Mother, Listen to This | Angela Heap
Do you ever wonder how much your ADHD has shaped your fertility story?
Maybe you're single, late thirties, and everyone else seems to have made a decision you're still circling. Maybe you froze your eggs and still don't know if it was the right call. Or maybe you've quietly decided you can't look after a baby when you can barely look after yourself.
Because that's the fertility blind spot. ADHD shapes how we plan, who we choose and how long we take to decide. And the clock doesn't wait for a diagnosis.
This week's guest is Angela Heap, a fertility nutritionist who has spent 18 years helping women get pregnant and stay pregnant. She was diagnosed with ADHD late, took three goes to get her A levels, failed her first year at university and spent 15 years on and off in a relationship she says took a lot of her fertile years with it. She isn't a mother herself. By the time egg freezing was an option, she was 40.
I know this one from the inside. At 30, a blood test told me I had the fertility of almost a 40 year old. I froze my eggs three times, not knowing what I was walking into or that I had ADHD. Nearly eight years on, I still haven't used them.
As Angela puts it: that egg count isn't a reflection of your overall fertility. It's a reflection of your overall health.
So let's untangle all things ADHD and fertility:
🧡 The blind spot: why nobody talks to single, late diagnosed women about fertility, why we're more likely to have unplanned pregnancies, and the shame that follows
🔸 Your fertile years: when does fertility really drop, and how much is genes versus lifestyle? (Angela has seen clients do better with IVF at 42 than at 39)
🔥 Egg counting: what the AMH test actually measures, who brought it in, and why a low number isn't the end of the story
💰 Egg freezing: what the injections do to your body, what happens when the eggs are thawed, and what it really costs
🧠 ADHD in the clinic: why a crusty old protocol sheet isn't enough for our brains, why synthetic hormones can hit us harder, and what to do (and not do) in the three months before you start
💬 Myths round: does fertility fall off a cliff at 35? Can perimenopause start in your thirties? Plus the one test to ask your GP for
Why listen?
There's a lot of conversation about ADHD and motherhood. There's almost none about the years before it.
The time blindness, the wrong relationships, the decisions we didn't know we were making. And the women now blaming themselves for all of it.
Whether you're single and wondering if you've left it too late, deciding whether to freeze your eggs, already trying and struggling, or a late diagnosed woman finally connecting the dots, this episode is for you.
Angela's message to the ADHD woman who feels like she's run out of time? Do the tests. See where you are now. Based on a statistic, you are not a statistic.
Because you deserve all the information before you make these choices, not after. Nobody has been having this conversation. Let's hope they do now.
Find Angela: @fertilitynutritionist
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