I was considered crazy by my colleagues. I mean, here by all accounts, I was at a huge hospital

system, salaried. All these great, you know, seemingly desirable parts. And I just knew that for

me, I felt like my soul was at stake. Hey, Dr. Ruval, thanks for joining the podcast.

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. So your name precedes you. I have a lot of,

we have a lot of mutual friends who talk about what an amazing doctor you are.

And you are a rare breed, which is very important one, because you work in the fertility awareness

space and fertility support space, but you do it in a really holistic and amazing way. So I'm excited

to get into it and to get into some of your past experience, because I know you've had your own

journey. So starting out, tell me a little bit about where you're from and your background.

Oh, absolutely. So I am born and bred in Florida. I went, did all my schooling there, went to University

of Miami, both for undergrad and my medical school, and then came out to USC and Los Angeles

for residency in OBGYN and then stayed on after that for your residency for a three-year fellowship

and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. And did you always growing up think you would be

a doctor or where did the desire to even go to med school come from? I think this is a common

thread for many physicians. Yes, from the time I can remember, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted

to help people. I actually, until the end of medical school, I wanted to be a pediatrician.

And then I was on my pediatrics rotation. And unfortunately, I realized how much I loved

communicating with my patients and really being able to share their journey. And so

wasn't for me in some parts of pediatrics and then really fell in love with OBGYN and

being present at birth and walking with women throughout the course of their of their lives,

really. And so decided to go into that field. And what was your upbringing like before we go

into your practice? You know, I had a lovely upbringing. I'm the old, I'm stereotypically

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