Recommended Reading

This is going to have to be a post that will be updated throughout as I find more books to recommend. (thank you April for this idea)

Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler ~ This hands down is the BEST book you will find with so much info about the woman's body and how its works, down to how to chart, what your charts mean, and everything in between. I highly recommend this be ALL woman's first reading if they want to learn about the working's of a woman's body.

The Infertility Cure by Randine Lewis, Ph. D.

Recipes for the Endometriosis Diet by Carolyn Levett ~ This book is awesome for women who want to do the Endo diet but don't know where to turn as far as what they can still eat. Has a bunch of suggestions on substitutes, recipes and ideas. I recently found this book online in e-book format, so you can read it for free! ~ http://www.endo-resolved.com/support-files/endo_e_book.pdf

Charting Basics

Charting is actually a very simple thing to do, only takes a few quick seconds in the morning and some observations of symptoms throughout the day.

To start charting you will need a Basal Body Thermometer, not your average thermometer you have around the house. It has to be a Basal thermometer. To get your accurate Basal Body Temp (BBT) you will need at least 3 hours uninterrupted sleep. Before getting out of bed, taking a drink, anything, take your temp. You an either use oral or vaginal temps. (I do both) The reason a person might check theirs vaginally vs orally, is if that person was an open mouth sleeper. Open mouth sleeping could effect your temps. So a vaginal temp would be more accurate. Take your temp and record it and your wake up time.

Over time you will see a pattern with your temps. Before O, your temps will stay low, they might see saw up and down or they might just stay stable. Each person's temps will be different and they can even vary from cycle to cycle for the same woman. Usually halfway into the cycle, the temps will rise and stay elevated for about 2 weeks. The day before the temp rise would be Ovulation. Usually there are additional signs that your body gives that correlate with ovulation. Egg white consistency cervical fluid, the cervix will be open, very high and soft. All of these symptoms can also be charted so that the exact day of ovulation can be pinpointed. By the time you see a shift in temps, Ovulation has already occurred, so it is important to avoid or continue having sex, if you are trying for or avoiding a pregnancy.

There are many charting websites out there that can be helpful when charting BBT's. Most will even help pinpoint ovulation. This kind of takes the guess work out of trying to find out when you ovulate. Some are better then others, but mostly is a preference per person.

Here are links to ones I have come across during my journey:

FertilityFriend.com (FF) ~ Has a basic membership that is free but doesn't come with all the perks of being able to get support on the support groups (a huge perk when TTC) and many of the extra features that Fertilityfriend.com has to offer. I personally use the free version, although I do not like it, and find that it is not all that accurate in it's first prediction of O and coverline. By the time I am due to see AF (aunt flow) is when it actually corrects itself. Go figure.

Ovusoft.com ~ I LOVE this software!!! This comes in software format and now a free online version is available on its site. I don't have any experience in the online version, but only have great to say about the software. It was a one time fee, (I think of $35) and it is yours forever. Unlike FF, in which you have to pay monthly/yearly membership fees to get all the perks. You also can get support on Ovusoft's website, although right now they have gone through some changes and is still dealing with the bugs.

Mymonthlycycle.com ~ I never cared for this one as entering in temps was a multi click process and if you wanted to see your chart, you had to pay a fee, similar to FF.

Femilia.com (formerly known as Mycycle.com) ~ This one was alright, another one that is multi clicks to input temps, but it worked nonetheless. It does not interpret your chart based on your BBT temps, so you need to be more experienced in chart interpreting to know what you are looking at and for.

There are many more out there but these are the ones I have experience with.

Endometriosis

What is endometriosis, you ask? It is a condition in which the lining of the uterus called the endometrium flows up and outside of the uterus and attaches itself to organs. It can be found anywhere in the abdomen from the intestines to the bladder, to the fallopian tubes, and even on rare occasions, the lungs. These lesions respond to the woman's menstrual cycle as it would if it was in the uterus. It thickens, breaks down and bleeds. Since there is no where for it to go, this leads to internal bleeding, causes scar tissue, cysts, adhesions (abnormal tissue that binds organs together) and infertility.

The symptoms of endometriosis can be all or some of the following:

Pain During Sex

Pain Before or During Periods

Painful Urination or Bowel Movements During Period

Infertility

Pelvic Pain

Excessive Bleeding w/Clots

Bleeding Between Periods

Frequent or Constant Periods

Nausea, Vomiting, Fainting, Dizzy Spells, or Diarrhea—particularly just prior to, during, or after Periods

So as you can see, it can cause a whole lot of PAIN! The only way to really be diagnosed with it, is to have a laparoscopy done. This is a procedure in which a scope is inserted into the abdomen and the doctor is able to view if there are lesions on the organs. At that time, they may also be removed. However, a laparoscopy is not a permanent fix for endometriosis and it can can come back.

Birth control pills can be used to help keep the lesions at bay and possibly reduce them in size. There is also a chance the lesions will return after the BCP is discontinued. And obviously if you are trying to get pregnant, Birth Control Pills would not be the thing for you.

To learn more about endo,  click on the links below.

http://www.endometriosisassn.org/ Endometriosis Association

www.mayoclinic.com/health/endometriosis/DS00289

http://www.endometriosis.org/treatment.html ~ This one has a whole plethora of information as well as alternative treatment info. I love this site for all of its information it has on it.

http://www.endometriosissurgeon.com/AboutUs/DrRedwineandStaff/108294.aspx ~ Dr. Redwine, one of the world's leading experts in the treatment of endometriosis, located in Bend, OR. Valuable info on this site as well as resources.

A Little Background

A little background: I am a 30 year old mom of 2 gorgeous girls (Cheyenne and Emma) and a wife to a wonderful husband, Lance. I found out when I was 15 that I was pregnant with my daughter Cheyenne. Surprise!! I was not ready then to be a Mom then, hell, I was still a kid myself. Having her made me grow up more then I would have ever thought. I went on to finish high school, while working full time and caring for a very sick baby, due to her being born premature.


I married my high school sweetheart, Lance, the weekend of my 21st birthday. We had decided a couple years prior to our marriage that we wanted to expand our family. Little did we know the struggles that would ensue trying to do so.


Month after month, year after year, lead us to more doctors appointments trying to figure out why my body was just not cooperating. The basic thing that a woman's body is designed to do, mine wasn't doing. It was like my body had missed that memo. I was diagnosed with numerous things from ovarian cysts, to abnormal uterine bleeding (which is a fancy diagnosis when the docs don't know WHY you are bleeding), to endometritis, then finally endometriosis. I was put on countless BCP's (birth control pills) to try to regulate my cycles to no avail. The BCP's only made me a cranky person to be around and a whole truck load of horrible side effects.


We finally gave up hope that we would ever get pregnant again. Once we came to that realization, we gave away all of Cheyenne's baby belongings and I began to focus on my family and myself. After 10 years since our first decision to expand our family, we discovered I was pregnant with Emma. Since her birth we decided that we might as well try for another as soon as possible not knowing if I could ever get pregnant again. Which leads me to today. Almost 2 years later and still not pregnant.


During our struggle I have dedicated alot of my time to researching woman's reproductive ailments, ones that pertained to me or not, natural remedies to these ailments, the basic workings of a woman's body, charting and pretty much everything in between. I was convinced by a friend (thank you Joanna) that I needed to find a way to share this knowledge with others, and I could not agree more with her.