Unexplained infertility

Earlier this week John and I made the 45 minute trek to our big fertility consultation only to drive back home after 30 minutes in the waiting room. Dr. Colbert was stuck in surgery and unable to meet with us. We were not upset with the clinic or the doctor because obviously being stuck in surgery is not good news for anyone involved, but we were disappointment and anxious to figure out our treatment plan. Generously, Dr. Colbert called us on his own time to do a phone consultation so we would not have to drive back for another appointment. And he waived the phone consult fee for our troubles; what a guy.

The night of the consultation, we were finishing up an evening of church programming, so we set Arie up with an episode of Daniel Tiger in John's office while John and I hunched over my iphone on speaker, hanging on to Dr. Colbert's every word.

Unexplained infertility. Our diagnosis.

It's hard to know what to feel about this diagnosis. I'm grateful that nothing obvious is wrong. I'm frustrated that there's nothing obvious to fix or treat. I'm scared that we'll never conceive and we'll never know why.

I mentioned before that one of my blood work results showed an elevated FSH level, so Dr. Colbert ordered another hormone blood test to check on that; I'm still awaiting the results, but he did not seem greatly concerned about that elevated number when he was on the phone.

Dr. Colbert laid out three options for us:

1) Have minor surgery- a laparoscopy- for me to look for endometriosis and see if that is the problem.
2) Take Clomid (oral) and Ovidrel (injectable) drugs for ovulation and do an IUI (intra-uterine insemination).
3) Take Clomid and Ovidrel and keep trying on our own.

Clomid and Ovidrel

"If you were my daughter- well, my daughter's not married so I guess not technically, but in the spirit of "if you were my daughter,""recommended Dr. Colbert with a smile, "I would tell you to do the Clomid and Ovidrel and IUI. But I'm not opposed to you trying for three months with just the drugs if you'd rather."

We decided to try only the meds first, but have had a few back-and-forth discussions about whether we should just jump in and do the IUI too. It's a hard decision and there are both financial and, more importantly, emotional factors to wade through. We have a few weeks to decide, but I think we'll try at least one cycle with just the meds.

If you are the praying type, you can absolutely start praying that this cycle will be it and I can throw all these meds in the trash!

In addition to these medical options, Dr. Colbert recommended a few natural steps we could take. You may remember that this summer we were weighing the option of seeking holistic treatment vs. going to the full-on medical route or some combination thereof. I want to share how I made the decision to go straight to Dr. Colbert instead of trying a more holistic route first:

First, before we decided to adopt, I tried a number of natural options. In addition to charting my basal body temperature and reading the entire "fertility Bible" Taking Charge of Your Fertility (which I would still recommend), I was drinking tons of pomegranate juice, brewing red raspberry leaf tea, taking extra doses of b12, and more. I'll leave you to google the reasons why these are supposed to increase fertility, but needless to say they did not work for me. I was burned out from trying every natural remedy I read about and I really wanted answers.

The Fertility Bible. For real. 

Next I considered doing the Dr. Colbert and the holistic route simultaneously, but when I saw how many appointments I would be making with Dr. Colbert, I immediately decided to wait on that decision because I did not want my whole life to be ruled by appointments. I knew that making space for time with friends and "life as usual" would be more important for my health than trying to get out to see another doctor.

Finally, once I saw how much emphasis Dr. Colbert put on lifestyle, nutrition, and supplementation, I was completely satisfied with our treatment plan. In the future, I may change my mind and want to supplement our treatment by seeing a chiropractor, for example, for more advice on supplementation or lifestyle changes, but for now I'm happy with what we're doing.

With that, here's what Dr. Colbert recommended:

1) The Fertility Diet. This book is not about "alternative medicine," but researched based evidence about the connection between diet and ovulatory failure. Even though our diagnosis is "unexplained infertility," even just a few little undetectable "tweaks" in the ovulation process can make conception very difficult. This diet is about priming your body for optimal ovulation. Thankfully, the way I eat is not very different than this diet, but I will be making a few changes like switching to whole milk products, eating more fish, and getting most of my protein from plant based sources instead of animal meat. I'm about half way through this book and I would recommend it to anyone who is even beginning the journey toward conception.

2) CO-Q10 supplement. This supplement is the subject of much research right now, so its benefits are not entirely clear, but what I'm reading about it sounds like: "CO-Q10 is how cells do everything." So, hopefully it will help my cells make a baby.

3) Fish oil/Omega 3. Again, helps cells do important stuff. Supports life. Makes you healthy. Etc. (I am obviously not a scientist.)

4) Quit European drinking. "European" is how Dr. Colbert described our 'glass of wine with dinner every night' habits. :-) Actually, John can keep it up since for men the optimal fertility drinking limit is 7 per week, but for women it is only 5. Monday and Tuesday... water here I come. Dr. Colbert did slyly suggest that we not believe any of the "talk" about having to give up all alcohol when you're trying to conceive, "Have a glass of wine and have fun!"  Doctor's orders. ;-)

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I'm also drinking red raspberry leaf tea again in the two weeks before ovulation because I drink tea every day anyway, so I figure why not switch to something potentially beneficial? It is supposed to help with the health of uterine lining, but I've heard mixed reviews about whether or not it is safe to drink after ovulation (potential miscarriage risk), so I switch to other teas after that.

Phew. Congratulations on sticking with this post. I also intended to write about some spiritual work I've been doing in light of my infertility, but you dear reader must be tired and I will save that for my next post.

Love and light to you all,

xo