the things. Lo and behold, I found out I had thyroid, this hashimotos and all the things that I had to push. And I had to go really down a deep hole with my own health journey. So it's important no matter what you feel to trust your gut and follow what is right for you.

Elizabeth Stein 36:30
100% So what does state of fertility look like today?

Vida 36:39
It does not look good. We a lot of times talk about when we when we had our miscarriages, we started sharing our story with our friends. And we saw that it was literally every single one of our friends had a miscarriage. A lot of people are dealing with infertility. But if we go into the numbers, one in four women experienced a miscarriage so meaning 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, and the rate of at which miscarriages are happening. It increases by 1% a year. So we're not it's not getting better, it's getting worse. And when we look at infertility, one in six people are experiencing infertility. That's like 18% of the population that's like a high number. And when Vida and I started to work on WeNatal, it was one in eight. This so this was four years ago. And last year, the World Health Organization released the number saying this is a global issue. It's one in six, it doesn't discriminate who you are, it happens in every single country, every single economic status. So something is going on. And we can get more into it when we look at men. We know that sperm counts have declined by 50% in the last 50 years approximately. So that means a man today has 50% Less sperm compared to their grandfather, and sperm continues to decline. And some researchers like Dr. Shawn has one say that if the trends continue, as they have been by 2045 men will not have sperm. And so this is definitely a crisis. And when we look at overall populations, we're seeing populations are on the decline. The replacement rate, couples are producing less kids nowadays.

Ronit 38:51
Many reasons why because we're having kids later in life, and then all these environmental changes that are making it harder for people to have kids. So the replacement rate is about to 2 for a couple and so we're seeing that decline in all countries across the world. And it's alarming, like no one's talking about us like we're endangered species. But let me just tell you, if the trends continue, which they are, we should be considered one of the biggest endangered species.

Elizabeth Stein 39:19
That's pretty alarming.

Vida 39:22
When we look at kind of just overall state of fertility, so we talked about this 1% effect, so sperm counts are declining 1% a year. Erectile dysfunction is increasing 1% a year. miscarriages are going up 1% a year. So when you look at this, like 1% effect, it doesn't sound like a lot 1% But think about 1% over 50 years. Massive. And so you know our message out WeNatal is there is so much yes, the numbers look grim. And it's just like a crazy what's happening out there. It's also crazy that there isn't like so much attention on this topic because it's this is our everyone's race, our human race. But there's also a lot that you could do. There's a lot that you could do. And we see it in our stats, we see it in our testimonials when we get constant pregnancy announcements from people and ultrasound photos, we see. And we hear it from our customers, like we have had infertility for all these years, and then we took WeNatal, it's, it's so amazing to see the best feeling the best of the best. So our message is there's so much that you could do and also our messages that right now it feels like within the conventional model assisted reproductive technology, IVF, IUI is the only solution. And we're here to say that there is so much that you could do before you get to that step.

Elizabeth Stein 40:59
Yeah, I was gonna say I'd be curious to hear stories that you've heard of people who have either started down that path and then started taking we needle and didn't have to go down that path or any sort of anecdotes on around those success stories.

Vida 41:13
We have a customer Her name is Cassie. And she had had, I think 1212 or 13 rounds of ART and which is assisted reproductive technology. And then her doctor told her as a last resort, maybe change your diet. And when she kind of he told her that she started to dive more into functional medicine and learn more about her gut, and discovered WeNatal started taking prenatal and she had, she had a healthy baby, her name is Emma, she sends us pictures of this cute little Emma all the time. I like to share the story because her doctor was saying that the diet should be a last resort. I can't even imagine going through 12 rounds. And then the doctor saying okay, as your last resort, that should be the first thing that you do. And so that's kind of like our biggest PSA, it's just investing in your diet and lifestyle should be the foundation. And yeah, if you need ART, which some people will, everything that you're doing will help that even more.

Ronit 42:29
and one of the craziest stats I also learned in this journey is that 25% of couples going through AR T or IVF. And things the male partner isn't even checked. So yeah, noodle on that for a minute. So you're going as a last resort to get this hell, we want to normalize both partners doing everything, again, both partners getting checked we need to normalize it, it takes two. And that's another part of our mission that there's so much and countless testimonials have come in that the only thing they did differently the male partner, not diet not live. So it was take WeNatal. And now they had a healthy kid. And so we're seeing the proof in the pudding and a lot of our customers have written and the proof is in the labs because it's so easy. Men do the pre and the post. And they're seeing the transition of their sperm count morphology, motility, all the parameters. And so we're here to say, be your best advocate. And this arguably could be the best foundation you set for the lifelong health of your children. And so a lot of us prepared years for our wedding or for all these special occasions, but like this is the best insurance policy you can give your future child and if you're having a girl, it's your genetic makeup is passed down to generations. So we want more people to take that responsibility upfront rather than maybe take a prenatal once they find out they're pregnant or there's so much that can be done before that is

Elizabeth Stein 43:55
How does taking WeNatal affect postpartum at all?

Vida 43:59
That's such a good question. And we always say there's a lot of conversation now around postpartum depletion. And stats out there that postpartum depletion can last seven years. And we always say that to prevent postpartum depletion, it starts during the preconception timeframe. A lot of times, women who experience postpartum depletion can also experience postpartum depression or anxiety, and all of that is linked to your nutrient status. So if you take the time to build those nutrient reserves, you have enough for yourself and for baby, you won't end up being depleted. And actually, one other ingredient that I didn't talk about and WeNatal is iron. And your iron needs double when you're pregnant. So WeNatal has a little bit of iron in it. 18 milligrams, and I can't even tell you how many people email us saying like I'm postpartum and my doctor is shocked they don't have iron depletion, a lot of times when if you're not depleted in your third trimester, you will be depleted in postpartum. And so that's another one that kind of is supportive of the postpartum stage.

Ronit 45:15
But you 100% need to keep taking your prenatal, throughout postpartum, throughout breastfeeding throughout all the things because even you know whether or not you're breastfeeding, you need the nutrients to restore what the pregnancy and the child. It's so key and more and more research and data is showing up about that. So that's something we constantly have to educate people on as well.

Elizabeth Stein 45:38
So another thing to take, which is not in the WeNatal, but you have is the Omega three, which I am taking that daily of yours. So let's talk about that omega three, and why we should be looking at your Omega three versus a lot of others on the market that we know are loaded with bad things.

Vida 45:57
Yeah. So first of all, if you're taking our omega, you know that there's no post Omega birth, there is no cheese smell like the one of the most traumatizing things, in my opinion of taking an Omega three is when you take it and then like three hours later, you have a fish burp. And you're like, Oh my God. But with me Natal, you don't have that because it's 100% pure, typically, that happens when the fish oil is oxidized. And so our fish oil is not oxidized. It's 100% pure. And it also comes in two small capsules that are super easy. Yeah, it's very easy. And so fish oil is another key nutrients specifically DHA, EPA. And we have another form in there, EPA, DHA and DPA. And those are supportive of men's and women's fertility as well, but just also overall health. It reduces inflammation, it supports cardiovascular health. So every single person in this world, including probably kids should be on an Omega three, unless you're eating seafood like five times a week. But what's amazing about our prenatal it's our omega, it's third party tested, it has zero mercury, because that's also the issue with eating seafood every day is the mercury in the seafood. So knowing that you're getting the source that's clean of mercury is super duper important.

Elizabeth Stein 47:35
Alright, we're gonna jump into some rapid fire q&a. Three things that you're currently loving, it could be anything.

Vida 47:48
Three things okay, my matcha. I love my peak matcha and I make it a very certain way. Like if I don't have nutpods in my house, I'll die, literally the true story. So yes, Matcha, hot water, nutpods. My best way to start today, Be Well by Kelly protein powder. We love everything from Kelly Leveque she's actually part of our advisory board She helped us formulate we need all I love her protein powder. Also, has the highest integrity on the planet. So anything I buy from her I know is good quality. And then the third thing I would say, we bought her aura ring two years ago, but I'm still obsessed with it also because I'm motivated by like positive reinforcement. And for me I'm like a really good sleeper. So I love just to like wake up and be like 95% sleep score.

Elizabeth Stein 48:47
What’s your normal sleep score?

Vida 48:48
It's about like 9192 but I do have a lot more work to do and like the HRV stress side of things. So I'm excited to explore it in that way. So those are my three things.

Ronit 49:03
So I have an aura, it's not on my top three list because we're taking a little break from each other my stats were not as good and it was stressing me out.

Elizabeth Stein 49:12
Which is fair and a good lesson for everyone.

Ronit 49:14
Sometimes the stats drive you and sometimes you need a break from them so I think my three I'm a coffee lover so and I'm gonna blame you for this addiction now my coffee with their your cookie granola is like a problem like forgetting me ticket but it's like the cleanest yummiest treat than that little something that you want with your coffee. So that's definitely one of my true joys in life. And then I told you I was investing in my sleep. I have a NodPod weighted eye pillow that when I have trouble going back to sleep or whatever, I saw the research, you guys can go dig into it but awaited eye pillow actually makes a difference and there's research about the weight and how it helps get you back to sleep quicker and also blocks all the light so. And then recently, I've been really working on redecorating my home and cleaning up all the toxins we've talked about and my favorite cleaning, beautiful aesthetic brand is Levant and they have soaps and cleaning items. And we've met their founder, they're amazing two amazing women. And their products actually work. A lot of clean brands, their stuff is so so. Beautiful products and I've literally bought in almost everything from their website.

Elizabeth Stein 50:27
I love their stuff, too. A favorite book for growth.

Vida 50:34
For growth, I would say growth as a founder. Can I do that one? I have just came back from Hawaii and was reading Gary V's latest book day trading attention. It's so good. And it's we're doing a lot of the things that's in the book. But definitely I wrote down like a whole list of like other ways we can optimize and it's all about optimizing social content. And I love that book.

Ronit 51:04
Mine, I just started it but just launched is called Good Energy by Dr. Casey means she's become a dear friend at this point. But it's all about metabolic health and what's wrong in the health care system? And we're so passionate about education in this world. I'm just digging in and it's already amazing. So definitely a must read.

Elizabeth Stein 51:24
She was on the podcast. Go back and listen to that episode.

Vida 51:29
Good. She talks a lot about how metabolic health also influences fertility. So that's like a big theme in the book.

Elizabeth Stein 51:37
That could be a whole book in and of itself could be like part two to that. Favorite productivity hack?

Vida 51:48
I’ll tell you, I have a good one go. Having kids. When you have kids, you literally do not waste any time on anything. And your time is so valuable that I feel like since I've always been a productive person, but since having kids, it's on another level

Elizabeth Stein 52:12
You put everything in your schedule on your phone, like every single thing you put into your phone or Oh

Vida 52:17
100%. Like if it's not on my calendar, it's not happening. It has to be on my calendar, everything playdates this that like work stuff, personal stuff, everything on the calendar.

Ronit 52:26
We both live and die by our calendars. But I'm just gonna go back to the simple one, the walking and doing things. I'm very sedentary because we're on meetings all day long. And you're checking a couple boxes, you're actually I find I focus better on the meeting, because I'm not distracted by 8 million things on my computer and getting vitamin D you're getting steps and just trying to be more active and more nature is a life goal I have and that don't trying to work well doing that is probably my best life hack. So multitasking. Yes.

Elizabeth Stein 52:59
I gotta start doing walking meetings for sure. I think especially because you are distracted by what's coming on your computer, you hear sounds, hear this, hear that.

Vida 53:07
I actually realized I'm so much more focused, and we can brainstorm better. And sometimes you really need the break.

Elizabeth Stein 53:12
And you're seeing the person or you turn the camera off when you're walking, we're off.

Vida 53:17
I've let that guilt go a couple months ago. Like I think there's always a zoom pressure of like, if you're not on camera, you're not right. And I was very honest with our teams like, hey, I'm starting to develop back issues from sitting so much. I can't do this anymore. And everyone knows you're much more attentive, they can hear it from your words. And so after you let go of the guilt of being off screen, you realize you're way more productive

Elizabeth Stein 53:39
Love that. Alright, last one, what is your number one non negotiable to thrive on your wellness journey?

Ronit 53:48
Mine is sleep. I say no to a lot of social outings lately. And I know I sound lame and my husband wishes I would go out to dinner and do all that. But I realize how what how it impacts me the next day. So I will say I prefer to prioritize my sleep in 90% of situations.

Vida 54:05
And for me, it's protein. When I'm getting enough protein, everything else like falls into plays like diet, how I feel how I sleep. So really prioritizing protein in every single meal. And every single snack has been a game changer for me.

Elizabeth Stein 54:24
Love it. Well, you guys, thank you so much for being on the podcast. in closing, where can everybody find you?

Vida 54:29
They can find us on wenatal.com, @we_natal on social and then if anybody ever has any questions or needs a supportive conversation, we talk to everybody, we respond to every single DM on social, anybody who emails us at care@wenatal.com, we'll respond. So yeah, reach out and you'll find us at all those places.

Elizabeth Stein 54:57
Amazing. Thank you so much for being here. I absolutely love what you're doing. Congratulations.

Ronit and Vida 55:02
Thank you.

Elizabeth Stein 55:05
Thanks so much for joining me on Live Purely with Elizabeth. I hope you feel inspired to thrive on your wellness journey. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to rate, subscribe, and review. You can follow us on Instagram @purely_elizabeth to catch up on all the latest. See you next Wednesday on the podcast.