Secondary Infertility & helping yourself (2)

Secondary infertility is a real issue. The amount of women having trouble falling pregnant with their second is really staggering. Not so very long ago, I was one of those women, and I went on a mission to do everything I could to help aid my fertility.

I was able to have one baby. Why could I not carry a second? 

Anxiety, failure, loss, grief. These are words that are all associated with Secondary Infertility (also referred to as SI). It is a cruel issue that now affects 1 in 5 couples and is for the most part unexplained.

Of course age has to be a massive player. For women are leaving it later and later to start a family, and the quality of their eggs deteriorates with age. The pressure that women put themselves under, such as wanting a particular age-gap between siblings, is also a very real factor, as is the tiredness brought on by having a first child already.

For me, due to being nearly 40, help from the NHS was limited. I did go on to progesterone. I don't think it helped though for the side-effects included hair loss, bloating and irritability. Considering you are supposed to have loads of sex to get pregnant, that's hardly a turn-on. What did help me however, were the following... 

Babycare Before Birth by Zita West, midwife and all-round fertility guru. Especially the first section, 'Building Blocks,' which informs on how to help prepare your body for pregnancy. (Babycare Before Birth Dorling Kindersley, 2006)
 

Changing my diet – mainly eating lots of protein and anti-oxidants.

Taking supplements of L-arginine, amino acids, multi-vitamins, and of course folic acid, and, because of my miscarriage history, junior aspirin (75mg). 

Agnus Castus, a homeopathic remedy to balance hormones (apparently it doesn't help everyone).

MLD (see my previous SI post) as a treatment also good for balancing hormones.

Cranial Osteopathy 


If you would like to read more, including what Zita West has to say on the matter of SI, then the full article: Secondary Infertility and me, will be out in the summer issue (2013) of Baby London magazine.