Can swaying affect chances of getting pregnant?

Hi everyone, I wonder if anyone could help put my mind at rest.

I've been on a swaying diet since end of May and started TTC in August. I'm swaying pink and doing a high calcium/magnesium and low sodium/potassium diet. AF showed up today so we're just starting our 4th cycle of trying.

I'm wondering if being on this diet could be harming our chances of conceiving at all? I know it's designed to make the environment more hostile for boy sperm, but could it actually be making it hostile for all sperm?

I know I've not been trying for long, but when I got pregnant the first time 3 years ago, I fell pregnant 2 months after coming off the pill. We miscarried at nearly 11 weeks and then fell pregnant with our DS as soon as we started trying again after the miscarriage. So in the past, we've not found it difficult to get pregnant at all. We're both 31 now.

I've also found that I feel like I've been losing weight since being on this diet. I was already slim to start with so I feel like this won't be helping matters either if I'm underweight.

I have regular cycles and track using OPK and temping, so I know I'm ovulating and we DTD at all the right times.

Does anyone have any thoughts? As I'm thinking of stopping the diet as feel like it could be harming our chances.

Thanks

The mineral balancing alone ~shouldn't~ be but if you're eating very low fat, very low cal, and losing weight (esp. given your already slim stature) then it can be complicating things.

Can you please describe in more detail what you're eating?

And whebn you say "DTD at the right time" can you describe what that means?

Are you using any other sway tactics like douching, shallow release, jump and dump, having hubby take hot baths?

Hi Atomic

Thanks so much for your reply.

So we're not following any sort of timing restrictions when DTD (ie. Shettles); we are mainly DTD either everyday or every other day throughout the entire fertile window until day after ovulation (confirmed by temping and ovulation tests).

We're not using any other sway tactics. I actually stay laying down after DTD for several minutes to try and improve my chances of getting pregnant.

A typical day of my current diet:

Breakfast: 2 shredded wheat with milk.
1 folic acid tablet.
Lunch: 2 slices wholemeal bread with unsalted butter, chicken (cooked in oven), cucumber and a matzo cracker.
Natural yoghurt.
Apple.
2 calcium tablets.
Dinner: White fish (cooked in oven), mix of veg (usually carrot, broccoli and cauliflower), small amount of potato and either rice or pasta.
Pineapple (sometimes with natural yoghurt and honey).
2 calcium tablets.
Drinks: Milk or water (sometimes with orange squash).

I am seriously considering really relaxing the diet, and just keep some aspects there, so avoid high salt and potassium foods, eat plenty of calcium rich foods and continue with my supplements as they are. My body type means I find it hard to keep weight on and I lose weight easily. My OH wants me to relax the diet as well. So I'm struggling with what to do really.

I appreciate any advice.

Thanks

Kerry

The first thing to change is the BD pattern.

I want you to BD every 4 days (do this every 72 hours) unprotected starting after your period ends and going through even after you think you've ovulated a couple times. This will guard against early or late O (which even if it hasn't happened yet, can). Then if you want max odds of conception but possibly lower odds of pink, add in one more attempt the day before ovulation or at positive OPK (but keep going with the e4d pattern too)

Every day BD can be too depleting, and every other day can make it so you end up with poor timing - if you have an attempt O-4, O-2, and O Day, really only the O-2 attempt is viable and this is not going to end up with ideal chances of conception. So by doing the e4d, then adding another attempt, you ensure your husband is making good levels of sperm and also that you're in with 2 attempts or possibly 3 depending on when you ovulate.

Try laying down part of the time on your stomach rather than your back.

Do you have a rough estimate of protein, fat, and calorie count?? I suspect your fat intake is quite low and since you have a fast metabolism that can absolutely lower chances of conceiving if you aren't getting enough fat.

What would your normal diet look like? Maybe we can find a happy medium.

I will caution you that when I was on another site that did the mineral diets (which got me my 4th boy, BTW) I noticed that the women who simply ate less sodium adn took calcium supps had lots of boys. So I'd rather find a way for you to still follow somewhat of a lower nutrient diet without being so miserable and wasting away to nothing!

Also, shredded wheat may sway blue - cereal is the only food ever shown to sway in a study to possibly sway so I would have something other than cereal from here on in.

Thanks Atomic, will give that a try with the BD pattern. I'm on CD4 today and only really spotting now so will get started on it in the next couple of days. To be honest I think we'll be looking at maximising our chance of conception than maximising our chance of pink sway, so will be sure to BD on positive opk as well as this pattern. I've also ordered some Conceive Plus (I know it sways blue) but I wasn't going to use the internal applicators. It's just for a little bit to put on him to make it more comfortable to get us started off, as otherwise we end up using saliva which I know isn't sperm friendly.

I don't have have any count of calories etc but yes I would imagine my calories and fat intake would be very low.

My normal diet is pretty balanced, I've always tried to eat well with a few treats here and there. So was thinking to go back to having meals made with pasta sauces or curry sauces to add a bit of salt back in. But I would stay away from very high salt foods like bacon, sausages etc. And allow myself a bit of cake or chocolate occasionally to get my fat back up?

What would you advise for breakfast instead. How would a bit of scrambled egg on toast sound?

Thanks, Kerry x

:agree: just using a small amount of Conceive Plus for lube has been neutral for us.

A scrambled egg on toast for breakfast would be good for replenishing your raw materials for making hormones as well.

Dairy fat or egg is the best at restoring your cycles so I would not have cake per se (well of course if you'd like some, you can) but maybe a serving of full fat dairy every day instead, in addition to an egg every morning.

You've been so helpful Atomic, thank you so much! I will try all those things. Fingers crossed for this cycle! X

Just thought I'd update this thread to say that we got pregnant that cycle! Got my BFP on 6th Dec and had an early scan 2 days ago which showed a strong heartbeat. So keeping everything crossed will be ok x

Oh that's wonderful! Thank you so much for updating us!!

Thought I'd update here in case any one following. I sadly miscarried in January at 9 weeks.

We decided against gender swaying after and let nature give us what we are planned to have, as at the end of the day, all we really care about is a happy healthy baby.

We fell pregnant again and I will be 13 weeks tomorrow, our 12 week scan earlier in the week looked great. We won't be finding out the gender and will look forward to another surprise for our second rainbow baby in February 2020!

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Huge congrats on your pregnancy and I can't wait for your update!