I discovered Dr. Larisa Corda while reading the DailyMail. I was so fascinated by a top OBGYN & Fertility Specialist embracing spirituality I knew I had to interview her! Dr. Corda is not only knowledgable but she makes you feel inspired. I already grabbed my copy of ‘The Conception Plan’ and hope you grab your copy & enjoy this Conversating. Enjoy!

Hello! Dr. Larisa Corda, how are you doing?  Thank you so much for your time!   Oh! Hello, it is my pleasure, thank you.

You have no idea how excited I am to just sit and speak with you today, I just feel so officially cool.  This is the best because I love all things spiritual…and this is so cool just how all things blend.

Your enthusiasm for this topic is so wonderful too. You are based in the United States, and I always felt this book would be more in line with the U.S. audience. Because the U.S. has already integrated aspects of this with functional medicine. OMG!!!!! … Yes, Fluffy as promised!

Hi Fluffy! I love dogs… Me too. She, is a little Shih-Tzu, and just a little overweight… I love her.  No, not at all, she is curvaceous and beautiful, so cute.

No, but it has been a couple of people that have reached out to me from the U.S.; and the exciting thing is that I have connected with a U.S. agent that will help me to cross over to the U.S. market. At this time, you can only get the book on U.K. Amazon and not the U.S. Amazon. Yes, I am connected to the U.K. Amazon for the book.

So, the book can be bought through the U.K. Amazon or on my website, theconceptionplan.com. Yes! Perfect. I love your website because it is such a wealth of great information!  Well, thank you so much.

So, Dr. Corda how would you introduce yourself to someone that is unaware of you…

So, I am an OBGYN as you say in the States. We say Obstetrics Gynecologist in the U.K.  My specialty is in reproductive medicine, or fertility. I would describe myself as a Holistic Obstetric Gynecologist, but I am also a television doctor here in the U.K.  I am also a new author, which has brought me onto this podcast…and I am really glad that it has connected us in this way.

It is cool how one thing that is done can connect us. You did an interview with Daily Mail that I read. It is amazing how many people see you, and how we connect. And ultimately just how connected we all are.

Exactly you took the words out of my mouth…you do not know who is seeing and reading your article.  Who hands this bit of information will fall into, and that is truly amazing to me. I could not agree more. So, it all happens for a reason. Exacly!

So, you are a top fertility specialist, did you always know that you wanted to be an OBGYN, and why fertility specifically…

So, I definitely was drawn to the specialty from early on as a medical doctor. I was very drawn towards working with children as well, and I thought that Obstetrics and Gynecology combined the best of both worlds.  There were so many different reasons.

 My mother is also an Obstetric Gynecologist, possibly because of that is the reason why I did not want to go into Obstetrics Gynecology. It was the long arduous hours that I witnessed her working, and how hard she studied when me and my sister were young. I saw the impact of how hard and demanding that the job was.

I remember reading a book in the early 90’s that my mom had by Christiane Northrup, M.D. ‘Women’s Body, Women’s Wisdom’. It was the women’s health bible at the time, and it was also on Oprah.  In fact, my mom was watching Oprah and she saw the book and recommended it for me to read. 

I have always loved reading; it has always been an important part of my life (reading). It was such a huge part of my life when I came from Yugoslavia when I was very young to the U.K.

When I came to the U.K. I did not know any English, so I read books to help me learn English. I fell in love with reading so much, so I literally started reading a book a day.

I spent all my time reading.  Who was your favorite author growing up … Oh goodness, there are so many. Actually, my favorite book is by Oscar Wilde, and it is called ‘De Profundis’.  It is such an incredible book, the way it examines human psychology. It was written not as a book, but as a series of love letters. It was then compiled into a book.

Yes! I love Philippa Gregory books, and Alexandre Dumas, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. My dad is Venezuelan, and he did not speak English when he came to the States, and he read books to learn English as well. He too was always reading and watched Tom and Jerry (American animated television show).

Oh yes!!! I would watch the Pink Panther. At the time my favorite books were ‘Sweet Valley High’, and Danielle Steel which was quite naughty at the time, you know with the sex scenes and all. Oh, yes!

You know I still say there is absolutely something to be said to holding a book in your hands and turning the pages, then dog earring the pages. You know I agree, even though I do love my Kindle. Yet, I also love underlining and making notes in my book.  Goodness, yes, I simply love to make my notes in my books too.  It is such a sensory experience, writing and reading…I feel like we have lost the art of letter writing. I know I was devastated when I heard that they are taking out teaching cursive writing in the schools in the United States.

So, I read Christian Northrup, M.D.’s book, ‘Women’s Body, Women’s Wisdom’. From that young age that book really blew my mind. She was talking about a lot of Eastern concepts; but expressed by a doctor that was trained in the Western Medical System. I was filled with so much admiration for a woman daring to be a pioneer, and to bring this different approach.

When I read her book, it opened my mind to different, yet lateral, multi-dimensional approaches to women’s health. I became completely obsessed when I was at school - with biology especially, the endocrine system, and how hormones function and what they did. I found it all so interesting.

It became apparent to me that I had an interest in pursuing women’s health. Also, coming from former Yugoslavia at such a young age and witnessing such atrocities, and horror. That made me lean more to the side of women’s health.

The level of impact that it had on young women and girls and what was going on for them at the time. It made me passionate and want to become an ambassador and to help them in any way that I could. One of the greatest privileges of my job (being a doctor), is to meet people and to hold them in their greatest vulnerabilities. It is such a huge honor to do that, and one that I never take for granted – nor is ever lost on me.

I am moved by every single encounter that I have with my patients and what they reveal to me. These are stories that people rarely, or if ever share with anyone else. So, being that person that starts off being a stranger, then sharing that deep and personal encounter with them, is incredible. It fills me with such complete reverence for what women go through, and how they deal with so many aspects of their life.

The traumatic aspects (of a woman’s life) that they use and integrate these experiences to make them stronger, and more self-empowered. I learn so much from women all the time, I have had so many incredible role models in my life, including my grandmother and great aunt who my book is dedicated too.

Who started this whole process for me, they were the non-traditionalist, and non-conformist in our family. They taught me so much about love, and life. The spirit of what I do and certainly the spirit in my book, ‘The Conception Plan…’ is about carrying on these female legacies, and generational legacies. It is a real honor. It is a difficult job, on an emotional and empathetic level.

You have already touched on the impact of reading ‘Women’s Body, Women’s Wisdom’, the wisdom of your grandmother and great aunt had on you and the blending of both. I remember telling my mom … we spend most of our lives saying, thinking ‘don’t get pregnant until you are ready’. Then when you are finally ‘ready’ and whatever that means, we see it is challenging for women to conceive, to carry to term.  That is why I love your 12-week program and it does sound like magic, just the perfect blend.

What lead you to create the program, and why did you feel like it was such a necessity…

Well, I feel like and going back to your point that we are taught so very little about conception, the whole part is dedicated to how not to get pregnant at a young age. Making like getting pregnant is super easy, for some people it may be, but for others it is not.

At least 1 in 7 heterosexual couples struggle to become pregnant. Those are huge numbers globally. It is such a disservice to people because it is something that is not necessarily discussed.  A decade ago, it was unheard of discussing conception openly in the media and considered taboo to broach some of those areas.

I am so happy that much of that is turning around. The main motivator for writing the book, ‘The Conception Plan…’, is that there is a real need to help people. The need is huge, often it is silent and not articulated or expressed, and goes on behind closed doors.

Also, that help (that is needed) is not necessarily forthcoming. Often that process to conceive is often outside of your control, it can feel incredibly confusing. For some people it is the first time in their life that they face difficulty with something. 

It can feel overwhelming, and challenge their own identity of who they are, because it can hit deep at that emotional level. Yes, sometimes it can be more like being ashamed. I have a friend; she and her husband had a miscarriage. She was like how can I not achieve this. For a lot of us it is our identity as women. When this happens it literally hits you in your gut. I think your program is amazing.

I saw on your Instagram you are pictured with a couple and their child. Oh, yes…. That just gives people hope and to not be ashamed to say that I struggled, and I needed assistance. There is nothing wrong with saying that I need help or saying guide me through this. Your book really does that very nicely.

Yes, thank you for that. People that are in this type of situation and perhaps struggling, and even those that are not, the book gives them practical strategies on what to do. So, they feel that they have a level of control over the process.

Also, what they can be doing to invest in their own fertility. More than that too also in that their own longtime, and chronic health. This is what the program is about helping you to achieve a state of wellness that you can carry on with you for the rest of your life.

I love the fact you as a young woman is coming to this and noticing it. This is my dream for it (the book) to come into the hands of young people like you that already can start doing this and implementing this.  Oh, my goodness I am so happy to hear that you think that I am still young. Because I don’t know about in the U.K. but in the U.S., people make you feel like it is doomsday they say ‘when you hit your 30’s you have almost zero eggs and your chances are very slim (to get pregnant).

 I am mixed, and my mother never made it an issue waiting later to have children (she did). They emphasized that I could start to think about children when I was in my mid-thirties. So, I am thinking that I have time.  However, the media in the U.S. send the message that you should start freezing your eggs when you hit your thirties.

That is not too dis-similar to the U.K. (this message). I have real pet-hates because women are literally labeled geriatric at the age of thirty. It is incredible that this type of labeling exists, because you never hear the same message for men. I mean men also decline with age; they are not immune.

As well this whole narrative that women are fed…that they somehow fall off a rooftop, which is completely not true.  It is amazing the amount of fear that they instill in women, which is completely not true in most cases. As well it is totally disproportionate.

Yes, it is true for some women to say that they may go through an earlier decline, or an earlier menopause. Overall, that is a small minority of women, the majority women are going to experience menopause in their late forties, or early fifties.

Actually, women in their forties are still fertile, and yes, they have a lower number of eggs; because those have been there since before she was born. So, they will have undergone a natural rate of aging.

This is the thing about ‘The Conception Plan…’, in my book there are strategies, means for looking after your eggs, and after your sperm. Ensuring that you are doing what you can to optimize their health, and function at this epigenetics level.

We know that there is so much science now looking at how that can happen by looking at structures called Telomeres which are the caps of DNA. How doing things like regular meditation, can help preserve the integrity and structure of these Telomeres. Meaning that the rate of aging and decline is slowed down. These are real strategies that can be used by people.

If we look back many generations our grandparents, and their parents were living a life much different; their lives were much healthier than ours in many ways. When we look at many indigenous communities around the world, they preserved so many of these traditions.

Women in those communities are even capable of getting pregnant in their early fifties. Yes! I have read about that!  Yes, there are several women that I have encountered I see getting pregnant in their late forties naturally. Now I am not saying that this is common; what I am saying is that it is worth doing some research in this area.

Also, looking at these women and finding out what is allowing them to be able to do this much later in life (ability to get pregnant). And what we need to invest in much earlier in life to change this narrative for women. Even when the aging process starts to happen earlier it does not happen at this exponential decline, it very well happens as a gradual decline.

Doing some tests on yourself and looking at and assessing some things at a much younger age is important. Because it is empowering, and it returns the power to you to control many elements. I disagree completely what women in their thirties and forties are told.

The bizarre thing is that IVF is often sold as a cure…oh yes! if you look at IVF success rate it is …very low.  It is not much different than to the conception rate. So, how on earth does IVF become a viable option? Yes, you can do several rounds of IVF to increase someone’s chances. But IVF cannot improve the quality of your eggs.

The only thing that can do that is the strategies that you can be using, and that I talk about in ‘The Conception Plan …’. Also engaging the power of the mind; and to help you to preserve the health and quality of the egg(s) and sperm(s). Along with many other things in your body as well.

It is so great that you say that, when you turn thirty years old you should have had children. I am a firm believer that if you are not mentally ready to have children at thirty then do not. It is a big responsibility, so not to be forced, rushed is huge. Again, it is a big mental and financial responsibility. I think your book is great… you control what you can control. And here are the tools, relax, and do not panic. Which always makes things worse.

I loved how you used a Shaman as part of your plan…why did you choose to do that…

The first time that I came across Shamanic healing was when I engaged in it myself in 2018. I was on a retreat at the time, and was introduced to a Shaman, and he has continued to be my Shaman. And is still one of my healers. That was the first time to use this concept.

What really drew me to it was my profound session myself, in terms of where the healing took and did for me. Doing more research and understanding of this I discovered that they are the oldest, and the original Neuroscientist in the world. They operate at the level of the subconscious. So much of alternative, or complimentary healing that can complement a lot of the allopathic techniques that we use.

They have so much power because they operate at that energetic and subconscious level. They deal with traumas that we carry from this lifetime, as well from previous lifetimes as well. What I particularly love about Shamanism when it comes to helping people to conceive is that it helps people to access that trauma. Or emotional states from previous experiences.

What this type of healing does is allows you to do this in a very safe place. Also allows you to integrate many of those experiences which I believe is pivotal when it comes to becoming pregnant. I go into a lot of the details in the book. When it comes to epigenetics and what our children stand to inherit; they also stand to inherit our traumas that we have not dealt with as well.

Which is a lot of what our emotional state ends up creating inside of our bodies. So, it is important to address this for ourselves as well for the children of the future. That is one of the reasons that I appreciate the contributions of Shamans so much.

Also, the couple that you referred to that was featured in the online magazine Daily Mail, the original couple on ‘The Conception Plan…’; also went to see my Shaman and   they had such a profound experience with that as well.

You know (Shaman’s) are becoming more mainstream now…oh yes! I know my Shaman experience was very intense.

How do you unwind and recenter…you have mentioned that you are with these women on their journeys, being vulnerable. That can take a toll on you. Often if things do not go as planned it could weigh on you. You are a doctor, you are a fixer, and very solution oriented… your goal is to fix the person.

I think I turn to my spiritual practice a lot. You must accept that there are things that someone as a patient will do with respect to ‘control the controllable’; and then there are things that you can do as a doctor to help with all of that.

There is so much of this entire process that is a divinely ordained process. This is one of the paramount reasons why I went into this specialty of reproductive medicine. It is a miracle. A process that happens as a spiritual process, and I think we must consider and honor it as that.

So, even when you witness patients going through a difficult time there is an acceptance that it will lead them into somewhere. Into areas of incredible growth, evolution, and wisdom that sometimes only come because of those experiences. And you must trust in that.

Yes, absolutely as a doctor you can get very involved in terms of caring for your patients, and experiencing the pain that they may encounter. Then on the other side you can experience a lot of happiness with them when it is successful, and their dreams do come true.

It is really important to keep yourself grounded and centered and I do turn to my spiritual practice. I do use rituals and work with crystals a lot. I love being in nature, and grounding in nature. I love exercising and movement.  I use a lot of different breathing techniques. I love being creative. I feel being in a creative mind is really therapeutic for me.

This allow me to connect with the Divine myself. When I speak of rituals it can be running a bath, lighting candles, and meditating. Also reading and watching television like everyone else.

Oh, my goodness have you seen the show ‘One Day’?  It is such a tearjerker. It is slow to start, but when you get to about episode four the rest is simply shattering. It is so good I highly recommend ‘One Day’.  Well, yes, I am super intrigued (about the show). How many episodes are there? … there are fourteen. Okay, then there are quite a lot to get through then. Yes! It spans over twenty years, but it goes very fast.

Okay well I will definitely make a start then tonight. The other one is called ‘Normal People’. Yes! I have seen that too. That is a good one as well. Also, the series ‘Luther’.  We do make some good series, don’t we?... oh yes you do.

There is also something else that I wanted to address on the subject of ‘women and older age’. This is important to say, I am all in favor of women taking control of their fertility.

So, if someone chooses to do egg freezing earlier in life as a life decision, because they understand that they want to have children later in life. And they want to give themselves the best chances of being a biological mother. Then I am all for that.

What I am against is this narrow narrative that is being pedaled to women that they somehow become infertile after the age of thirty or thirty-five. And that egg freezing is a solution for every woman and doesn’t come without side effects. Also, considerable financial investment as well too.

I am all about returning the power to women and allowing them to make those decisions themselves. Understanding that there is a lot that they can do about optimizing their own health, it doesn’t need to be outsourced, nor given to someone else. And that they can do that.

What is your self-care ritual, which is different on how you unwind after a long day…

Probably reading a book, I love reading a book. I have some of my biggest spiritual downloads when I am reading a book. A bit like when I drive, not the congested London roads, but long winding country roads.

I love going out in the dark and looking at the stars. Most people have a certain fear of the dark that was instilled in us from when we were young children. Uh, yes! I still have that fear. I still have my night light, that is really my salt lamp. I cannot have pitch black.

See, I feel like when there is a full moon, and the starts are out and you’re near the coast it is the most incredible thing.  Yes, I am here for a full moon, I love a full moon. I think it is gorgeous. I live near the ocean, and I am here for the full moon. Anything else I need a flashlight because things can jump out at you.

No, no I get that. I think that there is so much excitement about the magic that you can discover. Things that really only come to life at that time.  That veil where we are when the spiritual world is the thinnest around that time. It can be when we can connect to our subconscious.

I do some of my best writing when it is quite late, I find that I am more inspired at that time. I love being near the sea, and late-night swimming too. It is so magical.

The real key about the dark, and encountering the dark is that it teaches us to learn and to trust that inner part of ourselves. Which is a challenging thing to do. If you want to understand the spiritual realm, there are so many things that we can’t see.  

The fact that we have an energetic bio-field and I discuss this in the book, we can’t see it; we can measure it to some degree. Which is the same thing with some people’s auras, some people can because they have honed their skills of perception, but then there are other people that cannot see it (people’s auras).

It is about coming into that inner stillness. And developing the various sensory modes of communication. As well being able to interpret the environment around us and using senses that we are not used to using, being able to trust. That is an important skill to have.

Women are incredibly intuitive, and so much of that is cultivated out of us. We are taught to prioritize logic, and that is far superior to intuition.

We are now learning that intuition is far superior. I definitely agree with you on that! my best decisions are from my intuition.

As well another aspect of magic is when you just connect with someone and just like them.  Oh! yes definitely. I think that is amazing as well.

It is the most important theme of the book - the idea that you can give birth to yourself first before having a child. Because there is a huge opportunity for your emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental health. To really consider the impact that that has on you long term as well to your children that are born through you.

I would love to see people apply that to themselves and understand that they can create a new version of themselves. That they feel great and confident in their ability to do that. Then to combine these spiritual and scientific principles.

For some people this may be their first time seeing the marriage of spiritual and science. I try to explain the science behind the spiritual concepts as well. So, I see people being drawn to my book for this reason.

I see this with my patients already. You can see their whole approach to life and their lifestyle change.  They suddenly understand the principle of cocreation, they are creating from within themselves but also in alignment with a spiritual lifeforce as well.

I love that and I hope that it connects them more with the Divine in themselves and the Divine outside of us as well.

What is on your current playlist…

Oh!... I am currently obsessed with Kylie Minogue new album, and I keep playing it. I love her and her music. It is one of best ones that she has had. It is just happy music.

I love Billie Eilish...her songs are so full of emotions. Very introspective and spiritual. Lana del Rey ... those are my top repeat.

You know one of the wonderful things about life is to be able to be surprised and to stay open, and open to being surprised.

Yes! And how we think our life should unfold, and when. Thank you so much for your time to speak with me!

Thank you for finding me and for being on your Platform!