Can you lower your FSH? Can you improve your egg quality?Doctors will say you can't.
Tour eggs are as old as you are, and nothing you will do will make any difference.
You will be told,
Your eggs are too oldand
You are a poor responder,
Even
2/3 of women over the age of 35 require medical intervention in order to conceive.
Yes, some women will need help to conceive.
But
keep in mind there is a large financial incentive for you to believe these demoralizing prognoses – reproductive medicine is an ever-growing multi-billion dollar per year cash industry, whose financial rewards grow exponentially when you submit to the belief your only chance of becoming a parent is through medical intervention. They make no money when you conceive on your own. They make a maximum profit when multiple women are involved in helping you achieve a pregnancy at all costs.
So what CAN you do to help yourself?
Ovarian health depends upon three factors – nutritional status, blood flow, and the balance of reproductive hormones with stress hormones.
1) Nutritional status – the reproductive system, like the rest of our body, has certain nutritional requirements. Most of my patients are asked to avoid sugar, wheat, and dairy. They take nutritional supplements specific to their Traditional Chinese Medicine pattern of imbalance. Most women with high FSH or poor ovarian reserve take super greens like wheatgrass, royal jelly, and Co-Enzyme Q-10, to name a few.
2) Blood flow – a woman of age 40 typically has five times less blood flow to her ovaries than a woman of age 20. This dramatically impedes the attention the ovary requires during the follicles' all-important growth phase, the 90-day process before ovulation in which the quality of the egg is determined. The follicles insist upon adequate oxygenation and circulation to function efficiently (i.e., with a healthy egg, capable of fertilization and implantation.)
3) Hormonal balance – the endocrine system is a delicate interplay of the reproductive hormones, stress hormones, and emotions, in symphony with each other. This system operates via feedback, which means anytime you introduce an outside hormone into its influence, it shuts that system down. Synthetic hormones can't cure hormonal imbalances, they can only override them. The endocrine system is the most sensitive bodily system which requires the perfect balancing act of multiple factors, inside and out. Like all other mammals, our bodies do not want us pregnant when our endocrine systems are stressed.
Photo credit: How did I ever get stuck with *two* kids?, by Ed Yourdon
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
 |
| Taking Charge of Your Fertility |
by Toni Weschler
-- Clear and comprehensive, yet warm and approachable, Taking Charge of Your Fertility is one of the most universally lauded health books on the market today. It is an essential reference for every woman of reproductive age.
For any woman unhappy with her current method of birth control; demoralized by her quest to have a baby, or experiencing confusing symptoms in her cycle, this book provides answers to all these questions, plus amazing insights into a woman's body.
Weschler thoroughly explains the empowering Fertility Awareness Method which, in only a couple minutes a day, allows a woman to:
• Enjoy highly effective, scientifically proven birth control without chemicals or devices
• Maximize her chances of conception or expedite fertility treatment by identifying impediments to conception
• Increase the likelihood of choosing the gender of her baby
• Gain control of her sexual and gynecological health
📚 Paperback: 512 pages
Click to order/for more info: Taking Charge of Your Fertility
There is no stopping the biological clock, as the birth rate shows.
In 1999, there were 622,000 babies born in England and Wales.
The most productive group, surprisingly, was the women aged 30-34: they had 185,300 babies.
By the time women reached 40-44 years old, they produced 13,600 specimens, and at 45-plus, 635 gave birth.
In fact, nearly 300,000 women over 30 had babies, a cheering thought, until you think of the nappies.
But the figures leave much in the dark. How many 40-plus women are still trying, how many are still using contraceptives, how many are already infertile?
Looking back can cast some light. In 1938, the number of women having babies in the 30-34 age group was actually smaller than today, even though the birth rate was roughly the same.
Madonna and Cherie wouldn't have even made a paragraph then when 25,000 women in the 40-44 age group gave birth - almost double current levels - and 2,200 babies were born to women over 45. That's almost four times as many as now.
Clearly, choice, as well as biology, plays an important part - the really sharp decline in the birth rate for 35-plus women came in the 1970s, when it halved, coinciding with easier access to the Pill and abortion.
So, by when should you have your fertility tested? Unfortunately, exactly at what rate fertility declines is impossible to say. Nobody has measured the number of women trying to get pregnant at 40, say, and studied how successful they are.
To state, as one Sunday broadsheet report of the American campaign did, that the rate of conception drops to a mere 2% at 40 is very bleak and misleading.
No one can deny that you may have to wait longer to get pregnant once you are in your mid- to late-thirties, or that you may fail.
As someone who did have a baby at the drop of a hat at 40, and another, albeit after three miscarriages, at 46 years old, my advice is this: next time you see a shock-horror headline about older mothers, just turn the page.
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
| Grade A Baby Eggs |
by Victoria Hopewell
-- Victoria Hopewell was a forty-something divorced clinical psychologist when she met and married a longtime bachelor whose ninety-year-old parents were anxiously waiting for a grandchild.
The problem was, even though Victoria had two young daughters from a previous marriage, her intense desire to create a baby with her new husband was thwarted by her own body.
Her eggs were aging faster than her healthy hormones and youthful appearance would suppose.
Desperate to bear a child, willing to undergo every procedure from Lupron shots through egg harvesting and in vitro fertilization (IVF), she is blocked at every corner of medical protocol from achieving her dream of a successful pregnancy.
Finally, she journeys toward acceptance of using a donor egg, much to the dismay of her growing daughters.
But no eggs are available, and she is placed on a lengthy hospital wait-list. Victoria and her husband then embark on a surrealistic egg hunt to find their own donor.
Follow her insider's account of the hidden world of egg donation-where women's eggs are bought and sold over the internet and a beautiful model with high SATs and a prior successful donation commands the highest prices.
📚 Paperback: 214 pages
Click to order/for more info: Grade A Baby Eggs
📚 Start reading Grade A Baby Eggs on your Kindle in under a minute!
📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Why are more and more women today opting to become mothers in their forties, and even as late as fifty?
What are the risks and what are the benefits?
Read on for some questions, some conceived in ignorance and others from semi-intelligent observation.
Psychologically speaking (through the eyes of a non-psychologist), there is always going to be someone who will tell the
older mothershe is crazy to consider having a baby later in life.
Ultimately, however, it is only the mother-to-be who has to make the choice and answer for it.
The desire to be a mother is no different at forty-five than at twenty-five.
And why shouldn't it be fulfilled, as long as the mother can provide for the child, and give it what it needs to grow up to be a responsible adult?
And so to those who ask why, you should say:
Because.
To those who ask how, you should reply:
the usual way.
And like the true color of one's hair and size of one's bank account, whose business and life is it anyway?
Source: Change of Life Babies: Do They Really?, by Marjorie Dorfman
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
| Inconceivable |
by Julia Indichova
-- A memoir of hope for the thousands of women struggling with infertility, from one who beat the odds by simply tuning in to her body and tapping her well of sheer determination.
At a time when more and more women are trying to get pregnant at increasingly advanced ages, fertility specialists and homeopathic researchers boast endless treatment options.
But when Julia Indichova made the rounds of medical doctors and nontraditional healers, she was still unable to conceive a child.
It was only when she forsook their financially and emotionally draining advice, turning inward instead, that she finally met with reproductive success. Inconceivable recounts this journey from hopeless diagnoses to elated motherhood.
Anyone who has faced infertility will relate to Julia's desperate measures: acupuncture, unidentifiable black-and-white pellets, herb soup, foul-smelling fruit, even making love on red sheets.
Five reproductive endocrinologists told her that there was no documented case of anyone in her hormonal condition getting pregnant, forcing her to finally embark on her own intuitive regimen.
After eight caffeine-free, nutrient-rich, yoga-laden months, complemented by visualization exercises, Julia received amazing news; incredibly, she was pregnant.
Nine months later she gave birth to a healthy girl.
📚 Paperback: 244 pages
Click to order/for more info: Inconceivable
📚 Start reading Inconceivable on your Kindle in under a minute!
📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
This plan can help many over 40 women:
🛏️ If you don't have fertile-quality cervical mucus, the sperm may only last 2 hours.🛏️ Older men sometimes can't perform as often.
🛏️ Older men sometimes have lower sperm counts.
🛏️ The sperm needs to be there, waiting, before your egg is released. So you need to start
tryingbefore your OPK turns positive.
🛏️ Regular sex increases his testosterone, his sperm count, and your cervical mucus and helps ramp up your hormones, especially estrogen - getting everything working well.
The Plan - Short Version:
🛏️Tryevery other night starting Day 8
🛏️ Buy 10 ovulation predictor kit sticks
🛏️ Begin ovulation testing on Day 10
🛏️ When test is positive,trythat night, plus two additional nights in a row
🛏️ Skip one night, then do one lasttry
🛏️ Take a home pregnancy test 15 days after your ovulation test was positive, if your period has not begun
🛏️ If your ovulation test never goes positive, continuetryingevery other night until Day 35, then do a pregnancy test if your period has not begun.
For the Detailed Version, read the full article: The Sperm Meets Egg Plan
How Sexual Frequency Affects a Woman's Sexual Responsiveness, Fertility, and Health
🛏️ The less often a woman has sex, the less she will want sex, the less she will enjoy sex, and the more difficult it will be for her to become aroused and climax.🛏️ Women who had sex two or more times a week had the most regular cycles, women who had sex once a week was slightly less regular, celibate women were still less regular, and women who had sporadic sex, or sex less than once a week, had the most irregular cycles. A variety of hormonal differences were seen, including higher estrogen levels in the women who had regular sex.
🛏️ The benefits of the hormonal changes in those having intercourse at least twice a week include better fertility, stronger bones, better cardiovascular health, less depression, lower incidence of fibrocystic breast disease and uterine cancer, and a decrease in menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and depression.
Photo credit: Sperm Count Recipe Ayurvedic, by Kamikaze Gecko
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
by Deanna Roy
-- The Sperm Meets Egg Plan is a step-by-step guide to achieving pregnancy without taking invasive tests, charting temperatures, or making mistakes in predicting your ovulation that result in mistimed attempts at fertilization.
Designed by Deanna Roy after months of trying made her believe she had a fertility problem, the plan will help you time intercourse whether you have a typical or atypical cycle.
It includes adjustments for common fertility problems, what to do if you are over forty, and considerations for trying again after a pregnancy loss.
This booklet includes 40 pages of instruction plus a 10-page sneak peek of Deanna's book Baby Dust. It should be a free download.
This FREE booklet is a THANK YOU to all the women who have supported Deanna's web site since the loss of her first baby in 1998.
📚 Start reading The Sperm Meets Egg Plan on your Kindle in under a minute!
📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
In her early 40s, Deborah Walker still had hopes of becoming a mom.
Like many of her peers, she'd chosen to first focus on her career and then on children. The Hermitage, Tenn., woman had already suffered a pregnancy loss. But four days before moving from New York to Nashville to join her husband, she found herself pregnant.
At the age of 42, she gave birth to little Madeline.
You have a rich life tapestry to wrap around your child,says Walker, now 45.
I love that I'm an older mom. I wasn't ready before; I wasn't the person I wanted to be to be a mother. I am now.
This is the age of the older mom. But fertility favors the young, raising the question of, biologically, how old is too old to have a baby.
When a woman reaches her late 30s and her 40s, the possibility of conceiving naturally -- or conceiving at all -- is a door slowly swinging shut.
Plus, there are higher risks of pregnancy loss and genetic issues that accompany pregnancy at an older age.
Beyond that, there are ramifications to consider, such as simultaneously funding college tuition and retirement. But many women feel there are inherent rewards in waiting those extra years.
Many women in their 40s have had a chance to figure out who they are,says Dr. Cornelia Graves, medical director of Baptist Hospital's perinatal and obstetrics program in Nashville.
That's really important because when you're in your 20s, sometimes you have children because it's the expected thing to do. Whereas women in their 40s, this is what they've elected to do.
The risks of conceiving
Fertility drops off sharply in a woman's late 30s. But women can still conceive naturally up until around age 50, Graves says.
But biologically, the best time for having a baby is between the ages of 22 and 32, she says.
If you're trying to get pregnant in your late 30s or early 40s, the literature says you should try for a yearbefore seeking help, Graves says.
I say three to six months because your time is much more limited.
A woman's fertility is highest and the possibility of complications lower, earlier on. Women are born with a finite number of eggs. Not only do those eggs wane in number as a woman ages, but they've weathered more. When you're 40, your eggs are 40.
That's why the possibility of genetic irregularities such as Down syndrome, a chromosomal disorder, grows as a woman gets older.
Fertility starts to slide in a woman's 30s, says Dr. Gloria Richard-Davis, chairwoman of obstetrics and gynecology at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. By age 40, the decline becomes even more drastic.
For all those reasons, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine encourages women to have all their kids by age 37, she says.
Obviously, that's not realistic for many women and the type of lifestyle we have now,Richard-Davis adds.
Women are getting married later and having children later. It doesn't mean if you're over 40, you can't get pregnant, but the probability dramatically declines.
However, Hollywood has provided some recent examples of older moms.
Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry had her daughter in March at age 41. Nicole Kidman, who's 40 and married to country music singer Keith Urban, is expecting her first biological child in July. (Kidman has two adopted children with former husband Tom Cruise.)
Why women wait
Age-related infertility is increasingly more common. One in five women wait until they're older than 35 to start their families, reports the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
ASRM attributes the trend to several factors: the availability of contraception and the high divorce rate, coupled with more women in the workforce, women marrying at an older age and married couples waiting to be financially secure before starting their families.
Add to this mix that many women simply just don't realize fertility begins to wane in their late 20s.
Then there are the added complications of raising a child at a later age.
Vikki Adkins of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., got married at age 33. She had her first child when she was 39 and her second at 41. Adkins considers herself a high-energy person, but keeping up with a 6-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy can still be tough.
She worries about the future, funding her children's college educations and her own retirement. Not to mention adolescence and menopause will probably make concurrent appearances.
I am 48 now and lucky I have my children,Adkins says,
but I think it is harder than when you are in your 20s and early 30s.
Not that there aren't advantages, too, to have children later in life. Many moms feel their age is an asset, giving them patience they lacked before. Medical professionals also notice the difference.
I think you've kind of learned to roll with the punches of life, so you don't fixate on every little thing,says Baptist's Graves.
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
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Ten Ancient Chinese Secrets to Tap into a Woman's Creative Potential
by Randine Lewis
Being fertile and fruitful can mean giving birth to a child -- but to have a fertile soul means to give birth to the true self a woman wants to be: to live a life filled with passion, strength, joy, and adventure.
In The Way of the Fertile Soul, Dr. Randine Lewis outlines ten ancient Chinese medical and Taoist
secretsthat hold the little-known key to successfully conceiving babies, new dreams, and fulfilling life for women at any phase in their lives.
The Way of the Fertile Soul encourages women to strive toward health, abundance, and a fruitful, joyous approach to life.
By using diagnostic questionnaires, qigong exercises, and guided meditations to help the reader understand how the elements of nature express themselves in her body, mind, and spirit, The Way of the Fertile Soul provides the tools to greatly increase a woman's chance of conceiving, identify imbalances, reduce stress, increase energy, and uncover her intrinsic creativity and express it fully.
📚 Paperback: 240 pages
Click to order/for more info: The Way of the Fertile Soul
📚 Start reading The Way of the Fertile Soul on your Kindle in under a minute!
📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
More and more people are delaying parenthood until they are in their forties or even older.
Women over 35 getting pregnant, are the fastest-growing demographic in our modern world.
With the increased prevalence of older parents, it seems there is also increased controversy, discussion and resources swirling around the “older parents” movement.
There is a bevy of information online for older parents - whether you are considering adoption or pregnancy and birth, are interested in how children of older parents do in comparison to those whose parents are younger, or just want to gather information.
A couple of the best resources listed is my Stories of Pregnancy blogs!
🤰🏻 Stories of Pregnancy and Birth Over 44 is a fun site with a collection of thousands of stories and articles about and by older mothers. This resource focuses on women who give birth to biological children after the mid-forties, not necessarily parents who have adopted.
🤰🏻 Pregnancy Stories By Age -- My goal is to simply share stories I find online, for inspiration - to those trying - and comfort to those who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant!... Sort of achicken soup for the TTCing over 44 soul!
More resources:
🤰🏻 While this site is in the United Kingdom, Mothers Over 40 is a positive and encouraging site with articles, resources and links relating to over forty parenting.🤰🏻 Hot Flashes, Warm Bottles is a book written by Nancy London, M.S.W. is a great, about-time book for moms who are older.
Adopting.org has a wealth of information for adoptive parents over the age of forty online. This site provides stories, articles and links to other resources for older parents.
🤰🏻 For a positive spin, the article
What are the Advantages of Having Children Later in Lifewritten by Jan Anderson. This article has a nice, first-hand approach and lots of encouragement and personal experience information.
🤰🏻 You Can Get Pregnant Over 40 says,
If you are over 40 and trying to conceive without success, or if you continually miscarry, you start to believe a successful pregnancy over 40 is impossible. I'm here to tell you that it was possible for me - naturally.
🤰🏻 Fertility Over 40 -- With over 12 years experience supporting women just like you. We know what works and what doesn't. Plus we give you the support and expertise of your own fertility coach! Join the thousands of other women who have achieved pregnancy over 40! Free membership to receive updates and free fertility tips.
🤰🏻 Age and Fertility (free booklet)
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
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by Greg Wolfe
-- The man's guide to anything and everything in the infertility universe.
Greg Wolfe went through four cycles of IVF on his rocky journey to fatherhood—and now, with profound sympathy and side-splitting humor, he lays it all out for guys on similar baby-making quests.
How to Make Love to a Plastic Cup is not your typical nuts and bolts (no pun intended) medical guide but a helpful handbook designed specifically with the male partner in mind, with answers to his most pressing questions about the infertility process...
📚 Paperback: 256 pages
Click to order/for more info: How to Make Love to a Plastic Cup
📚 Start reading How to Make Love to a Plastic Cup on your Kindle in under a minute!
📚 Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
 |
"In 2009, there were 105,827 live births in the United States to women ages 40 through 44 -- 7,320 live births to women 45 to 49 -- 569 live births to women 50-54.
In 2009, there were only 783 live births to women over 43, using donor eggs.""
Checking the 2018 birth stats today at the CDC and I found:
Age of mother
Women in their 40s -- The birth rate for women aged 40–44 was 11.8 births per 1,000 women in 2018, up 2% from 2017; the rate for this group has risen almost continuously since 1985. The number of births to women in their early 40s rose 2% from 2017 to 2018.Women aged 45-49 -- The birth rate for women aged 45–49 (which includes births to women aged 50 and over) was 0.9 births per 1,000 women in 2018, unchanged from 2017. The number of births to women aged 45 and over was also unchanged from 2017 to 2018.
Women aged 50 and over -- There were 959 births to women aged 50 and over in 2018, up from 840 in 2017. The number of births to women in this age group has generally increased since 1997 (from 144 births), when data for women aged 50 and over became available again. The birth rate for women aged 50–54 rose to 0.9 births per 10,000 women in 2018, from 0.8 in 2017.
TOTAL (40-54) : 126,956 live births
NOTE: In this report, tables labeled 45-49 years, 45-54 years, and 50-54 years include births to mothers up to age 64.
Next I went to SART, who has the 2017 IVF and Donor Egg rates in the US:
Fresh Embryos From Non-Donor Oocytes
Number of cycles : (41-42) 12,258 (over 42) 8,652
Percentage of cycles resulting in live births : (41-42) 12.8 (over 42) 4.4
Total live births : (41-42) 1,569 (over 42) 381
TOTAL (over 40) : 1,950
Donor Oocytes (all ages)
Number of transfers : (Fresh Donor Eggs) 3,146 (Frozen Donor Eggs) 3,013 (Donated Embryos) 1,697 (Thawed Embryos) 12,481
Percentage of transfers resulting in live births : (Fresh) 49.2 (Frozen) 43.1 (Donated Embryos) 42.8 (Thawed Embryos) 46.2
Total Live Births : (Fresh) 1,548 (Frozen) 1,298 (Donated Embryos) 726 (Thawed Embryos) 5,766
TOTAL births by Donor Egg/Embryos (all ages) : 9,338
Source: www.Sartcorsonline.com
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| Picture credit: CDC.gov |
How did the types of ART cycles used in the United States differ among women of different ages?
Figure 4 shows that, in 2017, the percentage of ART cycles in which a woman used her own eggs declined with age, while the percentage of ART cycles using a donor egg increased with age. The vast majority (96%) of women younger than age 35 used their own eggs (nondonor), and about 4% used donor eggs. In contrast, 35% of women aged 43–44 and 68% of women older than age 44 used donor eggs.
Was the use of donor eggs or embryos higher among older women undergoing ART?
The percentage of cycles performed with donor eggs increased sharply after age 40. Among women older than age 48, for example, approximately 86% of all ART cycles used donor eggs. Eggs produced by women in older age groups form embryos that are less likely to implant and more likely to result in miscarriage if they do implant.
Number of live-birth deliveries to women using Donor Egg older than 44 in 2017: 654
Source: CDC.gov/art
So the updated quote will become:
"In 2018, there were 126,956 live births in the United States to women ages 40 through 54 -- 959 of those live births to women 50-54.
In 2017, there were only 654 live births to women over 43, using donor eggs."
A research team supervised by Universite Laval scientist Marc-Andre Sirard has identified genetic markers that allow the selection of eggs with the best chance of leading to successful pregnancy after in vitro fertilization (IVF).
This finding could both increase the success rate of single embryo transfer and diminish the risk of multiple pregnancies.
The details of the method developed by the researchers, for which an international patent application has been filed, are explained on the website of the scientific journal Human Reproduction.
Eggs recovered in the course of the IVF process are surrounded by follicular cells removed before the actual fertilization procedure begins.
While in the ovaries, these cells and the eggs are in very close interaction,explains Sirard.
A first experiment we conducted on bovine follicular cells led us to believe these cells might possess specific markers that would be able to give us information about the quality of an egg.
With the help of 40 women recruited in a fertility clinic, researchers compared follicular cells surrounding eggs ultimately led to successful pregnancies - i.e.
goodeggs - to cells surrounding ovules which did not result in pregnancy.
This comparison led to the identification of five genes expressed more abundantly in follicular cells surrounding good eggs.
Currently, the way to assess which embryos are to be transferred into a woman's uterus is based on visible criteria such as appearance and division rate.
At least 30% of embryos that look normal through visual examination nonetheless show chromosome abnormalities,explains Professor Sirard, illustrating the limits of this type of assessment.
The method developed by Sirard's team makes it possible to objectively select ovules which have the best chance of success without altering the integrity of the embryos.
This new genomic tool could also solve an ethical problem confronting both fertility clinic doctors and the people who consult them: In order to increase the chances of pregnancy, many embryos are implanted simultaneously into the woman in the hope that at least one will survive.
This procedure along with improved IVF techniques has led to an increase in multiple pregnancies.
Even if doctors now tend to transfer fewer embryos, multiple pregnancies still occur in 30% of couples who resort to IVF in North America and 23% in European couples.
By selecting the embryo with the best potential, it would be possible to limit the number of embryos transferred, and thus the number of multiple pregnancies, while maintaining good success rates,concludes Marc-André Sirard.
Source: Jean-François Huppé, Université Laval
MedicalNewsToday.com
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Grade A Baby Eggs: An Infertility Memoirby Victoria Hopewell
-- Victoria Hopewell was a forty-something divorced clinical psychologist when she met and married a longtime bachelor whose ninety-year-old parents were anxiously waiting for a grandchild.
The problem was, even though Victoria had two young daughters from a previous marriage, her intense desire to create a baby with her new husband was thwarted by her own body.
Her eggs were aging faster than her healthy hormones and youthful appearance would suppose.
Desperate to bear a child, willing to undergo every procedure from Lupron shots through egg harvesting and in vitro fertilization (IVF), she is blocked at every corner of medical protocol from achieving her dream of a successful pregnancy.
Finally, she journeys toward acceptance of using a donor egg, much to the dismay of her growing daughters.
But no eggs are available, and she is placed on a lengthy hospital wait-list. Victoria and her husband then embark on a surrealistic egg hunt to find their own donor.
Follow her insider's account of the hidden world of egg donation-where women's eggs are bought and sold over the internet and a beautiful model with high SATs and a prior successful donation commands the highest prices.
Paperback: 214 pagesClick to order/for more info: Grade A Baby Eggs
Start reading Grade A Baby Eggs on your Kindle in under a minute!Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
 |
| Photo by www.cnn.com |
Pamela Madsens says it took teams of doctors, drugs, and fertility treatments before she could conceive each of her two sons, but she has a few easy tips she believes may help other infertile couples.
Her advice includes pointers on how to speed up a referral to a fertility clinic, how to pick the right doctor, and tips on getting the support you need from your spouse.
Story Highlights
• Expert: 40 percent of infertility is due to something wrong with the man
• Meeting a
cycle buddyat a clinic or online can be helpful
• Women under 35 should try for a year before proceeding with fertility treatments
• Women over 35 should wait no longer than six months before getting help
Read more: How to have a baby when it's not so simple
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Ready: Why Women Are Embracing The New Later Motherhood by Elizabeth Gregory
-- Over the past three decades, skyrocketing numbers of women have chosen to start their families in their late thirties and early forties.
In 2005, ten times as many women had their first child between the ages of 35 and 39 as in 1975, and thirteen times as many had their first between 40 and 44.
Women now have the option to define for themselves when they're ready for a family, rather than sticking to a schedule set by social convention.
As a society, however, we have yet to come to terms with the phenomenon of later motherhood, and women who decide it makes sense for them to delay pregnancy often find themselves confronted with alarmist warnings about the dangers of waiting too long.
In Ready, Elizabeth Gregory tracks the burgeoning trend of new later motherhood and demonstrates for many women today, waiting for family works best.
She provides compelling evidence of the benefits of having children later -- by birth or by adoption.
Paperback: 336 pagesClick to order/for more info: Ready
Start reading Ready on your Kindle in under a minute!Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
 |
| Photo credit: Mom and gram, by Marya/Emdot |
Here is an oversimplified and unscientific definition of FSH: FSH stands for the follicle-stimulating hormone.
It is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland which, in the female, stimulates the ovaries to develop a follicle – the housing surrounding the egg prior to ovulation – each month.
It can be thought of metaphorically as the gas pedal which causes the ovaries to ovulate each month.
As women age, it becomes more difficult for the ovaries to ovulate, so the level of FSH rises (in order to push down the gas pedal further) over time.
When a woman enters menopause, her ovaries are depleted and the gas pedal stays depressed permanently; that is to say, the FSH level remains high.
If you've ever been told you have High FSH, Bad Eggs, or Diminished/Poor Ovarian Reserve, then you will want to read this: High FSH and Infertility
Includes an overview of meds used in ART, high FSH-friendly REs and research articles on high FSH.
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Pregnantby Robert A. Greene M.D. and Laurie Tarkan
-- You have more than one hundred hormones circulating in your body – reproductive hormones, pregnancy hormones, sex hormones, metabolic hormones, and stress hormones – relaying messages from tissue to tissue, organ to organ, brain to body, and body to brain.
An equilibrium, a perfect balance in both partners, often determines your ability to conceive and support a pregnancy.
When your body is imbalanced, conception becomes very difficult. Luckily, hormonal imbalances can be corrected.
Drawing on the latest research in this field – which links underlying hormonal issues with infertility in men and women – Dr. Robert Greene, fertility specialist, OB/GYN, and reproductive endocrinologist, has created the Perfect Balance Fertility Program to help patients attain the optimal hormonal health necessary for conception.
Paperback: 352 pagesClick to order/for more info: Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility
Start reading Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility on your Kindle in under a minute!Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
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| Picture by Life - Secret of life, by Sdgha Jhu |
I just want to suggest, once again, to those wanting to conceive using their own eggs /sperm, look into Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (here is one of many info links: OxyMed.com).
Here is the basis for my surmise:
HBOT [Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy] increases microcirculation (neoangiogenesis), and it also increases circulating stem cells.
There has been evidence of ovarian stem cells in mice, seen in the production of new follicles.
My guess is, it might take 90-120 days following HBOT for higher quality eggs to ripen and be ovulated.
Sperm quality also improves within weeks after HBOT.
I would suggest, acupuncture and herbs (and why not colon and liver cleansing) for improved hormonal balance. Optimizing nutrition/reducing seems seem obvious.
Then, some brave soul, try the HBOT!
It's lead to more than one
miracle curein brain and even spinal cord regeneration; why not the ovaries?
Plus, it's safe and virtually harmless; much easier on the body than IVF. ~Prudence
Source: Babies After 50 discussion list
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 10th Anniversary Edition:The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health
by Toni Weschler
-- For any woman unhappy with her current method of birth control; demoralized by her quest to have a baby; or experiencing confusing symptoms in her cycle, this book provides answers to all these questions, plus amazing insights into a woman's body.
Weschler thoroughly explains the empowering Fertility Awareness Method, which in only a couple minutes a day allows a woman to:
• Enjoy highly effective, scientifically proven birth control without chemicals or devices
• Maximize her chances of conception or expedite fertility treatment by identifying impediments to conception
• Increase the likelihood of choosing the gender of her baby
• Gain control of her sexual and gynecological health
Paperback: 512 pagesClick to order/for more info: Taking Charge of Your Fertility
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| Photo credit: Child in the street, by Britta Hääl |
Researchers at Isreal's Sheba Medical Center looked at women who gave birth in their 50s and beyond, and found the risks were greater for them than their counterparts who were only a decade younger, but babies were generally healthy.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have said despite the elevates risks, does not mean that women shouldn't attempt pregnancies later in life if they feel it's the right thing for them to do.
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Hot Flashes Warm Bottles: First-Time Mothers Over Fortyby Nancy London
-- The first prescriptive and anecdotal guidebook for the multitudes of older moms, and distills the wisdom, insight, and practical advice gathered during her years as a therapist and support group leader.
With tips for renewing physical and sexual energy, parenting after infertility and adoption, balancing career and family, and caring for elderly parents, the personal stories from these older moms are often humorous, sometimes surprising, but always reassuring.
Without exception, the reader will be left with the comforting knowledge that she is not alone on her journey.
Hot Flashes fills a much-needed place in the parenting field, at a time when more and more women are embracing motherhood later in life.
Paperback: 192 pagesClick to order/for more info: Hot Flashes Warm Bottles
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| Photo credit: Health.Heraldtribune.com |
One in every 30 babies born in the U.S. is a twin — an astounding increase over the last three decades, according to a government report issued Wednesday. In 1980, only 1 in every 53 babies was a twin.
When people say it seems like you see more twins nowadays, they are right,said Joyce Martin, an epidemiologist who co-authored the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
About 7 percent of all births for women 40 and older were twins, compared to 5 percent of women in their late 30s and 2 percent of women age 24 or younger.
Read more: Older mothers, fertility treatments driving a big increase in twin births
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Fertility Codeby Dermot O'Connor
-- The Fertility Code program delivers a powerful and practical step-by-step approach for those who wish to give themselves the best chance of starting a family.
As many as 500,000 couples in the UK and Ireland actively seek help with fertility, such as IVF treatment each year. While some are legitimate candidates, many have been proven to just need proper lifestyle and fertility advice and assistance in order to conceive.
The Fertility Code is designed for these people, and for those who need more serious intervention, to optimize their fertility. There are a variety of factors that can contribute to preventing a couple from having a baby.
This is why it is important that a fertility plan should address as many of these potential issues as possible. Through many years' experience of helping thousands of couples to become parents, Dermot O'Connor knows that such a plan must be easy to understand, easy to implement and genuinely effective.
The Fertility Code combines the best of both Eastern and Western medicine to provide a comprehensive guide to conceiving successfully and carrying a baby to full term.
It details the optimum plan to enhance fertility, and delivers a proven strategy, incorporating the key elements consistently utilized by the couples Dermot has helped:
• Fertility Awareness Strategies
• The psychology of fertility
• Optimum nutrition for conception and pregnancy
• The importance of detoxification
Paperback: 224 pagesClick to order/for more info: The Fertility Code
Start reading The Fertility Code on your Kindle in under a minute!Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
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