At some point along this road you realize you will try just about anything to bring on ovulation/have a baby. I am not talking about medically, no I'm talking about all the crazy eastern and alternative shit that have no statistics to back up what your acupuncturist/midwife/naturopath tells you.
At some point you decide acupuncture is the answer. Or chinese herbs are the answer. Or that yoga is the answer. Or that your diet is the answer.
To refresh your memories I already went this route, I spent about 6 months last year denying the fact that I wasn't ovulating and trying desperately to avoid taking drugs to get pregnant and sought help from a naturopath who put me on herbs and gave me some diet tips for PCOS and suggested an acupuncturist, all to no avail as I had 1 period in the entire time I was with the naturopath.
I'm not saying it doesn't work...but it sure as hell didn't work for me then at that time.
And THEN I decided fine, I give up, give me the damn Clomid and BAMN I was pregnant.
But one miscarriage later and right now I'm not allowed another medicated cycle until January, so rather than sit around doing NOTHING I'm being proactive and decided that the ANSWER TO ALL is to find an acupuncturist. Along with acupuncture I'm taking some Chinese herbs WHICH IS ALSO CLEARLY PART OF THE ANSWER which my acupuncturist insisted she'd had lots of luck with for other clients to stimulate a period. The sooner I can get a period the sooner I'm allowed a medicated cycle.
I'm on the fence with the whole Chinese herb/acupuncture regiment and how well it actually improved one's fertility, but seriously, I'll do anything that COULD be helpful right now rather than just wait it out.
A word on Chinese herbs...Chinese herbs taste like shit.
I repeat. Chinese herbs. Taste. Like. Shit.
Truly disgusting, and yet someone tells me that they will help me get a period and I'm like YIPPEE, GIMME GIMME GIMME! I TOTALLY BELIEVE YOU! I TRUST YOU COMPLETELY ACUPUNCTURE LADY THAT I'VE ONLY MET ONCE!
Infertility messes with your head. Makes you a little nutty.
Since I know I have some new followers who are part of the infertility club, please tell me, what's the nuttiest thing you've done in an effort to conceive???
Back in March, before I went to an RE, my OBGYN suggested I do this histeropingogram test (have no idea how to spell it but it's the dye test to check my tubes). I told her I wasn't interested in it. Then she told me "for the 3 months after the test, conception rates are shown to increase." She said "must be the oily stuff the inject up that makes things work better." She said that and BAMM I was signed up for that expensive test.
ReplyDeleteI've also taken Chinese herbs, including ones that are contained within a plastic egg. I have to crack open the egg. There are like a million little pills inside and I take 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 at night. For 10 days. Yeah, that didn't work.
I resisted Clomid a long time, too. Then, like you, bamm, I took Clomid and I got preggers the first month.
I've had no luck with fertility meds. Sure, I ovulate. I produce beautiful follicles. But no pregnancy has ever resulted. So I'm turning to alternative methods. I'm currently seeing a naturopath and she has me on an...interesting...seed protocol. I've also booked an appointment with a TCM practitioner that came highly recommended, but I can't get in to see him until the end of November.
ReplyDeleteUgh. The things we do to get pregnant...
I can COMPLETELY relate to you! I am taking about 20 herbs am and then 20 more PM per my accupuncture dr's orders. I feel like a crazed lady every time I swallow them. She has me on a diet which I haven't been able to follow completely- the no sugar part is too hard! And the occasional glass of wine I can't give up right now while trying to deal w infertility :) and of course there is the trying lovely headstand I used to try every month when trying naturally! You are right- the things we do to get a baby are pretty out there!!!! :) It's nice to have others who understand!
ReplyDeleteI hear you on being willing to do anything that might help. I haven't done too much acupuncture or herbs yet, mainly because I've been too busy doing all of the western medicine stuff (IUI, IVF, etc.) None of it has done me any good thus far, so who knows, maybe I'll end up where you are.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I've heard that people have had success regulating cycles better on acupuncture/herbs. I have no direct experience, but some people swear by it, so you may not be as crazy as you think.
I can definitely relate to wanting to do SOMETHING to feel like you're having some control over an impossible to control situation. I am currently taking about a million supplements that may or may not do me any good but they at least make me feel I'm doing SOMETHING.
And yes, infertility does make you nutty!
Hehe, not sure what is the craziest, but I read on someone's blog that eating brazil nuts and pinapple helps the embryo to stick so I tried that for a month!
ReplyDeleteDoing accupuncture at the moment, having worked in health research I am usually pretty suspect about complimentary things- but there is at least some studies backing up accupuncture (particularly for long time IVF suffers like me) so I figure it's worth a try. And it gives me more hope and drive for the process so that seems at least for the moment to be a good thing. :)