Babe, You Ain't Infertile

No you've probably just got some (normally obscure) protein or hormone in your body that tiny bit askew throwing your baby-making factory off course.

So many couples give up so soon. Here's this rather scary story from India - scary to all of us thirtysomethings in the West with our kidulthood lifestyles lasting well into our 40s. Out there, folks, if you hit 35 without dropping a sprog, that's the end of it.

Are Modern Lifestyles Causing Infertility?

“This is my last attempt. I am not trying anymore. After this I will give up all treatments,” 35-year old Aranya breaks down in front of her close friend and confidant. Her frustration is due to the fact that she has not been able to bear a child in the last nine years of their marriage.

Note that the people quoted, and the story itself, originate from Southern India where fertility has always been a very high priority, culturally and sociologically. The specialist Doctor (who must be minting it) lists the leading causes of this epidemic (1 in 2 of 1920 couples in a niche population) of infertility. In her opinion: late marriage (i.e. after 30s... that's late?), stress, obesity, bad diet and low libido. Duh - the last one is like bloody obvious. I mean, what's the first step in baby-making? Then, like most ills in India nowadays, she blames high-earning I.T. jobs and career pressures that keep couples apart. Obviouser and obviouser, I say. But, anyhoo, other than not doing the obvious and having sex as often as you can get alone together, the main culprit is hormonal imbalance. That is, once you've stopped abusing controlled substances, smoking and slathering yourselves in sperm-killing oils and lotions.

I'd advise any woman faced with a dour prospect of the word "infertile" being stamped on her medical record after little more than a year to get her serum Prolactin levels checked out.
See next story.

Mom-to-be Freebies

WEEK 3
Two days after the +ve HPT, went to see my GP. Not expecting him to do anything much (having the previous day been told by the Nurse-practitioner that she couldn't do anything "more" to confirm the pregnancy). But he was lovely, quite a bit pleased, recalled we'd been trying (well, not for that long). He repeated what the Nurse said, that the NHS accepts HPTs to be accurate, that false positives are extremely rare.

He agreed I should stop all meds, including Aspirin. Prescribed more Folic Acid, which I was already on (a humongous dose as prescribed by the Ob-Gyn I consulted in India) and to take whichever dose was higher. He filled in a few forms for me. One for free meds during pregnancy. One to book me in for the birth and antenatal visits at what is probably the UK's top 3 teaching hospitals' maternity wing. I was really pleased we're in its catchment area. He gave me a free booklet Emma's Diary (which got me excited, little did I know it was the first of many free booklets) with freebie coupons and fun things to read.

As I left the Gp's, I called DH, he was pleased that we could take it as confirmed now. Called mom and told her doc had confirmed it.

Positively Pregnant

Back in May 2007 when we found out... before the realisation of the things to come kicked in...

WEEK 3
A few days after usually clockwork efficient period had been delayed. Had been feeling very tired lately. Expecting the worst i.e. any reason other than this for missed period. Was looking up all sorts of horrible conditions on WebMD. Confessed fears to DH, he said to wait, not to buy pregnancy test as yet, since I'd just wind myself up, set up for huge disappointment etc. Just like a bloke, eh? So while I was out to post stuff, obviously I had to go and get one, no make that two, of the most expensive HPTs. Had to know, because if it wasn't the obvious, it was some horrible condition.

The very next morning, took pregnancy test at 6AM since you're advised to test first pee. Couldn't believe the cross forming in the results window. Shook it, stared hard, blinked, looked again. Didn't have to wake up DH - I ran in and bounced on the bed so hard, he kinda looked up all bleary-eyed. One look at my face and the classic ad-world pose, HPT stick in hand, and he went "You're joking!". Then we squealed and hugged for what seemed a long time.

From that very day, stopped taking all unnecessary medicines, Aspartame (sweetener) and stopped drinking more than one coffee. This last bit has been the toughest of all for a dedicated caffeine-fiend. How much do I love my baby huh?

DH said it was hard resisting the urge to tell everyone. We had agreed to wait till Week 12 as advised by pregnancy pundits everwhere. But we both decided it was ok to tell Ma cos she'd been having such a terrible time lately. She needed one bit of good news. Telling her was fun, making her and dad very happy.

Spent the rest of the day reading about first trimester pregnancy and the accuracy of HPTs. Managed to freak self out with all the talk about "false positives" and so on. My HPT result was unmistakable, as clear as a laser printout, I could have no doubt. However, if you've had a vague result, and you're not quite sure, it's worth checking out this mine of information on different HPTs and their prediction stats.