I wasn’t always interested in hormones, fertility, or menstrual cycles. To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening in my own body until it forced me to. Starting at age 16, I began having horribly painful periods every two weeks accompanied by the classic PMS nightmare: horrific cramps, nausea, weight gain, bloating, skin eruptions, the whole kit and caboodle.
I saw acupuncturists, conventional doctors, and healers who taught me to talk to my ovaries. I tried bioidentical hormones, thyroid medication, acupuncture, reiki… You name it, and I gave it a shot.
In my second year of college at Louisiana State University, my menstrual cycle suddenly stopped entirely. I was 19, eating too little, exercising too much, staying out into the wee hours of the morning much too often, anxiety-ridden, stressed, and overall pretty much a mess. For years, my cycle remained elusive, never staying around for long and disappearing for months and years at a time.
In the spring of my junior year of college, I sailed around the world as part of Semester at Sea. It was during this time that I did a week-long Ayurvedic food and meditation retreat in India and really immersed myself in the world of holistic healing. I found it so fascinating to learn how food could truly be a catalyst of change and healing.
After studying abroad, I decided to transfer home to the University of Colorado. I am originally from Boulder, and my entire family was still there. I graduated in the spring of 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a focus in public relations. I had always loved to write, and I had always loved talking to people, so I figured pursuing a career in PR would be the perfect fit.
I was 22 by then, and unfortunately, I still hadn’t managed to get my health under control. My cycle remained unpredictable, and I was at a total loss for what to do to fix my body.
Thank goodness for my parents. They knew taking the advice of my doctor to get on birth control pills to restore my cycle would only mask the crazy hormonal chaos I was experiencing and never really fix anything.
My stepfather, a medical doctor of 25 years with a passion and drive for holistic medicine, recommended I see a naturopathic doctor. The naturopath was the first person to ask me about my diet, my lifestyle, and my emotional health. She was truly interested in figuring out why my body was breaking down at the young age of 22.
Her treatment plan included eating one whole egg plus two tablespoons of cod liver oil every day. Wait, what?! I thought we were supposed to avoid fat, and especially cholesterol?!
Much to my complete surprise, within four weeks I had my first spontaneous menstrual cycle in years. This experience fueled my fascination with food and its ability to heal.
I started reading everything I could get my hands on about nutrition and how the food we eat determines literally everything. And that’s no exaggeration. From how fast your brain processes information to how clear your skin is, the impact your diet has on who you are and how you feel cannot be overstated. I was so amazed by the power of food that I wanted to devote my life to studying it, sharing what I learned, and eventually helping others optimize their own life through food and lifestyle shifts.
At the time, I was working at a large public relations firm in Chicago. I had moved there in the summer of 2004, shortly after graduating college. Unfortunately, within the first 18 months of being in the corporate world, I knew the field wasn’t for me. One of my first accounts was Ore-Ida, and I found myself calling media outlets to pitch their new microwaveable frozen French fries. The job was totally against my morals, and the product was in opposition with my developing interest in health and wellness. I knew I had to change my entire career trajectory, and fast!
A simple Google search for “holistic nutrition universities” ended up changing my life. That’s when I came across the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver. They had a graduate program in nutrition therapy, and I realized it was the holistic path to nutrition that I had been searching for. So I left my corporate job in Chicago and headed back to Colorado to enroll at NTI.
The graduate program takes a science-based approach to using food as a source of holistic medicine. It was founded on the conviction that food can heal, protect, and nurture our bodies, just as nature intended. I was enamored with the material from day one, and it was immediately clear that nutrition was my true vocation. More specifically, I was fascinated by the idea that the foods you eat and the way you live can intimately affect your reproductive system and can increase fertility. I knew getting pregnant was something many women struggled with, and I wanted to help them all.
When it came time to choose the topic for my thesis, I decided to focus on fertility. Even though I wasn’t trying to conceive at the time, I realized that if I was, I would be struggling. And since I was certain I wanted a family someday, it was as good a time as any to start thinking about my own reproductive health and how I might be able to improve it. I asked myself, “Can I increase my own fertility naturally, despite all the hurdles I’m personally facing?” If the answer was yes, then I knew I could help other women too.
I spent the next year researching everything there was to know about improving fertility and restoring hormonal flow through nutrition and lifestyle. I applied everything I learned to my own life. In addition to studying with various practitioners who are well-respected in their fields, I took numerous courses on functional medicine and how it can be used to balance female hormones, optimize thyroid function, improve male & female fertility, increase egg and sperm health, and more.
I graduated from the Nutrition Therapy Institute as a certified nutrition therapist in the spring of 2007. Within a month of graduation, I left for Costa Rica to spend a month pursuing a yoga teacher training at the Nosara Yoga Institute in Nosara, Costa Rica. At the end of that training, I became a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher. I spent another month traveling across the amazing country of Costa Rica then came back to Colorado long enough to unpack and repack my bags. Then I left for India to spend two months volunteering at an orphanage.
In February of 2008, I started my first job as a nutrition therapist. Ever since finishing nutrition school, I had dreamed about joining an integrative fertility clinic where reproductive endocrinologists and reproductive immunologists work alongside holistic practitioners (acupuncturists, nutritionists, massage therapists, chiropractors, Reiki practitioners, and more) – embodying a true holistic care model. After a lot of research, I found a place that seemed to fit my vision.
I sent them my resume and within two weeks, I was hired as a nutrition therapist for Pulling Down the Moon, an Integrative Care Center for Fertility in Chicago, IL. I loved the job, loved my role there, and loved the integration care model for fertility patients; however, I strongly disliked living in Chicago. So after a year at Pulling Down the Moon, I decided to move to Costa Rica and become a yoga teacher while carving my own path as a nutrition therapist.
I spent a year in Santa Teresa teaching yoga and offering one-on-one nutrition consultations. After moving back to Colorado in late 2009, I formally started my own business.
As luck would have it, an integrative center for fertility was just opening in Denver. I found a listing on Craigslist looking for holistic practitioners to join Fertile Ground Integrated Wellness Center, and I jumped at the opportunity. When we opened the doors in 2009, we were a team of an acupuncturist, a nutrition therapist, a massage therapist, a chiropractor, and a psychotherapist. We marketed ourselves as a collective, although we each ran our own individual businesses, and this is how I began to build my clientele. Most of the women who walked through the doors of Fertile Ground worked with all of us, which I began to understand was truly the key to optimizing fertility health.
At the same time, I began working closely with several of the top-rated fertility doctors in Colorado, educating their patients about the importance of nutrition and lifestyle modifications for improving chances of conception. It wasn’t long before I had a bustling private nutrition practice.
While getting my name out there as part of Fertile Ground in Denver, I began seeing clients as the lead Nutrition Therapist for Boulder Longevity Institute. Run by Dr. Betsy Yurth, a physician whose vision was to create a functional medicine practice to better serve her patients. The institute provided me the opportunity to learn about addressing all kinds of health conditions, from depression and anxiety to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, and using dietary and lifestyle modifications as the primary treatment method. My time at Boulder Longevity Institute allowed me to refine my skills as a practitioner in numerous ways.
Once it became clear that diet and lifestyle were the most powerful tools we had for treating the underlying issues that cause hormonal chaos, I continued to apply what I was learning to my own life and my own hormone imbalances.
My research revealed that the solution to hormonal vibrancy is to live in a way that is closer to the natural rhythm of our bodies. Our modern environment and habits look incredibly different from our traditional ways, but our hormonal DNA hasn’t changed a bit. The hormones made in our bodies still rely on the inherent cycles of nature for their regulation and balancing.
I came to understand our modern lives with the endless to-do lists, overconsumption of frankenfoods, addictions to electronic devices, and lack of nature and quiet time was unknowingly taking a major toll on the delicate hormonal orchestra of the body.
I rediscovered traditional ways of living and being, and began to apply them in my own life:
Eventually, I completely restored my own hormonal health. No more missing cycles, painful periods, PMS, eczema, depression, anxiety, weight gain or brain fog.
I met my now-husband in the spring of 2019. Six months later, we found out we were (very unexpectedly!) pregnant! All that hard work restoring my own hormone health had put me on track to become a mama, and one of my biggest dreams was finally becoming a reality.
My beautiful son, Oliver, was born in August 2020, and let me tell you, preparing for pregnancy and actually being pregnant with him gave me a whole new perspective on the world of fertility and pregnancy. I have a newfound appreciation for the female body and everything it’s capable of when growing a human.
Now, more than ever, I want to help women get pregnant easily when they’re ready, have a happy and healthy full-term pregnancy, and teach them how to transition into motherhood seamlessly.
I live in Boulder, Colorado with my husband, son and two dogs. My energy is high, my mood stable, my food cravings gone, my skin clear, and my sexual energy and weight are easy to maintain. I cycle with the moon, aligning with the flow of the earth. My body was prepared for conscious conception, and I was able to have a healthy, full-term pregnancy.
I’ve spent the past 15 years researching and studying how the food we eat and the way we live affect our reproductive systems. I’ve worked with hundreds of women (with a 90% success rate might I add!), helping them to optimize their fertility, get pregnant, stay pregnant, and transition into their new role as mama.
With science-backed techniques and data-driven methods, my clients have been able to restore and revive their innate fertility power. They are able to alleviate common conditions like PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, amenorrhea, and more.
You can say I’m obsessed with fertility. I’ve been fortunate enough to help hundreds of women optimize their hormones so they were able to overcome the kinds of imbalances that make it hard to get pregnant.
Regardless of their unique circumstances, every client comes to me with the same goal: Discover how to eat and live in a way that profoundly nourishes their body and their hormones, whether they’re trying to conceive or not. With that in mind, I develop a custom plan for each woman that will ultimately help them live in hormonal flow each and every day.
I have spent the past decade researching how the foods we eat and the habits we adopt affect our reproductive health. I’m always eager to share my findings so I can help as many people as possible, and over the course of my career as a certified nutrition therapist and fertility and women’s health expert, I have:
My true pride and joy is my online course, The Fertility Code – an evidence-based, on-demand, 12-week fertility course designed to help women get pregnant when they’re ready.
The Fertility Code is the best-kept secret of women who want to take the guesswork out of conceiving, and give themselves every possible chance of getting pregnant quickly and naturally.
Bringing together evidence-based information, science-backed protocols and nurturing practices, this course is your one-stop-shop for getting your body, mind and soul prepared for conception.
This essential fertility course is for anyone who is struggling to get pregnant, or thinking about getting pregnant soon.
The course covers allllll the fertility topics: egg quality, ovarian reserve, miscarriage, ovulation, cycle tracking, low progesterone, IVF, prepping for egg retrieval + embryo transfer, thyroid health, toxins, and much more.
It covers EVERYTHING you need to know and you can move through the modules at your own pace.
I developed the course with busy schedules (and the “I-wanted-to-be-pregnant-yesterday” mentality!) in mind. The lessons only take a few minutes to complete, and each one includes practical, do-this-not-that takeaways, so women know exactly what to do right now.
The Fertility Code provides the tools, protocols, tests, supplements, and more to optimize fertility health, and nourish the hormones and the body to ensure a healthy full-term pregnancy.
Want to feel inspired? Check out these stories showcasing real results from real women who have used my approach!
“When my sister connected me with Sarah, I was feeling very much at the end of my rope. My husband and I had been through 2 IVF retrievals, neither of which had yielded any normal embryos. I was starting to lose all hope that a 3rd retrieval would turn out any different. Between the 2nd and 3rd, I switched doctors and started Skype sessions with Sarah. She made me feel like I wasn’t alone in my experience and was understanding and empathetic with lots of new suggestions. I would have tried almost anything!
Sarah made me aware of all the chemicals we surround ourselves with on a daily basis and how a few (or several!) simple swaps can dramatically cut down on all the bad stuff we’re ingesting. She had many new suggestions for diet, supplements and other lifestyle changes I had not heard of before. It’s a LOT to implement and you definitely have to find a balance that works for you, but applying those changes not only made me feel like I had more control but I also just felt better, physically and mentally.
I went into my 3rd retrieval armed with my new SJS protocol in place and we finally got 1 normal, good embryo! Sarah helped me so much through the transfer phase (something I had never been through) and gave me a lot of suggestions of things to do for optimal results.
The transfer was successful and I’m pregnant! All seems to be going well so far. I feel healthier and content knowing the changes I’ve made are going to make a difference now and in the future. I would definitely tell any friend experiencing infertility issues or even just on the path to start trying for a baby to consult with Sarah. It’s truly an extra boost I wish I’d known about before I started my journey (almost a year ago!).
I also appreciate that Sarah’s advice and suggestions only seemed to compliment my doctor’s protocol and never felt like it was contradictory or the opposite of what I was being told.”
— Lindsey Kaufman
“Working with Sarah has been amazing! From the start she was very thorough and made sure she understood my entire background before moving forward. I have never had anyone try to get to the root of the problem like Sarah. Most doctors I’ve worked with have wanted to treat the symptoms with a band-aid. Sarah wants to heal your condition completely. After struggling with infertility for almost 2 years, I became pregnant within 2 months of working with her (naturally). Unfortunately, the first pregnancy ended in miscarriage (nothing to do with Sarah’s care). Lo and behold, I fell pregnant again within 2 months!
Sarah was able to get me off such a high dose of thyroid and prescription adrenal support. I am now on a very low dose of thyroid and all natural, clean supplements and herbs. I feel so much more freedom with my life now. I used to feel glued to my prescriptions and now I feel free to eat and live in a healthy way. AND the best part is that my periods are now regular, my energy levels have majorly increased, my sleep has been better, and I’m PREGNANT!
I would recommend Sarah to ANYONE who feels like something might be off in their body or with their hormones. Between the low-quality foods, birth control, external chemicals we are around, etc., our hormonal balance is at risk. Sarah will help anyone get back on the right track!
Sarah is the most patient and attentive person! She has talked me off many ledges and offered me grace through the process. She is always very quick to respond and always understanding. Thank you, Sarah, for being awesome!”
— Carrie Stocks
“Before I started working with her, my hormones were an absolute mess, my cycles were painful, irregular, and had sent me to the hospital on a number of occasions. I had been tossed from doctor to doctor for years, every one of them unable and unwilling to help me. I had lost hope and accepted that this was how my life would be.
Before Sarah’s guidance, my whole life revolved around my cycle. I had to plan my weeks out to accommodate for the pain and bleeding that came with my cycles every month. It was time consuming and debilitating. I felt lethargic, unmotivated, and sluggish nearly every day, and the chronic pain and inconsistency had a large impact on my mental health.
From the first appointment with her, I felt heard, understood, and hopeful for what was to come. I was taught how to treat my PCOS functionally with food, exercise, supplements, and other treatments. With her guidance, I now have completely regular cycles, more energy than ever, and my whole outlook and appreciation for my body has changed for the better.
Sarah has a wealth of knowledge, and a true heart for those who are seeking to get their hormonal life in order. It impacts nearly every aspect of an individual’s life, and she understands and prioritizes that. She is always joyful, warm, welcoming, and willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the success of her patients.
I would recommend Sarah’s services to anyone who is wanting to improve their overall wellbeing and optimize their hormonal health. I am so glad that I made the leap to take control of my hormones and health!”
— Jezebel Rubis
“I had been to numerous doctors and through many tests and procedures, all with no definitive results. I had learned to adapt and endure what seemed to be random painful food related symptoms. At my first appointment with Sarah she helped me figure out what had been ailing me for over 25 years.
After eliminating gluten from my diet I have been symptom free for the first time in my life. I was a little nervous to make such a dramatic shift in my diet but Sarah helped me transition into a new way of living with a high level of support. Her treatment plans are very detailed and include specific brands so I know exactly what to look for when I’m shopping. She sends me hundreds of recipes and quickly responds to follow up questions.
I had considered myself to be a healthy and knowledgeable food consumer but Sarah opened my eyes to a whole new level of honest and quality information that is not commonly disseminated in our society.
Sarah has changed my life, improved my family’s quality of health, and positively impacted the community that surrounds me. I highly recommend Sarah to anyone that has a sincere interest in making meaningful changes in their life through nutrition.”
— Megan
I wanted to share some good news with you. I am pregnant….at 42! I am 18 weeks and Baby Girl #2 will be here in June.
Your help during the process of trying to get pregnant was priceless. After trying for years and seeking help from my OB, Fertility Clinic and Acupuncturist… No one cared about the details that you did and in the end I know that made a huge difference, not just in my treatment, but also in my overall headspace. One of the biggest challenges in finding the right fertility treatment in my opinion is feeling like the people that are helping you are looking at the WHOLE problem. Thank you for filling that void!
Curious about your fertility health? Take this simple quiz to find out what factors may be harming your fertility, and learn what you can do about it!
