Hi,

I did not know that caffeine was bad for those of us with pcos...I can't seem to get much from my doctor.

Does anyone have any info on fertility. I had a happy surprise and found out I was pregnant, only to miscarry. Now I worry it won't happen again. Does anyone have any info or perhaps some tips.

Just reading an article on this. I will probably post a more humerous bit elsewhere but this is the serious answer.


Vitamin C. University of Texas found that men who ate 200g of Vit C per day had higher sperm counts than men taking less.

Fertility expert Dr. Mark Goldstein says that the anti- oxidant action of Vit C also helps to prevent the cellular damage that causes sperm to clump together. " less clumping apparently means sperm are more likely to penetrate the egg"

Caffeine

A Danish study found women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day were 37% LESS fertile than those who stuck to a single cup.

Protein

Its seems to be the nutrient that aspiring mums need the most which is good news for low carbers. However use meat not tofu.
Soy can destroy sperm levels. It contains phytoestrogens, plant versions of female hormones, which feed back to the brain to turn of sperm production.

Selenium

170g of salmon contains 90 micrograms(mcg) of selenium, roughly the amount scottish researchers have shown may help sperm swim faster. The selenium subjects in the study had sperm that were 40% more active than the placebo takers.

preliminary research on selenium in rats showed that a deficiency may cause infertility. The jury is out on humans but studies done at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and at the University of Surrey Centre for Nutrition and Food Safety have found that women who miscarry have lower levels of selenium in their blood. Since selenium's known to have antioxidant properties, a deficit may leave embryonic cells less protected and threaten a pregnancy in its early stages.

Perhaps I won't after all post a "making babies the Low Carb way" Which was going to Give a "baby" menu of

Spanish omelettes ----VitaminC ... for Brekkie with Decaf Coffee
Roast Beef Salad...... Protein .. for lunch
Salmon Steaks ..... Selenium ... for supper

I will let a moderator decide whether this may have a wider appeal of another forum

Rustpot,


Thank you for the information. There were a lot of things I did not know. I will try to find out more about the two vitamins you mentioned. Again, thank you.

Salynda

Have you seen Dr. Charles Glueck's PCOS site? It appears he has done research on the PCOS/ pregnancy/ infertility subject and may be worth your copying for your dr. It gets rather technical for the majority of us, and in the end Glueck comes off sounding like a used car salesman, but his results sound well founded. Of course only your doctor will be able to make that judgement. My doctor was cerainly open to it, and ordered lab tests from the copy I made for her. I plan to bombard her with what research I can find from here on out. I suggest you become armed and dangerous to PCOS as well! LOL Good luck!

pepper

Sylanda,

No Worries, I have had PCOS since I was a teen (I have had the symptoms that long anyway, and my OBGYN has waffled back and forth on an actual diagnosis, I dont care if he ever does diagnose it, I dont want to be on drugs, I'd rather try this diet out) My husband and I have been trying for over 9 years to get pregnant. We finally did in September of 2000 (I wasnt on Clomid at the time) and miscarried and then got pregnant again in January 2001 only to miscarry again in March. I comiserate with you about wondering if I'll ever get pregnant again. But think about it this way....YOU CAN get pregnant, thats what you need to focus on. Dont obsess about it either, from what I understand about PCOS and a high carb diet is that it exacerbates the problem, causing no periods and no ovulation, so following the plan should start up your period and your ovulating.

Check out this site for some inspiration:
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/4981/

She tells an interesting story well worth reading.

Good luck, feel free to e-mail me. I know the sorrow you have been going through very intimately.

In case you're interested,I found another article on pcos and miscarriage/ treatment and prevention. Send me an e-mail address to send it to and I'll be happy to do it. I wish I had had the presence of mind to get the site address, but at least I saved it. I also wish I had had this kind of information when I miscarried.

pepper

Pepper, Please do send the article, is it peer reviewed? I would be most interested in reading it, what journal is it from?

Thanks Again!

elorajade~hotmail.com

pepper, please send me the article also..l could really use some answers right now. salynda - send it to starchaser~shaw.ca

thank you

salynda

Elorajade,

Do you find that the clomid has helped you at all? I tried it before but of course then i weighed 240 lbs and the doctor said i was not ovulating...now my periods are normal so they think i am ovulating. Do you think the clomid is working for you now. My heart goes out to you for your two miscarriages...I know how devestating my one was, I am finally feeling or not feeling so much about it now. And you are right I have to keep in my head that I can get pregnant......and I'll start with that.

By the way I used to live in Edmonton, there is a really good fertility doctor on the southside and a great GP called Dr. Roger Dodd, he used to have a walkin clinic but got so busy that he had to change it to appointments...he is truly one of the good ones.

Actually for the 1st baby I was ending my clomid cycle (I decided to be proactive and rather than waiting around to get preggy, I went back to University) The second came out of left field with no warning (I had a period after the miscarry - and apparently ovulated, we havent used BC in 9 years we never in a million years considered!) Since my miscarry in March '01 I have been too emotionally useless to even consider trying again. I am feeling better now and am having the "mommy cravings" (The urge to go forth and multiply)

I am currently seeing a Dr.Boulton (Millwoods) and he is being pretty proactive, he isnt a fertility specialist. Basically I was told by my GP that I must try to loose weight first before he will waste the gov'ts money on sending me to a fertility dr. (its a mans world!) And to be honest I would prefer to be lighter anyway. (Healthier for me and baby) Dr. Boulton dosent agree, he says that if I am up for it I can start the clomid regimin again and try to get pregnant. Part of me is terrified. Although I sometimes feel ready, I just dont think that I can go through another miscarriage. I think first I will see how much I can loose on this diet (The war is raging within me to finish my degree in a hurry now, or try again now and put off finishing the degree for a bit) Its always better to not try to get pregnant while on a "diet" anyway. (Or at least until I'm entering the transition phase)

Speaking of which, how long does a person stay in the induction phase?

Hey girls! Elora, did you get the page? It didn't come back to me and I wasn't sure if I had copied it down right. Salynda, getting ready to send to you. Please let me know if I get it to you. I'm doing a lot of research now in PCOS. Just might come up knowing all that the doctors know before too long. The research has been really light until the early nineties. Um NINETEEN nineties that is. Not like this hasn't been around for a long time. It's just that fertility tends to be a "woman's" problem. If I strike paydirt again, I'll be sure to let you in on it. One of the really sucky things about miscarriage is that most people who find out about it don't even look at it as a loss. And then they try to rationalize it to you, saying that it's not like you ever held it. No, that's true. I didn't GET to hold it. Baby was whisked out of the room before I could even say goodbye. Enough of that. Before I take off, I found a treadmill at a thrift store! Just needed a new plug on the end. WOO-HOO! Now on the cold and rainy days, I do my walking indoors. 2 weeks for induction phase. Don't forget your vitamins! Keep up the good work!

pepper

ps you're mommys-in-waiting!
God bless!

Pepper,

No I didnt get the page, try sending it to elorajade~shaw.ca my hotmail address can be a little tempermental (if you dont mind)

I have been doing lots of work trying to find out more about PCOS myself I have yet to get really serious about it. To be honest all I really want is a regular peroid, to be thinner and a baby. Damm... now I'm depressed again. Its all my professors fault I tell you! I was in my Developmental Psych class today and the Prof always shows the cutest clips of babies doing whatever! Anyway, enough babbling for me - thanks for the support!

Before MSN takes me out again, (I just got knocked out twice) I'll try to make this brief note. For some reason, My "bad dog" box came up on the screen and won't let me send you the page. But if you go to Ferti.net, The link is inthe Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. the top of the page looks like this:
JCEM -- Abstracts : Jakubowicz et al. 87 (2): 524 (all on one line of course) Okay, I'm gonna try to send this through again.

pepper