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Katie Ward Nutrition, London (2026)

10/11/2023

SAVE this post!

If your luteal phase is 12-14 days, that’s ideal.

If it’s >10 days, that’s ok, but room for improvement.

If it’s

06/11/2023

Day 21 progesterone (7 days post ovulation) might tell you that you have normal or even optimal progesterone levels.

BUT it’s only a snapshot in time.

It is possible that you have normal / optimal progesterone 7 days after ovulation, but that this drops away too early.

Progesterone is produced from the corpus luteum (the “yellow body” that is the leftover follicle after the egg has been released).

Optimal levels of progesterone are needed to sustain a pregnancy (progesterone = pro-gestation i.e. pro-pregnancy).

One way we may know this is an issue is by cycle tracking and measuring the duration of the luteal phase (after ovulation).

Ideally we want to see this at 12-14 days long. This phase in your cycle doesn’t tend to differ much from cycle to cycle - it may differ by +/- 1-2 days.

For pregnancy, we definitely want the luteal phase to be longer than 10 days. Any shorter and you’re talking about “luteal phase defect”.

Signs of low progesterone / progesterone dropping too early:

🩸 Spotting before period
❌ Lack of positive pregnancy test (progesterone might drop too early for implantation)
😭 Pregnancy loss / chemical pregnancy
⚡️ Mood changes - anxiety or low mood
🤯 Headaches
😴 Difficulty sleeping
🥵 Hot flashes / night sweats
⏰ Short cycles (but not always!!)
💧 Fluid retention
🍑 Breast tenderness

So what to do?

First - track your cycle with temperature so that you can identify if there’s an issue or not. I recommend tracking for 3 cycles to establish your trends (beyond that, some people may prefer to stop tracking as it may be anxiety inducing).

I’ll do a new post on what to do if you identify short luteal phase.

I offer FREE fertility calls to discuss your case and see if my signature 121 programme might be a good fit for you right now. I’ll tell you if I don’t think it is and try to make a referral for what I think is the best course of action for you.

03/11/2023

📢 Day 21 progesterone test - shouldn’t always be taken on day 21.

It should be taken 7 days after ovulation.

👉 And you need to track your temperature to be sure of when you ovulate.

That’s why I always start my clients off with cycle tracking including temperature.

🧐 You’d be amazed at the insights it gives us.

DM me PROGESTERONE if you’d like to arrange a free fertility call to discuss your case.

30/10/2023

💌 Save this post & refer back to this later!

I hesitated in my earlier practice to include tests in my programme even though I’ve always felt it would be the best thing to do.

I’ve been working recently on tweaking and improving my signature 121 programme - Joyful Fertility - and have decided to include what I consider to be the basic set of tests I need to run with every couple.

🧐 Why?

Because I want our work together to be as efficient as possible for you. You’ve most likely already spent many months or even years waiting, going round in circles, being passed from pillar to post. Enough is enough.

You might look at this list & think a bunch of these have already been checked and you’ve been told they’re “normal”.

I do often have clients coming to me with test results, but what I often find is:

Not everything in this list has been tested
They’re out of date as they might have been checked much earlier on in a couples journey

The vaginal microbiome definitely will not have been checked unless you’ve worked with another holistic practitioner before such as a fertility trained nutritionist or acupuncturist.

If you’ve only had ferritin checked (and maybe serum B12 and folate at a push) but not full iron panel and not in combination with a full blood count, it is pretty much impossible to tell what your iron, B12 and folate needs are.

Vitamin D is often not checked but is SO important in fertility.

Thyroid - at best you might have had TSH and FT4 checked - not enough to know how the thyroid is functioning & not looking at autoimmunity. I see autoimmune thyroid come up a lot.

Then there’s the idea of “normal” vs “optimal” and “optimal for fertility”. These can vary wildly.

This might not be the full set of testing we do when we work together - but it’s a fantastic start & means that we can start making more targeted plans earlier in the process - which is more efficient & saves time & money in the long run.

💌 DM me TESTING if you want to arrange a FREE fertility call and discuss your case.

27/10/2023

So. Much. Waiting. It’s exhausting. I see you.

Have I missed anything? What are you waiting for at the moment?

Comment below 👇

DM me “Enough” if you’re sick of waiting for all these things to happen to you and you want to start living this fertility journey with more joy now.

14/01/2022

💫💫💫 So proud to announce that after completing my additional year of specialist fertility training with , I am now a practitioner at the FNC .nutrition.centre

Amazing to have such a great community of other specialist fertility nutritionists to learn from and support one another in this fantastic work we do.

I still have some space to work with new couples on a 121 basis this January - send me a DM if you’re looking for support with fertility this year. 💜💜💜

30/05/2021

Happy bank holiday peeps!

Hope you’re having a relaxing one full of love and joy.

We were supposed to have been in Majorca last week, but you know, pandemic.

Very grateful to have been able to meet up with the friends we were supposed to go with, for sunshine and our garden!

I’d love to know what you’re up to - Describe your weekend in 3 emojis below 👇

I’ll go first:🍕☀️🏊‍♀️

29/03/2021

Wow where did this ☀️ come from today??

Just enjoyed my lunch outside in the garden with hubby - what a treat. Makes me feel truly grateful for working from home and getting to enjoy our garden during the week.

I’m aware I’ve been pretty absent on the old ‘gram of late - I’ve had a bit of a shift in my world of work, which I’ll explain a bit more about soon.
 For now I wanted to jump on and leave this here as a bit of food inspo for you all as hopefully, salad season is nearly upon us! 🥗

This was really easy to throw together - took 10 mins. It was delicious and nutritious to boot.

Plenty of fertility friendly foods in this one.

👉 Pop 3-4 handfuls of leafy greens onto your plate (these were just from prepacked salad)

👉Sautéed some asparagus and courgette and put on top of the leaves

👉 Layered a couple of slices of smoked salmon on top

👉 Popped a handful of cherry tomatoes and 2 cooked beetroot on the side

👉 Sprinkled some pomegranate seeds over the salad

👉 Poached an egg and popped it on top of the salmon

🌈 Voila - rainbow sunshine on a plate!

❓So what’s so good for fertility?

🥬 Leafy greens - folate, magnesium and other wonderful micronutrients

Asparagus for folate (critical for healthy pregnancy)

🐟 Smoked salmon for protein and omega 3 fats - specifically DHA

🍳 Egg for protein and choline

🍅 Tomatoes for lycopene - an important antioxidant good for both egg and s***m health

❤️ Beets for betaine to support healthy digestion, a good source of iron - known as a “blood builder” since the 16th century, and folate

♦️ Pomegranate seeds - rich in vitamin C and other antioxidants

👇What did you have for lunch today?
***mhealth fertilityfoods

12/02/2021

🏮Happy CNY / Gong Xi Fa Cai / Gong Hei Fat Choy 🏮

Wishing everyone a happy start to the new lunar 🌙 year as we enter the year of the ox 🐂 ♉️

May your year be full of a wealth of health, joy, love and light 💜🧧

We’ve had a lot of heavy stews and heartier dishes recently so it was really refreshing to have this gluten free and healthier take on the traditional Lo Hei noodles dish. Made with soba noodles, spiralized courgette, carrots, spring onions, sesame seeds, cashew nuts and smoked salmon. Think we’ll do a version of this for summer eating!

10/02/2021

Easy lunches!

One of my faves. It’s actually my most common breakfast but today I fancied warming porridge... so that means brekkie for lunch!

Less than 10 mins to make and full of goodness!

This includes 6 plant foods from 4 portions of veg (3 different colours of tomato - it all counts!)

Kale, spring onion, red pepper, red, yellow and orange tomato with 2 scrambled eggs

05/02/2021

How can diet support thyroid health?

As is hopefully clear from my series so far, there are quite a few aspects that go into thyroid health. I will dig into a few key nutrients in a moment, but as a practitioner I would always be working on the below elements with a client to achieve optimal thyroid health overall:

💩 Gut health: not digesting or absorbing properly = not getting what you need

🤯Adrenal health / managing stress - stress can knock out a lot of what we need for optimal fertility - the thyroid is just one piece of that puzzle

🧠 Brain health - the brain tells the thyroid what to do

🍷 Liver health - this is where the majority of conversion of T4 to T3 happens

So all the normal general principles apply:

✅ Improve gut function - lots of fibre, hydration, movement, stress management, prebiotic foods and probiotic foods. Consider an in depth stool test if things aren’t improving.

✅ Plenty of healthy fats - hormones, cells and our brain are made from healthy fats

✅ Stress management

✅ Quality sleep

✅ Plenty of cruciferous veggies and antioxidants for good liver function

Specific nutrients for thyroid function:

Iodine - I mentioned a few posts ago that T4 and T3 are made from iodine - not enough iodine means not enough thyroid hormone

Protein - thyroglobulin is the precursor to T4 and it is made from tyrosine, an amino acid found in complete protein

Selenium - for thyroid hormone production

Iron - for the conversion of T4 to T3, iron deficiency anaemia will affect thyroid function

Zinc - enzyme and immune function

B12 and folate - oxygen delivery

Vitamin D - gut and immune health

Vitamin A - gut and immune health

👈 Go back and check out my series from last week and you’ll see that a lot of these nutrients are lacking in a vegan diet.

🌊 For iodine - think the sea! We get it in sea salt, seafood and sea vegetables (seaweed, kelp, samphire)

Selenium - rich in Brazil nuts (ones actually from Brazil), fish and seafood, poultry, mushrooms, asparagus

❓Have you had your thyroid tested?

04/02/2021

Thyroid Antibodies

The two main ones - TPOAb and TGAb.

TPO = Thyroid Peroxidase. This is the enzyme involved in conversion of T4 to active T3.

TG = Thyroglobulin. This is a protein that is the precursor to T4 & T3 i.e. it is what these hormones are made from.

So having raised levels of either of these thyroid antibodies could lead to issues of creation of thyroid hormone or conversion of T4 to active T3, which is the form our cells use.

Raised levels of these usually lead to a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s or Grave’s disease - which are autoimmune conditions.

These are not ideal when trying to conceive. In pregnancy, we actually experience a natural suppression of our immune system - we don’t want any heightened responses because we don’t want our bodies to see the baby as an “attack” and reject it.

It is possible to manage autoimmune conditions including thyroid disease working on nutrition and lifestyle alongside medical support to support a healthy pregnancy.

📞 Do reach out if you’d like to discuss your situation - I offer a free 30 minute discovery call. Link to book in bio.

Katie Ward Nutrition

10/11/2023

06/11/2023

03/11/2023

30/10/2023

27/10/2023

14/01/2022

30/05/2021

29/03/2021

12/02/2021

10/02/2021

05/02/2021

04/02/2021

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