Turning Brussel Sprouts Into Something Delicious

My husband LOVES Brussels sprouts.  

Just kidding.  

Last Sunday he actually made a joke about Brussels sprouts being the worst tasting vegetable ever.   They have literally been his least favorite vegetable ever.   I, on the other hand, do love Brussels sprouts.  Not because I think they taste great by any means, but because they just simply taste like they are PACKED full of nutrients.  I almost feel like I’m going the extra mile every time I take a bite of one.  AND they help with fertility.  Bonus!

I’m not saying that eating Brussels sprouts on a daily basis is key to getting pregnant, but they are FULL of folic acid which has been known to increase sperm counts in men, improve womb conditions for women, and reduce birth defects and miscarriages for pregnant women. 1  

I came across this easy and quick 3-ingredient recipe that actually makes Brussels sprouts an excellent and tasty side dish to nearly any meal.  AND my husband actually likes it!

Brussels Sprout Hash

• 1 bunch of Brussels sprouts (trimmed)
• ½ package of bacon (I use turkey bacon for a leaner option)
• 3-5 garlic cloves (minced)

1. Cut up bacon into small pieces and cook in a large skillet.
2. Chop up Brussel Sprouts, or put in a food processor to make them finely chopped.
3. Once bacon is completely cooked, add the Brussels sprouts and garlic.
4. Cook until Brussels sprouts begin to brown.
5. Salt and pepper to taste (if desired)

And there you have it- an easy, simple way to make a very unpopular vegetable taste good. Add this to fish that’s high in Omega-3 fatty acids, and you’ve got yourself quite the fertility meal!

1 Innes, Emma.  4 December, 2013.  Trying for a baby? Eat Brussels Sprouts: Vegetable helps boost fertility in both men and women.  Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2518129/Eating-Brussels-sprouts-helps-boost-fertility-men-women.html

-Rachel

Clomid: A Brief Overview

Clomid is one of the most common medications prescribed to women who are dealing with infertility. You may have taken it, you may have heard of a friend who is taking it, or you may be wondering if you will be prescribed it in the future. So here is a quick overview of what Clomid is and what it does.

Clomid is a drug that is used to help women who are dealing with infertility. It causes the pituitary gland to release hormones needed to stimulate ovulation. It is most commonly given to women who have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), but it is also prescribed to women who have anovulation, a shorter luteal phase, and many other situations where a woman’s doctor may see it necessary.

It is important while taking Clomid that you follow all directions of your doctor. Clomid is typically taken for 5 days straight, most commonly starting on the 5th day of your menstrual cycle. However, some doctors have found more success if you take it starting on the 3rd day of your menstrual cycle. This is a decision that will be made based on each individuals circumstances, however if you aren’t seeing success when taking it on day 5 it may not hurt to ask to switch it up. It’s always important to advocate for yourself! If the Clomid is successful ovulation should occur within 5-10 days after the cycle of Clomid is completed.

Like all medications Clomid does have side effects. Although they are different for every woman, some of the most common ones are:

• Flushing: warmth, redness or a tingly feeling
• Breast Pain
• Headaches
• Hot Flashes
• Night Sweats

**Hot Flashes and Night Sweats were the worst side effects I experienced while on Clomid. There were many nights were I would wake up drenched in sweat and the only remedy was to go outside and stand in the cool wind. Brace yourself for this, it is no joke.

Side Effects that aren’t common and should be immediately reported to your doctor are:

• Stomach pain or bloating
• Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea
• Rapid weight gain
• Little or no urinating
• Pain when you breathe, rapid heart rate or feeling short of breathe

** These symptoms can all be related to Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS) which can be life threatening!

Some of my personal thoughts and tips concerning Clomid are these:

• Be aware that most doctors start you out on a dose of 50mg of Clomid. You may not experience any side effects on this dosage. However, each month Clomid doesn’t work your doctor may up your dosage going from 50mg to 100mg to 150mg.  As your dosage increases so do the severity of the side effects. Prepare yourself for this.
• If you are going to take Clomid, and deal with the unpleasant side effects, request from your doctor to be monitored. Being monitored means they are doing a base line ultrasound to look at your follicles, and then another ultrasound around day 12 of your cycle, to see how the Clomid has progressed those follicles. In my personal opinion… it is a waste to use Clomid if you aren’t being monitored because you could be taking a drug, experiencing nasty side effects, and ultimately using a whole cycle and the drug may not even be working and you wouldn’t even know it because you aren’t being monitored. ASK TO BE MONITORED. Advocate for yourself. It will be well worth it.
• If after several months Clomid isn’t working for you…Ask to use Femara. It is another drug that works well for women yet has less side effects. We will be doing a post soon about Femara and will link it soon!
  
  
  -Kamryn

How To Boost Your Egg Quality In 90 Days

With PCOS, the day you ovulate isn’t always very predictable and longer cycles make the whole waiting game just that much longer! So, it only makes sense that one of the first things we often focus on is getting our cycles regular, either naturally or by taking medications such as clomid, letrozole, and femara.  Although these medications can help the follicles to grow and mature by increasing FSH levels, I also wanted to do everything I could during fertility treatments to make sure that my eggs were as healthy as possible!   

Why is egg health so crucial to fertility?

How healthy your eggs are can influence whether or not fertilization takes place, whether or not implantation happens, and how viable the pregnancy is.1 Simple answer, it is very important.  

So what factors even determine egg quality?

It used to believe that the only factor that influences egg quality was a woman’s age. Although a female’s age is important to consider2, there are other factors to look at as well.  These things include, but aren’t limited to, environmental factors, hormones in the food we eat, and stress.3   

Preparing for Ovulation (3 months in advance):

An egg goes through a 90-day cycle to prepare for ovulation4- something I didn’t know at the beginning of my infertility journey and something I wish I had known sooner!  Everything we do during this time, everything you’re doing right now whether healthy or unhealthy, is influencing the maturation process of an egg and ovulation that takes place three months from now.  Kind of crazy to think about, especially when we’re so used to looking at trying to conceive as a month-to-month thing!

So, here are a few things we can do about it:

1. Ensure Blood Flow and Proper Oxygenation

We want to make sure that our bodies are able to have proper oxygen and rich blood flow to the ovaries to help with egg quality.  In order to do this, make sure you are:

• Drinking at least 64 oz. of pure water each day.  Dehydration causes thick blood, and decreases circulation in your body among other problems.  
• Be active! Find something you enjoy doing so you’re more likely to do it.  Exercise is a great way to increase blood flow and help bring oxygen to the blood.

2. Hormonal Balance

Balancing hormones is SO important for egg quality, and many of us with PCOS have a really hard time with this! To help we can:

• Decrease the stress in our lives
• Follow a fertility diet  (Jill Blakeway provides a lot of useful information on lifestyle changes and eating for fertility in her book Making Babies).  

3. Nutrition

Everything we eat impacts egg quality either positively or negatively.  So make healthy choices.  Here are some things that are recommended as “top foods for egg health”:

• Royal Jelly
• Maca
• FertiliGreens
• Broccoli
• Berries
• Dark leafy vegetables
• Halibut
• Salmon
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sesame seeds
• Turmeric
• Ginger

    Stay away from:

• Cigarettes
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Sugar
• Non-organic meats and dairy
• Soda
• Low fat diet
• Processed foods
• Trans Fats
• GMO foods

4. Take a multivitamin/ your prenatal vitamin! 4

Provide your body with the proper nutrients it needs.

These are just a few of the things I found helpful. For me, I found that moderation was KEY.  

1 Rodriguez, Hethir.  (Accessed November 4, 2015).  How to Increase Your Egg Health in 90 Days.  Retrieved from http://natural-fertility-info.com/increase-egg-health

2 Sherbahn, Richard. (Accessed November 4, 2015).  Egg quality & quanitity & the relationship to fertility, infertility and IVF success.  Retrieved from http://www.advancedfertility.com/eggquantityquality.htm

3 Rodriguez, Hethir.  

4 Rodriguez, Hethir.  

-Rachel

So How Much Do Fertility Treatment Options Actually Cost?

After getting diagnosed with infertility, I was dying to know exactly how much money it was all going to cost so I could start saving and preparing right away! I found that it really is hard to get exact numbers as treatment cycles and adoption fees vary based on each individual circumstance. Therefore, below lists the average range of prices in Idaho for each treatment option.

All of the prices below were derived from talking to and visiting the websites of local adoption, surrogacy, and fertility clinics. The prices include all the components of each cycle (treatment, medications, ultrasounds, blood draws etc.) and all components of a full adoption or surrogacy experience.

Intrauterine Insemination (IUI):

• IUI: $2,000-$2,500

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF):

• IVF: $15,000-$18,000

• IVF with Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI): $15,000-$19,000

• IVF with Anonymous Ovum Donor (Egg Donor): $23,000-$26,000

• IVF with Anonymous Ovum Donor and Gestational Carrier (Surrogate): $24,000- $29,000

*If Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis or Preimplantation Genetic Screening is required, there is an additional cost of approximately $5,000.*

• Frozen Embryo Transfer: $3,500-$5,000

Surrogacy

• Traditional Surrogate or Gestational Carrier: $20,000-40,000
• Agency Fees: $6,000-$12,000
• Legal Costs: $3,000-$5,000

Adoption:

Adoption: $15,000-25,000After getting diagnose with infertility, I was dying to know exactly how much money it was all going to cost so I could start saving and preparing right away! I found that it really is hard to get exact numbers as treatment cycles and adoption fees vary based on each individual circumstance. Therefore, below lists the average range of prices in Idaho for each treatment option.

All of the prices below were derived from talking to and visiting the websites of local adoption, surrogacy, and fertility clinics. The prices include all the components of each cycle (treatment, medications, ultrasounds, blood draws etc.) and all components of a full adoption or surrogacy experience.

-Shauni

The Book You Should Read Right Now

Early in my husband and I’s journey to get pregnant, months before we knew I had Endometriosis, I was having some irregularities in my cycle that left me feeling concerned about getting pregnant. Although it had only been a few months of trying, I was worried that something was broken, a feeling I believe many couples experience when trying for a baby, even couples who don’t deal with any infertility issues. So one day I was expressing my concerns to my sister in law who suggested I read this book called “Taking Charge of Your Fertility”. She said that it had lots of valuable information in it and that if there was a problem with my cycle it would point it out. So I borrowed the book from her and read it cover to cover (despite it being fairly large in size) and what I learned from it blew my mind and I couldn't help but ask “why was I never taught this?” and “why isn’t this a book that is used in high school health classes?” The information I learned was so beneficial to me in my journey of having a baby and now I refer to it as the Infertility Bible.

Here are a few things it covers:

• Awareness about Fertility
• Your Reproductive Anatomy
• Making Sense of your Menstrual Cycle
• Three Primary Fertility Signs
• Charting Your Fertility Signs (ever heard of temperature tracking but not have a clue how to do it?)
• Anovulation
• Natural Birth Control
• Maximizing your chances of getting pregnant
• Tests and Treatments that may be necessary to get pregnant

Seriously this book covers it all. If you aren’t a heavy reader then pick and choose the chapters that apply to you and just read those. I truly believe that being educated is one of the first steps you can take to getting pregnant and this book is a great source to educate yourself about your body and what it should and shouldn’t be doing each month. Believe it or not it’s not as simple as you might think!

-Kamryn

Simple Changes for Healthier Eating

Sometimes healthy eating can seem a little tedious and daunting, but I’ve come to realize that if I’m making it too difficult to stick with at the time, I need to simplify.  

Here are just a few things that my husband and I have tried as “healthier alternatives”, so we can still eat the foods that we like without having to spend a ton of time on planning- it can be as simple as finding a recipe you like and switching it out!

• Alternatives to white pasta noodles:
• Whole wheat pasta
• Spaghetti squash (I LOVE spaghetti squash! It can be substituted in place of almost any noodle!) Our favorites have been with spaghetti sauce, as well as this delicious recipe for Spaghetti Squash Carbonara

http://hugsandcookiesxoxo.com/2014/08/spaghetti-squash-carbonara.html

• Zucchini OR eggplant in place of lasagna noodles. I’ve really liked both, but eggplant lasagna seems to be less watery when cooked compared to Zucchini Lasagna

• Alternatives to white rice:
• Obviously, brown rice.
• Quinoa can make a great substitute/additive as well.  I’ve used it in place of rice, in casserole dishes, in wraps, and many other dishes.  Quinoa can have a wide range of uses!
• Cauliflower.  This can be used in place of rice, but I have also tried a few recipes that I’ve liked where cauliflower can be used in place of mashed potatoes, to make tortillas, and pizza dough.  
• Turkey Burger in place of Hamburger (I buy this in bulk at Costco to save money.)  Turkey burger is a leaner option with less fat, but you’re still able to get the needed protein.  
• Turkey Bacon in place of bacon
• Dark green leafy vegetables in place of iceberg lettuce.  Or mix them together!  Iceberg lettuce has little nutritional value, and the darker the greens the better!  If you REALLY don’t like dark green leafy veggies, green smoothies are always a great way to get them in without having to taste them.  My husband and I buy a BIG bag of the Power Greens from Costco and stick them in the freezer to add to fruit smoothies.  Our blender seems to blend them up much easier when they are frozen, AND we don’t have to worry quite as much about them going bad and going to waste.  
• Alternatives to Flour Tortillas:
• Whole Wheat tortillas
• Corn Tortillas
• Find a cauliflower tortilla recipe that you like
• Lettuce
• Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  Less fat and more protein equals a win.  
• Frozen grapes in place of popsicles, candy, etc.  These make for a delicious snack when you’re craving something sweet!

And, most importantly, skip the processed foods as much as possible!  I’ve heard time and time again, do most of your grocery shopping on the outer edges and try to buy as little from the center isles as possible.    

*Note: I am in no way a nutritionist, and I am in no way saying that any of these things are the perfect and healthiest alternatives. These are just a few things that we have found to be helpful, quick and easy for my family!

-Rachel