L-arginine and blue sway opposites?

Thank you! I hope we end up with a boy so badly, too, when we really go for it. I'd consider my lifestyle fully HE at this point, yes -- my diet is DRAMATICALLY different from when I conceived DD. I eat full fat dairy and red meat often, snack all the time, eat either granola or fortified cereals but generally eat oatmeal for breakfast, etc. Haven't touched coffee since I was 3 weeks pregnant with my DD (it was an aversion that has just stuck around, so it's only worked in my favor, haha), with black or green tea as part of my diet.
I've added supplements in because I took them before DD anyway, and since I've always had a lot of pills to take, a few more didn't bother me ;)

DH was recommended CoQ10 and I think red yeast rice once upon a time for BP, but I can't remember why he stopped using them -- I feel like there was some sort of contraindication somewhere. The L-Arg was recommended by a family member and it seemed less "side-effecty," so he started on that (with good results so far). Potassium salt has always been a friend in this house because of his chronic BP, haha! I'm actually the one adding salt to my own meals, since I have the opposite issue. Our hard water is even softened by potassium salt rather than sodium, just to be safe on his BP.

I really, really, really cannot stress enough how big a mistake I think it is to add l-arginine to any pink sway based on the results of sway stats on this site. Really think it's a bad idea. Most of the husbands swaying blue have bad sperm health and low testosterone it is completely skewed how it actually sways. I think it's really, really, really a bad idea. I would 10,000 times rather see you add in something like folate or Vitamin D or just an overall male fertility vitamin. L-arginine is not some sort of magic fix for sperm issues, not even close, and I see you risking your sway over something that won't help sperm health anyway.

I have, on occasion, seen a few people whose husbands did have MFI and eventually it did happen. And when I say MFI, I am talking MAJOR MFI like making barely any sperm at all. I think oftentimes people are overthinking the "OMG DH is shooting blanks" after a couple of BFN. If 6-9 months passes, then yeah maybe, but 2 months is nothing.

I think with the cycle weirdness you guys need to be doing every 4 days and if you don't want to do OPK, then do every 3 days OR just add in a crapshoot attempt around O. I want you starting this e4d/e3d BEFORE you think it is possible for you to O and continuing it after you think you have. This will both improve your husbands sperm health and count and also up
your odds of conception since you may be missing ovulation.

Can you tell me more about your luteal phase?

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Originally Posted by A Mad Swayentist

Ha, no problem! Except I don't have time to check in every day. Thanks again for the responses!

And I think I understand why L-Arginine SHOULD sway blue: beyond the fact that it's a protein, it's very pro-fertility. So according to two aspects of Trivers-Willard, it should sway blue. But I just was glancing at the blue stats for fun (and again, dreaming of a grinning baby boy, of all things!), and thought: huh. Why does that one look so much lower than the other blue sway factors? Or, is it just that our pool of blue swayers is too small for it to be properly powered? Or is there something else in the data that Atomic knows about from long experience or being able to lift the curtain on the stats and give more input? When I looked at the stats it said 33% success - which to me would say it's swaying pink, not blue! SO if there's something wrong with the data I'm seeing, please let me know!

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Yes, I do know from long experience that it is highly, highly unlikely it sways pink. I think this is an exceedingly dangerous idea and I really cannot stress enough how much I'm opposed to this. Not only because it may sway blue, but because IT DOESN"T WORK as some kind of magic sperm fix. I've seen people with serious, severe MFI issues and it does nothing (at least alone, without a many-pronged effort to improve the situation) This includes regular BD. The absolute best thing you can do to improve his sperm health, 10 million times better and safer than arginine, is to have him release more often than once a week.

It is because so many blue swayers' husbands have other stuff going on. A shocking number of them smoke, and many, many others are on strong medicine or are significantly overweight, and have serious, serious, performance issues in the BD department. Some cannot BD without medication. Our blue stats are extremely misleading for this reason. They are not a carefully compiled body of data from a study.

What you have to remember is that the people who are here on this site are making girls (and usually lots of them) for some reason. Things that are not working that great for them will be devastatingly blue for people who are already set for blue.

Gotcha Atomic. And you understand that I'm MOSTLY just tired of swaying. :) I'm back in the middle of waiting to test, so my pessimistic side is just thinking about the coming months of BD and getting impatient to test for IF if necessary. And my sway is light for a reason - I really don't have that much at stake other than a slight preference for a girl for our first. But the itch to get pregnant at ALL is wearing me down.

Luteal phase vs. follicular phase: I've had a shockingly regular follicular phase (O day 13 8/9 past cycles, day 14 the other), and irregular luteal phase (10 days to 15 days, based on high temps - I'll have spotting most of the week before but high temps the whole time, then massive bleeding and cramps on day 1). So maybe a mild luteal phase defect? The high temps and normal length of SOME luteal phases bug me, not to mention the spotting is annoying. But the spotting has been going on since my late twenties, even when I wasn't TTC, so I'm sort of used to it by now. My gynecologist thinks it may be a cervical polyp based on my ultrasound results this summer; I'm not convinced but I'm planning to have a possible polyp removal scheduled in early 2017 if there's no pregnancy this round.

I really believe that while we are strongly naturally set for girls based on certain lifestyle choices, we were closer to 50/50 when I discovered this site and was inspired to make changes like going fully veggie & skipping breakfast as a rule (not a "oops, I don't know how to manage my life" thing - most of my adult life I've skipped breakfast or just had next to nothing calorically-speaking, but two years ago I got really into making a large dish of baked oatmeal with eggs and a mashed sweet potato that screams "blue sway" to me now - I'd make a huge batch for the week and had breakfast EVERY MORNING, alternating with overnight oats with full-fat yogurt, bananas and berries or other super nutritious but reasonably high-cal breakfasts. Getting hungry just thinking about it!). I'll freely admit too that while having extra time in the morning is nice (with no breakfast to eat), I did feel healthier when I was eating breakfast on the regular and can't wait to go back to it with my BFP (barring morning sickness or food aversions). I'm also generally less obsessive and more lassiez-faire than I was two years ago - I feel more like I fit the "girl mom" personalities of many blue swayers. And like I said, DH is OK, but not in the greatest health, between his flagging energy levels and allergies. I told him myself he really needs to take care of things at least every 4 days if we don't get around to regular BD, but, um, I can't confirm that he's even aware that that much time may have passed? And it's hard to convince him to DTD when he comes home late and we both just want dinner and to go to bed. With my super-regular O schedule I'm just telling him on cycle day 1 when day 11 and 12 are, and reminding him he's gotta perform on one of the two. I'm basing the "day 11 and day 12" on stats that show best odds of pregnancy on either O-1 or O-2, which matches with one attempt at pos. OPK (O is usually 24-72 hrs after positive OPK, right?).

I understand and you can only get out of him, what you can get out of him, just don't add in the arginine. That's all I'm saying. I WISH it was a 'sperm health' magic pill but it really isn't and I hate to see anyone add something in that may undermine a sway for no benefit.

Yeah, that is a LPD but I do see people conceiving with that type of scenario. Would they consider Clomid??

Yes that's right on O-1/O-2 and when the OPK is.

At some point, it would be time to go to e4 though...

Thanks again Atomic. I'm going to be good and wait 6-9 months of TTC before asking for IF testing & possible Clomid. For hippie reasons I'd rather not do Clomid as I'm nervous about long-term risks and the limited use window (that you can only go for so many cycles before they pass you on to more high-tech interventions). And I'm not doing any medications or IF treatment unless DH gets tested too. But I promise I won't add L-Arginine to DH's regimen! I also will try to push for E4D next round regardless of the time in my cycle, instead of hoping he "takes care of business" if things don't work out otherwise. I've read too that more sperm are released from DTD anyway than masturbation, so obviously that's another bonus...if he'd get home on time...