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E141
June 12, 2026
Toxins, Stress, and What They're Doing to Your Hormones with a Top Reproductive Endocrinologist
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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.

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Chapters

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

About the guest

Dr. Natalie Crawford

Natalie Crawford, MD is double board certified in both Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and author of the bestselling book, The Fertility Formula. She is co-founder of Fora Fertility, a boutique fertility practice in Austin, Texas and CEO and co-founder of Learn at Pinnacle, a medical education network. Dr. Crawford completed her undergraduate at Auburn University obtaining a degree in Nutrition Science, Medical School at University of Texas Medical Branch, OBGYN Residency at University of Texas Southwestern, and REI Fellowship at University of North Carolina, concurrently obtaining a Master of Science in Clinical Research. Dr. Crawford is a digital health educator on social media @nataliecrawfordmd, YouTube “Natalie Crawford, MD,”  and hosts the podcast  “As a Woman” with over 7 million downloads.