TTC Girl and Fertility Doc advice

We have been TTC for over a year now and just met with a fertility doctor, someone my husband actually knows well.

Anyway, it looks like I will probably begin fertility drugs since he thinks I have an ovulation issue with my abnormally short cycles. He has advised me to limit my caffeine and start taking Prenatal vitamins!!! I know this is typically a big no no when TTC girl. I am just taking folic right now along with zyrtec, baby aspirin and fiber.

He also told me not to loose any weight and make sure I am getting enough calories and protein. If I stay within the upper range of LE do you think I should be okay? I have been eating more towards the lower end, but with days I exceed the upper once a week or every other week. I am about 120-122 lbs (depending on day) and 5' 7.5".

My husband had to throw in there that I had being doing the low cal vegetarian diet to TTC girl and the doctor said there was no data to support that it works. I still believe it sways, or gives us girls hope at least. :)

Any advice out there? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

If you don't ovulate, you can't get pregnant and cannot have a chance at a girl. If you aren't ovulating, you're likely not eating enough. If your BMI is too low not only can it make it hard to get pregnant but it can make keeping a pregnancy difficult too.

Oh yes doctors love to tell people to take prenatals even though the only nutrient proven to make any difference in pregnancy outcome when taken before BFP, is folic acid. It's a quick fix way for them to appear to be doing something while passing the buck to you. Prenatal vitamins- A review of the literature on benefits and risks of various nutrient supplements | Formulary Journal

A couple compromises to prenatals:

Take them 3x a week

or take 150 iu iodine daily
18-30 mg iron 3x a week
8-15 mg zinc 3x a week
and if you don't get much sunshine Vit. D 400 iu once a week

I need to be perfectly clear what you consider upper and lower limits of LE are as follows:

1800-2000 cal
50-60 g pro
60 g fat

Sometimes people tell me they're eating all this food and I find out they have some other definition of what LE Diet even is. Low everything does not mean NO everything. If you stick in those limits it will help restore your cycles. I would like to see you eat a serving of full fat dairy a day, 4 eggs a week, and 1 serving salmon every week (you try to fit them into your limits for the day when possible.)

Just because your doctor doesn't know about proof does not mean that it doesn't exist. :)

Thank you, thank you Atomic and nuthinbutpink!

I have been eating closer to the 1500 calories/day and 40 g protein, but I will happily increase. Looking forward to eggs and salmon once/week. I have a dairy intolerance, but can incorporate some soy yogurt and maybe include a little more cheese, I can handle small amounts of hard cheese. I probably eat fewer calories than others since I don't really eat dairy.

I have only been doing LE for about 3 months, so I think I had ovulation issues before starting the diet, but I am sure increasing my calories will help. I did get blood work back today and the doc said I ovulated last week, so I'm not out yet! FX!! It was actually the first time all year I got a true positive lh surge.

I appreciate the options for additional supplements. Still thinking about what I want to do. I do eat tons of vegetables, especially ones that are super foods like kale, spinach and sweet potatoes. I know that you say to try and eat lower nutrient, but I thought, what the heck, I love vegetables. I am going to stop counting my veggies/fruit in as much in my fitness pal.

P.S. I did ask my doc if it would be okay to do cardio and he said no no no!

Ok if eating only 1500 now, bump up to 1800 first and see what happens before increase more than that.

Low carb veg are free food on LE DIET, you can have as much as you like. When you have a choice of a lower nutrient foods pick the lower nutrient one but you can still have an unlimited amount of low carb veg like kale.

Try yogurt, many people with lactose intolerance can tolerate it because the active cultures predigest the lactose. I would not use soy yogurt, it's the saturated fat you're after and soy has compounds and a type of fat that may be harmful to fertility.

If you were counting fruit and veg in my fitness pal then you were REALLY not getting enough. Low carb veg are free food and unlimited, high carb veg and fruits are free for protein and fat, only count cals.

Thank you so much Atomic. You are so helpful!! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Oh yes doctors love to tell people to take prenatals even though the only nutrient proven to make any difference in pregnancy outcome when taken before BFP, is folic acid. It's a quick fix way for them to appear to be doing something while passing the buck to you. Prenatal vitamins- A review of the literature on benefits and risks of various nutrient supplements | Formulary Journal

A couple compromises to prenatals:

Take them 3x a week

or take 150 iu iodine daily
18-30 mg iron 3x a week
8-15 mg zinc 3x a week
and if you don't get much sunshine Vit. D 400 iu once a week

I need to be perfectly clear what you consider upper and lower limits of LE are as follows:

1800-2000 cal
50-60 g pro
60 g fat

Sometimes people tell me they're eating all this food and I find out they have some other definition of what LE Diet even is. Low everything does not mean NO everything. If you stick in those limits it will help restore your cycles. I would like to see you eat a serving of full fat dairy a day, 4 eggs a week, and 1 serving salmon every week (you try to fit them into your limits for the day when possible.)

Just because your doctor doesn't know about proof does not mean that it doesn't exist. :)

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Atomic,
My doctor is starting me on Clomid this week. Is there anything that I should do different in regards to supplements? I have been taking the baby aspirin, fiber and zyrtec. My husband has been taking LR. I am thinking he should stop the LR and just drink peppermint tea with me.

We also did 1 attempt at positive opk last month. It didn't look like the stats were much different with 2 attempts. What do you think?

Sorry for all of the questions, I just want to put our best foot forward once I start the Clomid.

Thank you!!

I would drop the zyrtec and the peppermint tea for you, and drop BOTH LR and pep tea for DH. They are both detrimental to sperm health.

If you have him on cranberry I would drop that and do the olive leaf extract instead.

Before a few days ago, the stats on 2 attempts vs. 1 were running about 60-65% with 2 attempts and one attempt has been steadily consistent at 75% for months. We have had a run of successful sways lately that may be artificially inflating the 2 attempts number and I think you should give it at least one month on clomid with the one attempt. But that is just my opinion and it's totally up to you on that.

So I got a positive opk on CD 9 with a clearblue digital. We bd CD 8 (not an attempt, but I guess it was now). I am hoping that I am not out for this month. I am out of town for work and come back tomorrow, my doctor said to give it another attempt when I get home (even though it is a little late). Any others O crazy early on Clomid? I didn't think I would have an attempt until this weekend.