My VITEX Journey

[Butterfly Spirit]

0511122026.jpg
Alright, new journey, new thread! I'll leave the old sad one behind for now.
Ladies so this is my FMU OPK... I know I know, but it gives me HOPE! LOL
This is the darkest one I've seen, and it looks a bit darker in RL. I'm going to take one again in like 4 hours and compare.
So DH and I started BD on May 6, and then on Wednesday the 9th, and now today on Friday the 11th.
He is at this point refusing to take supplements because he just wants to avoid doing me until the hcg is out of my system,(It already is, but he thinks otherwise) so I HOPE that I O REALLY quick here! I was feeling activity down there yesterday on the left side so I'm hoping my body is getting ready!
Now Atomic, I trust you and I want this next pregnancy to stick of course so I really need your help on this. I have hypothyroidism so I'm not the average lady when it comes to taking Vitex. I am TERRIFIED to stop taking it when I learned that it is a natural medicine for my disease. But MAYBE it will be okay.. I've now been on 100 mcg of levothyroxine since the 23rd of April yet it takes 4-6 weeks for the thyroid to become balanced again.
Then I got my mom saying "I don't think you need to take an herb to conceive..remember the Enforma system you took as a teen and it was herbal, my friend has the same thyroid condition as you, Vitex is probably why you miscarried. You DON'T need an herb to conceive, you are fertile enough" Then when I told her "No, mom it WAS my thyroid that killed it, I didn't HAVE any production happening.. my body was screaming at my thyroid to make more!"
blah blah blah.
Then there's part of me just struggling with crap saying.. maybe the sperm I scraped off the couch was messed up with chemicals because we have to carpet clean our couch regularly because of our kids. How stupid was I to do that..
Then I didn't wean off my supplements like I was told to...
Did the Vitex harm my egg because I took it into my 6th OPK.. Or did it happen because I stopped the Vitex when I should have kept going and could have saved my baby..
I Don't know!!!!!
I know things are different than they were because I'm taking red raspberry leave capsules, now just to double to check that those are safe to continue, when I get that + OPK and BFP?
I need total help this time of how to wean off ALL my supplements. Please tell me exactly how to wean off of them so this does not happen again.. I feel My +OPK is right around the corner. My cm last night was white and very stretchy..
Anyone know if semen is that stretchy by a few inches? LOL that sounds so silly!
This thread is going to be like the other one, my journey with Vitex.. so here we GO!

On a side note I'd love for you ladies to go find the latest thread I made about that lady on youtube. It's a fun video to watch because she reveals the gender of her baby and she took the Pink Or Blue lab test with her hubby feet away from her on the otherside of the kitchen baby gate..and results said BOY and she took Vitex to conceive.. she even took it 12 or so week into pregnancy then finally weaned off! I thought she was NUTS for doing that LOL. Anyways just watch!

[TTC5]

Sending you ALLL my PINK dust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Butterfly Spirit]

Two things I would love to discuss as well: maca root and progesterone cream. I might get some cream to apply after I've Oed to ease my mind of dropping Vitex at O.

[atomic sagebrush]

We don't know, can't know, and it very likely was none of those things at all and just a bum swimmer or a bum egg. :/

My crystal ball is in the shop this week unfortunately but to the absolute best of my knowledge, what feels best and safest to me is either NO vitex at all, or stopping vitex the day before O. I do not believe vitex caused your loss, taking it or stopping it, I think it was just one of those things and the levo is only going to help prevent anything happening in the future. I know of tons of ladies with miscarriages that resolved after thyroid treatment and I am hoping that it's true for you.

The RRL capsules again, we don't truly know what is best or safest. RRL can cause uterine cramping that is quite dramatic at times, even in the first tri (which I witnessed firsthand when I was pg with DS 3) and so I ~personally~ think it's best to wean off at BFP.

Semen doesn't stretch, so if it's stretchy, it's CM!

Good luck!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

Two things I would love to discuss as well: maca root and progesterone cream. I might get some cream to apply after I've Oed to ease my mind of dropping Vitex at O.

People had some WEIRD stuff happen on Maca. ELP was having hallucinations on Maca!!! I feel it's too much of an unknown for now.

The prog cream they sell OTC is only 20 mg of progesterone. Barely any at all - about the level a postmenopausal woman makes and not enough to sustain a pregnancy. Prescription strength prog starts at 200 mg and up. My concern with the OTC prog cream is that even tho it can't do enough to sustain a pregnancy, it ~may~ be enough to confuse your body - your body senses this progesterone and may not know how much to make any more, if that makes any sense. It may not make as much and may end up causing you to make less than you would otherwise. Plus, you need to take it throughout the first trimester every day, and don't miss any days.

If you think you need prog support, it's much better to get a prescription strength cream.

[TTC5]

I REALLY think vitex is great for swaying pink. I took it with DD3 without even knowing lol

[NeedAGirl!]

I also agree that if you do Vitex, you should stop it a day or so before you anticipate ovulation.

As for progesterone, if you have been diagnosed with a prog deficiency, I would def recommend that you take a Rx product. If not, I do think it is ok to use a well made NPC but we don't really know if it will do a thing. I like Emerita because you can get it in 20mg packets so that you know exactly how much you are using at a time. Trying to measure out a nebulous amount of cream is difficult.

As for the dosing, NPC is different than synthetic. The studies are interesting. They know that NPC binds to progesterone receptors in the body. However, it is not really directly measurable in a blood test. Some have said that 20mg of prog cream is equiv to 200mg of oral or vag suppos because transdermal absorption bypasses the hepatic system. However, they are really only estimating this as far as I can see. In studies, NPC does increase measurable blood levels but the levels don't increase like they do with the Rx products, rise more slowly over time and never reach the same levels. However, we might not be measuring the right thing and what is there might be much better used by the body than synthetics. In head on studies and in NPC vs placebo testing, primarily used for menopause symptoms, symptom relief is comparable with NPC to the higher dosed oral or vaginal supplements. The discussion in this article is interesting: A Study to Look at Hormonal Absorption of Progesterone Cream Used in Conjunction With Transdermal Estrogen - Health News - redOrbit

Also, interestingly, there are studies comparing transdermal hormones to oral hormones that show that oral hormones increase inflammation markers where transdermal do not. Since they think that many miscarriages, especially repeated miscarriage have an immune component, this is interesting to think about.

Bottom line, NPC evidence in miscarriage prevention is limited. There has been few human studies, all small and more often case reports. It does seem pretty convincing that there is no harm (due to the very large volume of users), as long as you take it twice daily EVERY single day without missing a single dose until between 12 to 14 weeks. I am currently 11 weeks so I have been taking it for roughly 13 weeks. That is 182 doses already!! I have my calendar set to email me and text me every single morning and every single evening to be sure I remembered it. I am usually really good but let me tell you, there has been maybe 3 or 4 out of the 182 where that text saved me- I was so tired and crashed and would have totally forgotten. If you search, you can find many stories of women who missed 1 dose and started bleeding 1-2 days later. They might have had a miscarriage anyway but of course, they will always worry that it was that missed dose. So be sure you are the type who can commit if you start it!

[Babyy Love]

What if you do not know when you are going to "O" how do you stop VITEX then?
I've lost contact with my body recently AF was a week late and was irregularly weird this month. I kinda just wanted to get up and walk away from my body for confusing my mind this much! I am all out of OPK & if I order some I won't have it in time for the "big events" as I plan to DTD Thursday-next Thursday lol

[Butterfly Spirit]

What if you do not know when you are going to "O" how do you stop VITEX then?
I've lost contact with my body recently AF was a week late and was irregularly weird this month. I kinda just wanted to get up and walk away from my body for confusing my mind this much! I am all out of OPK & if I order some I won't have it in time for the "big events" as I plan to DTD Thursday-next Thursday lol

I would guess charting would be the answer to knowing when you O. Do you do that?
My body is CRazy right now, and I can't figure out what's going on with it, my sleep patterns aren't the greatest though, so I probably wouldn't benefit from it even if I did chart with temp.
I can't figure out either my OPK or my cheapie HTP.. I'm in limbo right now.
I hope that you are able to figure out what is going on. My cheapie OPKS work fantastically! But my HPTs are another story.. only ghostlines.. .. ...I would recommend taking a few tests a day so you don't miss your surge.

[Babyy Love]

I would guess charting would be the answer to knowing when you O. Do you do that?
My body is CRazy right now, and I can't figure out what's going on with it, my sleep patterns aren't the greatest though, so I probably wouldn't benefit from it even if I did chart with temp.
I can't figure out either my OPK or my cheapie HTP.. I'm in limbo right now.
I hope that you are able to figure out what is going on. My cheapie OPKS work fantastically! But my HPTs are another story.. only ghostlines.. .. ...I would recommend taking a few tests a day so you don't miss your surge.

I only plug in my AF date (my siggy) in my lilypie..it helps BUT since my cycle was irregular this month I'm pretty much stuck