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Red, I sent my husband to acupuncture to try to help with his motility issues. He went every other week for 2 months and the woman gave him some chinese herbs to take. After having 32% total motility on 2 SA's before the treatment, his third SA came back completely normal with over 60% motility. I attribute it to the herbs and the acupuncture. He had previously been taking fertile aid or fertility blend for the year before the earlier SAs and they didn't help at all.

As for helping the woman out with fertility, I can't say too much because I only started to regularly go this cycle. I had previously gone twice in one month because I had a coupon. Normally, I start spotting at 10 dpo, that month, I didn't start spotting until 12 dpo so I truly think it does something. At the very least, it's really relaxing which is always nice since this whole having trouble conceiving thing is so stinking stressful.

I'm 13 dpo today and got another BFN on a test this morning. I haven't started my usual pre af spotting yet, but I figure it's probably the acupuncture from this month or maybe it's from taking Clomid. I know I'm not completely out until af shows, but I'm already bummed out that this cycle most likely didn't work.

Red, I'm currently doing acupuncture with my ivf treatment. My egg transfer is scheduled for later today :) my re said that acupuncture won't hurt anything that western medicine does, so if it helps me to relax (which it does) to go for it. My re does not recommend doing any of the herbs while on a medicated cycle, only when you are trying naturally.

As for me, we got the report that we had 2 4 cell embryos yesterday and 2 2cell embryos along with one that was still "catching up". Depending on how they do today, we will look to transfer 2-3.

Wishing everyone a happy Monday !

How exciting! Best of luck to you awhitaker! I'm going for my trial transfer later in the week. I'm not sure what to expect but they said it shouldn't be painful so I'm thankful for that.

Good luck with transfer today, Awhittaker! I hope your RE gives you pictures of your embabies to obsess over! (mine does, it's really cool that I have pictures of my daughter from when she was just a handful of cells!)

Regarding caffeine, it's a vascoconstrictor (constricts the blood vessels) so it's not implantation friendly. I don't think it's harmful to eggs, per se, but you want to have the most hospitable environment you can for implantation. I gave up caffeine completely almost 10 years ago, so this is a non-issue for me.

Regarding alcohol, from what I've read, pre-conception it's more an issue with the sperm. Of course, no alcohol after conception! I used to completely abstain during the 2 week wait, but now I'm less strict - baby doesn't share your blood until after implantation. So, drink 'til it's pink! (meaning the hpt) In moderation, of course!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I will definitely quit all of the bad stuff you're not supposed to do while preggers. I just felt because sooooo many friends/family got pregnant without having to change their lifestyle that maybe it was just another excuse.

I will look into the acupuncture today. I thought about asking the hubs to do it too. His count was really low last month.

AWhittaker, can you tell us how they do the egg retrieval? Are you under anesthesia? Do they go in through the vagina or is it something more invasive??

I can tell you about egg retrieval, I think Awhittaker might be a bit busy getting knocked up around now.

Most REs use twilight sedation for egg retrieval. It's like general anesthetic, but without some of the inherent risks. It's more like you're blackout drunk, but when they stop the drug in the IV, you snap out of it. They go in through the vaginal wall and needle aspirate the contents of each follicle and then examine the fluid under a microscope to locate the egg. Takes about 15-30 minutes, depending on how many mature follicles and how accessible your ovaries are.

So, here's how retrieval day goes.
No eating or drinking after midnight (it's actually no solids 8 hours before, no clear fluids 4 hours before). You go to the clinic, strip and change into the lovely gown and they throw in an IV. If your husband is contributing to the party onsite, here's where he leaves to go to the spank room. Then you walk to the OR, climb up on the table as they start the magic juice. I generally remember sitting on the table and starting to count backwards and then *POOF* I'm back in the recovery room. Then they come and tell you how many eggs they retrieved. You go pee and then go home. Because you've been overstimulating those follicles, I generally feel much better right after retrieval, all the bloat is gone! Until ... dun dun dun ... the next day. But they call the next day with your fertilization report and you drink gatorade and eat salty foods and take it easy and count the days until transfer. (others might not need any gatorade, I had OHSS)

I was terrified of retrieval before the first one, but honestly, by retrieval day, your ovaries are so overloaded, you'd probably be willing to do retrieval on yourself with a spoon. :)

Transfer is total cake, too. The worst part is you need to have a moderately full bladder because they use an external ultrasound to guide the catheter. But they give you pictures of your embryos and you can watch the transfer on the screen, you lay there for 5 minutes and then you can get up, go pee, and go about your life.

Hi ladies. I tested today 8 dpo it was bfn. Lol. I told myself would not test again until 10dpo. I had some wicked cramps this morning they stung and felt like ants. Greattttttttt guess af is revving up. Sigh.

Hang in there texas! Seems too early for AF cramps - maybe it has something to do with implantation.

Thanks for the info essemkay. I'll have to read up about it. The progesterone I have is Prometrium and I thought it was a progestin, because it's a synthetic progesterone. So confusing,and yes, the warning label is scary but my RE did say that it can't hurt to take it.

And red, you've gotten lots of advice on acupuncture and food already, but I have been doing acupuncture (about 1/week) for more than 3 months now. I have been taking the herbs for 3 months. I have found that the herbs are changing my cycle a bit and I think the combination is helping me get healthier. My BBT chart is starting to look better too. I don't know if it's working or not yet but from what I've read it's a huge help. If you want to find out more about it, check out the book called The Infertility Cure by Dr Randine Lewis. It is really good and it gets into things like nutrition etc. It's a bit hard to wrap your head around the Eastern concepts of health and fertility but very interesting. It can't hurt to try it (except it is costly) and if nothing else it should improve your health generally. It's a lot of work though, if you decide to follow the recommendations in that book.

As for coffee and alcohol, the book I mentioned above, and other similar books I've now read, say to cut out coffee, alcohol and added sugar if you can...all the fun stuff. And recommend drinking bone broth soup. I'm serious. I've been trying to stick to it but don't beat myself up if I slip up - I try to stick to at least 80% healthy and 20% not so healthy. I have totally cut out alcohol and coffee though, except for on the day I find out my cycle didn't work, which is my dedicated crap food day.

And they say that if you take the acupuncture/Eastern herbal approach to stick with it for at least 3 cycles before you can expect to see results in the form of a BFP.

Thank you, essemkay! That explanation was perfect. I was a little scared but your detailed (and humorous) narrative of your experience made me feel a lot better.

Anytime. I've done 3 IVFs, 4 medicated IUIs and 3 unmedicated IUIs. I've experienced most everything in the 14 years we've been TTC (12 years for my first daughter, 2 years since then), including 1 live birth, 1 miscarriage at 10.5 weeks, 6 early miscarriages/chemicals and a whole lot of BFNs and tears. :)