Fertility supplements: my experience

I mentioned in a previous post that I would write about the supplements I have taken.  I just want to first say that I am not a doctor and you may want to consult with your doctor before using any supplements (it’s truly at your descretion).  If you do go down a supplement route please be sure to take them for at least 3 cycles to see the benefits and stop after 3-4 cycles as your body can adapt to them and they can do more harm than good at that point.

I first tried Vitex (Chaste berry) back in 2012 before I had surgery and of course it did nothing for me as I had underlying medical issues (uterine growth, polyps and a cyst).  I took it for 2 months with no change in my cycle so then I stopped.  I started it back up again when I was referred to a FS and took it again from Jan-Feb (2 months again) and it seemed to bring on the sporadic bleeding more often.  I stopped using it.  I didn’t find any use for it nor did it benefit my situation whatsoever (I took 3 pills 3 times a day).  All the research I did prior to using it said great and wonderful things about it!  But it’s hard to say if it would have worked had I taken it for 3 full cycles..  Vitex works by regulating the pituitary gland and can help regulate your ovulation.

I disocvered Symplex F, off of a baby bump post.  A woman stated she couldn’t concieve for years (I can’t remember the exact number but at the time I remember it was longer than I had been trying).  She started taking symplex F and concieved her son after only 3 months!  Seemed like a dream come true.  I couldn’t find much information regarding it on the web.  In fact I was amazed at the lack of information out there.  Symplex F is said to help balance your hormones, more specifically your estrogen to progesterone ratio.  I started it in March 3 pills a day and noticed a change in May.  It seemed to help with my mid cycle spotting/bleeding and I began to notice a regulation in my cycle from 26-45 days to 35-40 days.  5 days off but from previous cycles, that’s not too bad.  After 4 cycles my ovulation had been right at cd 29 but unfortunately I didn’t stop and the next cycle my hormones were so off balanced the mid cycle spotting/bleeding returned.  With symplex F I received my first ever cycle with ovulaton and have thought to go back to it.  I had no sx with this supplement either.  It is pricey and can only be found online.

I implemented Maca Root into my regimen in Aug of 2,000mg a day and saw a difference with my cycle immediately. Maca helps with balancing of hormones and I figured it couldn’t hurt taking it.  It seemed to help stablize my hormones enough to stablize my cycles but it was short lived after another 3 cycles they no longer seemed to make a difference.  I experienced little side effects from Maca which was only a higher labido and energy.

While taking maca root I began taking Royal Jelly.  It was said to help mature and improve the quality of the eggs.  I took 2,000 mg a day in dried freezed capsule forms and have no real proof if it helped me but I always thought my energy was increased due to this and the maca root.  I had no negative sx on this supplement and it seemed to overal be a no brainer taking the pills.  I stopped the supplement when I stopped all the supplements in Oct/Nov.

I tried B6 (200mg a day) between July-Sept and didn’t see a difference in my cycles.  It’s said to lengthen your luteal phase (LP) and help increase your progesterone production.  It didn’t seem to have an effect either way on my LP.  I stopped it in Oct/Nov and had no noticable sx while taking it.

I had tried Soy Iso Flavones in the past with no induced ovulation and tired it again in Nov when I had realized I am taking far too long in my cycle to ovulate.  It is said to work like Clomid by tricking your body to produce more estrogen to mature the follicle faster and bring on ovulation sooner.  In the past as mentioned I had taken it each time 160 mg from cd 5-9.  It’s said the strenght is half of the strength of Clomid so to reach 50mg equivalent to Clomid you woul need to take 100mg of Soy Iso.  I took a little over that each time equivalent to 90mg of Clomid and it did not bring on a sooner ovulation.  It could be I didn’t take enough of it or Clomid and Soy Iso doesn’t work for me… hard to say really.  I had daily headaches like Clomid from cd 9- expected af.

Through all the research I have read and personal experiences I have come across Vitamin D3.  This is much different than the vitamin you gain from milk, so increasing your milk consumption will not benefit your vitamin d3 level.  It’s best to have this tested by your Dr. to see if your levels are low.  I as usual didn’t ask and just began taking the supplement in 2014.  I have to say once I started taking this supplement I noticed my hair went from a brown color to a reddish color.  Vitamin D3 does effect your fertility and if your have a deficency it could prevent pregnancy by messing up your homrones and preventing ovulation.  I had no undesireable sx by this supplement and have recently begun taking it again.

I have literally within the last 4 days discovered licorice root.  It is said to help move up ovulation and improve low progesterone in your LP.  The bottle clearly warns you to avoid taking if you have high blood pressure, insuline issues or have been diagnoised with diabetes or have liver functioning issues.  I do not so I have begun taking this supplement as the bottle suggests (2 pills 3x a day with meals).  It could lower your potasium so it’s recommened to eat a banana a day when taking this supplement. The very, very little information I have found on the web has stated you take this supplement as you would Clomid (cd3-7 or cd5-9) but take the amount as the bottle suggests and no more than 7 days total.  As I started spotting very early in my last cycle when the flow turned “light” I started the licorice root the next day.  I plan to take the licorice root from cd 2-9 @ 900mg 3x a day.  I know this sounds like a lot but after the first day of taking it my af had picked up.  I’m hoping it helps with my uterine bleeding issues.

Supplements and vitamins I have taken with each other are as follows.

-Vitex, prenatal and vitamin d3.
-Symplex F, maca root, royal jelly, vitamin d3, b6, prenatal and folic acid.
-Clomid, symplex F, vitamind d3, b6, prenatal and folic acid.

So these are the supplements I have tired and what my experience with each have been.  Again, please consult with your dr if you have any medical conditions.  Each supplement will affect you differently than it has effected me; it may work for you or it could cause further damage.  Please do your research, I recommened naturalfertility.com.  Smaller dosages are more benefical than larger dosages so for example with Soy Iso you should always start with a lower dose of 40mg.  Make sure you are drinking plenty of water while on any supplements which is half your body weight in ounces.

A light exercise regimen could help increase your pituitary gland function and help balance hormones.  If you have never been to a doctor and have no idea if you’re ovulating or not, please consider doing BBT charting through fertilityfriend.com before taking anything more than a prenatal or folic acid.  If you already ovulate some of these supplements could hinder your ovulation ability so be weary when starting any new supplement.  Do your research and seriously consider the pros verses cons aspect.  Good luck to all the women in their TTC journey.  May the lines be ever in your favor.

What happened in 2014?

Since I last wrote on this blog, a lot has happened.  For one I feel more knowledgeable regarding infertility and the process of getting pregnant.  A quick update as far as what went on in 2014.  The last post I wrote was about being referred to a fertility specialist (FS).  I ended up cancelling my appointment with them as I was starting to receive all these bills for the surgery I had in 2013.  I briefly touched based about my surgery in the “infertility story” post.  Here’s what occurred in 2014 and first off I’d like to say I didn’t forget about this blog, I just got distracted as usual.

In January I was referred to a FS which I cancelled the appointment a week before I was scheduled to go.  I started doing more research about how the body becomes pregnant and googling my symptoms (sx) more.  I came across few blogs, articles, post or even vlogs where my experience matched others.  Still, occasionally if I googled one sx I would come across an forum where tons of women were experiencing my one sx.  I was having mid cycle bleeding/spotting in my last half of my cycles.  I was not getting pos opks and I was continuing Basel body temping (bbt charting).

I came across a forum where a women shared her experience with a supplement called “Symplex F”.  I was initially very intrigued to try the supplement although no vitamin store in town stocked it.  I began looking elsewhere as you can imagine and came across the supplement on Amazon.  I purchased it and received it in March of 2014 where I started 3 pills a day.  In may I experienced my first “normal” cycle ever in my life.  Here’s how my last 7 cycles have gone since April of 2014.

Apr/May= 40 day cycle w/ pos opk and confirmed O on cd 23.  *I was ecstatic when I received the pos opk.  I took maybe 20 in the span of 24 hrs lol.  But the excitement quickly faded each passing day when I received BFN after BFN and then af started.

May/Jul= 38 day cycle w/ pos opk cd 26, confirmed O on cd 29. *When the cycle started I was excited to finally be able to stop and start a “flow” and complete a cycle.  I continued to take the supplements and at this point it I was taking them for 4 months.  Again the excitement faded with each passing BFN and then an “early” af.

July/Aug= 35 day cycle w/ pos opk on cd27 and confirmed O on cd 29.  *I was shocked when I ovulated on the same day.  I was even more shocked when af came after only a 35 day cycle.  How depressing.  I began reading information online once again and determined that you should only take supplements for at the most 3 months or you may adapt to them and cause further issues.  I was too scared to stop them though and instead I began taking maca root.  I didn’t even have a chance to test for pregnancy that cycle but silly me and reading the conflicting stories of women having “early” afs in early pregnancy I tested until my af stopped on the following cd 7.

Aug/Sept= 39 day cycle w/ pos opk 27 and 28! Confirmed O on cd 29.  *I was thrilled the maca seemed to be working.  Again oing on the same cd as the previous 2 cycles but just as the previous months my excitement soon became dread when I began spotting on cd 29-cd31.  I began reading more information online about spotting around ovulation and noticed that every site/blog/article claimed it was a good thing to spot during O as it shows a “strong ovulation” (their words not mine).  Of course the thrill of thinking I O’d big time quickly faded as everything else had when the spotting returned on cd 35 and I spotted until af showed.  I assumed I needed to use progesterone cream and decided I would try to go without the supplements.  So I stopped them all but the prenatal.

Sept/Nov= 47 day cycle w/ pos opk 18/19 and confirmed O on cd 19. *I thought for sure I was pregnant this cycle.  I did use the progesterone cream from cd 22-36.  When af didn’t show I began testing like a mad women.  I feared stopping the progesterone was a bad idea but I stuck to my guns and decided if I got a pos hpt I would start using it again.  I tested every morning from cd 31-47.  Spotting did begin on cd 38 but again all those conflicting stories of women having a what they thought was a period was a sign of pregnancy.  However, a 100 negative tests later and my flow still had not started.  I was beyond frustrated and the morning of what would have been cd 48 I started a “flow” and knew af was here.

Nov/Dec= 37 day cycle w/ suspected O on cd 22. *I was so heartbroken by the previous cycle that I completely stopped temping, testing w/ opks and taking the supplements.  I cried for about 2 weeks until I thought, “What if this would be the cycle I could conceive and have a normal cycle?”… so with that I started temping again.  It was too late to use opks as I buy them online so I order a bundle that wouldn’t arrive until mid Dec.  I received the temp rise on cd 22 and temped for the next 3 days where my temp stated elevated.  I stopped temping at that point and when I was around 5 dpo I started lightly spotting brown.  It was the first time I suspected implantation in my entire TTC journey.  I began to get excited which quickly faded as typical when the spotting didn’t stop and my “flow” began on what would have been cd 38.

Dec/Jan= 35 day cycle w/ pos opk on cd 26-28, FF gives me CH on cd 26? *I was happy again when I received the pos opk on cd 26 but once again I experienced some spotting on cd 28 which triggered me to test again with an opk to see what was going on and that’s why there is a split from cd 26-28 where I tested.  I started using progesterone cream again on cd 29.  The spotted didn’t stop.  At times it seemed to let up but ultimately it never stopped until I woke up to a flow on what would have been cd 36.  So another bust.

Jan/Feb= I am still on this cycle.  All I can say at this point is I am on cd 3 and I have discovered a new supplement licorice root.  There was hardly any information out there on this supplement aside from having estrogen and progesterone balancing assistance.  I will write a separate posts for all these supplements I have tired but I’m just hoping my cycle becomes normal.  I am now nearly 30 and still ttc #1.  I have no idea how much longer this journey is going to take me and I am nowhere near ready to give up.  I am in the process of finding a new doctor but I am hesitant as I don’t want my weight and hx to be pushed in my face as my issue at hand.

Let’s not give up ladies.