Good question
After 2 disappointing invitros and no baby, I am back on the boat again. My husband has been so gracious. I went from grumpy, to tears, to this weird place of apathy. Now I am back. I am eating well, exercising and planning to adopt. I know that God is able to bring a baby and I was told that a baby can come in many ways. I feel more content. It is such a true life journey. I am 39. I will be 40 soon. My niece asked me why I didn’t have a baby yet. I have resolved myself to try one last time. At the same time I am taking adoption classes. I encourage all of you who are experiencing this same thing. It is a life challenge but we can get past it. My nieces and nephew are my joy. I look into their faces and see my future. How can I be sad when God has given me such wonderful family. This time I will try some natural remedies as well. This time I am trying to look like a Goddess too.
Check out this article from www.mothernature.com, excerpt below.
If you want to be a fertility goddess, try to look like one. Some women can induce ovulation by putting on a few pounds or taking off a few. In general, the closer your actual weight is to the ideal weight listed in the Metropolitan Life statistical tables, the better. You want to be within 95 percent of that ideal but below 120 percent.
Researchers have found that body fat can actually produce and store estrogen, a hormone that primes the body for pregnancy. When total body estrogen is too high or too low, the system can be thrown off balance. The more fat, the more estrogen produced.
In one study by reproductive endocrinologist G. William Bates, M.D., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and dean of the Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine, 29 slim and nonovulatory women attained ovulation when they gained enough weight to put them within 95 percent of the ideal. Within three years of entering the program, 24 of the 29 became pregnant. In another study by Bates, 11 of 13 overweight and nonovulatory women regained ovulation after they lost weight: 10 conceived.
Go easy on the exercise. There are two reasons for this. If exercise causes you to lose too much body fat, you can stop ovulating. But even if you maintain normal body weight, you may still put yourself at risk if you spend more than an hour a day working hard at activities like running, cross-country skiing, or swimming.
In a study of 346 women with ovulatory dysfunction, Beverly Green, M.D., a maternal and infant health specialist in Silverdale, Washington, found some evidence that women who had never been pregnant and who exercised vigorously for more than an hour a day increased their risk of infertility. The study found that exercise exerted its effect on fertility through a means independent of its ability to promote weight loss.
What’s going on here? Dr. Green is not sure. Dr. Bellina suspects the endorphins, brain chemicals released during vigorous exercise, may, like morphine, affect a woman’s prolactin levels. Elevated prolactin levels may interfere with ovulation.
At any rate, Dr. Green, a marathon runner who had no difficulty bearing children, cautions against overinterpreting her study. Her advice to dedicated athletes? “Try to cut back and see if it makes a difference.”
Time it just right. If ovulation is occurring normally, maybe you’re just not making love when you’re fertile. It could be that simple, says Dr. Levine.
“Sometimes you’ve got two career people, they’re having intercourse maybe once or twice a week, and they’re just not hitting it,” he says.
How do you remedy this? Try to predict ovulation. If you don’t want to fuss much, you can predict the date of your next period and count back 14 days. Then make love every night from day 11 through day 16. Or you can buy an over-the-counter ovulation test kit, which will give you about 24 to 36 hours advance warning of ovulation. When the test indicates ovulation, make love that night and the night after, advises Dr. Bellina.
Thou shalt not douche. Anything that interferes with the pH level of the vagina can make life unfriendly for sperm. That includes douches, lubrication agents, and jellies.
“I tell people never to douche,” says Dr. Milkman. “If you leave the vagina alone, it will do just fine at cleaning itself.”
Go easy on caffeine. More than a cup of coffee a day can hurt your chances of becoming pregnant. The same holds true if you ingest the equivalent amount of caffeine from chocolate, soft drinks, or other caffeinated beverages.
In a study of 104 women who were attempting to become pregnant, researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences found that those who drank more than the caffeine equivalent of a cup of coffee a day were half as likely to conceive as those who consumed less.
FOR MEN ONLY
And on the male side of the equation, there is more advice.
Give your sperm time to bounce back. Any viral illness associated with fever can depress sperm count for up to three months, says Neil Baum, M.D., director of the Male Infertility Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a clinical assistant professor of urology at Tulane University School of Medicine. Bad colds can have the same effect.
Why is the effect so long-lasting? According to Dr. Baum, the normal cycle to produce a sperm is 78 days. It takes another 12 days for the sperm to mature. Healthy semen, by the way, contains in excess of 20 million sperm per teaspoon. If you looked at the sample under a microscope, more than 60 percent would appear to be swimming forward.
If your sperm count is healthy, a cold or flu probably won’t knock it out of the fertility range. But if it’s borderline, an illness may.
Say no to steroids. Anabolic steroids can shut off the pituitary gland and alter the body’s natural hormone balance, says Dr. Baum. “It’s not uncommon for athletes to have infertility problems,” he adds. “Long-time use of steroids can permanently damage the testicles.”
Be wary of drugs and alcohol. Various over-the-counter and prescription drugs can depress sperm count. If you’re not sure about the medications you use, consult your pharmacists or doctor. Tagamet, an ulcer medication, is one to watch out for. Others include chemotherapeutic agents and certain antibiotics. And various studies over the years show that chronic drinking and habitual marijuana use can be at fault, too.
Keep ‘em cool. Nature’s way of keeping your testicles a half-degree cooler than your core body temperature is to house them outside the body. But if you heat the core temperature too much, or heat the testes themselves, you can affect sperm production.
Dr. Baum advises you to be careful about excessive physical activity, temperature extremes, hot tubs, and close-fitting underwear if you want to father a child.
Remember that abstinence makes the sperm grow stronger. If a baby is what you’re after, daily intercourse can be too much of a good thing because it can decrease your sperm count.
“For the average couple, this doesn’t matter,” says Dr. Levine. “But in a borderline case, this may do it.” Most experts recommend you abstain for two days prior to the woman’s fertile period to let the sperm build up, then make love every other day.
PANEL OF ADVISERS
G. William Bates, M.D., is a reproductive endocrinologist, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and dean of the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
Neil Baum, M.D., is director of the New Orleans Male Infertility Clinic, a clinical assistant professor of urology at Tulane University School of Medicine, and a staff urologist with Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Joseph H. Bellina, M.D., Ph.D., directs the New Orleans-based Omega International Institute, a fertility clinic in Louisiana. He is a national adviser of the Child and Human Development Council of the National Institutes of Health.
Beverly Green, M.D., works in infant preventive health and family medicine with Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in Silverdale, Washington. She specializes in maternal and infant health.
Mitchell Levine, M.D., is an obstetrician/gynecologist with Women-Care in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Marilyn Milkman, M.D., practices obstetrics and gynecology in San Francisco, California. She is on the clinic faculty of the University of California, San Francisco.
Andrew Toledo, M.D., is a reproductive endocrinologist and an assistant professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
