Taking He Shou Wu (Fo Ti) for Fertility... and gray hair reversal

Just wanted to share this with any women it may help.

10 years ago, when I was bitching about my hair starting to turn gray in my 20's (it's genetic- I get it from both my parents' sides) - a friend of mine, who was born and raised in China, told me about something called He Shou Wu (otherwise known as Foti). I believe this is a root. And supposedly, it can help to restore your hair to its natural color (or at the very least, help delay the "graying" process).

Well, I went to a Chinese herb store and bought some - it looked like wood chips, just like this picture on the left. I had to make a tea out of it. But honestly, I just wasn't that motivated to keep up with it. I was never sure if I was preparing it right, and it didn't taste very good. Another time, I bought some in a bottle, but again... wasn't sure of the proper dosage, and just kinda gave up on it.

Well, fast forward 10 years, and now I'm in my 40's and the TTC supplements are making my new roots come in soo fast, I'm dyeing my hair more than ever. Which I realize, can't be good for my health (or a baby's health) but I am just too damn freaked out by the idea of showing the world just HOW MUCH gray hair I have, to stop dyeing it. I hate seeing gray hair in the mirror (and I have a LOT). Hate it. I feel like a completely different person when I dye it. So I'm just going to keep doing it and hoping for the best.

But anyway... all this to say, I recently have been wanting to start back up on the Foti (He Shou Wu  ) supplements again, because I am so sick of having to dye my hair (it's up to once a week now...at least, that's about how often I do touchups). But the reason I've been holding off, is because I didn't want the Foti to mess up my chances of trying to conceive.

So, I started googling Foti and He Shou Wu  , along with "TTC" and "Fertility" and "pregnancy" to see if other people had taken it during pregnancy, and had experienced any negative side effects.

Well, lo and  behold this stuff is actually considered to be a fertility ENHANCER. Which I guess makes sense, given the fact that it's able to turn back the clock on your hair, right? So maybe it can do the same thing for your reproductive system.  Lucky for me, I live in an area where we have lots of Asian markets, and I can get the liquid version at a decent price.

I did find a "testimonial" from a gal who seems to feel it helped her get pregnant. Her review is copied and pasted below, and you can find it on this page: http://www.herbwisdom.com/review-fo-ti-root.html   And please note, it does seem that it may be best to STOP taking it once you find out you're pregnant (I'd seen that in 2 places online). Yeah I know... I need to look this up some more. But better safe than sorry.

Ruby •  

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"I have been taking Fo Ti Root for just over 2 month for stress. It has been working fantastically. My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for the past two years, I was told by doctors that I didn't even have a 1% chance of falling pregnant. I have just conceived and am 4 weeks pregnant. The chemist has told me to stop taking the Fo Ti Root because it's not good for the baby.. Is that true? Anyway I highly recommend it for both stress and fertility."

Again... more research needs to be done on this one, but just wanted to put it out there. Who knows, maybe it could help someone. At the very least... maybe it can help you skip a trip or two to the salon : )

EB

Aunty Flo just came to visit today...

... But I had a feeling it was going to happen, and like last month, I am not too disappointed. Note: It's funny how my period has come on the same exact day of the month (the 27th), for the last 3 months. Usually it's at least a day or two off, and more often than not, it will arrive on a Sunday. Or, as I've told my husband, if there's some important event on a Friday or Saturday - like if my husband's office party is that day and we've rented a nice hotel room - my period will somehow choose that day to randomly show up and say "Surprise!!!"  Call it the Murphy's Law of Menstruation.

Anyway... I was somewhat relieved to get my period today. And it's definitely not that I don't want to get pregnant at all, but I think it would be most ideal to wait just one more month to get pregnant, if possible. I had been slacking a little on taking my supplements regularly, for stupid reasons (like misplacing my pill minder).  Although I did keep taking my Visalus vitamins pretty regularly, so hopefully that has me covered at least somewhat.

I want my eggs to be as healthy as they possibly can be, and it would be ideal if I could know that I've spent at least THREE months, taking excellent care of my health and improving the quality of my eggs (one month to go!). For the last 2 months I have been taking better care of my health than ever...  eating more whole foods than ever, and exercising. I've been taking Fertil Plus again (I think I started up again in September), and taking good amounts of CoQ10 to help improve the quality of my eggs, plus extra Vitamin D, Folic acid, maca powder, pumpkin seed and flaxseed.

As for the hubby, he's been taking Visalus vitamins, drinking 3 Visalus shakes per day, and also, for the first time in his life, he's been eating vegetables. AND he's also getting extra CoQ10 and Maca. He's looking better and healthier than ever, so I do have hope.

Yes, I do realize, this isn't the time to be slacking. I realize, beggars can't be too choosey. I realize I must sound completely crazy, being 44 years old and saying, "this just isn't the ideal time... I think I'll wait." But I'm just talking about one more month. I've heard you and your partner should ideally spend at least 3 months, being healthy, before conception. So I'm just doing what I can. I'd rather feel really good about the eggs I'm producing, and the sperm my husband is producing, than get pregnant and worry for 9 months about the fact that maybe we're dealing with damaged sperm and eggs. True, you never know what's going to happen. I know, there is no way you can predict or control the outcome. But you can always do your best, and have hope!

And if for some reason it doesn't happen in the next few months... articles like this one give me even more hope ; ).

EB

Women who Gave Birth Over the Age of 40 (Not Celebrities)

I just thought it might be inspirational to see some stories of women (on one page) who gave birth in their 40's. I'm thinking 45 may be my cutoff point to keep trying, but these videos do give me hope that I can get it done! : )

I'm sad that I wasn't able to find the rest of this episode (of Ricki Lake) on YouTube. It featured a woman who was pregnant at 45. Would have loved to see the rest of it! But I thought at least this clip would give some women hope... that's what it did for me! : )





This video features women who were 57, 58 and 70, when they conceived / gave birth:



The woman in this video below caused a huge firestorm with her pregancy. In my opinion, it's everyone's personal choice whether they want to have children at a later age.

Also, I didn't see a lot of videos on youtube showing Nancy Grace (who gave birth at 48) talking about her pregnancy, but here is one below, and you can read an article here:  http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/celebrity-interviews/nancy-grace-miracle-babies

She did say in the article that it's hard on your body to do it in your 40's... but she sure looks happy being a mom!

Also... I decided to make a visual list of celebrities who became mothers in their 40's. The list is sorted by age, and  you can see it here.

Oh and just for yuks... here is a list of some older fathers (celebrities)... thought it was worth sharing too!

http://lifewise.canoe.ca/FathersDay/Photos/2010/05/27/14137801.html#next

Enjoy!!!

EB

Study finds that babies born to older moms are healthier

I was happy to read this one!

I do see how it makes sense... I think if I had a kid right now, I'd probably be a lot more careful raising him or her, than I would have been in my 20's. And the kid would definitely eat better!

http://www.wtop.com/267/2875692/Babies-born-to-older-moms-are-healthier-study-finds

OK I confess, I went ahead and took a pregnancy test...

Who was I kidding, that I'd be able to wait another five days to take a test?? LOL!

Well, it was negative. Not even the SLIGHTEST trace of pink on the "second line." That's what I get for letting myself obsess over it!  But I can't say I blame myself. Something weird IS going on with my body... maybe it's just from the FertilPlus, but... I don't remember my boobs feeling this big, or sore, when I took the stuff before. It's true, I do remember going running with some girl friends after taking the supplements, and thought, "ow."  Like they hurt a little more than usual. But... they feel like freekin water balloons right now. And it hurts of something brushes against them or my husband touches them in the wrong way.  I also have that weird discharge thing going on, plus the back pain and OMG the fatigue. I don't get it. I am eating soooo healthy right now (AND exercising) so I feel like, the last thing I should feel is fatigue. 

Well, the last time when I took a pregnancy test, I didn't really notice symptoms (that I remember or took notes on) till almost 30 days after my period started. So if that's the case with me, I have another 4 days to go.  It's just that... when i took the test, 30 days into my cycle, that second line on the pregnancy test got SO red, so dark, so fast... you'd think that if I were feeling this many symptoms at this point, I'd at least see SOME kind of line... even if it's really light pink?  But... no dice.

Ah, well. Like I said, if it doesn't happen this month, at least I feel good about being able to keep up with the health kick I'm on. I'm eating a TON of vegetables, and taking my vitamins regularly... including extra CoQ10, to improve the quality of my eggs. I'd been slacking there for a while. I actually misplaced my "pill minder" and used that as a bad excuse to not take my supplements regularly (although I kept up with the Visalus Vi-Pak most days, I didn't take many additional things I normally would, like extra Vitamin D, folate, CoQ10, or garlic). 

If I'm going to have a kid, I want it to be the healthiest kid possible. So I'm going to do my best to go all out, to improve my health over the next few months. It's now or never, baby!

Something weird is going on....

This could be my imagination but something weird is definitely going on with my body right now. My boobs have been seriously hurting for about a week, I have fatigue every morning (even though I've been eating healthier than I ever have in my whole life), and my back pain is really getting to me. Plus, I have some of that same white discharge and "down there" wetness that I had when I was pregnant in January.  But I'm still trying to figure out if that could be my imagination.

I had my period on 9/27, and I think I ovulated on 10/11. So I'm not due for my period for another few days.

I don't want to take a pregnancy test because it seems like, whenever I take them too early, I just want to kick myself. Something about seeing that damn "negative" test tends to make me go, "damn, not again!" and it kind of seals it in my head that i am definitely not pregnant, and it's just not going to happen that month. And that anxiety just can't be good for a pregnancy, no matter what stage  you're in. So I feel like I should wait a little while. 

I will admit, I've been taking FertilPlus again... for about a month. But I'd taken it before, and it took me a few months to get pregnant and show any symptoms. So... I guess I'll have to just see how this goes. I'm really ok with not being pregnant this month, but it would be nice if it happened sometime in the next 6 months : ). I just started eating super duper insanely healthy about a month ago, so ideally it'd be nice to be that healthy, for about 3 months before conception.  So in this case, waiting a little while could be a benefit. 

Will let you know how it goes!

Endometriosis, Uterine Fibroids, and Pain with Orgasms

I decided to get on the internet and look up a problem I've been dealing with for about 2 years now. I have painful orgasms. It's not usually too bad in the middle of my cycle, but towards the end and during my period it's horrible. It just occurred to me that this could be a sign of fibroids or something like that. So I googled it and it turns out there are a huge number of women who experience this same problem, only the thing I don't have is the need to have a bowel movement right after the pain starts. Almost all of them say this is an issue for them (maybe it's just not one for me because I don't eat very much?). I can't even picture that happening once. But the rest of the descriptions are dead on. And someone even mentioned that injury to the tailbone is shown to have a link to this issue. That would be the case for me. There are 3 times in my life I've fallen on my tailbone so hard it knocked the wind out of me. An X-ray during a chiropractic exam, a few years ago, showed that area is pretty messed up.

Anyway, many women said they have fibroids or endometriosis, and I am seriously wondering if this is the case with me.

So I don't forget, here is the discussion I found online, about cramps after orgasms:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Womens-Health/Odd-cramping-after-orgasm-and-bowel-movements/show/321482

And here is another discussion thread... there are a TON of women complaining about this same thing! http://ehealthforum.com/health/extreme-pain-after-orgasm-t195005-a1.html#axzz2GbesqQvM

As for blocked fallopian tubes...

This is a site that sells Fibroid Clear, that helps get rid of fibroids: http://fibroidclear.com/

Endometriosis info: http://clearpassage.com/resources/book.php

There are also some great reviews from women who have used felopio to unblock their tubes. You can see the site at http://www.felopio.com

This is my favorite felopio testimonial: http://felopio.com/blog/?p=99