Natural Fertility Clinic & IVF?

Hi tischler .

Sorry to hear you have to wait awhile for your next transfer.  I haven't had IVF, but did take longer than 'normal' to conceive both my children.  I saw a naturopath when TTC this baby, and although there is no definitive proof I have a gut feeling that this played a major role in the success of this pregnancy.  She prescribed Vitex to regulate my cycles and some horrendous tasting herbal mixture that had rosemary and I forget what else in it to boost my fertility.  Both are slow working, and she said not to expect anything much until I'd taken them for at least three months.  On the fourth month DH and I also both took zinc supplements for the first two weeks of my cycle. That turned out to be the month we conceived - so perhaps all we (or just him or I) were lacking was zinc, who knows!  Anyway, in my mind it was well worth the expense.

The naturopath I used is based in Hokitika and doesn't specialise in fertility, so sorry, that's not much use to you.  But I did meet a wonderful Irish lady, Linda Baker, at the Homebirth conference last month who you might like to contact?  She's a homeopath (also a midwife) who has recently moved to Christchurch, and seemed very knowledgable and helpful.  Here's a link to her website. 

I think its great you want to take some time to focus on your own health and wellbeing while you're waiting, why not aye?  The medical fraternity don't seem to have much faith in alternative treatments, but many natural remedies have been used for hundreds or even thousands of years - surely we've learnt something over that time?   All the best xx

Tischler
I can highly recommend Jo Barnett at Natural Fertility in Chch. We went to her in between our first and second IVF cycles this year. I am now 14 weeks pregnant. I still take supplements and regularly email her. The initial cost is quite high - we've spent about $3000 over 7 months. I figured it was cheaper than having to pay privately for another round of IVF. Even if you just go for the initial consultation and see what you think. She has a lovely manner and lets you know your options without being pushy.

Hi Tanners
Are your thawed embryos on board?
I had a scan after the 2 weeks off work and although the baby is fine, the doctor told me not to go back to work. My pregnancy is very high-risk. We are going for the anatomy scan on Dec 10th. So should find out the sex then? My tummy is larger than it should be due the fibroids and I'm still getting used to strangers commenting on my body.
Let me know how you are getting on.

OMG Tanners, that's absolutely gutting for you. What's the plan from here for you?

Just to let you know, I've booked in with Anita at Natural Fertility here in ChCh (Jo is really really busy). So we will get on board with that by the end of the month, and if necessary delay the FET until my body is playing ball.

Looking at how many women on here get pg on their first or near first embryo transfer, I am really starting to think there's something wrong with my body, so I'm really interested to see what Anita comes up with!

I agree with Tanners too Tulips, take lots of care, and I hope your scan in Dec goes really well for you

Hi Tanners, just thought I'd drop in with an update. I've just posted on the IVF chat thread which has most of this too.

Anita has made diet recommendations and herbal remedies/detox plan. She's doing lots of tests from which she will add in other bits and pieces as necessary, and then will give some additional remedies for when we do the transfer and after.

So fingers crossed, I know that if it doesn't help our fertility it will help general health so that's fab. I'm slowly making the diet changes (don't want to go cold turkey as I know it won't last that way), and we'll put off using our frozen embies till prob March/April to get me right on track first.

Our public funding availability won't kick in till aug 2010 (well we get on the waitlist then) then it's about a year after that so I'm considering whether we will want to go ahead at that stage or not. It's a long way away yet, and hopefully we get pg from our frozens, so won't get too caught up at the mo.

Looking forward to a nice Xmas break - going on hols to Queenstown and Coromandel (lucky me). Hope you've got a nice break planned before your next cycle in Jan - it's not that long away - good luck!!

Just thought I'd drop in an update. It's been an interesting couple of months 'naturopathically'.

We introduced all the full fat yoghurts and milks and the supplements Anita gave us, and I'm really enjoying it. She gave me a book called 'whole life vitality' which has some yummy recipes and info in it, which we use too.

Find it weird to have 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil a day though! Seems like an instant fat fix!!

In addition my results from the hair analysis they sent to USA came back - deficient in magnesium, calcium and lithium, so more concoctions for me!!

All my blood work came back fine, however, and this is the biggie, the 'bacteria' in my uterus and reproductive tract (ureaplasma and mycoplasma) came back as a high titrate (so has been there for a long time).

Apparently this bacteria can cause recurrent miscarriages, and in surfing the net, can cause failed implantation. There's not enough evidence for the medical model to support the theory (as apparently healthy fertile couples can have the bacteria) but it's just another avenue to explore.

So DH and I have both been on a 5 day course of AB's (kick butt strength) to try to rid ourselves of it. I go back in a few weeks to see if it's clear.

The thing that really amazes me though, is that I noted one of the silent symptoms of this bacteria is nocturia (peeing during the night) and I've done this for as long as I can remember usually once, sometimes twice, a night. Ever since I had the AB's - I sleep right through!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So stoked!

So if anyone reading this is considering a naturopath as an adjunct to the fertility experts I would highly recommend it.

Anyway, best off and do some housework now before DH comes home and sees I've successfully done nothing since walking in the door from work!!