Thursday, October 8, 2009

dipping my toe in a chinese pond

Today after the diagnostic blood work and dildo cam I had an 
appointment with my Naturopath. I was really REALLY looking 
forward to this appointment as I had been feeling so overwhelmed
by the fertility clinic. I needed a new perspective. 

My Naturopath works specifically with infertility and up 
until now I had been a little hesitant to even talk about starting 
the stronger chinese herbs. I'm still hesitant, but at least she has
given me another path to take, if i choose to walk it. 

I showed her my charting and let her know that my R.E. wanted
nothing to do with my charts. My charts very clearly indicate an
ovulation on Day 18, my temperatures, my OPK and my cervical
mucus all point to Day 18. Soon as my R.E. saw this, he said 
"studies show that woman really have no idea when they ovulate, 
your wasting your time with charting" He believes that because my 
cycle is 28 days long that I would not ovulate on day 18, I would 
ovulate on day 14 (as the textbooks say)

Now that I am doing diagnostic testing I will soon know what day 
I ovulate, I will be charting as well to make sure everything 
matches up. Part of me hopes that I DO ovulate on day 18 so I can
say to my R.E. "see, WOMAN DO know their own bodies, and 
you don't need a study to know that!" but then again, part of me
wants to ovulate on day 14 and have a good length luteal phase.
Although my ego would be bruised by the second option, 
I would have a good length cycle and thats what's important. 

Anyway (I got off track) my Naturopath talked to me about what
my options are if the tests do show an ovulation on day 18. 
She believes the best option would be to move from the dong quai
herbs to a stronger mix of chinese herbs. She thinks this will work
for a number of reasons:

1. It has been proving very successful in her clinical studies

2. It should move my ovulation from day 18 to 14

3. It will allow my temperatures to rise (I have a bit of a thyroid issue
and my basal temperatures are very low)

4. It will allow for a healthy uterus and pituitary gland for after my 
HSG. Studies have shown that chances of conceiving are higher during 
the 2 cycles following the HSG

I think those are all very valid reasons, and I think I'm going to go for 
it. What really do I have to loose? We do not find out the results 
of our tests until November 24th, so in the meantime I may as well 
drink some stinky herbs and have some accupunture treatments!

So........this is my next course of action, I feel pretty ok with it,
I think. 

5 comments:

  1. Hey, why not? It's nice to be able to take control of some part of your IF. I hope some kick-ass chinese herbs do the trick :-)

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  2. Good luck with the herbs. I have no experience in that area, but I do believe it can make a difference. UGH that your RE believes that 28 day cycle day 14 ovulation crap. In a perfect world maybe...

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  3. Good luck! I loved the TCM herbs I was on a couple years ago - I think they helped jumpstart ovulation for me after 4 years of no strong signs that it was even happening.

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  4. Good luck with the herbs. I've always been intrigued by the idea of a Naturopath- do you feel like it helps you?

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  5. Thank you all for the encouragement!!
    It makes me feel better about trying the herbs,
    I thought I would get some comments about
    how they don't work. I have certainly been getting
    discouraging comments on the outside of this
    computer. Oh well, got to follow my gut and
    right now I have to trust my naturopath and
    she seems to think its greatly helped many of her
    clients.

    THANKS :)

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