What else can I do for fertility - any ideas?

[Journey2022]

Hello,

New to here and TTC for 2 years. Went and did private fertility tests 5 months ago due to gp issues and long nhs wait to find no issues including doing a HyCoSy scan with no blockages. All good but left confused.

Goals so far for this year -
I was advised to get BMI down (I am a size 18) goal to loose 25ish lbs my aim is to portion control and build up exercise in the gym.

I've been doing the below on and off for a year but regularly doe the last 5 months -

• lots of vitamins Inc folic acid, omega 3, zinc, vit D B and x
• seed cycling
• adding in nuts and macca powder to diet
• Raspberry lead tea weeks 1 and 2 but not after ovulation
• removed caffeine and replaced with green and herbal teas
• reduced sugar consumption
• testing ovulation with LH strips (irregular cycle of 31-42 days so find this difficult) bbt didn't work for me
• sex every 2- 3 days across 10 days of ovulation
• using preseed
• using cups after sex the last month
• tried acupuncture last year and have now started reflexology
• trying to manage stress (due to very stressful year which do not thing helped my fertility!)

So my question is what am I not doing can anyone give me some ideas and add anything to my goal list for 2022?

Maybe we can support each other in our goals?

Thanks all for your help, I don't have many people to discuss this with!

British Fertility Society issues new guidelines on the effect ...Obesity has a significant adverse impact on reproductive outcome. It influences not only the chance of conception but also the response to fertility treatment, and increases the risk of miscarriage, congenital anomalies and pregnancy complications in addition to potential adverse effects on long term health of both mother and infant. Women should aim for a normal BMI before starting any form of fertility treatment. Treatment should be deferred until the BMI is less than 35 kg/m2, although in those with more time (e.g., less than 37 years; normal serum FSH concentration) a weight reduction to a BMI of less than 30 kg/m2 is preferable. Clinicians should consider deferring treatment to women outside these guidelines. Women should be provided with assistance to lose weight, including psychological support, dietary advice, exercise classes and where appropriate, weight reducing agents or bariatric surgery. Even a moderate weight loss of 5–10% of body weight can be sufficient to restore fertility and improve metabolic markers.

Taken from the British Fertility organisation. So basically op it would be safer for your future child's health if you are a normal weight before you start fertility treatment not during or after.

All the overweight women I know have experienced miscarriages. That's not to say you will too, but the chances are greater so it really is important to look at the psychological side as to why you are fat and to face the fact that this is having a really negative impact on your chances of a successful pregnancy.

Good luck op

Kathryn Ryan the comedian talks about what she did on her podcast recently. She went to see a Harley St Dr who gave her steroids and conceived soon after.

A possibly stupid question, but has your partner had his fertility checked as well? Is he also following all the advice for maximising male fertility?

Following as I've been reading as much as possible. Have you taken coq10?

I would go for calorie counting. Plug everything into my fitness Pal. Get your target weight in there, you can do it. Focus less on what you eat and all the extra stuff and more on how much you eat and why you eat. Do things that make you feel good that aren't food.

How old are you? If you are approaching mid 30s then I would look into fertility treatments. If not, keep on doing what you are doing and maybe have a plan in place if you aren't pregnant in a year or two. Hopefully your time will come very soon x

@UltraVividLament

Yep we both got checked out and was both told we were fine. I had been told 2 years ago I had PCOS so had assumed I was the issue. After fertility checks privately they found I didn't have PCOS anyway.

They have offered me chlomid which I am going to do but wanted to do what I could myself also.

@ShaneTheThird

Yes I have been taking coq10 - however it ran out last week so I'm just waiting on my new order to come. I take so many pills but do forget some days - but most days I take them!

PCOS symptoms are often because you're eating highly inflammatory foods (processed foods, breads, sugars). Focus on whole foods and foods that support gut health.

It Starts With The Egg by Rebecca Fett is a really good book & I think Accupuncture really helps.

@Cherryblossoms85

My fitness pal is a good idea for tracking I used to do this years ago and it helped me manage my portions better- I've redownloaded today!

My only issue with it is I batch cook from scratch so if I'm making a stew for example I am guessing a lot of quantities as I dish up my husband bigger and more carby portions.

Generally my diet is pretty good I eat a lot of veg and cook from scratch all but once a week when we either get a takeaway or eat out so I get a night off.

I put on a lot of weight during lockdown last year with boredom snacking plus less exercise due to homeworking and haven't really shifted it.

I think now I've got a handle on my bad snacking the last few months I now need to be more active!! So I'm on that with the goals this year 💪

I would throw everything at your weight loss and look for something a bit more solid than portion control. Leafy vegetables, lean protein, cutting out sugar, complex (or no) carbs, good fat- with portion control and weighing. Exercise does very little for weight loss by itself.

Could you see a nutritionist or a personal trainer for a diet plan?

I know it’s very disheartening as lots of bigger girls get pregnant no problem but for some people if can really affect hormone response. I know a couple of girls in real life through my fitness circles who struggled to conceive and were pregnant very soon after significant weight loss.

@FingersXssd83

I turned 33 last month! I have been offered chlomid (they have given it to me but advised me to loose some weight too but to also not stress myself to loose weight 🤷🏻‍♀️🙈)

So I'm going to do the chlomid and try to shift some weight but wondered if there was anything else I could do to add to the list. It seems from comments clearly the weight is the biggest issue.

Have you tried SMEP?
Worked for me on month 5 twice.
Good luck OP!

I have done the Sperm Meets Egg Plan to conceive with both of my pregnancies (worked first time for each of them).

The gist of it is:

DTD every other day starting from CD 8.
Start testing with LH strips from CD 10.
When you get peak LH strip, DTD for 3 days in a row.
Miss a day, then DTD once more for luck.

Sorry if you have already tried it, but it really worked for me!

@ExPatHereForAChat @Flibbyjibby

SMEP was my aim but the 3 days daily DTD was too much pressure for DH 🙈

So from CD 8/9 we aim for every other day sometimes early on its every 3 days but always day of ovulation or day before and day after if that makes sense?

I also can't tell him I'm ovulating as that then causes too much stress to!! 😫🙈🤷🏻‍♀️

@Suprima

Thank you. I generally do stay away from processed foods and cook from scratch with lots of veg. I got into bad habits last year with snacking/wfh so that's the weight I've gained and now trying to shift before that I was always about a size 14.

Oddly I got covid in October and due to no taste I stopped eating sugar and caffeine for about 6 weeks and since haven't really had much and been less fussed. It's definitely addictive so maybe 6 weeks of none helped!! In that time I lost about 8lbs just from no sugar/chocolate or desserts.

Do you temp? If so how are your charts? I've had two babies, and took a few months each time. Both successful months I noticed my bbt charts were much more 'standard' like the picture of a perfect chart, especially in the follicular phase. The only thing I changed in those months was no alcohol. I usually drink lightly but by coincidence just had none those months. I don't think light drinking makes any difference to most women, but since you have irregular periods it might be worth a try. Pcos is a tricky diagnosis sometimes and it may be you have it very mildly, like I do. Alcohol increases oestrogen which can interfere with fertility, and this effect can be more pronounced in people with pcos. Worth a try if you are drinking alcohol at all.
Other than that, I agree with pp to focus on weight loss. Excess weight also leads to increased oestrogen I think, so perhaps a similar effect to the alcohol?
Good luck OP!

I totally get it. Both DH and I found SMEP really tiring and not fun. If we had to carry on longer, I don't know if we would have kept it up.

Have you used the ClearBlue indicator for predicting ovulation? You could DTD the day of your static smiley and the day after.

@Pigletting

Oh that's interesting cutting alcohol out altogether! I drink 2 or 3 alcoholic drinks a week roughly (it was more over Christmas!) I consider that a small amount 🙈

I can live without drinking though so il just cut it out altogether and see what happens!

In regards to BBT it never worked for me as I wouldn't test until up and out of bed - I understand staying in bed is better. I did consider an ovu egg the one you leave in overnight but it was pricey 🙈.

@ExPatHereForAChat

Oh is the clear blue one better for predictions than the cheap lh ones? Does it give you an indication before the smiley? Ie like the lh faint lines- Sorry don't know much about these ones!

Yep, it's a flashing smiley if you're peak LH surge is approaching and then a static smiley when you're about to ovulate.

I liked it but it's not cheap so only used it for a couple of months as I didn't want to shell out for more strips :/

Well if you can manage it give BBT a try. It was so informative for me - I learned so much about my cycle from it, and information is power! You'll be able to be certain you are actually ovulating every cycle too. £15 on a two decimal place bbt thermometer, and the free Fertility Friend app, and you're away ☺️

I think you could do with hormone profiling. FSH LH progesterone AMH to see if they fall in the 'Normal' category. Has your partner had a full semen analysis done? Motility mobility count sample volume viscosity forward progression?

Coq10 300mg daily minimum
DHE supplements.
Folic acid maximum dose.
Vitamin c

Wellman conception tablets and vitamin c for DH. Minimum of three months.

I’m definitely not an expert but have listened to quite a few podcasts around the topic. Some fertility dietitians have said that weight loss is not good for fertility. What they mean is that restricting your nutrition will just tell your body it’s not a good time to conceive. However you should focus on eating high quality, nutrition dense food and avoid processed foods, added sugar etc. Weight loss should be the side product of these habits. To me this makes sense. I conceived my eldest after few years once being on keto diet for some months. Used to eat loads of crap before.