What is a Fertility Coach ? | A day in a life of a Fertility Expert

What is a Fertility Coach ? | A day in a life of a Fertility Expert

Transcription :

Mark Sklar:

I know many of you have wondered what is a fertility coach and what can they do for me? Well, I thought it would be a great idea to take you into my world firsthand to show you what I do on a daily basis, what it’s like to be in the clinics with me here in San Diego, what it’s like to work with all the members of the Hope Fertility Coaching program, and to meet some of the members of my staff, so that’s what we’re going to do today. We’re going to go behind the scenes. You’re going to see what it’s like to be me a day in the life of a fertility coach, so we’re going to do that now. Let’s get into it.

Mark Sklar:

I’m Dr. Mark Sklar, also known as The Fertility Expert, and welcome to Fertility TV, your YouTube channel dedicated to helping you get pregnant. I’ve been helping couples for over 18 years get pregnant through my online fertility programs, and right here, if you’re lucky enough to be in San Diego, which is where I am right now, at both of my clinics. And I want to help you too, which is why I’m doing this video today.

Mark Sklar:

Good morning, everyone. So it’s 6:30 in the morning, and this is when I normally wake up because I’ve got to prepare lunch and get my boys ready for school and get them to school, so it makes for an early day. I can’t always say that I’m always up and ready to go, I could always use a little extra sleep, but this morning that’s what I’m doing. And so getting their lunches ready, getting my coffee ready and getting ready to go, I’ll be back in just a moment.

Mark Sklar:

So now it’s about 7:30 AM, a little after actually, and I’m taking my son to school, here he is.

Elijah:

Hi. So we’ve got about a 20 minute ride, roughly 15, 20 minute ride to school, and so this is a little father son time where we can talk, connect, get ready for the day and go from there.

Elijah:

So I’ve gotten ready, left the house, and some of the things that I do before I leave the house is actually I prepare my lunch for the day and my meals for the day, because it’s a Tuesday, and Tuesday’s a long day for me. I leave early, right now it’s about 9:30 AM and I don’t get home till close to 9:30, 10 o’clock at night. It’s a long day for me, so I make sure that I’ve got all my supplements, I make sure I’ve planned for the day, that I’ve got all my food. Sometimes I don’t, sometimes I’ve got to order things because I’m in a rush leaving, but for the day, I’m thinking in forward.

Elijah:

I do stop at both my offices, so I stop at my first office because I set up time to meet with my staff and with Lonika, many of you are working closely with Lonika in our programs. So we sit down on Tuesday mornings to review cases and just check in, and then I move on to my next office to start to see patients, get on calls, and start on my lives, so I’ll see you in just a little bit.

Elijah:

So you saw me last time driving in the car and I made it to the office, nice and safe and sound. And, like I do on many Tuesdays, either I have meetings with some of the staff members, [Anayansi], who many of you have may have spoken to, and of course the lovely Lonika today. We are reviewing cases and going over next steps for anyone who’s emailed us and the support that they need, and so today’s no different. This is something that we do on a regular basis, maybe not always in person. When we can coordinate it, we’ll do it in person, if not, we’ll be on a Zoom call or a phone call to make that happen. And so today we’re going to actually talk about a couple of cases. One is a woman that we’ve both been supporting, and we actually jointly support most of the couples that are in our programs, but she had reached out to us yesterday, actually on Friday, because she needed to have some labs done, so we put in that order, and we just got those labs back and she was concerned about some of the results and the progress. And the reality is actually she’s made quite a bit of progress, but we haven’t seen all the results, all the changes we’d like to see, which is not uncommon in such a short period of time, and so we’re actually reviewing her case.

Elijah:

I actually reached out to her yesterday and picked the phone and called her, because I thought it would just be a little bit easier to coordinate that way, and oftentimes it is. And so we spoke, and it actually turns out that she hadn’t started doing everything that we had laid out for her. So our agreement was that she was going to move forward with all those changes, and we’re going to give it through the end of the year before we decide how we’re going to manage our next steps with her. And so often what happens is we all just need to take a breath, we need to relax, we need to believe in trust in ourselves and the process, and then results will often come from that, and that’s what we’re hoping to see in her situation.

Elijah:

And then Lonika had another case to review. What’s going on with her?

Lonika:

So this patient, she is seeing us for endometriosis. She has some hormonal imbalances, low libido, testosterone and DHEA, and there is also a male factor piece of it, so I’m really just kind of figuring out where to start with her next steps. We are doing a detox with her and moving forward with that, and then waiting to hear next steps, as far as her endometriosis. She does suffer from really painful cycles, and so that’s also a big piece of where I want to make sure we’re working on inflammation and reducing that, and addressing that pain for her.

Mark Sklar:

Cool. And we’re also reviewing her Dutch results. So for those of you who don’t know, the Dutch test is a dried urine hormone panel, that gives us a lot of really important and valuable information on how your body utilizes your hormones, your primary hormones. And that’s something that I can’t say we run for all of the women in the program, but for a majority of them, we do, and it is super, super helpful. So those are the two cases that we are reviewing today, and we’re going to just touch base to see if there’s anybody else that we need to connect on and be able to support before our weekly call on Thursday.

Mark Sklar:

So on a day like today, often what I do is prepare for the day ahead of me. So when I succumb to the office and sit down, I’m often looking at my schedule to understand what is in store, who am I visiting with, review their case, their history, so that we are all on the same page to move forward, and I’m ready to support all of the patients coming in through the door. The additional thing that I do today is I also am working with a handful of my virtual clients in my coaching program, and so I’m also preparing for my calls with them. All of that is done virtually, so I have my computer open right here that I’m looking at, and I can open up any one of their charts and prepare.

Mark Sklar:

And so one of the things I actually have to do before I have one of my initial calls with anyone is to actually get an understanding for what their case is like. So I’ve got to review all of your lab work, I have to review all of your paperwork. And actually our paperwork, when we convert it into our system, is over 15 pages long, so it’s a lot of information that needs to be digested and then turned around for us to understand what’s going on, create and formulate a plan and an understanding for what the initial findings are, and then how to turn that into our next steps.

Mark Sklar:

Often we still need some additional testing, and if we don’t, then often we’re doing a detox. So there’s lots of different things that go into it, but this is where it starts. It starts with me sitting down at my desk, being able to review the cases ahead of me, and taking time before I have my one hour call. So I spend upwards of 30 minutes in advance, if not more, with a chart, getting to know all the labs, the history, and developing my question and initial thought process before I ever sit down, turn on the link or open up the link and have my virtual call with any of you, which lasts for an hour. And so I’ve got to do my prep work before, then I have my call with all of you, and then we do our prep work afterward to make sure that we’re getting you going and moving in the right direction. So that’s often what I end up doing in situations like this.

Mark Sklar:

On other days, we do have our Hope group coaching call, and actually that coaching call actually happens once a week, and that’s where we get to check in with all of our members of our group coaching call to support them and answer all their questions. So that happens once a week. That’s not today, that’s actually tomorrow for me, but I still have to prepare, because you all submit questions in advance that I have to be ready for when we sit down and talk as a group during that call.

Mark Sklar:

What happens often when we come to the office is that our staff is meeting. They’re meeting together to coordinate patient care, to make sure that they’re on the same page, and we’re doing the same thing right now.

Speaker 5:

[crosstalk 00:09:42] I didn’t get a chance and took off for the day. We just need to go through Katie’s stuff and make sure everything’s there. There was a few changes to her appointment, her schedule today. So somebody canceled, I added in a few other things [crosstalk 00:09:53]-

Mark Sklar:

Sorry to interrupt. You guys, just say hello to everybody.

Speaker 5:

Hi.

Speaker 6:

Hello.

Mark Sklar:

Thank you. This area is where actually a lot of the magic happens. This is where we have all of our custom [inaudible 00:10:06] formulas, a lot of our supplements down here, into this area back here as wall. And then we have one of the favorite things that I like to show, our baby wall. These are… I can’t say all, but many of the beautiful little ones that we have helped bring into this world, and so this room, this area, for what we are trying to achieve with all of you and what our goal is every single day, is to produce more of those little beauties.

Mark Sklar:

So I made it to my other office. And as you can see, this is where I do my work. It’s not pretty, you can’t see everything. I’ve got my computer and so forth in front of me, patient charts and boxes here, and it’s just an office, nothing special. But what I’m doing right is checking all of my social media platforms before I go live with all of you on Instagram. I start first with Facebook. The first thing I do, because they’re the ones who get my first attention, is go into my Hope Fertility Coaching program private group to make sure I answer all the questions that need to be answered and that everyone’s being supported and so forth. And it’s just wonderful to read all the messages in here of everyone supporting each other, all the women and couple supporting each other and lifting each other up.

Mark Sklar:

Once I’m done with that, because today’s Tuesday and I release my video this week, then I also go onto Fertility TV, my YouTube channel which you’re all watching right now, and I check out these questions. And so often there’s just comments like, “Very informative video, I didn’t know that stress would throw hormones off and prevent pregnancy.” And then I have this interesting comment from somebody who says, “I just turned 42 and recently my cycle abruptly stopped, which is devastating because my husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for a year now. I believe it’s stress related, and I’m currently working with an acupuncturist to get my cycle back and hormones on track,” which is awesome, and then she also says, “What should I do next?” And for her, I think the most important thing is to get her hormones tested and to do also a Dutch test, which includes a cortisol rhythm to look at your stress profile, which is important. I think that will be essential for her in this situation, and so that’s exactly the feedback I’m going to give her.

Mark Sklar:

And I’m through all the different questions and answering those, not just for this week’s video, but I start there, but for any comments that have come up since the last time I have checked in. So that’s what I’m going to do, and in just a minute I’m going to be going live with all of you.

Mark Sklar:

So I’m about to sit down and get ready to go live with all of you. So I just finished and could not record my live, because I was using my phone to go live on Instagram so I couldn’t also record that. But it is saved on Instagram if you want to check it out, so all my lives are. So I just did my live, it was great. I love all the questions from all of you watching, it really kind of motivates me and inspires me to continue to support all of you, so thanks so much for joining those regularly. And so now that I’m done with that, I’ve got about 10 minutes before my first patient walks through the door today, so what I typically do is kind of just get ready, get centered, get grounded, and also take a look ahead at what’s to come.

Mark Sklar:

So right now… thanks. And that’s my schedule for the day. And right now, my first patient has been trying for a little bit of time. Actually diagnosis there is advanced maternal age, and she is… We’ve been making sure that her cycles stay regular and that her hormones are where they need to be. Which they’ve been improving, so that’s been great.

Mark Sklar:

The next patient is actually a couple. I’m seeing both of them and they are going through what will hopefully be their last IVF cycle to be successful. They do have one child, and this is secondary infertility issues. I have another woman who’s come coming in shortly after that, and she is getting ready for her frozen embryo transfer. She had an IBF cycle, I want to say a year and a half ago, and got pregnant and delivered her child, and now she’s getting ready for her second one. I have another advanced maternal age woman coming in, who is about 44 or 45, I don’t recall. And she’s been trying between IUI and naturally, so she’s got a mix and she’s awesome, she’s been very positive. She does have a history of recurrent losses, but we are getting her there, and she’s just a wonderful woman with a great perspective and attitude on the process.

Mark Sklar:

One of my favorite things to see, which is coming next, is I have a couple who is coming to see me who is part of my online Hope Fertility Coaching program, and I’ve been working with them through that program for some time. They do not live here in San Diego, but they are visiting so they are coming in to see me in person. Which I always love, because that doesn’t happen very often. I get to see them physically and support them, and they are also getting ready for an IVF cycle here locally.

Mark Sklar:

And then as I go through this, we have a whole slew of different patients, POF, premature ovarian failure, advanced maternal age, and another woman who’s going through IVF secondary fertility, has a child, and is about to start doing mini IVF cycles. I have another woman who’s coming in and she’s pregnant. She started to see me before she was pregnant and now she’s pregnant, so we’re supporting her through her first trimester. And another woman who is also trying for her second, and then a man who is just coming in to improve his semen analysis. And we got his semen analysis back, a retake of it. Looks really good across the board, we’ve seen a lot of his numbers improve. He still needs better sperm morphology numbers, but all in all, he’s moving in the right direction.

Mark Sklar:

So that’s my busy day. I go from now, which is 12:40 PM till eight o’clock, and then I have some online coaching calls with women, with a woman who’s in my coaching program as well. And so that’s really what my day is going to be like today. I will jump in and out with updates and new information as the day going on throughout that, but I’m going to be in with patients for most of the day. I’ll see you all in a little bit.

Mark Sklar:

So it’s been a few hours since I started seeing patients today, and I have a moment to take my vitamins. Just like I recommend to all of you to take your vitamins, I take mine. Well, maybe you can’t see them. Now you can. And so I take different things than all of you, because we’re all trying to support our bodies in different ways. This is a mineral blend.

Mark Sklar:

So periodically if I have a few minutes or a moment in the day, I step outside to just get a little bit of fresh air and clear my mind, which is what I’m doing right now. And a special thing that happened today was… Sorry if that sun’s right behind you. I’ll see if I can do that. That’s perfect, actually. Not quite, we’ll do this instead.

Mark Sklar:

So the couple that was coming to see me, who I’ve been working with in my Hope Fertility Coaching program, is here for an IVF cycle. And while they were here, they got their phone call of how things were going to progress and what was going to happen, and so it was awesome because I got to be there with them. We got to talk through it and make some decisions on what was best for them, and it worked out really, really nicely. She’s going to have a retrieval in a few days, and then they’re going to do a fresh day three transfer, and we are hoping to be there to provide that acupuncture for them and support them on that day.

Mark Sklar:

So it was really special to be in the room and really be able to talk to them and talk through it and support them like that, and that’s not always possible because they’re not always here. So that was really nice and special for me, and now I get a little bit of fresh air, as it’s almost 5:30 PM, 6 o’clock, and I’ve been going straight through until I get back in with everybody else as my next patient walks through at the door.

Mark Sklar:

So I am done with my last patient and it’s eight o’clock, but I’m not done yet because now I’m jumping on a call for one of the couples that’s in my Hope Fertility Coaching program to do a counsel with them, support them, and get them where they need to be. And then I get to finalize all the little paperwork here and then head home. So I told you it was a late night, and it is, but then I get to go home, so I’ll see you guys just a little bit.

Mark Sklar:

And here we are, a little past 10:00 PM, and I get to sit on the couch for just a little bit after I said goodnight to my boys. I actually made it home in time to say goodnight to them. That doesn’t always happen but tonight I did, and I take a little time for myself, catch up with my wife. And then it’s off to bed and we do it again. So that is a day in the life of me, and I love it. I love supporting all of you and being here for all of you, and doing what I do. And I hope that you all learned a little bit today and gleamed a little bit of insight from all of it.

Mark Sklar:

If you found this video useful or entertaining for you, then for sure give me a thumbs up. If you got questions about what we do, how we support couples, how it might benefit you, then go ahead and leave that comment below and I will check that out and do my best to get back to you. If you want to learn a little bit more about joining me and all these other couples in one of my programs, then you can do that by applying for a discovery call with me and my team at marksklar.com/discoverycall. Use that link in the description below, it’ll be much easier for all of you.

Mark Sklar:

And I want to wish you all a wonderful night and a wonderful week ahead for all of you, and most importantly I want to say that I appreciate all of you and thank you for being here with me on Fertility TV so that I can support all of you, and you all can learn a little bit more about fertility. So if you are not already a subscriber to my YouTube channel, then hit that bell and subscribe and get notified when I put out another video for all of you. And until the next video, stay fertile.