Fertility Q&A | Answering your FERTILITY questions with The Fertility Expert
Transcription:
Welcome to Fertility TV, your YouTube channel dedicated to fertility and helping you get pregnant. So for the last few weeks, I’ve been sharing real-life stories of women, of couples that I’ve helped on their fertility journeys. And if you missed any of those and you want to check them out, you can see those videos right here. But today I’m going to do something a little bit different, and I hope that you’ll all enjoy it. I’m going to be doing a Q&A of the most frequently asked questions that I get. Like these. I did a few Q&A’s like this years ago. And if this is something that you all like and want more of, then comment below, let me know. And maybe I can do this once a month.
If you’re new here, I’m Dr. Marc Sklar, The Fertility Expert, and I work with couples from all over the world, helping you get pregnant naturally with my virtual programs and consultations. I want you to remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel, this one right here, and like this video if you find it helpful. And the benefit of that is it also helps other women and couples who are searching for more information just like this find my videos. It also keeps me motivated to create more videos for all of you.
So now let’s get started by answering these questions. So I’ve got my computer here. All my questions are right here and let’s start with the first one. The first one says, “How can I stay positive to get pregnant, despite the stress of this pandemic?” You know, stress is going to come to us regardless if there’s a pandemic. Certainly a pandemic will bring more stress to the situation if we’re not secure with how we as an individual are handling it.
So there are two points that I want to bring up here. First and foremost, there are tons of couples still having babies right now, and I have seen a spike in conception rates across the board. So you should feel confident and comfortable continuing to try. Additionally, stress, like I mentioned previously, is going to come either way, right? Whether there’s a pandemic or something else, we’re going to have stress in our lives. The most important thing is not eliminating the stress, because that’s not going to happen because there’s always going to be something there, sometimes more, sometimes less. It’s how you manage it. You have to create a healthy routine for yourself to help manage your stress to deal with any life stressors.
What are you going to do? How are you going to manage it? Are you going to get to bed earlier and get important sleep? That’s actually at the top of my list of things that you should be doing. Are you going to take some time out every day to ground yourself with some breathing or meditation? It doesn’t have to take long. I actually did this yesterday in one of my groups that I work with, with a bunch of women. We all did some meditation together. It took no more than five minutes and we all felt so much better afterwards. I recommend you try that if you’ve never done that before.
And what are you doing? Are you going out exercising? How often are you doing that? Are you getting out in nature? These are all things that help to reset our body, recalibrate us and keep us grounded and allow our nervous system to reset. So those are just a few tips that I would suggest, but I want you to start to do those things additionally. The other thing that gives us peace of mind when we’re in a pandemic and there’s lots of health issues going on is keeping our immune system strong. So what are you going to do to keep your immune system strong so that you don’t contract the virus, or if you do, that it’s not going to impact you dramatically? Sleeping is a big part of that. Eating healthy is another part of that. This is not the time to stray from the basics of the things that keep you healthy. And in addition, those things that you’re doing to support your immune system to combat the virus will also help you maintain a healthy pregnancy and hopefully prevent you from miscarrying. So those are some tips that I have for that question.
The next question, “What labs do you recommend before IVF?” So there’s a lot of labs that I recommend across the board. One of the first things that I want to mention to all of you is that I have just released my new program called The Positive Pregnancy Method. And in that program, everyone who’s a member of it gets a list of all the labs that I think are essential for you to get started with. Now, it’s a good long list that everyone should be having. In addition to that, then you can customize it based on your needs and your health situation. Now labs, or the types of labs that you should be ordering are going to potentially be different for all of us. There are the basics, which I said is included in my Positive Pregnancy Method program, but there’s also based on our individual needs we might need to do more extensive testing. Do you have a history of digestive issues, lung issues, immune issues? These are all variables that are going to impact how, what labs we do and when we do them.
So it’s not so straightforward, but I will say for all of you watching, if you haven’t done the basics of estradiol, FSH, LH, progesterone, DHEA, testosterone, prolactin, then I would recommend starting there.
All right, question number three. “How can I deal with the negative mindset of myself and others because I’m having a baby older than 35?” Listen, I don’t think that just because you’re having a baby older, like whether it’s 25, some people might consider old 30, 35, 40, 45, whatever it might be. You have to know that your path is unique and different for you. Just because other people might say that being 35 or older is considered advanced maternal age or geriatric doesn’t mean that we feel old and doesn’t mean that you can’t get pregnant. You have to push aside those negative thoughts, not only by yourself, but more importantly by others. If you’ve been told that you’re too old, then you need to take those thoughts out, retrain your mind with positive thoughts.
Regardless of the age, women were meant to conceive and have children. And if you are taking care of yourself, you have the right plan, the right mindset and the right process for yourself. Then you can conceive. Now, can it take longer the older you get? Absolutely. But I’ve seen women get pregnant at all ages, even upwards of 51. And so I really do believe that the potential and possibility is there, you just have to believe in yourself. And so one of the things I would recommend for all of you is start to create a new mindset for yourself. You have to start to retrain your mind that you are healthy enough, you are ready, and your eggs are healthy and ready to have a child, regardless of your age.
So you have to create a new mantra for yourself and not listen to the words that others have told you. I will also mention that regardless if you walk into any IVF clinic, the older you get, the more likely they’re going to say that you have to do IVF, or you need to use donor. That may or may not be true for many of you, but it doesn’t have to be true. So I want to encourage you to just work on yourself, start to create a new mindset, and most importantly, create a plan for how you’re going to achieve the results that you want.
All right. The next question is, “How often do you recommend doing a vaginal steam and when?” Well, I’m going to keep this one short and sweet because I have a bunch of other questions that I want to get to, and the list is long. In my new program, Positive Pregnancy Method, I go into all the details of all the home therapies that you should be doing, including vaginal steaming, when to do it, how to do it, all the ins and outs. I’ve got all the videos to share with you. So if you want more specific information on that, I encourage you to join me in the program.
All right. The next question is, “Do you think taking Clomid is a good idea?” This is an excellent question, but also a difficult one to answer for everyone listening. Clomid helps your ovaries to create more eggs so that you have more of an opportunity on any given cycle to fertilize a healthy egg and get pregnant. Now, Clomid also has a bunch of side effects, both emotionally and physically. It might make you feel irritable, frustrated, angry, lots of like increased PMS symptoms and additionally, breast tenderness, bloating, and the worst of which if you do it repeatedly is a thin endometrial lining, which is not great for implantation. Does that mean that Clomid is bad? No, it has a place. It has a purpose and it can help and benefit all of you watching, but it doesn’t mean that all of you should be on it. Each case is unique. This is something that I recommend you discuss with your healthcare providers or your team of healthcare providers.
Discuss how long you’ve been trying. What’s the next step? Does it make sense for me to start Clomid now or wait? Each one of you will have a different answer to this. And I think it’s important that all of you consider the entire situation and discuss this with your OB-GYN, your REI, your natural healthcare provider, functional medicine doctor. Whoever it is, or whatever team you’ve got going on, I want you to discuss it with them so you could come up with the best answer for you. You might also, instead of using Clomid, decide to use other medication instead that can yield the same result. But each one of you will need something different potentially. And that’s why I think it’s important that your healthcare team gets involved in making this decision.
All right, this question says, “Can I get pregnant with high FSH?” Well, there are many scales of high FSH, and everybody might view that a little bit differently. In my mind I’m thinking that anything over 10 here, right? Now, FSH can go really high. I’ve had women who have had it at 80 and above. So the answer to this is going to be a little bit different, depending on where your number is. The closer your number is to 10 or below, the more likely it is that you’re going to be able to conceive. The higher it is, the less likely it is that you’re going to be able to conceive. And there’s going to be a lot of work that you’re going to have to do to lower it.
My goal with all of you is that we create healthy FSH levels and that we try to bring those down. FSH levels can fluctuate from cycle to cycle, depending on the circumstances. And I do think that you will have a better opportunity on any given cycle, the lower that number is. Now, have I seen women with high FSH get pregnant? Absolutely, and I see it regularly. But we’ve worked, created a plan to address that and been able to lower their numbers before they got pregnant. It also might influence how you go about getting pregnant. Does it make sense to do IUI or IVF? What type of IVF? Trying naturally. There’s all sorts of circumstances around this. My short answer is, yes, I believe you can. However, it depends on how high that number is.
The next question is a good one, an important one. It says, “What to ask your doctor if you’re diagnosed with unexplained infertility and want deeper testing?” So the first thing that I would say is, and you’ve probably all heard me say this. I don’t believe in unexplained infertility. I believe that we haven’t looked for the right answer. So I appreciate that this person is asking, “Well, how do we test more to find more answers?” In my Positive Pregnancy Method I go through a whole list of testing to start with, and beyond. That will start to give you answers. And often I find that the women and couples I work with have not had the majority of these labs tested. So, that would be the first place that I start.
I also teach you in phase six of the Positive Pregnancy Method how to create your own plan and to determine what’s going on and base your plan and protocol on that information. From there you can really refine things for you, and hopefully at that point we’ve actually have answers. So look, I think the first step is that you have to be an advocate for yourself. You have to start taking control of your fertility. And that might mean that you have to start ordering labs and testing on your own or getting help or looking at programs that can support you that are not part of your general healthcare process, like your OB-GYN, because you might not get the right answers there. But I want you all to know that I do think you can get answers. I do think that you can get the testing that you need, and above all I do think that you can get the results that you want.
All right, this last question, because if I keep going on with tons of questions, this video is going to be really long. So we’ll have to do this again. But this last question says, “Could my miscarriage at 14 weeks have been caused by low progesterone?” It’s really unfortunate that she lost her pregnancy at 14 weeks. I think there’s potentially a lot of causes that have influenced this. However, I don’t believe that little progesterone would have been one of them. I mean, maybe there’s a slight chance. Odds are that she would’ve miscarried much earlier with low progesterone than she would have at 14 weeks. So I don’t believe that’s the case. I do think progesterone can contribute to difficulty with implantation and holding a pregnancy, especially early on. I don’t think it would contribute to a miscarriage this late in the first trimester. However, I do think there’s a lot of other variables that can play a role, like auto immune issues and blood clotting factors that do need to be investigated for each individual based on their needs and their specific case.
Wow, that was a lot. And I left out a bunch of questions because I just can’t continue to answer all these questions, because it’s just going to take too long. So again, I think we’ll have to do this again, especially if you all liked it. So let me know by commenting below if you want me to do something like this again. As you can see, there’s so much more that you can be doing to improve your fertility. And that’s why I created the Positive Pregnancy Method. It’s my new program and enrollment is open now. So if you want to join, and I encourage you all to do that, just click on the link in the description below. So I’ve got to run because I have several calls with women that I’m working with. But I’m going to leave you with some more training videos to help you along on your fertility journey, right here. And until next time, I want you all to stay safe, stay healthy, and most of all, stay fertile.
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