Ep 340 A Functional Approach to PCOS, Autoimmunity, and Hormonal Healing with Hannah Davis
Description
On today’s episode of The Wholesome Fertility Podcast, I am joined by Hannah Davis (@rooted.with.hannah), a Registered Dietitian and certified meditation teacher who specialises in women’s health, hormones, and autoimmune conditions. After being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s while navigating early motherhood, Hannah shifted her clinical nutrition practice to focus on uncovering the deeper root causes of symptoms like fatigue, cycle irregularities, and PCOS.
We dive into how nervous system dysregulation often underlies hormonal imbalances and why functional testing, mineral status, and emotional safety are crucial for true healing. From decoding PCOS types to understanding thyroid antibodies and the connection between trauma and calcium retention, Hannah offers a deeply integrative and compassionate lens for supporting women on their fertility and healing journeys.
This conversation is packed with practical tools and fresh insights—don’t miss it!
Key Takeaways:
PCOS is not just about ovarian cysts—it's a metabolic and inflammatory condition with many root causes.
Nervous system regulation is foundational for hormone balance, digestion, and fertility.
Functional lab testing (like Dutch and HTMA) reveals hidden patterns traditional labs may miss.
Excess calcium in tissues may indicate trauma or over-supplementation with Vitamin D.
Diet, stress, sleep, and gut health all influence autoimmune and hormonal symptoms.
Guest Bio:
Hannah Davis, RD (@rooted.with.hannah) is a Registered Dietitian and certified meditation teacher with advanced training in functional nutrition, lab testing, and spiritual psychology. She specialises in supporting women with hormonal imbalances, autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto’s, and chronic fatigue through an integrative approach that blends clinical science with deep nourishment and nervous system healing.
After navigating her own health challenges postpartum, Hannah now helps women reclaim their energy, resilience, and sense of safety through 1:1 coaching and group programs at Pivot Nutrition Coaching. She’s especially passionate about working with mothers, self-healers, and cycle-breakers who are ready to feel like themselves again.
Links and Resources:
Visit the Pivot Nutrition Coaching website
Book Mentioned: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com
To learn more about ancient wisdom and fertility, you can get Michelle’s book at: https://www.michelleoravitz.com/thewayoffertility
The Wholesome Fertility facebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/
Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/
Disclaimer: The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult with your healthcare provider before making any changes to your health or fertility care.
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Transcript:
# Audio: TWF 340- Hannah
[00:00:00 ] [00:01:00 ] Welcome to the Wholesome Fertility Podcast. I'm Michelle, a fertility acupuncturist here to provide you with resources on how to create a wholesome approach to your fertility journey.
**Michelle:** Welcome to the podcast, Hannah.
**Hannah:** thanks for having me.
**Michelle:** So I'm very excited to have you on. We're gonna be talking about a lot of really cool topics, but before we get started, I always like to start out with kind of like an origin story and learn how you got into the work that you're doing.
**Hannah:** Yeah. I am a registered dietician. I've been mainly practicing medical nutrition therapy for the last 10 years in a more clinical setting. And you know, and then [00:02:00 ] I became a mom. I have two. One's almost eight, you gotta say almost eight. And the other one's, and the other one's nine. So they're really, they're really young and I, you know, working at the hospital part-time and I started noticing.
**Hannah:** My own symptoms of, of things that just felt like off. And simultaneously I was also becoming more interested in learning about more integrative functional nutrition. And so that really led me down. It, it started off as, oh. A way for me to kind of figure out what was going on with me, because of course, like so many of my, the clients I work with now you know, you go to the doctors, you ask for some labs to be done and they just say, oh, you're absolutely fine.
**Hannah:** You might just be stressed. You're stressed out, you're a young mom. Of course it's normal to feel exhausted all of the time and stuff like that. So, I just was like really interested [00:03:00 ] in doing more digging and so I, we got some training in advanced lab testing and more like integrative functional nutrition.
**Hannah:** And so. From there I was able to figure out what's going on with me, and I, I actually have an autoimmune condition. It's called Hashimotos. And so that really affects, you know, your, your energy levels, your, your gut health, your immune system obviously is involved. So I, it was so incredibly validating and it really excited me.
**Hannah:** I was like, I feel. If I can figure out a way to use advanced lab testing and combine that with my. More of my more clinical, you know, expertise and combine that together to really like, help women feel empowered about how to support their health and, and how they feel and their showing up in their lives every [00:04:00 ] day.
**Hannah:** And so it just really, really excited me. So that's kind of what got me started with that. And then I, I pivoted towards, towards that about three years ago started my own virtual practice working more in like the women's health space. So like hormones, gut health, autoimmune conditions.
**Hannah:** And then I, as I was doing more of that work, I was like, okay, there's. I'm seeing a common theme here. These women at their root, cause a lot of the time is nervous system dysregulation. And I got really. Tired of just saying over and over again. You know, you need to manage your stress a little bit better.
**Hannah:** I wanted to be able to give them so much more than that. And obviously I knew that from my own journey. I really had to integrate that. And so, but I wanted to like, figure out how to help my, my clients integrate that. So then I became a certified meditation [00:05:00 ] teacher. And spent a year studying spiritual psychology, which is like a blend of Eastern ritual and practices with western psychology.
**Hannah:** That, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So now I really like to supplement my, programs with giving my clients tools on how to regulate their nervous systems as well. And so, we'll, you know, you know, it's more of like life coaching almost. And then maybe we'll integrate some, some things like, meditation or breath work together.
**Hannah:** It really just depends on what the, how the client wants to be supported. So
**Michelle:** Awesome.
**Hannah:** Yeah.
**Michelle:** You know it's interesting 'cause I
**Hannah:** Yeah.
**Michelle:** an episode on. Nervous system. Really the vagal tone and
**Hannah:** Yes.
**Michelle:** there's a link with a weaker vagal tone and things like endometriosis or
**Michelle:** PCOS, and I thought that was just fascinating. [00:06:00 ]
**Michelle:** So, yeah, I'd love to really kind of dig deep on all of these things. So just for people listening and they're kind of like hearing nervous system for the first time. 'cause well maybe they've listened to my podcast, maybe not when I talked about the nervous system. But what should people, like, explain the nervous system, explain how the nervous system ties into certain conditions.
**Hannah:** I mean, that's a very, like, that's pretty broad because it's like, you know, it really depends on what.
**Michelle:** the nervous system like tie into certain conditions?
**Hannah:** I don't know what condition it doesn't, honestly. Uh, the more, the more I get like deep in the weeds with this, so, you know, a lot of my clients we, you know, so I am typically working with people with autoimmune conditions and hormone. I balances gut health, that kind of stuff. And I, you know, I would say the nervous system impacts all of those areas [00:07:00 ] because ideally, especially when we're talking about women's health and like hormones, things like that we really just want to create safety in the body, right?
**Hannah:** So that we can. Manufacture hormones and ovulate naturally and things like that. So, and then, you know, inflammation's anot