Frances Norgate was eating well, tracking every nutrient, and doing everything “right” – until it became clear that wasn’t quite the whole picture. For Infertility Awareness Month, the BSc (Hons) Nutritional Therapy student at the University of Portsmouth and Nutrition and Lifestyle Advisor spoke openly about her miscarriages, depletion, and the dietary shift that changed everything.
A body that looked fine on paper
There is a particular kind of frustration that comes from doing all the right things and still feeling as though your body is letting you down. Frances knows it too well.
She spent four and a half years on a carefully considered plant-based diet – reading every label, supplementing with B12, avoiding processed foods, and logging her intake on Cronometer – a nutrition app. On paper, she was a model of nutritional diligence.
Then she had two miscarriages.
“I think I was quite depleted,” she says. “Nutritionally depleted. Even though I was trying to be so careful.”
Frances’s relationship with her health has never been straightforward. As a teenager growing up in Japan – she is half Japanese and half British – she developed eczema in her teens. When her family moved to Newcastle when she was fifteen, dermatologists offered steroid creams that managed the symptoms but never addressed the cause.
In her early twenties, digestive problems followed: bloating, cramping, constipation. Again, medication was offered.
“I kept being given prescription after prescription,” she recalls. “And I knew that wasn’t what I needed. I knew there was something deeper going on.”
That conviction set her on a path of self-directed learning – podcasts, nutrition books, hours spent trying to understand her own body. It was during one of those listening sessions that she first heard the term “functional nutritional therapist.”
I thought, what’s that? And I started looking into it and realised – maybe I want to become that.
After four years, it was time for a change
Before studying at ION, Frances was a committed, methodical vegan. Her first pregnancy was complicated by a frightening episode of heavy bleeding, which led her to believe she was miscarrying. Her daughter was born safely, but the experience left its mark. While still breastfeeding, Frances began trying for a second child.
She had two miscarriages.
“After my first pregnancy and breastfeeding, I became very, very depleted,” she says. “Even though I was tracking everything, I think I was still influenced by a lot of what I was seeing online – into believing that what I was eating was enough.”
She is careful to contextualise this. “I am not saying this applies to everyone. This is anecdotal. It is my own journey.”
The turning point came through a podcast exploring human evolution and the potential impact of nutrition on infant development. Frances and her husband listened together.
“We already had a one-year-old,” she says. “And we thought – if this is something we cannot undo later, we need to take it seriously.”
The changes they made were gradual, as they carefully reintroduced animal foods: wild venison, wild fish, eggs.
“The next month, I was pregnant with my second daughter,” Frances says. “And I had a completely healthy pregnancy. Nothing wrong at all. She was born really healthy, a big baby.”
She pauses. “I know it’s anecdotal, but for me it felt very clear that I had been depleted.”
What nutritional depletion can mean in fertility
Frances is now completing the BSc Nutritional Therapy at ION, building on the Certificate of Higher Education that enabled her to begin practising. Her clinical focus is currently metabolic health – blood sugar regulation and digestive health – though fertility is becoming an increasing area of interest.
She highlights several nutrients that are particularly important in preconception and pregnancy:
- Omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) – important for foetal brain and eye development and difficult to obtain in sufficient amounts from plant sources alone.
- Iron – demand rises sharply during pregnancy, and iron stores are often depleted through breastfeeding; iron from animal sources is more readily absorbed than that plant-based foods.
- Zinc – essential for hormone regulation and cell division; found in meat, shellfish, dairy and eggs, with lower bioavailability from plant sources.
- Vitamin B12 – supplemented throughout by Frances, though absorption varies considerably between individuals.
- Vitamin A (retinol) – the form found in animal foods that the body can use directly, unlike beta-carotene from plants, which requires conversion that is not always efficient.
- Iodine – vital for thyroid function and foetal development, and often low in plant-based diets unless sea vegetables are consumed regularly.
“Even when you are tracking everything on an app,” Frances says, “you can’t always account for how well your body is absorbing those nutrients, or whether you are starting from a place of depletion.”
“We need to talk about this more”
Miscarriage remains one of the most common yet least openly discussed experiences in reproductive health. According to the World Health Organization, around one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage, usually within the first trimester, yet conversations around it, particularly in relation to nutrition, remain limited.
Frances wants that to change.
If even one person hears this and thinks, ‘could my nutrition be playing a role in my fertility?’, and seeks support, then it is worth sharing.
“It is not talked about,” she says. “And the more open we can be about it, the more we can help other people.” She is also clear that miscarriage has many causes and that improved nutrition does not guarantee a successful outcome.
Looking ahead
Frances now works with clients on blood sugar regulation, pre-diabetes, and digestive health – areas she sees as deeply interconnected. She is also an ambassador for the Public Health Collaboration, a UK charity focused on the prevention of type 2 diabetes.
“Eventually, I would like to expand into areas like PCOS and endometriosis, conditions that have a metabolic component and a huge impact on fertility,” she says. “It is an area where nutritional therapy has a lot to offer, and it is close to my heart.”
She credits ION with giving her the foundation to practise with rigour and confidence.
It has given me the backbone – anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, critical thinking. It has taught me how to engage with research properly, and how to meet clients where they are.
She also found an unexpected passion along the way: coaching and behaviour change.
Nutritional therapy is not just about information. It is about how people actually change.
If you are thinking about fertility and nutrition
Frances’s advice is straightforward, shaped by both lived experience and academic study: do not assume that a healthy diet automatically equals optimal nutritional status – especially when planning a pregnancy.
Get tested where you can. Work with a professional. And be honest about your diet, not defensive about it.
She also wishes she had understood earlier that pregnancy and breastfeeding put an immense amount of demand on the body, that depletion can build over time, and that looking healthy on the outside does not always reflect what is truly happening inside your body.
“I was doing everything I thought was right,” she says. “But I needed to understand what my specific body needed. Nutrition should be personalised, evidence-based, and kind.”
