The Roller Coaster

Who among women and couples who have experienced infertility can forget the monthly cycle of pain?

Maybe you have been taking your temperatures orally or vaginally.

Maybe you have been timing intercourse to correspond with day 14 of your cycle.

Maybe you have spent an entire month (or many months!) on a special diet. Or on injectible hormones. Or taking Clomid between particular days leading up to ovulation.

Maybe you’ve had an endless string of blood tests checking hormone levels, predicting when you will or will not ovulate. Or peed on countless, confusing ovulation predictor kids (OPK’s). Maybe it was the endless sonograms. Or that “cyst” on your ovary that the technician or doctor mentioned to you with a concerned and furrowed brow (this cyst usually “disappears” later on in the ultrasound/sonogram process, with little or no explanation).

Or maybe you’ve been trying to conceive (TTC) for a year (or more) with no success.

Maybe you were pregnant with your first (or second or third) easily, within a few months, at most, but now 6 months have passed and you are still not pregnant.

Isn’t that weird?

Is it because you are too old?

Is something wrong with you?

Is this indicative of a larger problem?

These are the questions I am asked over and over again in my practice. The answer, incidentally, usually is “no.” And the backgrounds, though varied, predictably lead to the same roller coaster.

Insemination has occurred via natural means or IUI, or enhanced with medications. Embryos or sperm and eggs have been surgically implanted trough GIFT or ZIFT or IVF. And now the waiting begins. The 2 Longest Weeks of any waiting woman (couple’s) life.

The gas, the migraines, the nausea, the sore breasts…every symptom seems to be a symptom of pregnancy…or early miscarriage. The woman begins to believe that she is pregnant. Or crazy. One day the hopes are sky high. The next day they are the lowest of the low. She tries to pacify herself by turning her attentions to other activities. But no matter how hard she tries, this would-be-mother finds herself imagining whether the would-be-baby is a boy or a girl (or both!)…what names would suit him or her and so on and so forth.

Sometimes the period comes on time, as expected; the worst fear materialized. Sometimes it doesn’t come at all. Pregnancy tests ensue and they all come back negative. But should the women trust them? Trust her instincts? Eventually when the period comes, late, the woman wonders, was it an early miscarriage? Something else?

Trying to conceive is indeed an emotional and physical roller coaster for the great majority of women. But it doesn’t have to be.

With Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) I will show you how to know exactly what is going on in your body at any given moment. Except in the case of a very rare woman (I have never personally encountered such a woman), you will know when and if you ovulated, why your period is late, if you had an early miscarriage or if you are even fertile at all. Yes, there is still a “wait and see” period of time, but that period is highly defined and easy to understand.

Women feel in control and in charge of their fertility. They feel empowered by knowing how to read their signs. Sometimes they feel angry and hurt that no one ever told them how to do this before. They want their friends to learn. They want their daughters to learn. They want to share this information with others so that they, too, can have the answers they seek.

There are many FAM instructors all the world over. A quick google search will likely find one (or two) in your area. I can (and do) even recommend a few to my clients, who like to learn the method more deeply. Recently, a woman who visited me to learn more about FAM decided that she was going to make being a FAM instructor her full-time career and is currently establishing her new practice! It’s that amazing!

For many women, FAM alone is enough to lead to conception and a healthy pregnancy. But for some, FAM reveals deeper issues that can usually be remedied with herbs or diet/lifestyle changes.

Typically we will know very quickly, within a few months at most, where you fit into that spectrum. But one thing is certain, when you are working with me, you will be taking an active role in your fertility and you will feel empowered and proactive, every step of the way.

It is not necessary to read Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health before scheduling an appointment with me, but it will certainly guarentee you a head start.