When I was 44, I decided to give conception one last try and now I’m pregnant at 45 with high FSH and short luteal phase. I had tried to conceive before and survived pregnancy losses. Because of my age and history, medical science gave me little hope of success. But for me the word “no” is more of a challenge to action than a point of defeat. And even with my high day 3 FSH (I can’t remember numbers right now, but it was definitely in the 20s, possibly in the 30s, and rising) and my really irregular menstrual cycle (sometimes a cycle for me was two weeks when all the women I talked to who seemed to conceive at my age seemed to have a low FSH and a regular 28 day cycle), I decided if I were going to give it one last shot, I was going to do everything I could to support my plan. My partner and I agreed that rather than try IVF at my age, we’d go all natural and see what that accomplished.
Although I’d had amazing experiences with alternative medicine in the past, my partner had a much stronger belief in this than I. People thought we were nuts in trying with my age and stats, and a big part of me had sort of accepted that I was doing all this just to find closure and healing on the issue. I hoped at the very least that I’d feel good about my journey and that I’d done everything in my power to conceive our baby even if we never had our one of our own. We decided we’d put a ceiling on both our time and pocketbooks for this protocol. We decided to give it about a year max and we’d evaluate our progress at 6 months. If we didn’t see some kind of movement then, we’d probably call it quits and have a child-free life, which we’d pretty much accepted to be the likely scenario anyway.
We decided to try a combination of acupuncture, naturopathy, and conventional medicine because I discovered I had a minor thyroid challenge. I also made a strong commitment to a healthy, moderate lifestyle. Acubalance felt like the right fit for me. For one thing, it felt like going to a spa. For another thing, Lorne and the team seemed unbelievably knowledgeable and supportive – both about TCM and also about everything to do with conception. They were encouraging but realistic. They were willing to work in complement to my specific plan and needs. Basically, they fit around my plan rather than my fitting around theirs.
The whole thing was amazing. I felt like a pampered queen. It was no challenge to show up for that kind of treatment twice a week – especially with my busy work schedule. In fact, I believe it was that kind of pampering and care that (in tandem with the rest of my protocol) relaxed me enough to conceive. At 3 months, we were already beginning to see a slight improvement in my cycles and hormone levels. Well, here’s the long and the short of it: after months of preparing my body and mind for pregnancy, balancing my thyroid, and taking the right naturopathic tinctures, my cycles became a little more regular and my FSH dropped cycle after cycle (for just a handful of cycles) and Lorne encouraged me to keep going while the going was good. Then one cycle, I had a day 3 FSH of 8 right after my 45th birthday. I had been working on my alt med regime only 5 or 6 months when we conceived our baby. I am currently in my 9th month of pregnancy and researching diapers and buying baby clothes as our baby kicks away inside me.
Thank you for your part in fulfilling our dream, Acubalance!