need pink, but have questions

Hello all!

Consider me another IG user. I love the information on that board, but it loads so slowly. I don't know if they need a bigger server/better host...I don't know. Anyway, I'm happy to find you all!

I have a long post ahead so be warned.

I have been reading like mad and I found this sticky very helpful: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...Your-Pink-Sway

But I can't seem to find all the answers I'm looking for and I would love a few opinions. Maybe I'm not reading in the place though. Please feel free to point me in the right direction. I love reading!

I'm 28. DH is 29. We have two sons that are 8 and 2 1/2.

I have had mild girl envy for a while especially because I have over 20 friends/acquaintances that have had girls the past year and a half, including my sister in law. I never had a sister or close relationship with my mother so maybe this contributes to the longing also.

Neither of my pregnancies were planned. The 8 yo. was born 34 week premature and needed a blood transfusion after he was born due to a rupture in his umbilical cord. My 2 1/2 yo. had single umbilical artery, but blessedly did not have any other problems. It was definitely a high risk pregnancy though and would subsequently cause other pregnancies to be high risk.

I have PCOS although I am not the standard "look a like" for PCOS girls. I am average/thin and I have no other conditions contributing to or stemming from the PCOS that I know of. I suspect I have had it all my adult life, but did not get really bad until after I had my second son.

I have almost always had regular periods though they became irregular after the birth of the second son. My cycles are regular again. I am mostly symptomatic in other ways: difficulty losing weight, hirsutism, male pattern baldness/thinning hair, rapid weight gain if I go off of metformin, irregular and heavy periods and acne if I do not take saw palmetto and/or vitex, etc.

1st question: is related to PCOS. How many women here have successfully gotten pregnancy with girls and had a healthy pregnancy all while dealing with PCOS? Please point me to the right threads and I will read.

My cycles are mostly regular, but I'm still having a difficult time pin pointing my exact day of ovulation. I have EWCM for days followed very thin, almost transparent mucous days and this mucous does not dry up or change form quickly. Occasionally I will have mittelschmerz and/or light spotting on the suspected day of ovulation, but that is not every cycle. Literally, the mucous/discharge will last for over a week in total.

my second question is: is it worth spending money on an ovulation predictor kit or something like that? Should I start temping? Any other recommendations? I work overnights so my schedule is really screwed up and am concerned that my body temperatures will never be totally accurate or reliable.

I am not on hormonal birth control right now. We do a combination of barrier and rhythm. I generally know when I'm supposed to be fertile and abstain or use barrier since we are still currently trying to avoid pregnancy.

Speaking of supplements, that leads me to my third question:

Can you ladies evaluate my girl friendly supplements and let me know what else I should consider or get rid of?

per day:

- Regular multi-vitamin (not prenatal)
- Calcium + D 600mg/200mg
- Saw Palmetto 320mg
- fish oil 1000mg
- metformin 500mg

per night:

- benadryl 50mg
- flexeril (muscle relaxer) 10mg
- ritalin (at work) 10-20mg

I do not currently take vitex because of the saw palmetto and it seems to control the symptoms of PCOS a little bit better.

My fourth, fifth, and sixth question:

Do you ladies think it is a good idea to take both vitex and saw palmetto together?

I think I may need to get rid of the fish oil, too, since I read that may be more boy friendly. Yes?

Would taking more metformin per day help things?

my seventh question:

DH takes Zoloft (anti-depressant), calcium, MVI, and fish oil. I read that anti-depressants may sway girls, but I'm not sure if it will help if it is coming from a man versus the woman taking it.

Do you think DH's medication choices may have a helpful girl impact? If so, we may add liquorice root and other things...

The reason I ask is because I read here that men create equal amounts of XX and XY sperm so I'm not sure about his meds?


8th question:

I have regular ph testing strips. Are these good for testing the vag's ph?

I think that's it for now. Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate any response or direction I may receive. Thanks again and I look forward to being part of this community!

I posted this in the "Introduction" section and was able to track down some more information, but still need a little bit more directions and opinions.

welcome! that's quite a few questions! ;) I don't know answers to all of them, but can answer a few:

Question 2- temping is a really inexpensive way to find out what's going on - although generally it won't tell you when OV is coming, only that it's happened, so it's pretty useless for timing BDing around OV. I like OPKs generally but they are causing me stress at the moment lol, I've recently bought the book "Taking charge of your fertility" and that's fascinating for learning about CM and that sort of thing. Generally, if it's slippery between your fingers, consider it fertile. Some women never get stretchy CM. The theory of the book is that by temping and checking CM (and optionally your cervix too) you can know how fertile you are and when you've ovulated. OPKs can be expensive if you use lots because of irregular cycles, and the internet cheapie ones are good enough for most women although are less accurate/more difficult to read.

Question 3 - I'd drop the multivits (you need to trick your body into thinking times are hard so low nutrient intake), also drop the fish oil as I think that sways blue too. Calcium with a touch of vit D, saw palmetto, and benadryl are all pink-friendly, but I don't know about the rest.

Question 7 - I wouldn't worry about your DH's medications. I think it's more low pH and low sperm count that sway, although some say testosterone levels do too. You can test his pH... and you can do things to lower the sperm count too. It does seem to me (someone might correct me on this) that it's the female environment that matters most.

Question 8 - yes, probably. Do you know which country they came from? You could always give your CM a quick test with them and see how responsive the strips are! I ordered 2 lots on eBay - one from the UK, one from China. The UK ones were far more reactive than the Chinese ones so I binned those straight away. Saying that, I still don't find it easy to interpret the pH with strips and so won't be bothering during my sway as I don't want the stress. I'll trust that the diet and the RepHresh will be sorting my pH out.


HTH?

Thanks again for your reply! So helpful. I'm am so, so sorry about all of the questions!

I have to find the pH strips, but I bought them in the US at a local drug store.

I may look into the OPK strips, too.

I actually have "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" around here somewhere and it sounds like I need to find it and re-read it. I read it way back when we decided to do rhythm and barrier methods.

it's definitely worth a read for TTC purposes :)

Hi and welcome :D

Regarding your PCOS related queries, I'm sure there are other ladies on the board with experience of the same but if you don't get any feedback over the next couple of days then I know Atomic will be able to help when she's back online at the end of the week.

I'm taking Saw Palmetto and Vitex together. This is a thread which explains why that might be a good idea:

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...7-Saw-Palmetto

You don't need to take the Benadryl every night, only when you have EWCM around the time of your attempt. Also, it may be safer to take an antihistimine, here's a link for that:

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ELP-TTC-A-GIRL

Are you taking anything for acidity? Many of us take a low dosage aspirin as a low nutrient way of increasing acidity - DH can take it too.

Regarding DH, I agree with rainbow that his biggest contribution is lower sperm count! As well as the aspirin you might want to consider Licorice Root:

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...riences-please!

and be sure to include either regular release/BDing or abstainance in your sway.

Here's the link to the complete index, might be worth a look to see if there's anything in particular you're interested in!

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...COMPLETE-Index!!!

Good luck :D

Just searching around for PCOS related posts, which confirm that Metformin sways pink but shouldn't be taken with Saw P - don't know why and I know atomic will clarify.

Thanks so much for all of that information. I already started reading that book and will read through those links.

What you said is very helpful!

PS - no I haven't started taking anything for acidity like baby aspirin, but will once DH and I decide to officially start trying. I think changing body pH can make a difference.

How far in advance do you think starting the LE and changing supplements should take place? Does it just depend on the individual and how fast their body responds to the changes (e.g. lower pH)?

I think the official line on the diet is at least 6 weeks, but somewhere between 6 weeks and 3 months is good. I read a good point recently, that all the things we do to try to sway pink make it less likely that we'll get pregnant straight away so if you do the diet for 6 weeks then start trying there's a good possibility you'll be able to stick with the diet and you'll still be losing even if it takes a few tries :D

Zanacal, thanks so much! So helpful!

I have been doing a lot of lurking through the girl sways (and boy sways, actually) and for the girl sways, I haven't seen a lot of cranberry supplement usage. Maybe more cranberry juice. On IG, cranberry supplements seemed to be used more often. I read a couple of posts about cranberry on this board, but it doesn't seem to be as frequently used for a girl sway. Is cranberry useful or do you ladies here from other supplements that are better?

I will definitely be ditching the fish oil when we try to conceive! I will probably switch to a prenatal vitamin also. I think I want to try to find a calcium supplement with less D in it, too.

I am very nervous about the girl diet. If I even look at anything with sugar or refined white flour, I gain 50 lbs. This is probably because of the PCOS even though I'm taking metformin. I understand that lower blood sugar can help sway girl (at least that what I think I read), but if you're eating things that cause blood sugar spikes, is that kind of contradictory? I'm still such a newbie, I'm sorry. :/

When I got pregnant with both of my boys, I was taking benadryl regularly. I'm thinking of trying something else this time.

I also have been reading a lot about douching. That post that atomic wrote about how to douche and the benefits/negatives of it is very helpful. Since I seem to have quite the surplus of EWCM, as risky as douching may be, do you think it is worth trying?

personally I'll see what my pH is in some cycles before TTC, and if it's too high I'll think about adding in the cranberry supps/things to lower pH

you can buy calcium supps on their own too

rainbowflower, that's a good idea!

I was talking with DH about all of this yesterday and right now is just not the time for us to start planning this, but he is totally on board to try anything for him when we try, including taking supplements for him that could alter his hormones (like licorice root).

We talked about HT too, but we can't afford to do that.

if we don't get a girl on this attempt I think I'd want to save up to go HT, even if it takes 5 years! My DH has always wanted to go to America anyway... so maybe we can combine the two dreams. :)

when might you start TTC?

That sounds very exciting! I really hope you get your girl this time and then you can all visit America as a family! ;) Are you already taking supplements and dieting?

I'm thinking we may try in the Spring 2012? I want to start tracking my cycles more diligently first though. I have a "your days" tracker, but it isn't like FF where you can chart temperature and CM. I want to do things like finding out what my pH is around ovulation and seeing how I can bring it down/what works for bringing it down, if necessary and things like that.

thank you :) I'm taking folic acid, calc, vit D (all 3 of those in the one pill) and some vitamin B6. I was taking mag too but have dropped that now. I start the diet in Sept ready to TTC in Dec.

Spring next year will be here before you know it! You're right that it's best to track a few first. I'm trying to do that ATM but not having much luck due to BF messing things up, but if they do regulate before TTC it will mean TTC is a lot less stressful from knowing what's going on.

BFing seems like it could definitely throw off hormones a little bit. Not that you should stop BFing of course. ;)

I was reading about the calcium issue in some of the other posts and I take calcium anyway (always have) because I'm fairly sensitive to dairy.

I don't know if it's true intolerance because I can eat small amounts of cheese and yogurt without issues, but drinking milk (which I love), lots of ice cream, milkshakes, smoothies, etc, makes my body VERY unhappy. I also have scoliosis so I think the calcium supplements help in some regard for later that I don't end up high risk for osteoporosis?

There is so much to consider! It makes me kind of dizzy.