Fertility Enhancing Diets

I just posted some general tips here but note that while these tips work for both men and women, but there are some additional supplements that each gender should have such as selenium for men and iron for women:

Diet Tips
Dietary changes will depend on your individual constitution but generally these are good things to do and will help with your general health as well as your reproductive health -- I've read a lot of books over the past couple years about hormone balance, fertility, stress, fibroids, and alternative medicine:

Increase consumption of leafy greens -- these help your body with hormone balance and production and contain calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and vitamin d plus folic acid all of which are excellent for your fertility and the combination of them is easier for your body to digest.

Cut out simple sugars -- don't eat sweets and cut back on simple carbs as well as these foods are just empty calories and lack nutritional value. Too much sugar can affect your immune system and increase stress on your adrenals and all cells throughout your body. Have a piece of fruit instead. My acupuncturist has told me that even fruit juices contain too much sugar unless diluted.

Increase dietary fiber -- this helps to get rid of excess estrogen which takes a burden off of your liver.

Increase healthy fats in your diet -- more unsaturated fats and less saturated and hydrogenated fats.

Increase anti-oxidents -- Vitamin E and Vitamin C both help to fix cellular damage and heal tissues.

Cut out caffeine -- another adrenal stressor and can impede fertility.

Cut back on dairy -- we're not baby cows and the calcium in cow milk isn't easily absorbed without magnesium (and Vit D but they add that in). This is more controversial, my doctor told me that I would need a lot of calcium if I got pg but my acupuncturist says that the milk causes pelvic congestion and I got pregnant after following his directions and not after following my MDs so I've made up my mind. I just have a little dairy when I'm craving it.

Eat organic, whole foods as much as possible -- Processed foods and regular animal products are full of additives and chemicals which interfere with the endocrine system.

Here are some books you might want to refer to for more information about fertility/diet/hormonal and reproductive health:

Healing with Whole Foods

The Infertility Cure The author hosts fertility retreats and has a website with some recipes on it.

Healing Fibroids

Thyroid Power

Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements

Inconceivable -- I haven't read it but it is supposed to be hardcore into diet and lifestyle changes. The author has a website with some recipes on it: http://www.fertileheart.com/foods/p.fd.soups.html

About Ovulation

The ovaries are full of thousands of eggs held in hormonal stasis in their "primordial follicle" which is a androgen dominant environment. This is the pool from which follicles are constantly being recruited into the maturation process which can take 3 months from early maturation up until the time of ovulation. Maturation of the egg/follicle requires changing the environment within the follicle from androgen dominant to estrogen dominant.

Not all eggs that start the maturation process are developed all the way that you might see them on an u/s prior to ovulation, these ones were lucky and their development synched up with the hormonal cycle perfectly so they could mature up to the point of ovulation.

Ovulation itself is a series of hormonal events the LH, a little progesterone to ripen the follicle, a drop in estrogen are some of these changes. Hormonal imbalances can interfere with this process, as evidenced by women with PCOS whose follicles don't properly mature.

So, if there are imbalances that are interfering with hormones on subtle levels it can throw off the follicular development and you might end up with an functional ovarian cyst, a partially ruptured follicle, no ovulation, or maybe delayed ovulation. If ovulation doesn't happen normally then there's a good chance that even if you release the egg then the follicle isn't going to change over as well into the corpus luteum, the structure that produces the progesterone which causes a lot of changes in our bodies that make it receptive to accept a tiny embryo (I have a lot of information about progesterone but that will have to be a different post if you are interested)

Here are some links about ovulation, you also might check out The Infertility Cure by Randine Lewis which has an interesting chinese medicine explanation of ovulation through the cycle phases that I enjoyed.

http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/figures/234fig4.jsp

http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/section18/chapter234/234a.jsp

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1340.htm

Advice to someone trying to build their iron stores before surgery...

I've been working on building my blood over the past months, I had some bleeding problems related to my miscarriage that have left me anemic once again.

Here's a totally wacky suggestion but since I was just up in the Andes you should know that your body will produce more red blood cells at higher altitudes. You could plan on spending the next month up at a higher elevation.

I don't have it in front of me but the book Healing with Whole Foods (Pitchford) had suggestions for what to take for anemia. You might check it out at a book shop if you have time; I love this book as it provides information on how to correct illness and various conditions through diet. B6, B12, Magnesium, Vitamin C and of course Iron work together to bolster blood development. There was some other theory about transmutation or something where one other nutrient turns into iron into the body but I don't remember what it was you have to read the book.

There are also blood building herbs you can take, from what I recall these are yellowdock, nettles, and dong quai but I wouldn't use them on my own -- better to work with an herbalist, naturopath or chinese medical specialist than dabble. Also, since surgery is so close at most you might be able to use them for a couple of weeks.

If you are still bleeding in the meantime Potassium is supposed to help control bleeding so make sure you are getting enough in your diet. Also, things like garlic and onions are blood thinners so you will want to be careful of that.

I just wanted to show you this quote that I just found which explains from a chinese medicine perspective why just eating iron rich foods might not help treat anemia:

"Of course, knowing that a patient suffers from a specific type of anemia may influence the treatment strategy as a whole, i.e., if a patient suffers from iron deficiency anemia, iron rich foods and possibly iron supplements should be consumed. However, even in such a scenario, if the patient suffers from the spleen and stomach vacuity weakness pattern of blood vacuity, iron supplementation plays only a secondary role; the fortification of the spleen and stomach are primary. As long as foods are not absorbed correctly, no iron supplement will be of any help. This explains why certain iron deficiency anemia patients fail to improve even though they are on megadoses of iron." (from A Clarification of Andrew Gaeddert’s Article Key Blood-Building Strategies)

I've been eating lots of iron rich foods, even more so since I've been back from vacation and I'm still ailing -- pale gums, pettichae (little red spots on my breasts that are associated with anemia in Western medicine). When I went to see my acupuncturist yesterday he said I had blood stagnation and qi depletion and already after one treatment I'm feeling a bit better though we still have a ways to go. He's going to treat me with herbs after this period (which started today) is finished. Hopefully I'm not going to be hemorrhaging again, so far so good.

Anemia & Iron Rich Foods

Here are some links to pages with information about iron rich foods and some others about anemia generally. B vitamins are also important in healty blood production so make sure you eat a balanced diet with enough B vitamins.

Rules about iron include - take it with vitamin C, don't overcook foods (steaming is best), antacids, calcium (dairy products) and caffeine all block absorption so definately don't take at the same time. Iron from red meat and liver (heme iron) is more easily absorbed than from plant sources (non-heme) though taking non-heme foods at the same time as heme foods can improve iron absorption.

Here's a great link about iron absorption

Also, since some of the iron supplements are hard on people's stomachs I though I would share what I'm taking which hasn't caused me any difficulty (although if you are severely anemic this probably isn't strong enough) -- Nutrition Now Chewable Iron (25 mg of elemental iron per tab -- though they recently changed their formulation to ferric pyrophosphate and I don't recommend it anymore. Others I've met online have had good luck with Slow FE or Floradix.

"Which forms of supplemental iron are best?
All iron supplements are not the same. Ferrous iron (e.g. ferrous sulfate) is much better absorbed than ferric iron (e.g. ferric citrate).13 14 The most common form of iron supplement is ferrous sulfate, but it is known to produce intestinal side effects (such as constipation, nausea, and bloating) in many users. Some forms of ferrous sulfate are enteric-coated to delay tablet dissolving and prevent some side effects,16 but enteric-coated iron may not absorb as well as iron from standard supplements. Other forms of iron supplements, such as ferrous fumarate, ferrous gluconate, heme iron concentrate, and iron glycine amino acid chelate are readily absorbed and less likely to cause intestinal side effects."
From: Vitacost's Iron Information page


What foods contain high amounts of iron?

Eat Iron-Rich Foods

Iron: Vegan Society

Menorrhagia Diet

Iron

How much iron do certain foods contain?

Iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy: a short account

Iron Deficiency Anemia

Iron Balance - explains iron intake, losses and affects of iron
deficiency in women

Anemia and Fatigue

Iron Deficiency

and kind of unrelated but interesting information:

Workshop on Maintaining Iron Balance in Women Blood Donors of Child-Bearing Age

Since I got pg last spring I've noticed some changes in my cycle. Some of the changes are hard to know if they are sticking around since I had retained tissue until my surgery and second d&c in November and my body is still healing from the surgery. Still, there are some things like fibrocystic breasts that I've not experienced since before my BFP.

Here's what I've noticed:

BEFORE AF is heavy but fluctuates between flooding, clotting, heavy flow and medium flow and lasts at least 7 days Goes directly from period (AF for Aunt Flo) into lots of cervical fluid (CF) Copious fertile quality CF for 5 days before ovulation Full, sore breasts during luteal phase (LP) Really moody during LP Pimples on chin during LP Nightsweats during LP Half day of spot before AF arrives

AFTER AF is really heavy and fluctuates between straight blood (bright red), little to no clotting, heavy flow and medium flow and lasts at least 6 days Slow start on CF after AF, definately drier CM for 5 days before ovulation, mostly creamy and not really wet Pimples on chin around ovulation Scant EWCF for a day or two at most Full breasts in the LP, they don't hurt Tired during LP Faint pimples on chin during LP Nightsweats during LP and throughout the cycle Several days of spot before AF arrives

I'm going to be working with my acupuncturist again starting this week, hopefully that helps out a lot. I've been trying to address my post-surgery depletion with my diet as well but I may have to meet with my naturopath if I think I need more help on that end of things. It's so wacky to have things be so different even though my diet and lifestyle isn't that different.