Infertility part 2

So I was pretty upset and there was no way we could afford going for the "serious" infertility treatment. So that's when I got back on the web and found an interesting little article by Dr. John R. Lee. You may have heard of him, he is a well known authority on the benefits of using natural hormone supplements to balance women's hormones particularly in menopausal women. The article I stumbled across talked about estrogen dominance and the surprising number of women who suffered from this along with a list of symptoms. I was fairly intrigued by this article and especially how Dr. Lee used progesterone cream to treat infertility in his patients by placing them on the cream for 3 months from days 5 to 26, stopping on day 26 to bring on menstruation. This made sense to me, if you are short in progesterone, why not boost your body up a bit first. I didn't even have to do that.

I was even more determined to try this when I approached a local pharmacist regarding the cream and Dr. Lee and she had heard about him and indeed, recently attended a seminar on the uses of progesterone cream. Being a woman about to enter the menopausal years, she was curious to discover more. With material prepared by her and, of course, Dr. Lee's facts, I was able to approach my family doctor with the information and he was willing to prescribe the cream to me.

From then on, I basically had to "quack" myself. My family doctor didn't quite seem to get it, neither did the pharmacist, they weren't thinking infertility and the whole ovulation cycle so I proceeded on my own once I had the cream in my hands. Solely by reviewing the information in this article, I used a fertility monitor to track ovulation, once I determined that I had ovulated I promptly began using the recommended dosage of progesterone cream and continued using it for 14 days. I did a pregnancy test on day 14 and if the test was negative, then I discontinued the cream.

It took me only two months to achieve a successful pregnancy. The first month I missed my ovulation because my cycles were so irregular.  The 2nd month I was bang on. I was in complete shock and I tested five times before I told my husband, then I tested daily until my appointment with the doctor to confirm the pregnancy. We were ecstatic. Naysayers, of course, will say it was coincidence etc. but after more than two years I was suddenly pregnant and went on to deliver a lovely and healthy baby girl. When we were thinking about baby number two, I simply stopped using birth control because it's often true that it's easier to get pregnant the second time around because your hormones are balanced etc. Well, nine months later of using no protection hadn't worked for us so I went back to my doctor and got more progesterone cream. That month I didn't even think I had ovulated, my cycles were so out of whack, I used the cream anyways and thought there was always the next month. What to my surprise then when I tested, on a hunch, I was indeed pregnant again.

I wish more people were aware of the uses of progesterone cream for fertility. The focus seems always to be on menopause when there are so many cases of unexplained infertility out there. My problem was that my hormones were probably borderline, sufficient for the appropriate test levels but not for conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy, so I got swept aside. If it hadn't been for that article, I never would have tried progesterone cream and may never have had three beautiful children. 

Now almost 7 years later I can gloss over the whole event in my life with relative ease. However, it was one of the most painful periods of time in life.  I still remember the heartache of waiting month after month for some sort of sign of pregnancy, for answers as to why "not me too".  I spent countless hours researching articles on infertility, joined groups, listened to all sorts of zany advice from well meaning people.  I even spent hours looking at children to adopt overseas. If we could have done it financially, we would have been there in a heart beat. Now, I have been blessed and thankfully I don't have to look back at that period in our lives very often but when I do, I can turn and look at the three smiling faces of my babes.  I just wish I could share my knowledge with others and have someone else benefit from my experience.  The few tentative feelers I've put out have met, so far, with silence.  

 

suggested articles:

Progesterone Deficiency Article

Dr. John Lee,md