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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Learning more than I ever wanted to know

Sometimes I make the mistake of assuming that since my readers are fellow IFers, they'll know what I'm talking about when I casually refer to "lingo" of the IF (infertility) world. Because I'm most comfortable when I'm in control and know what's going on, I've done lots of research every time I find out something new that might be relevant to my situation. I know waaaaay more than I ever wanted to know about miscarriage causes, symptoms, etc. I just have to remind myself that not everyone's situation is the same as my situation, and not everyone will have a clue what I'm talking about when I talk IF lingo (any more than I understand IVF lingo like the types of drugs and when they're used, whether they're injectible or oral, etc.)

Therefore, I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the things that I've talked about recently to clarify.

1. This doens't have to do with IF, but it's something that was brought up with regard to my last post. Re: the Dr. B.rown's Bo.ttles, unfortunately, I've already done the research on them, and YES they were made with BPA, a substance that is potentially harmful to babies. (The company that makes them maintains that they're "safe" even though they have BPA, and I used them until D went to the sippy cup, but with all the new things in the news about BPA, I don't want to take chances.) Just the bottles themselves were made with BPA though, so I kept the vents and all the rest of the parts. I want to br.eastfeed if I can the next time around, but if I can't I'll have lots of extra vents to use, which is nice because they're the most annoying part of those bottles to clean!

2. Lute.al Ph.ase Defe.ct: The way I understand this is as follows. Your lu.teal ph.ase is the timeframe between ovulation and when you get your period. For most people it's about 14 days long, (because you ideally ovulate right in the middle of your cycle.) When you ovulate later than day 14 - and more specifically, when you ovulate less than 10 days before you get your period, you're said to have a lut.eal ph.ase def.ect. From what I've read, the big problem with this is that your uterus is ready on day 14 or thereabouts to accept the egg and allow for implantation. When you have a lut.eal ph.ase de.fect, you're shooting the egg into a less than optimal environment because the ut.erine lining has already received a signal from the body that it won't be needed this month, so it doesn't continue to thicken in preparation for the egg to implant. This can increase the risk of miscarriage. That's the reason that pro.gesterone and clo.mid are often used to treat LPD. The C.lomid helps you to ovulate at the right time and kick your progesterone production in at the right time, and the pro.gesterone helps to pick up whatever slack your body leaves.

3. OPK is an Ovulation Predictor Kit. Along with baby aspirin and progesterone, this is one of the first things that doctors seem to recommend to people who are having trouble conceiving or experiencing pregnancy loss. (My doctor recommends starting prog.esterone 3 days after ovulation, so the OPK is necessary to pinpoint ovulation.)

I would add some more information about Klinef.elter Syndro.me, but since we've established that neither my husband NOR my last baby had it, it's a moot point. :-P

5 comments:

Azaera said...

Thanks for the clarifications, I should probably write a post like that myself sometime.

Stacie said...

I admire your passion for knowledge. The internet is an amazing resource.

I also had done research on luteal phase defect after my first miscarriage.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Always appreciated!

Anonymous said...

Sadly I know all of these....

Karen said...

(((hugs for Yaya))) So sorry that ANYONE has to know all that. It seems so simple, doesn't it? But having a baby is clearly not. I had secondary infertility after I already had two kids, but we didn't pursue treatment because we already had two kids. A third would have been lovely, but I was OK with not having the larger family that I was wistful for. Eventually I did get pregnant... seven years later. But because I didn't pursue treatment I never learned the language. I think I never pursued it because it was so intimidating. I kind of felt that I would be OK not getting pregnant if I just let nature take it's course, but I wouldn't be OK if I really worked hard and did everything I could and then still didn't succeed. I don't know if that makes sense, but that was how I felt.

Thanks for explaining everything. It's very helpful.

Emi said...

Thanks for the clarification. :) I've never had a problem getting pregnant, so I guess that is why I don't know those terms. Staying pregnant is what is hard for me. My dr. just said to start the progesterone as soon as I get a positive HPT.