Trying for a baby: aiding conception during fertility treatmentQ."I am 30 years old and we have been trying for a baby for about four years. We discovered after various tests that (a) I have polycystic ovaries, which although only mild does make my periods extremely irregular, and (b) my husband is infertile due, we think, to his having had a kidney transplant eight or nine years ago. At the beginning of the month we went for our eighth treatment but I got my period a few days ago. My question really is what can I do to help things along. I am on 100mg of clomiphene citrate, I walk the dogs about six times a day and go swimming twice a week. I don't smoke, very rarely drink, don't eat refined foods, eat masses of fruit throughout the day, along with brown bread and wholewheat breakfast cereals. I do drink quite a lot of tea, though I have cut that back to around six cups a day and I plan shortly to stop drinking tea/coffee/hot chocolate altogether. We have four attempts left, and I wondered if there is anything else I could be doing/eating or not doing/eating that might help."A.You do not say which treatment you have had eight times and which you expect to have four more of. I assume that this is not IVF, and because you say your husband is infertile, I think you must mean donor insemination. If this is the case and if you have been shown to ovulate in each of the treatment cycles you have had, eight failed treatments would be very unusual and suggests that there is something else preventing you from conceiving. Whilst your healthy diet is obviously good for you, I'm sorry to say that it will probably do nothing for your fertility. Rather than spend your time and money on further DI attempts, I think you should discuss with your fertility specialist the possibility of IVF using donor sperm - or even ICSI using your husband’s sperm if this can be obtained.Steve Killick, Babyworld Fertility Expert - Question answered 09.05.00 |
