The following experience with infertility was written by Mary, a Couple to Couple League teacher who used what she knows about Natural Family Planning to conceive, after experiencing infertility at age 38.
Mary’s Story:
My husband and I experienced secondary infertility after the birth of our third child. I was about 38 years old and began to experience miscarriages. My doctors didn’t want to run tests until I had three miscarriages, and honestly, I didn’t want to go through it again.
I contacted (through the Couple to Couple League office) Marilyn Shannon and was given some specific nutritional advice, which helped to conceive our fourth child, who was born when I was 40. Three years later, I experienced a third miscarriage, and I again consulted Marilyn Shannon, who gave me additional advice, and we were blessed with our fifth child who was born when I was 45.
What charting revealed was that my luteal phases were only about eleven days long. That didn’t concern me, because I had for my entire marriage luteal phases that were just eleven days long, unless I was pregnant. When I followed Marilyn Shannon’s advice, my luteal phases increased to 14 days, both times.
If memory serves, it took several (3-6 months) to conceive baby number 4. It took longer than a year to conceive baby number 5.
Here’s what I did:
First, a really good prenatal vitamin, such as Lifetime Professional Prenatal Formula (available at kuhar.com) and add to that enough of the following to make a total of:
100 mcg Folic Acid per year of age (for example, if you are 40, take 4000 mcg.)
1000 mg Magnesium
300 mg B6
1000 mcg B12
75 mg Zinc
1000-3000 mg Vitamin C
3 to 6 capsules Flax Seed oil
Please understand that the amounts of Folic Acid, etc, are whatever is in the prenatal, and then add what you need to get the total. I take the prenatal, plus a BComplex, plus 5 capsules each with 800 mcg to make my total for Folic Acid.
Please note also, that this has not been subjected to any scientific study, it’s what they call “anecdotal”. As in, people are sharing what has worked for them. This is not a “proven” therapy. On the other hand, it seemed to work for me……
Mary, CCL Teacher