Many people have been asking for me to summarize all that we went through to get to Allouette. I have been working with several support groups for fertility, POF and Mosaic Turner's to give other women hope, and perhaps a plan of attack to tackle their own fertility issues. So I thought I would do one final post on this blog before I move on, to provide a quick version of what we did in hopes that it might help someone else.
I was diagnosed with POF in 2009 and told that the chances of having a child, using my own eggs was less than 1%. My FSH was 48 and raising, I was only 28 years old and was shocked when I was given my diagnosis. My husband and I really wanted to have children, had always planned to have a large family and I just could not believe that I was infertile. We decided to try donor egg IVF, as we were told that would really be our only chance. In 2009, with my sister as my donor, we underwent the procedure. I became pregnant, but unfortunately went through a rather painful miscarriage at 7 weeks. Shortly after the miscarriage our RE started to push us into doing another round of IVF with the remaining embryos from our first go around. I felt pressured, overly pressured and got the distinct feeling that fertility specialists were very money driven, more so than health driven. I decided that I was sick and tired of listening to doctors and fertility experts tell me that I was infertile and should go on the pill to balance my hormones synthetically. I have NEVER felt right about the pill, thought it was dangerous for a woman's system and long term health and had decided long ago that the pill was never an option for me. More than anything I was tired of listening to professionals tell me what to do, even when I felt like my body was telling me to do something different. SO, I decided to take a year and solely listen to my body.
I started researching, reading book after book on fertility, natural diets, ovarian failure, looking for natural ways to balance my hormones with the hope that by balancing I would improve my overall health, and maybe, just maybe, begin cycling on my own. I decided to try anything that felt right and would not harm me, even if it didn't make a lot of sense. I also begin working with my naturopath and gynecologist to run ideas past them to ensure that I was not doing anything to further damage my systems.
It was a difficult road, often times feeling like I was doing all these things for nothing. I worked with an army of more natural doctors/professionals, a nutritionist, DO, energy healer, acupuncturist and Chinese Medicine doctor. I became a modified vegan. I gave up sugar & yeast. I listened to the wonderful insight from my sister-in-law who recommended that I try Chaste Tree Berry & Evening Primrose. And wouldn't you know it, the combination of something I was doing started me cycling again, real periods on an almost regular basis, which I was told would probably never happen again.
My FSH dropped from 48 to 16, perhaps even lower around the time I got pregnant. My hormones started to jump up into the regular levels for someone my age, I lost 15 pounds and overall I started to feel really great.
Then out of nowhere, around the end of May 2010 I started to get major, completely painful & random cramps. Each day they were worse than the day before. I reviewed everything I was doing and started to think that the supplement I was taking, Chaste Tree Berry, may be what was causing them. I was heartbroken and I figured if this was the case, I would need to stop taking it and I was convinced that once I stopped, everything good that was happening to me would stop as well. I held off stopping as long as I could until the cramps became so painful that I would be doubled over in pain, convinced that I was dying.
Finally I stopped, around the 2nd week of June, and once I stopped, strange things started happening. My breast became massively tender, which was never a usual symptom. I started having hot flashes again, NEVER a good sign. And then my period was late. I was convinced that my body was becoming unbalanced and I began researching new natural doctors that specialized in POF. I was even considering flying out to meet with an out-of-state specialist.
On Sunday, June 27th as we were waiting for friends to come and help us load our moving truck I was packing up the bathroom, feeling completely sick, I ran across an old pregnancy test and decided to take it. At this point in my life I have probably taken almost 100 pregnancy tests, 98% of which have ALWAYS been negative but I figured, what the heck, here it is, it will be negative, but I might as well rule it out.
So without saying a word to my husband I took the test....pretty much as soon as I was done 'peeing on the stick' the first line, which is considered the pregnant line, appeared immediately in this dark pink. The test is suppose to take 3-5 minutes and so I was concerned that perhaps the test was broken. I called to my husband, who was massively skeptical and we did a little Internet research. Sure enough, we discovered that the test was most likely correct and I was showing a positive pregnancy test.
10 minutes later our friends arrived to help us move. The last thing we wanted to do was tell anyone as we were certain that it was not a sure thing and the chances were high for a miscarriage. Scared to death to lift anything I pretty much tried to appear busy without really doing very much.
The next day, as the local grocery store opened at 6am I was there at their door waiting to buy a few more pregnancy tests, different brands, to be REALLY sure. All were immediately positive. When my doctor's office opened at 9am I called to speak with the nurse and request blood work to confirm. On Tuesday, June 29th my doctor called back to confirm that I was indeed pregnant, looked to be about 6-7 weeks along and they requested that I go in that very same day for an ultrasound, as everyone was concerned given my medical history.
I was shocked and in tears when the ultrasound revealed the sac, yolk, and a strong heartbeat....all of which I had never really had with my miscarriage. I was given a due date of February 18th, 2011 and didn't realize until a few weeks later that February 18th, 2009 was the exact day we were told that I had POF and would most likely not be able to conceive.
Here is my basic plan of attack:
Removed all processed foods from diet
Changed to a fully organic diet
Became a modified vegan, no animal products except organic eggs and fish
Removed sugar and yeast products from my diet
Did yoga and meditation on a regular basis
Took the following supplements:
Vitamin D3, 5,000 IU daily
EPA/DHA (Fish Oil), 2 capsules, 2xday
Thorne Research, Basic Prenatal, 2 capsules, 3xday
Folbic (Prescription), 1 pill per day
Vitex Extract Plus, Chaste Tree Berry, 1 capsule per day
Evening Primrose Oil, 2 500mg capsules, 2xday (from period to ovulation)
Flax Seed Oil, 1 1000mg capsule, 2xday (from ovulation to period)
I would also track my cycle as it started to come back and become regulated and I would go in for day 3 blood work to see check my hormone and FSH levels.
I am more than happy to talk to anyone interested in trying a natural approach to fertility and hormone regulation. As I sit here, writing this, with my sweet 3 month old baby in my lab, I know with 100% certainty that she would not be here if I had not gone the natural route.
Feel free to contact me if you want to chat fertility and/or natural medicine:
