How do you choose what supplements to take?

[b3blue]

My counter is so full of stuff right now and I'm thinking of adding more?! I just don't know when enough is enough!

So far I'm taking a prenatal, extra folic acid, l-arginine and I just picked up fish oil. DH has a men's multi, l-arginine, fish oil and I was thinking of getting him zinc too. I even contemplated fertile cm as I realized I really don't have much but then I wonder if that's overkill if I plan to use preseed too. Any advice? Can you take too many things?

[begonia]

Hi Heather and welcome!

How long until you sway? Because in an ideal world, you would want a handful of months so you can test out some supps. The fact is supps are different for everyone and what works well for me might delay O or dry up CM for someone else.

So, FOR SURE, take folic (2000 mcg a day, including what is in your prenatal), a prenatal, and I would highly recommend the fish oil that you're taking as well b/c it is great for health in general, I've not heard of it messing with anyone's cycle, and can definitely have a good impact on your CM on its own.

L'arg has been known to mess with some cycles and dry some ladies up ... but as I said ... can work well for others! Try it and see. Some ladies only take it every other day or every 2 days to get a bit of the benefit w/o the potential side effects of delaying O or drying CM.

If you're going to take Fertile CM drop the L'arg as FCM has it in there already. I'd try that over straight L'arg.

I like Zinc for the DH's!

I wish there was a more cut and dried way to explain it but I think you just have to check them out and see! Feel free to ask away, everyone here is super helpful and I bet you get some more thoughts on this from others.

[LolaInLove]

Hi there! I could not have said it better than Begonia up there. You are thinking correctly about the goals of swaying: you want more ewcm (whether fake or natural), aside from the other benefits. You can indeed try a few things, and like B said, see how the L-Arg affects your cycle. I would give it a month on the supps to see what happens. I would definitely add a Zinc 30mg for DH.....I actually took that as well, but I took a lot of supps to increase egg quality (like antioxidants) because I'm 35 and had 2 m/c this year.

But overall, I think your plan for now is great! I would maybe add a Vitamin D supp as well, and if you want to get into some of the fanciers supps, many many ladies had great results from Royal Jelly with or without Bee Pollen. (It comes in combos sometimes.) It makes you very fertile, which sways blue.

Come on over to the blue chit chat thread, I think we are starting an August one in a few days. The July one is like 100 pages long! Welcome and glad you are here!

[atomic sagebrush]

My counter is so full of stuff right now and I'm thinking of adding more?! I just don't know when enough is enough!

So far I'm taking a prenatal, extra folic acid, l-arginine and I just picked up fish oil. DH has a men's multi, l-arginine, fish oil and I was thinking of getting him zinc too. I even contemplated fertile cm as I realized I really don't have much but then I wonder if that's overkill if I plan to use preseed too. Any advice? Can you take too many things?

Wow what great answers everyone gave! Thank you guys so, so very much!!!

I don't have too much to add other than that some people have found l-arg might dry up their CM a bit. If it works for you, that's great though. L-arg is also in Fertile CM already so if you do decide to go that route, stop the l-arg.

You might want to try giving your husband the l-arg (even if it dries you up, it will still help him) and also carnitine and CoQ 10 because they can help with sperm count. Zinc is great too.

Fish oil is a great addition and some peopel have had good results with CM by taking evening primrose oil, either in addition to the fish oil or instead of. Garlic, wheatgrass, and grapefruit juice are other natural CM boosters.

You can DEF. take too many things, esp. things like minerals tend to add up. Too much zinc is dangerous!!! Just follow the directions on the bottles for all supps and make sure that if you buy blends (like a men's multivitamin) that you make sure that you are not exceeding the daily recommended amount. Also, several of the supplements are blood thinners (fish oil, garlic, epo) and if you take too much/too many of them, you might end up thinning your blood and causing bleeding.

[LolaInLove]

You've taught us well, Atomic!

[b3blue]

Thank you so much ladies! That alerted me to double check the fish oil and I can't take that! I've had a blood clot in the past so I'm not doing anything to affect blood. I can swap out EPO for that as I've used that before in pregnancy and feel comfy with it. DH can just take the fish oil and I'll get him zinc too. Hm, I'm a little scared about the L-arg! I was going to try next cycle so I'd be on the supps and such for about 6 weeks. I don't mind waiting a little longer though. I'm just coming off an m/c so while the baby fever is still high, I'm scared out of my mind! I will definitely join in the August thread. I need tons of help with the diet.

[atomic sagebrush]

If anything though, the fish oil will HELP you with blood clots (unless you're already on prescription blood thinners.) EPO can also thin the blood somewhat so please doublecheck with a doc or pharmacist if you are on prescription blood thinners (here is a link that has the names of the commonly prescribed blood thinners so you can double check if you're taking them or not, if you're not really sure. http://stroke.about.com/od/caregiver...d_thinners.htm)

Some people believe that the cycle after a miscarriage may sway slightly pink anyway so you may be better off waiting one additional cycle anyway. Plus that puts you in the magic "boy" zone LOL (not really but it does help!!)http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...ns-and-swaying

I"m kinda wary of the l-arg for gals now too since a lot of people are not having great results with it. Give it to DH and eat a delicious steak sandwich on whole-grain bread instead!!!

[b3blue]

Thank you Atomic! No I'm not on meds right now. They never could find an actual disorder, just totally random clots in my lungs about 4 months after my first was born. It was terrifying but I seem to be fine now and haven't been on any meds in years. I'll check out those links! Who knew an mc would sway pink. Man there is so much I have to learn.

eta: Just thinking on it some more, when I had my blood drawn a couple weeks ago it took quite awhile for me to stop bleeding at the injection site. Usually I clot super fast so I was a bit surprised. I'll hold off on the fish oil until I get more bloodwork done just to be safe.

[LolaInLove]

Yea, good idea to wait for bloodwork. And I did what Atomic suggested and gave my DH the L'Arg instead. I took FertileCM for the first 3 months of ttc (it has L'Arg in it) and it dried me up and made me O late.

[atomic sagebrush]

Thank you Atomic! No I'm not on meds right now. They never could find an actual disorder, just totally random clots in my lungs about 4 months after my first was born. It was terrifying but I seem to be fine now and haven't been on any meds in years. I'll check out those links! Who knew an mc would sway pink. Man there is so much I have to learn.

eta: Just thinking on it some more, when I had my blood drawn a couple weeks ago it took quite awhile for me to stop bleeding at the injection site. Usually I clot super fast so I was a bit surprised. I'll hold off on the fish oil until I get more bloodwork done just to be safe.

Blood clots are actually fairly common in women after they had a baby and childbirth is considered a risk factor for DVT (you probably already know this.). It may not mean anything at all in the long term. Your body prob. made too much clotting factor to compensate for your blood loss from childbirth and it made you more likely to develop clots.

You are right about holding off on the fish oil until you have the bloodwork done, because having blood that is "too thin" is just as dangerous as having blood that clots too easily. They can both KILL you.