Just to pass the time until the IUI, I've started thinking about the things we infertiles do to try and get pregnant. We've been trying for three years now, and let me tell you, there are a lot of suggestions out there about increasing your chances of a natural pregnancy. Not to mention all the advice you get from fertiles, who, though they are well meaning, often sort of miss the ball ("Oh, you've been trying for two and a half years? There are these little things called Ovulation Predictor Kits that you can use. I got pregnant my first month using one, so maybe it'll work for you!" or "You need to do it every day/every second day/twice a week when you're ovulating...are you having sex enough?").
Things I've given up somewhat or entirely:
Alcohol
Caffeine
Having cold feet (this is a Chinese Medicine thing)
Any pain medication other then Tylenol
Hard exercise in the two week wait
Things that I have done because they are supposed to help me get pregnant:
Acupuncture (there is actually a bit of science backing this one)
Yoga (this one too)
Meditation (this is more for my mental health)
Charting my temperature each morning at the same time
Ovulation Predictor Kits
Evening Primrose Oil
Vitex
Dong Quai
Omega 3-6-9
FertileCM
PreSeed
Instead Cups
SMEP (Sperm Meets Egg Plan)
Progesterone cream in the two week wait
Elevating my hips with a pillow after sex
Putting my legs up the wall after sex
Standing on my head after sex
Not getting out of bed for the night after sex, even though I had to pee SO BAD
Exercising less
Exercising more
Things that I have been told would help, but haven't tried:
Grapefruit juice (supposed to help with fertile cervical mucus)
Vitamin B6 (to increase the length of your LP)
Robitussin (again with the fertile CM)
Wild Yam
Baby carrots (yeah, this one's for my fellow infertiles over at Fertility Friend)
I will grant that I did get pregnant once (and had a miscarriage) while using PreSeed and an Instead Cup, though that was the second month I was on 50mg Clomid...so, it was likely the Clomid.
Next time, let's tally up the costs involved in trying to conceive! Those OPK's and pregnancy tests get expensive, especially when you're addicted to peeing on sticks like I am.
I also just wanted to throw this in - I found this when I was looking up the links for this post: The Little Deeper cushion. I'm totally buying one.
Oh, have you tried the Clearblue Fertility Monitor? No? Then you must! I got pregnant the minute I took mine out the box!! It's guaranteed! I'm sure it says that somewhere on the box...
ReplyDeleteOkay, so that's a lie. I used mine religiously for months on end, pinpointing the exact time we should be having sex, and *ta-daaaa* nothing happened. Hmmm, maybe I was doing it wrong. It certainly *felt* wrong to be spending that much money on pee sticks that weren't even to tell me that I wasn't pregnant.
Serious hats off to you though. No one can accuse you of not trying hard enough. I can't say that I was that abstemious. Don't tell anyone, but I drank red wine all throughout my successful IVF cycle, only stopping the night before ET! And it still worked! The big plus was that I stayed sane for the duration, and it gave me extra courage whilst injecting god knows what into my belly on a nightly basis.
(Oh, my god, I just looked up the link to that cusion! Totally buy one, and tell me if it improves your sex life - I mean, it has to help you see the humourous side of things!)
Thanks for the post! How much was your Clearblue Monitor? I only use the Clearblue Digi OPKs and they seem to work well, but I'm such a numbers/data person that I'd love to have a monitor!
ReplyDeleteI got mine second hand from my SIL, who, of course swore that I would be pregnant within a couple of months of using it. You know how that turned out! I think your best bet is to look for a second hand one on ebay or wherever - you can find instuctions online to reset them as well. The only issues with a second hand one, I think , is that you may not be able to download the data - I've not really looked into that. I used to keep a spreadsheet, though, and that probably gave me the same info. And lots of nice data to pore over!
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