Fertility Superhero Kit
How frustrating it is the day that you learn it’s not necessarily easy to get pregnant. After years and years of hearing the “do not have sex or you WILL get pregnant” rhetoric you finally get to a point in your life where that’s the desirable outcome and the information that you hear from your OB is not favorable. There’s only a 15-25% chance of pregnancy on any given cycle and up to a year in order conceive is considered normal. A YEAR? Not a year to give birth to a baby, but a year to START the process :-/ The most common basic information that you hear for fertility is to maintain a healthy weight, have a healthy diet, exercise (but not too much), reduce stress (super easy when you’re anxious to have a baby), take a prenatal vitamin (finally something that’s actually EASY!), eliminate tobacco usage, reduce/eliminate caffeine (I’m sorry, WHAT?!) and alcohol (boo). These are the basic factors for what is generally considered a healthy lifestyle. This is a great foundation to work on as you maybe increase frequency of intercourse and just go with the flow and let pregnancy happen when it happens…. HA! I wish I were someone who could do that, but I’m simply not. If you are, more power to you, but you probably wouldn’t be here reading this post. If you’re anything like me, you have a strong compulsion to feel like you’re DOing something, even if you know it’s a futile effort. There is a lot that we can do to facilitate the process of getting pregnant, but alas, ultimately we cannot escape divine timing.
If you’re trying to conceive (TTC) or even just curious to learn more about your body you absolutely MUST get this book, “Taking Charge of Your Fertility: A Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health”! This book is a phenomenal wealth of information. I had done a good bit of research myself, but when a friend loaned this book to me I flipped through it and suddenly realized how little I knew! This is quality credible information about fertility consolidated into one place- a book, what a concept!
Stuff to Keep You Busy While You’re Really Still Just Waiting
1. Track Your Temperature: Take your basal body temperature (BBT) every morning very first thing before you hardly move and observe the pattern for a few months. This will provide you with a lot of information about your cycle, including when you ovulate. For more detailed specifics about how to use the information, refer to Taking Charge of Your Fertility (TCOYF). You can use a very simple basal body temperature
2. Observe Cervical Mucus Changes: This involves noticing your cervical mucus (CM) and tracking the changes throughout your cycle. Lots of watery CM for the win! (Again much more detail in TCOYF) I've also read that taking Mucinex can increase CM, perhaps something to try when you’re ovulating.
3. Feel Cervix Height: This is where you get extremely comfortable with your body and determine the height of your cervix. It’s closed, firm, and low during non-fertile times and becomes open, soft, and high during fertile times. (Again much more detail in TCOYF.)
4. Use Preseed Lube: Unlike a lot of lubrication products that can damage sperm, this one actually mimics natural cervical mucus and can help facilitate sperm making its way to your egg.
5. Urine Ovulation Predictor Kits (OPK): If you want to get your scientist on, there are simple cheap paper strips that you can buy. You dip them in your urine first thing in the morning and they will reveal when you have a luteal (LH) surge, the hormone that surges right before you ovulate, so you’re able time intercourse during ovulation (increased chance of conceiving). There’s a lot more information about use and cautions in TCOYF.
6. Saliva OPK: You can purchase a cheap simple microscope and place some saliva on the lens first thing in the morning and after allowing it to dry for about 5 minutes, you can observe if a ferning pattern emerges in the crystals. The theory here is that the estrogen surge causes this change and enables you to anticipate ovulation. Again this helps with timing intercourse during your most fertile window.
7. Clearblue OPK: These are a tad spendy and only come with about 10 tests so you want to save them for when you have a good idea of your ovulation window. These tests detect the estrogen surge immediately preceeding the LH surge which can give you a bit more advance notice of when you’re ovulating. They also detect the LH surge which indicates when you’re ovulating.
8. Take Vitex: This is kind of the magic pill for most potential fertility concerns. It’s a fantastic herb for fertility as it helps with a wide range of issues such as PMS, low progesterone, lack of ovulation, irregular menstrual cycles, lack of a menstrual cycle and much more! (This was recommended to me by a naturopath, but this does not constitute medical advice, please consult a physician before use.)
9. Fertility Yoga: Helps increase the energy flow through your body which improves the function of the endocrine and reproductive system. (I really like the DVD that I bought, but I'm not able to find it online and I don't want to recommend a random one.)
10. Acupuncture: Can address a multitude of issues that affect fertility and improves ovarian and follicular function. It can also help regulate your cycle if you have an irregular or long cycle.
The FREE Kindara app is the incredible place where you can tie EVERYTHING together and overlay all of the information that you’ve collected. You can track you temperature (with the Wink it automatically uploads to the app), CM, cervix height, intercourse (protected and unprotected), ovulation test results, note fertility yoga sessions and acupuncture appointments, and anything else that’s on your mind, for that matter.
If you have been trying unsuccessfully for a year or longer, it’s probably a good idea to see your doctor to find out if there’s a reason why. If you’ve had the misfortune of landing yourself in the Pregnancy Loss Club, as I have, this site provides a wealth of information specific to conceiving after loss. I downloaded a copy of her free eBook and learned a lot.
Sidenote - Baby Daddy Duties:
- Healthy diet
- Exercise
- Don’t wear underwear that holds boy bits close to the body and increases the temperature, killing sperm
- Avoid hot tubs, also increases the temperature, killing sperm
- Don’t leave town during ovulation
- Be prepared to stop mid-argument and make love, if ovulation predictor test is positive
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