Cold Womb And Other Things

I decided we should take a break from ttc and go on a 3 month pre-conception  plan to heal/boost both our bodies and with the thinking that if we're not actively trying to conceive that should take away some stress. But hubby decided we should dive into it head on instead. After the disappointment of this month he's taken it upon himself that we must do everything we can to conceive next month.

Yesterday we went herb and vitamin shopping. We saw a Chinese herbalist/acupuncturist who diagnosed me with cold womb, bad circulation and poor kidney function. She snorted when I told her I was prescribed a diabetic drug for a hormonal imbalance. The last one I saw told me GP's were a bunch of bumbling idiots. I chucked it down to a civilization thing, I'm not in the mood to get philosophical about the East VS West approach to health. I'm sure my GP too would snort if I told them I was prescribed herbal teas and acupuncture to help me conceive.

I'm a huge sceptic and will not partake in anything unless there are no red flags in my research. The acupuncture I didn't mind as long as the needles are sterile (I quite enjoyed it!), the herbal teas, well I did a bit of Googling on those. And most of the ingredients came up as high in anti-oxidants with positive effects on the kidney, liver and spleen functions. Which is good. Still, I'm halving the dosage because even too much of a good thing ban be bad.

That being said I do see wisdom in a lot of what the Chinese claim. For instance, modern medicine mostly  concentrates on the side effects and very rarely gets down to the root cause of the problem. Thanks to Big Pharma that is only intereted in making money off people on recurring prescriptions. Let's take Metformin commonly prescribed for overweight PCOSers to help reduce Insulin Resistance. A lot of women have been taking it for years and are still battling the problems it was prescribed for. I've never heard of a woman with PCOS that took Met for X amount of time and stopped because she was cured. It's not even a cure in itself, because without appropriate lifestyle changes a woman actually finds that as time progresses, her symptoms will get worse and she'll need even more medication to tackle those.

I don't mind giving alternative remedies a try, especially those that claim to go to the root of the imbalance that led to the problem. The Chinese method is more holistic where lifestyle changes go hand in hand with herbs. To improve my chances of success they recommended I drink lots of water and herbal teas after meals, stay away from sweets, chocolates, cakes, crisps, chips, deep fried foods, roast nuts, seafood, dairy products and red meat. Thankfully western medicine confirms these things to be detrimental to those with PCOS.

Anti-oxidants are beneficial in improving the body's functions including reproductive functions. A diet that's high in anti-oxidants will improve your PCOS. Drinking at least 2 cups of green tea a day is a good start! Green tea contains flavonoids which has anti-oxidative properties and is also anti-inflammatory. Besides tea, you can get your anti-oxidants from citurus fruits, brightly coloured fruits and vegetables, dark chocolate, whole grains, nuts and seeds, berries and cherries.

Ovarian cysts can be reduced by improving the lymphatic function of the body. Click here for 10 tips to boost your lymphatic and liver function.

I'm writing this for anyone that's considering forking out £95 for one session of acupuncture and 7 days worth of herbal teas. I'm not 'killing' it for you, but if you're already doing all of the above in addition to acupuncture and you don't notice any changes, then I highly doubt the the Herbal teas will do much good.

If you are overweight with PCOS and most of your weight gathers around your mid-section, you will benefit more from regular exercise and the low GI diet than any medicine or herb. If you are not overweight, I would still recommend the low GI diet and regular exercise AND elimination of endocrine disruptors, a diet plentiful in fruits and veggies preferably organic, essential oils and fatty acids, anti-oxidants and and over the counter herbs like vitex to help regulate the cycle. It's important to not take herbs continuously but give oneself a week break (preferably during AF) out of every month to give the body some rest.

Now I'm off to drink more tea...

More Waiting

This brought a chuckle despite my cramps. 

There is so much unpredictability with PCOS, one month things are good and you're hopeful that your condition is improving, then the following month it's screwed up again. You go from no periods to too much periods. It's a constant hormonal roller coaster.

I started cramping and spotting chocolatey clots on Monday. Then yesterday at a job interview (her Royal Monstrosity couldn't have chosen a better time) I felt 'stuff' rushing out of me and had to literally sprint to the loo. The cramping was horrible and has been on and off ever since. I've had a cyst rupture in the past, this pain is nothing like it.

I saw the GP today to complain about the pain and clots. As usual I got the paracetomol, ibuprofen story, but then he was surprised they've left me on my own this long without monthly monitoring. He said seeing a reproductive endocrinologist once was not enough that I needed to see an infertility expert who will regularly monitor my hormone profile, carry out an hysterosalpingogram to make sure my tubes are open, and have Dh thoroughly checked out.

We are now waiting for an appointment which should be any time within the next 2 - 6 weeks. The waiting continues. 

TTC Au Naturel

My last cycle was the best I ever had in terms of pms symptoms and af. I didn't have any cramps and my pms symptoms were tolerable. Last month my bbs certainly didn't go twice their size in a matter of days to the point where I had to dig up my old bras that I'd abandoned after loosing weight (even right now the darn things are still throbbing and my lower abs are still tingling. STFU already!)

I'm trying to look back on what I did differently to make my PMS symptoms worse than when I was at my heaviest.

For one there was the Metformin, which I started taking in May and stopped about 2 weeks ago. It's supposed to help not worsen symptoms. Then there's EPO which I have been taking regularly for nearly 6 months. I also take Vitex daily and recently started consuming cruciferous juices. Once a day for almost a week then once a week afterwards. It's meant to reduce oestrogen dominance which I believed was the main cause of my pms.

I can't pin point the exact cause of why things went awry this time around. I went from best cycle to worse cycle in the space of just one month! The only thing I can maybe blame is the Met. My energy levels plummeted and I actually piled on more weight because I wasn't exercising as regularly as before and wasn't getting enough calories due to loss of appetite. 

I cannot categorically state that any of these herbs have been particularly useful in combating my pms. I'm even more disappointed with the EPO than anything else. I did see some improvement initially, but now, I don't feel it's effect any more. The only thing I can state with confidence is that I benefited most from regular exercise and the Low GI diet than I ever did from taking herbs and drugs.

I'm taking a break from online ttc and pcos forums. I can't differentiate how many hours I've spent obsessing while 'educating' myself.

I want to be more gentle with my body, not batter it into giving me a baby. I'm thinking of going all natural this month because I'm crazy like that. No herbs, no EPO, no vitex, nothing. Just proper nutrition, zero sugar and refined carbs (Met messed that up for me), good multivitamins with all the essential micro nutrients, regular exercise and lots of sunshine.

I'll decide after af, if she's anything like the monster I'm expecting. The thought of those monstrous blood clots are already making me depressed.

*sigh*

Lessons To Learn From This Cycle

* NEVER throw the rational part of your brain out the window at any point during your ttc journey

* No matter how pregnant you 'feel' you are, you either are or aren't

* No amount of obsessing will change that fact

* Stop wasting money on hpt's!

* Save yourself the stress and wait it out

* Listen to your hubby when he says 'wait it out', you'll thank him later for it

* Stop torturing yourself by reading up other people's daily dpo symptoms

* No two women are the same, so, comparing yourself to other people is a waste of time

* Stop dwelling on your own dpo symptoms.

* Stop dwelling altogether! Peeling up your blouse every other hour to look at your bbs will not make you feel better

* Paying extremely close attention to your body will make swear you can 'hear' your food being digested

* Sometimes you don't know your body as well as you think you do

* No two cycles are the same, just because you are having different symptoms in this one does not mean that you are pregnant

* TTC forums do more harm than good

* Again, never forget the golden rule; you either are or you aren't and the most sure-fire way to know that is to wait until AFTER af to test.

Finally, when things don't turn out the way you wanted, thank your Creator, learn from the experience, pick yourself up and move onto what you can do to improve your chances in the next cycle.

Saw Palmetto For PCOS Hair Loss

Saw palmetto is a nutritional supplement extracted from the berries of the saw palmetto tree.

It is widely used for the treatment of enlarged prostate glands in men. Prostate glands become enlarged partly because of a male hormone called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT.

Women with PCOS tend to have higher levels of DHT than other women. Therefore, if saw palmetto works for men, it may work for women.

Excessive levels of DHT in women has been linked to acne, hirsutism (hair growth in the "wrong" places), and female pattern hair loss.

Female hair loss is one of the most troubling and difficult aspects of polycystic ovary syndrome. It is caused in part by DHT, which causes the hair follicle to shrink and thus causes the hair shaft to be discarded. The result is thinning hair on the scalp.

The Journal of Alternative Complementary Medicine published a study showing that saw palmetto may slow down this hair loss process. This was a small study of ten men. Six of the ten men taking saw palmetto had reductions in their hair loss.

The type of hair loss that men have is similar to the most common type of hair loss that PCOS women have. Therefore, if saw palmetto works for men, it should also be helpful for women who have PCOS and hair thinning.

Because of its inhibitory effect on the male hormone DHT, saw palmetto should be useful for acne and hirsutism in addition to hair thinning.

Source: Natural Health Solutions For PCOS.