Getting my Wild Yam On

What a difference a day makes! I was in a funk of a mood yesterday and not really sure why. Lack of sleep, hormones, who knows. I am pretty sure I ovulated one day sooner (CD21) than last cycle, and our "babydancing" was timed perfectly. That alone should make me happy! Sometimes I don't even understand my own moods, so God bless my husband for always going with the flow and being supportive.  I was a total hermit, staying inside with all the blinds closed while he was a normal person in society and went out to play golf for a few hours. Oh well, chalk it up to being a Gemini I guess.

I started taking wild yam yesterday, which is what I've been doing the past few cycles starting at 3 days past ovulation. For women with chronically low progesterone, such as myself, this can help with conception, because it increases the amount of progesterone in the body, which in turn can help maintain the uterine lining.  I seem to have chronically low progesterone and also a chronically thin uterine lining. Yay! Neither of these things make for great chances when TTC. :(

Well, if by the grace of God, the perfect sperm met the perfect egg and there is a fertilized egg in my body looking for a place to go right now (Please Lord let that be the case!), I want to provide a nice cushy spot for it to attach to and grow. I think of the uterine lining like a bed of soil. If you plant a seed in a pot, but you don't have enough soil in the bottom or on top of the seed, it can't take root. Or, if it does take root at first, it may eventually die. This is exactly how the uterine lining works. Without enough progesterone (which is the hormone that sustains the endometrium), the lining may be unable to provide a nice cushy bed of soil. A couple things can happen if progesterone is low and/or the lining is too thin:

1) The fertilized egg will have nowhere solid to attach to and will instead dissolve and end with an unsuccessful cycle and a period about two weeks later.

2) The fertilized egg may implant on the lining temporarily, but will later detach, unable to have a solid hold. This is what leads to early miscarriage sometimes. Do I think it's possible that could have been what happened to me with my miscarriage? Absolutely, it's possible.

That's one of the reasons some RE's prescribe progesterone to women during their luteal phase (the time after ovulation). Because I'm going all natural, I wanted to seek out natural alternatives to using synthetic progesterone. My acupuncturist recommended taking wild yam during my LP. Wild Yam is beneficial for women who have imbalanced hormones, including those who are TTC and also women going through menopause. It contains Diosgenin, a natural precursor to progesterone and works to increase progesterone in the body, therefore helping to maintain the uterine lining. I started off taking wild yam that was brewed from raw Chinese herbs by my acupuncturist, but I ran out over a weekend one time, and found it in pill form at a natural health store and have been taking this one now instead...

 

My acu says this one is perfectly fine to take, and I actually think it's stronger than the one she sells, because I notice stronger post-ovulation symptoms: higher post-ovulation temperatures, more tiredness, fullness of breasts, etc.  These can be indications of higher progesterone in the system. There are no ill side effects, and it's actually been shown to help prevent miscarriage when continued during the first trimester (just as synthetic progesterone has). I just want to help my hormones along naturally if I can, so I'm getting my wild yam on!

I'm taking the month off of acupuncture to save some money this cycle, but I'm continuing with herbs. And so we wait for about another week and a half to find out if our attempts this month were successful. I'm continuing with my Circle + Bloom meditations daily and visualizing all of the amazing things I HOPE are happening in my body right now.