The Hemp Connection:
ivf

One of the most difficult parts of working with PCOS is how hard it is to help cysters understand the widespread effects of their diagnosis. The tendency is to focus on the symptom causing the most distress in the moment, and to look for relief from that distress, even if it isn't helping the core issue.

So, for example, women who are focused on infertility, tend to be caught up in ways to have a child, and to not think about what it's going to take to keep that pregnancy, how to nurse the child, and how to stay healthy until that child grows up to produce grandchildren.

One very nice woman I worked with who had PCOS was only willing to work with me for one appointment. It seemed, as we worked through my assessment questions, that she was realizing that what was going to result from our time together, was that she would need to address her binge eating behavior in order to reduce her carbohydrate intake and manage her blood glucose. She politely told me that she had decided that she would be better off pursuing in vitro fertilization (IVF), and if she developed gestational diabetes, she would call me to schedule another appointment.

I felt very sad about this, because this woman was not young, and fertility was not something to take for granted. And it seemed to me that the bigger picture here was that if the binge eating was not addressed, she may never get to the point where she was pregnant and in need of my help! But I couldn't tell her that. My job is to accept my clients where they are at and maybe plant a seed or two that encourages seeing things in new and different ways.

Which brings me to my topic for today.

Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) is a blood marker of inflammation, a degenerative process that has been identified in women with PCOS.

In a study of 63 women receiving IVF, it was found that CRP increased in conjunction with this treatment. Even if the women were taking metformin.

There is such a mentality in our country that we are entitled to have access to medical treatments for whatever ails us, and that we should expect that these treatments are risk free. That simply isn't the case. IVF produces many beautiful babies, but that doesn't mean it isn't without its issues.

What isn't even considered here…is the effect of an active inflammatory process on the developing fetus who has no choice but to live in that environment for nine months?

Is it just me…or doesn't it seem that if you want a baby that badly, that this baby deserves the absolute best possible environment in which to live and thrive from day one in utero? Which means taking a serious inventory of all of the nutritional and lifestyle choices we make that interfere with that on behalf of the new life that we want to create? And making some sacrifices in that department?

Just a little something to think about.

Kjøtrød SB, Romundstad P, von Düring V, Sunde A, Carlsen SM. C-reactive protein levels are unaffected by metformin during pretreatment and an IVF cycle in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Fertil Steril. 2008 Mar;89(3):635-41. Epub 2007 Jun 4.

I have had a handful of inquiries in the last week about an inCYST fertility consultation. I thought I would lay out, honestly, what it is we do and what we do not do, in order that you know exactly what it is you are contacting us for when you do, and to prevent disappointment by hoping we might be something we are not.

1. We do not make babies. We are not fertility clinics. If what you are looking for, is someone to give you a baby, a fertility clinic is where you should be asking for help.

2. We DO, if there is anything about your lifestyle that has the potential to interfere with fertility…be it sleep, nutrition, activity, stress management…have a strong ability to identify what it is and to help you replace the behavior in question with a more fertility-friendly option.

3. We DO assume that you are willing to make changes in your behavior and that this is an active partnership. We cannot live those lifestyle changes for you. We cannot become pregnant for you.

4. We DO NOT consider ourselves to be an"either — or" issue, in competition with the fertility industry. In fact, I am quite surprised at how few of our fans do not invest in a proactive inCYST consultation on deciding to go with IVF. If anything, we can help to be sure you are in the absolute best physical and mental condition to be in upon engaging in a physically and mentally challenging procedure. Just as an Olympic athlete would want to be nutritionally and physically ready for the big event, we believe partnering with us is good insurance that all of the money and stress you are about to encounter is worth the investment.

5. We DO NOT believe that there is a high success rate among women who do have lifestyle issues interfering with their fertility, who believe they can bypass the effort and inconvenience of changing that lifestyle with a medical procedure. You cannot fool Mother Nature.

6. We DO NOT provide false hope. That would be cruel.

7. We DO NOT pressure potential clients. Women with infertility are stressed enough as it is.

8. We DO NOT hang our celebrity clients out on a shingle as marketing tools. Celebrities need their privacy too.

9. We DO believe enough in what we do to be willing to work to create a research foundation to pursue our findings in a scientific fashion.

10. We have seen miracles, but we do not promise them.

We'd like to think we have a whole lot to offer you, but we won't chase it down. That is because the clients most likely to succeed with our program are not the ones we have to chase down and convince of our value. It's the ones who already believe in us.

We hope that this describes you, but if it is not, we respect the differences and truly wish you the best.

Source: picasaweb.google.com via Katie on Pinterest

I am not a celebrity chaser, and I am definitely not a Kardashian fan. It just so happened that when I was getting ready to leave yesterday morning, I had the television on to catch the news.

I actually almost turned off the television when I heard from back in the bedroom that Khloe K was promoting another reality show. But by the tome I came out to shut it off, she was talking about some wildly inappropriate and insensitive behavior on the part of not one, not two, but THREE separate infertility clinics…in Dallas…on Valentine's Day no less. and she has not even said she is dealing with infertility!

http://video.ca.msn.com/watch/video/khloe-kardashian-definitely-still-wants-kids/17ygvpw0l

This comes straight from her, which, since I don't gossip, is the only reason I am even sharing it. Kudos to Khloe for calling these clinics on their greed. If I were in her shoes and I ever DID need these services, I would definitely intentionally seek them far, far from Dallas just to make a point.

I shared this on my Facebook page yesterday, and a woman shared that in her own journey, she had pursued three unsuccessful IVFs and never once received flowers from anyone who treated her.

Yup the industry creates DNA but seems to forget that inhabiting those cells, DNA, etc., are hearts and souls.

It is an industry that in many cases has lost ITS soul.

'Nuff said.

For some reason, I have been placed on the mailing list for a fertility researcher in the UK who is doing some interesting work looking at how fertility doctors conduct their treatments around the world. I actually tried to answer his survey, but since none of the choices available to me had anything to do with changing diet and lifestyle, I was not allowed to complete it.

That is something I find very interesting, that it would not even occur to a fertility specialist to consider the nutritional status of the client and the nutritional interventions provided clients as important variables to consider. Dr. Balen, if you ever wish to consider those factors, now you know where I am.: )

Anyway, I thought the readers of this blog would find some of the results of this study to be interesting. I'll put my commentaries in italics.

This is a summary of 179,300 IVF treatments conducted in 262 fertility centers on every continent where there is a fertility center…meaning Antarctica was not on the list.

1. 73.3% of these cases were assessed for impaired glucose tolerance. That means that 26.67%, or 47,694 women, were not.
--I would be interested to see the geographic distribution of these answers. Several years ago, I moderated a listserve in Spanish for women with PCOS and it was rare in that group to hear of women being treated for insulin resistance. I actually had to go on strike and refuse to give out any more information until the women in the group who had not been evaluated, got the evaluation. About three months later, we had about 6 pregnant women amongst us.: )
--Not sure why, since PCOS has such a strong connection to insulin resistance and it is the number one cause of infertility, this assessment simply is not a universal precaution?

2. 61.3% of the physicians who chose to assess for impaired glucose intolerance were only doing so in obese patients.
--Here we go again, the invisible lean cyster. If up to 70% of women with PCOS are NOT obese, consider the number of infertility cases that are made more complicated than they need to be, simply because of a misperception of what PCOS has to"look like" in order to be taken seriously.

3. 69% of the physicians surveyed, in their PCOS patients, considered clomiphene citrate to be the first line of treatment.
--I would love to know how they would have answered this if they had been given the option of nutrition/lifestyle/sleep hygiene consultation had been an option to answer.

4. Cutoffs for treatment based on BMI:
30% would not treat if BMI was greater than 30
33% would not treat if BMI was greater than 35
20% would not treat if BMI was greater than 40
6% would not treat if BMI was greater than 45
--Which has me wondering, again, why nutrition/lifestyle/sleep hygiene consultations are not considered the absolute essential first line of treatment.

So lean women, apparently, even though their BMI's would be considered appropriate by these practitioners, would not be given the assessment that would help them get the proper treatment.

And obese women, apparently, are not given any direction regarding what to do to bring their BMI into a workable range.

If you're still wondering why your patients with PCOS can be so angry, skeptical, and emotional, maybe you would have better success with an accounting career.

Imagine how much more successful my colleagues in these 262 treatment centers would be if they partnered with professionals who know how to do something about those quandaries.

We'd love to help you improve on those statistics.

The invitation is open.

Source: PCOS – Definition, Diagnosis and Treatment, a survey compiled by Prof. Adam Balen, Leeds Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Seacroft Hospital, Leeds, U.K

I was just on a website for a local naturopathic physician who specializes in women's health and reproduction. She is well known in our area for her success with challenging conception situations. I love to refer to this particular naturopath because she is so skilled and compassionate.

I'm pasting some excerpts from her testimonials page.

"It was hard to hear from the MD's that I would not have a baby unless it was in-vitro…"

"I was told I was facing early menopause and may need an egg donor to conceive a child. When faced with paying more than $14,000 out of pocket per IVF attempt, which offered a 20% success rate and no guarantees, enough was enough."

"My reproductive endocrinologist told me I had little or no chance of conceiving a child. He told me if I wanted to try to conceive with my eggs, we should do IVF immediately, even though we had less than 10% chance of success."

These are all women who became pregnant when they decided to not listen to that advice and seek help elsewhere.

I hear these stories too. Sometimes I have a very hard time with the reproductive industry, despite the miracles they've created, because they often seem to prey on the desperation that can develop when a baby isn't easily created. They can make you feel like the problem is that something is wrong with YOU.

In many cases, the real problem to the doctor is that you're not giving him/her your money quickly enough!

What other service would you be willing to spend so much money for with so little guarantee of success?

I am so excited about what inCYST is learning and the success stories we've been able to be a part of. But what I'm still trying to understand is the psychology of the infertile woman. I offer classes for $15 apiece. That's about the cost of a copayment. That's a smoking deal compared to an in vitro procedure. Sometimes I even do them free of charge. But women I invite, often politely tell me, thanks but no thanks, I've made an appointment with my fertility doctor. I'll try that first.

One woman recently shared that even though she paid for the class and didn't show, she decided to go through in vitro. She ended up having to quit her job, because she could not manage the stress of the treatment along with her work responsibilities. She's pregnant, now, which is the good news. But she's financially challenged, to the point where she's asking me for free help. I'm not sure if that is success or not? And at that point, whose responsibility it should be that a $15 resource has become too expensive?

If you have two choices for earning money, one being interest in a bank account and the other being money won playing blackjack in Las Vegas…and you politely tell the banker thanks but no thanks, I'll bring you my Vegas winnings and I'll earn interest on that…and you lose your shirt in Vegas…do you think the bank is going to give you money to put in a savings account? Probably not. You have to make good decisions in advance.

It seems to me that the most important time a nutritional tuneup should be considered is precisely WHEN you've decided to invest in IVF. If it were me, I'd want to be absolutely sure that the environment I am giving my physician to work with when being paid to help me, is the healthiest, most balanced, most receptive to successful conception and pregnancy. What better preparation for success could you offer your reproductive system than nutritional health?

I know there is a huge difference between what you'll get in an inCYST consultation vs. what a physician provides. We're definitely going to ask you to make some changes. We're here to support, to encourage, and to point you to ways to make the new changes livable. Unlike a physician's visit, where most of the hard work is done by the doctor, we will ask YOU to do some things. We don't believe anything is wrong with you. We believe that life on planet Earth has its stresses, but if you learn how to manage them, hormones cooperate. Very simple.

We're not an"either-or" kind of choice, at all. We are not the only answer out there, and we are not ever going to eliminate the reproductive endocrinology industry. In fact, I think there are a lot of opportunities, when working together, for us to help increase some of those dismal percentages I quoted so the doctors have higher success rates as well!

Just a note, a friend just e-mailed me to tell me that this very topic was featured on the Today Show today. I Googled the website for the Fertile Soul, the program featured in their segment. Even their fees are high--as much as $12,500 for a couple to attend. I want to reassure anyone coming to this blog looking for help, I want to help people, and I do need to pay my bills, too, but our program is not about depleting anyone financially. Our one day couples spa program is only $350.

It just seems to me like when you have a choice between paying several hundred dollars and several thousand dollars, and you're seeing indications that the least expensive option may actually work, that you'd start low and work up the pay scale, if and only if needed.

I'd love it if this post inspires you to think differently. Sometimes medicine works and sometimes it creates miracles. But sometimes medicine has its limits. Why not try an inCYST provider or class or retreat and see if it gets you going in the right direction?

A few months ago I received a phone call from a woman who wanted me to help her with a pre-IVF detox/cleanse. As we talked, it turned out, she'd already been through one failed IVF, was feeling fearful that she was going to fail again, and was wanting to do something, anything, to guarantee that it would not happen again.

I've never been through that process so there's no way I can say I know how any of you feel.

But I can tell you how these conversations make ME feel.

Afraid. Very afraid.

If there is ever any time in your life when you should absolutely not be messing with your metabolism, it is during the time immediately preceding, and during, an IVF procedure. The reason you're already in the situation you are in, is because your hormones are not able, on their own, to create the precise and delicate balance required for conception and implantation. Why would you want to push your uterus over the edge when you're already about to put it through something very stressful?

When we're faced with a situation that feels out of control, the natural thing as humans to want to do, is control it. Self-treating and self-medicating are definitely things that, in the moment, give us the illusion of being in control. But if you stop that sentence there, without truly finishing it, by defining exactly what it is that you are in control of, you've missed the point. You're in control of what happens in the immediate moment. But you're not in control of the situation that has left you feeling out of control. In fact, you may be pushing your desired outcome even further out of reach.

In this case, we did identify things that could be done to help this woman be in the absolute best physical and emotional condition possible for the big procedure. And we discussed that her most important goal was not conception, but implantation, in other words, making that egg feel, upon entering mom and looking around, that this was a pretty warm and welcoming place to be calling home for the next few months.

Think of IVF like you did your last real estate deal. Only the repro doc is the real estate agent, the embryo is the house hunter, and you are the person trying to convince that embryo that it wants to live in the environment it's been introduced to by said real estate agent. As the seller, it's your job to create an environment your buyer wants to live in.

You can't hang pretty pictures on the walls or put potpourri on the counter. But there are things you can do.

What does an embryo like to see when it's househunting? How can you stage your uterus to make it desirable real estate? For starters, your buyer doesn't like the ambience of stress hormones. Prefers the calming influence of deep breathing. Doesn't like to be jostled around too much with too much exercise. Kind of likes a house that rocks and rolls a bit, maybe massages with a little bit of yoga, but not tossed around from hours of treadmills, aerobics, or jogging. Really hates knowing it's going to be forced to subsist on caffeine and sugar when it really loves spinach and hard boiled eggs.

And it really gets cranky when it's trying to sleep and its house doesn't have curtains to pull to shut out the light. Don't even think about getting up at 3 am work out, because that is the only time you can fit it in. Reorganize your day and give up some things to make adequate for activity as well as sleep. Research has shown that melatonin is very, very important for implantation. Bad habits like staying up late, especially if it's because you're playing with lit up technotoys, are one of the surest ways to send said buyer packing.

As you know, even the most impeccable home will not appeal to every buyer. So even if you do everything perfectly, every single IVF will not end up in a baby. That's not the goal. The goal is, when the right embryo comes along, that everything it needs to feel like it's the right set up home for 9 months is there and ready. THAT you can control and do lots to make happen.

Bottom line: even though it can be tempting to want to work some magic on the procedure, the very, very best thing you can do, is keep being good to yourself. It reflects in how you stage your home and gives you a far better shot at a sale than any unproven hocus-pocus.

I'm guessing the title of this post conjures up the story of the tortoise and the hare for many of you. Though it likely pertains, I would like to tell another reptilian story that this week's series of posts brought to mind.

Many moons ago, I traveled to Costa Rica with a couple of friends. It was egg laying season for the leatherback turtles, and one of the most important things we wanted to do while there, was to see this in action. So one night, in the middle of the night, Micki and Ginger and I took off for Playa Ocotal, where the locals told us we should go.

Soon after we arrived, a huge leatherback mama pulled herself out of the ocean, groaned and labored over dry sand for about 15 yards, dug a hole about 3' x 3' x 3' and deposited about 100 golf ball-sized eggs. It happened to be a full moon that night, and I will never forget watching this…midway through the event, mama released a tear that fully reflected the moonlight.

The Costa Ricans, famous for how they value and protect their natural wonders, had set up a protective net that kept us a safe distance from the action. It seems that turtle mamas sense the vibration of the waves crashing against the sand, and they use that to navigate their way in and out of the water. Too much foot action disorients them and interferes with the process.

The docents that evening were from a local Boy Scout troop, and they taught us more than I ever thought I would know about turtle babies. Years before, once scientists noted that babies hatching during the daytime almost never survived because they were easy prey for flying birds, they tried to help them out of that dilemma by standing watch for hatchlings. Only the babies that were manually picked up, walked to the water's edge, and deposited into the water, didn't survive, either.

From THAT experience, scientists learned that when the babies hatch, their shell bellies are not fully developed. It is the process of crawling across the sand, on their own, and some kind of interaction between shell and sand, that closes up that shell and renders the baby flotatious enough to survive. In bypassing this important process, the scientists were inadvertently drowning the creatures they so wanted to help.

So they learned, that the best that they could do, was protect, as much as possible, the environment and conditions that best supported reproduction and survival, so that the turtles could best do what they had done for eons.

Here is the little guy who appeared right between my feet while I was listening to the docents! Isn't he just precious?

I didn't even realize it at the time, but it was my first reminder that Mother Nature guards her complicated recipe for reproduction more closely than Cadbury guards its chocolate making. Mess with even one ingredient, and it may not turn out at all.

I hadn't thought of this night in a long time, but the research about myoinositol that I've been writing about brought it to mind.

Like the leatherback turtles, there are many, many steps in the process of bring babies to life and releasing them. And each of those steps, no matter how insignificant to the bystander it may seem, has an important purpose. Alter it, try to jump over it, try to convince the system that it's not necessary, and the chance of failure increases.

Every one of you seeking fertility is where you are at for a unique and different reason. It could be one step in the chain, several…your stories are as unique and varied as the pathways that go from brain to fertilized egg. It is clear, since more than 60% of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures do NOT result in a successful pregnancy, that ignoring all of the steps between your brain and fertilization and focusing on the endpoint, results in tremendous emotional, physical, and financial stress for a lot of anxious couples. It is important that attention be focused on how to maximize all of the processes occurring between brain and ovary, in order to enhance the success rate of IVF.

Some of it is lifestyle. Some of it is supplementation. None of it is a magic bullet that allows you to ignore any step along the way. Myoinositol will help those for whom myoinositol deficiency is an issue…but it won't help others with other reasons for being infertile. Removing that cluster of cases from the mix, however, will give reproductive scientists the next great step to discover and enhance.

The information I presented all last week was illuminating, but it still didn't generate a 100% success rate. We still have many questions to answer. I am excited about the new findings, and hope to be able to use the new Research Institute to help clarify the route to fertility that is best for each individual situation. As well as to gain better insight into who is most likely to benefit from myoinositol supplementation.

It's going to take a little more time to find these answers than it took to find Playa Ocotal, and it's going to require more than a roadmap and a flashlight! For that reason, I encourage all of you to do your very best to maximize the information we share about lifestyle (diet, stress management, activity), rather than waiting for science to find a miracle, or waiting for a supplement to become available in your country. It can't hurt, it might help, and your effort and the information it elucidates may generate observations important to solving the problem.

ADDENDUM: By sheer coincidence, as I was working on this post, CNN did a wonderful story on a special leatherback turtle. I know we have a lot of animal lovers reading this blog, so I'm including the link if you'd like to learn more about Clover and her very loving and unique method of assisted reproduction!

As you can see in recent posts, we're getting very happy results with our nutrition/supplement protocol. If you've decided to try IVF, some of the concepts we promote might help you as well.

In a study of 18 women undergoing IVF treatment, it was found that the lower their melatonin levels, the higher the levels were of certain damaging oxidative chemicals.

An additional 115 women who had failed IVF were divided into two groups: 56 received melatonin supplementation and 59 did not. Melatonin supplementation improved the success rate of the IVF procedure.

In an additional study done in mice, eggs were incubated with a highly oxidative substance for 12 hours. The result was that egg quality suffered. By adding melatonin, this deterioration in quality was blocked.

The researchers concluded, "oxidative stress causes toxic effects on oocyte maturation and melatonin protects oocytes from oxidative stress. Melatonin is likely to improve oocyte quality and fertilization rates."

There are a couple of important consideration here.

1. When you deprive yourself of sleep, you deprive yourself of naturally produced melatonin. It damages eggs and reduces fertility.

2. You can choose to supplement to offset the damage and increase your chances of fertility, but keep in mind that if your melatonin levels are low, your body is telling you that you are out of balance. You may be able to correct part of the balance with a supplement, but it's a health risk to assume that a pill has taken care of the problem. Best to work on prioritizing sleep. After all, if you're soon going to have a baby in the house, you're going to need it!

Tamura H, Takasaki A, Miwa I, Taniguchi K, Maekawa R, Asada H, Taketani T, Matsuoka A, Yamagata Y, Shimamura K, Morioka H, Ishikawa H, Reiter RJ, Sugino N. Oxidative stress impairs oocyte quality and melatonin protects oocytes from free radical damage and improves fertilization rate. J Pineal Res. 2008 Apr;44(3):280-7.