Stress

While suffering with infertility I always had a secret hope that I am sure is shared by many other people who pursue fertility treatments. I wanted more than anything to just miraculously get pregnant and prove all the doctors wrong, showing everyone that we weren't actually infertile and that we could get pregnant on our own. I did lots of reading about people who got pregnant after the HSG test and convinced myself that would happen to me too, but it didn't. I kept putting off the initial consultation with the Reproductive Endocrinologist thinking that I would have luck in the month before the appointment, to no avail. I tried a new tactic every month that was supposed… [more]

If you have reached a place where you feel like you are losing your mind with trying to become pregnant, you might want to consider taking a month or two off from trying to conceive. You might find that giving yourself a breather is just what you need to help you have the stamina to continue trying to conceive through various fertility treatments.

I was so goal-oriented when I was trying to conceive a child. All that mattered was that we try and try again until we were successful. I did not want any time off. If anything, I wanted to accelerate my life so I would know immediately if the last try was successful so we could try again. I thought that I could… [more]

We continued the fertility treatments throughout the summer and fall of 1998. The fertility procedures were consuming my life.

I had multiple doctor appointments each month between the follicle tracking, intrauterine inseminations (IUIs), and pregnancy tests. (The progesterone would cause a false positive if I took a home pregnancy test, so if my period was late, I would have a blood test performed at the doctor's office.)

When I wasn't at the doctor's office, I was running to the drug store for Clomid, barbiturates for the migraines, and the progesterone supplements. I finally switched drugs, replacing the generic Clomid with the brand name Serophene. I tolerated that drug better and was able to manage the migraines with Excedrin Migraine… [more]

Continuing along the lines of stress and how it relates to fertility, I found the following question and answer at www.ivillage.com. Click here to read the full article. The woman with the question felt that her stress was affecting her ability to conceive since there were no findings from her testing. She wanted to know what she could do to help reduce her stress. Dr. Mark Perloe was the doctor who wrote the response to her. He did a great job of explaining that stress can affect ovulation, hormone production, and the immune system. According to Dr. Perloe, here are his suggestions for stress reduction: Strive for more open communication with your partner and other important people in your life. Ask your partner what she or he needs… [more]

Holding Hands I subscribe to a newsletter that gives little "bites" of health articles. All of the infertility and fertility bites, I send along to this blog and comment on my experience with them. This article has more to do with one of the benefits of being in a couple. I figured since the majority of us are in a relationship at the time that we are building our families, that this might be helpful. And the information here could also be used during treatments for infertility. In an American study at the University of Virginia researchers found that women had an immediate and marked stress reduction response after taking hold of their loved one's hand. The women's responses were measured with an MRI. The… [more]

This week was a rough one. Hormones and stress don't mix too well in my life and this week was a rough blend of both. My moods are normally pretty uneven, but on weeks like this they give new meaning to peaks and valleys. Anything that seems like it might work, is worth trying for the sake of my soul and the sake of my little family. Tuesday morning already started out crazy, then a tiny little phone conversation threw me over the edge. Nothing bad, nothing really at all, just an interaction that I overreacted to, which is not at all uncommon for me in hormonal times like these. In the magazine that I was reading, there was a blurb about How to Break Out… [more]

So I went to see my always happy, never stressed acupuncturist, Dr. Jiao, and he immediately looked at me and said my face didn't look so "good." I told him about my dental problems, how I'd basically given myself non-cavity cavities by clenching my teeth so hard that they cracked, and of course I also mentioned my dad's great teeth, which led Dr. Jiao to mention that he went to a dentist once in 16 years (not 16 months, mind you) and his teeth, of course, like my dad's, were perfect. No stress here. It's pathetic to admit (which I did not, to Dr. Jiao), that I used to even get stressed about acupuncture, because I hate needles. Because I have… [more]

My son just lost a front tooth, which is very cute. There was another tooth behind it, just waiting to take its place. I mentioned in an earlier post that even though my father went through starvation conditions during the Korean War, he died without a single cavity. We kids were raised in a somewhat similar way, in that we didn't get much in the way of sugar and soda, especially not in comparison with the typical American diet. So I have perfect teeth, too. The kind that make dentists peer in my mouth and go, "Wow!" My dentist in New York City was so sad when I moved, he pretended he was going to cry. He didn't even care… [more]

There is another reason I am drinking lots of green tea (and coffee). I need the strength to get through our taxes. Being a writer is stressful enough (think of facing the blank page every day) but the tax thing is a chronic worry. We have tons of unreimbursed medical expenses because of our son, and then I have the complications of my freelance work. I try to keep good notes, calendars, copies of receipts, but then when it's time to go flying out the door to another doctor's appointment, often I am forced to just chuck the receipts in an ever growing mess of a file, or scribble something in a calendar that will be a complete mystery… [more]