Toxins, Stress, and What They're Doing to Your Hormones with a Top Reproductive Endocrinologist

In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver continues her conversation with Dr. Natalie Crawford, double board certified obstetrician, gynecologist, and reproductive endocrinologist, and author of The Fertility Formula. In part two of this conversation, Dr. Crawford gets specific about the forces working against our hormones every day, chronic stress, disrupted sleep, inflammatory food, and the endocrine disrupting chemicals most women have never been warned about. She explains how cortisol triggers insulin resistance, how insulin resistance drives inflammation and ovarian dysfunction, and why resistance training and building skeletal muscle is one of the most direct interventions a woman can make at any age, including perimenopause. On sleep, she makes the case that it is the single most under addressed factor she sees clinically, explaining how FSH and LH are released in the early morning hours and why disrupted sleep directly interferes with ovulation, estrogen, and progesterone production. The conversation also covers anti-inflammatory nutrition and gut health, the difference between unscented and fragrance-free, why forever chemicals and phthalates are disrupting the hormone system from inside most women's homes, birth control timing and uterine lining recovery, and what egg freezing actually is and is not, and who it is most likely to benefit. Guest links: Natalie Crawford, MD https://www.nataliecrawfordmd.com/ Natalie Crawford, MD (Instagram)   / nataliecrawfordmd   Natalie Crawford, MD (TikTok)   / nataliecrawfordmd   Natalie Crawford, MD (Threads) https://www.threads.com/@nataliecrawf... Natalie Crawford, MD (Facebook)   / nataliecrawfordmd   Natalie Crawford, MD (YouTube)    / nataliecrawfordmd   Natalie Crawford, MD (LinkedIn)   / natalie-crawford-md   Books: “The Fertility Formula,” by Dr. Natalie Crawford https://www.nataliecrawfordmd.com/book “The New Perimenopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver https://thepauselife.com/pages/the-ne... “The New Menopause,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver https://www.amazon.com/New-Menopause-... For full show notes, please visit: https://bit.ly/unPAUSEDDrNatalieCrawf... 00:00:00 – Why Hormone Dysfunction Shouldn't Be Ignored 00:02:33 – How Chronic Stress Impacts Fertility 00:06:10 – Muscle, Insulin Resistance & Hormonal Health 00:08:13 – What the Research Says About Stress and Pregnancy 00:11:20 – Reducing Inflammation Through Lifestyle Changes 00:13:30 – Why Sleep Matters for Fertility 00:15:08 – Strength Training vs. Cardio for Hormone Health 00:20:18 – The Fertility Formula Nutrition Plan 00:24:55 – Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals & Fertility 00:29:08 – Easy Ways to Reduce Toxin Exposure 00:32:28 – When to Seek Fertility Testing 00:35:09 – Birth Control, IUDs & Future Fertility 00:38:15 – Egg Freezing: Benefits, Limits & Timing 00:43:26 – Dr. Crawford’s Personal Fertility Journey 00:48:15 – The Fertility Knowledge Every Woman Deserves Never miss an episode—sign up for The ’Pause Life Newsletter: https://thepauselife.com/pages/newsle... Medical Disclaimer: The information, including opinions and recommendations, on this platform is meant for informational and educational purposes only. Mary Claire Media, LLC, the unPAUSED podcast, and The ’Pause Life are not medical organizations. Medical advice or medical diagnosis cannot be provided to you through the platform, any associated website, or customer portals. Using this platform does not establish a patient-physician relationship.