40 Year Old "Mom to Be" feels lucky....her story...

I am a 40 year old "mom to be" who feels lucky to have found another option other than standard fertility treatments! After 5 IUI's and 3 miscarriages, my fertility specialist told me I was a tough case. Mind you, I had absolutely no medical issues(nor did my husband) that were related to us having trouble conceiving. The only thing my doctor could pin it on, was my "advanced maternal age". I had started seeing him at age 37.
With my first miscarriage, we had gotten pregnant on our own, but lost the baby at 5 weeks. After trying for six months to conceive again...I sought the help of a fertility specialist. I endured a total of 5 IUI's, two of which resulted in pregnancy and subsequent miscarriages. Both miscarriages were around 7 weeks, after seeing an unhealthy heartbeat. The doctor tested the tissue and told me it was a chromosomal abnormality.

After hearing about Carolyn's clinic in an article about Heather Van Nest's(anchor for channel 10) success with Carolyn, I decided I had nothing to lose and I knew time was running out. I live 2 hours away from Tampa and I made a decision after meeting her , I was going to give this a try. I did "everything" she prescribed because I felt either I was going to adhere to her recommendations or I was wasting my time. I took COQ10(which I believe had a lot to do with my success too...read up on it and you will understand why), Vit D supplements, B-12, Alpha Lipoic acid , Prenatal vitamins. In the last month, upon Carolyn's suggestion I added Melatonin, as I also had trouble sleeping. In addition,, I adhered to the herbs she prescribed which involved taking several different ones throughout each part of my cycle in both tea and pill form. I was doubtful at first on the herbs, but when my basal body temperatures evened out and got up and stayed up I knew they too were helping. I did TWICE weekly acupuncture sessions which helped me and her stay on top of my progress and brought the final result as a huge surprize much quicker! I fell asleep each acupuncture session sometimes for an hour or two. I also cut out coffee and alcohol and all processed foods.

I am a journalist for a living so I have a healthy dose of skepticism on all topics...however, after two months, I became pregnant. There was nothing wrong with me, I believe my system was completely off balance and not working in harmony to allow a healthy pregnancy. One reason I realized this, is because after working with Carolyn, I went from having a very short 2 day period to a healthy 4 day period and after that period I became pregnant two weeks later. No amount of fertility drugs had ever changed my periods or helped me achieve cervical fluid. Often with the fertility drugs my ovaries were over-stimulated and very sore so as to produce more eggs but not neccessarily better ones. The whole process was nerve racking but with the acupuncture I felt calmer and happier.

Two days after celebrating my 40th birthday, I took a pregnancy test, and seeing that double line was the best birthday gift I could have ever received! It's always been my lifelong dream to have a family and after so much heartbreak and disappointment, I am smiling from ear to ear and happily awaiting the birth of my healthy baby boy!!
Thank you Carolyn, you will always be in my heart for the gift you have helped me achieve!! My due date is February 11, 2012.

IVM= Invitro Maturation

Recently this fall I had a woman come in who was undergoing IVM. She orginally heard of the procedure in Canada where she had been living. I had not had a couple undergo this procedure but basically it is IVF without the drugs instead is done with the use of hormones similar to what the body makes. The RE's will utilize HCG made in a lab but similar to the hormone circulating in every pregnant woman. This hormone is similar to LH which drives the follicles to develop. LH causes maturity and the dominant follicle usually releases quite a bit of it. HCG causes immature eggs to stimulate towards final maturation.

Last night I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Karol Chacho MD one of the first doctor's in the US to utilize IVF in Chicago, talk about this procedure. He was very excited about the procedure with less risks to women, less overstimulation of the ovaries, less risks of cancer. Several centers around the US he stated are jumping on this bandwagon. Ovarian hyperstimulation causes the ovaries to enlarge and often rupture, these large ovaries leave blood thick and can hypercoagulate causing clogged arteries or a clot in the brain or legs.

He also strongly reccommended patients get pretreated with acupuncture and Chinese Herbs before IVM to improve their success rate.

Key Signs for Ovulation

There are 3 key signs I tell the women I work with in my practice to look for when they are getting ready to ovulate: 1. Cervical Fluid, 2. Position of the Cervix and 3. Drop in Temperature followed by a 3 degree rise in Temperature.
If all goes well the timing of these will be in close sync. The Cervical Fluid(CF) might start out as creamy and thicker perhaps around day 8 or 9 as early as day 10 clear, stretchy fluid the kind sperm need to live and swim may begin to form and can last up to 4 days, this might be the consistency of egg white although it could be milky as well. The position of the cervix when you are ovulating will be higher, softer, more open and feel wet whereas at infertile times it will be lower and harder like the tip of your nose and dry. These two signs normally are about two days before the LH surge. So this is optimum time to try and conceive. However once the LH surge occurs you can also try as there may be one more follicle that often releases. Usually with this LH surge we see a peak in temperature rising at least 3 degrees higher because the lutenizing hormone secretes progesterone which keeps the temps hopefully high enough for a possible embryo to implant and grow.
The book the Garden of Fertility is such a wonderful book for women to monitor their cycle based on their basal body temperatures. The process is called Fertiltiy Awareness and really allows a woman to understand how her body works. It also gives her a sense of control. Did you know your mate is more attracted to a woman when she is ovulating, the book talks about this.

Poem adapted from the Odes of Pindar, 470 BCE

Within this huge book on the Medicine of Life I found this wonderful poem.

"The art of Medicine is rooted in the heart.

If your heart is false, you will also be a false physician.

If your heart is just, you will also be a true physician.

Therefore go forth in all your speed,

And may your hands be as good as your heart."

Biomedicine...Medicine of Life

Tonight I began reading a wonderful book on Biomedicine meaning medicine of life, by Dr. Bruce H. Robinson a former vascular surgeon. He talks about how the medicine of the future will no longer be Western or Eastern but simply World Medicine. He states "the single most pivotal Western discovery was William Harvey's 1628 experimental confirmation of continuous blood circulation by the cardiovascular system. Yet while Western medicine considers Harvey's work the single most important discovery, the Chinese described the blood circulation some 2000 years earlier. This first account is found in the Guanzi(ca. 450-100 BCE): in the essay on "Water and Earth". A correlation is noted between water flowing on earth to blood circulation in body."

Attain Fertility's Interview with Dr. Goodman and our patient

Recently Attain Fertility called me to do an interview regarding one of my patient's who is also a patient of Dr. Goodman an RE at the Reproductive Medicine Group and the following is a link to that interview, http://blog.attainfertility.com/2010/09/east-meets-west-accupuncture-and-ivf/

I want to thank Dr. Goodman for endorsing the practice of acupuncture and hope with her endorsement more patients undergoing fertility treatments will utilize it in conjunction with their procedures.

Caffeine and the Risks of Infertility

Many of my women love their coffee and tell me they only have one cup a day. Well those of you who have been coming to me, know how I feel even about one cup a day. The following paragraph explains: "A large study carried out by the Yale Medical School found that the risk of infertility (which they defined as not being able to conceive after 12 months) was 55% higher for women drinking just 1 cup of coffee per day. 100% higher for women drinking 1.5-3 cups per day and 176% higher for more than 3 cups per day and this was backed up 5 years later by a study in Europe which found that high caffeine intake in women slowed rates of conception. The effect of caffeine on the fertility of men has not been examined so much but one study did find a delay in conception related to caffeine intake though the dose was not important. Additionally, there is evidence that coffee drinking in men and women increases miscarriage rates and that caffeine intake during pregnancy has a negative influence on fetal growth. Most studies indicate that it is the consumption of 300 mg or more of caffeine daily that can lead to fertility problems. It is estimated that more than 20% of Australians and Americans drink more than 350 mg per day.
So coffee drinkers having difficulity falling pregnant may well be advised to reduce their intake significantly or switch to low-caffeine varieties of tea or to find alternatives for their morning and afternoon cuppas." I suggest an herbal hot tea without caffeine. Red Zinger, Sleepytime Tea, Bedtime Tea, Rasberry Tea(good for the uterus). They do not hype you up and then down, that is the beauty of not consuming caffeine related teas, like green, white and black, despite these having proanthocyanadins, the caffiene is still and issue and EGCG etc.