Part of the way through the next cycle, we had our first appointment with an RE in Atlanta. While I had read about all of the major REs in Atlanta, I picked this one because it was the one my gyn referred me to and they had an office not only near Northside Hospital but also in John's Creek. We did two IUIs with them and were told that we could do one more if we wanted. I didn't want. It seemed like a waste of money to me. So, our only other option was IVF. I was NOT ready for that. I had done a lot of reading that your diet and acupuncture can help you get pregnant naturally. I specifically asked the RE about the diet thing and she told me it really didn't make much difference. But, I didn't, and still don't, believe that. I had already given up what little alcohol I did drink and all caffeinated drinks. Based on all the testing that we had done, no one knew what was going on with us. Everything was normal with my husband and everything looked normal for me except my FSH was a little high (it had been a 7 when my gyn tested it and it was 12.7 at the RE's office). My lining was not getting as thick as they'd have liked either, but it was acceptable and the last cycle of IUI we had I had 3 good follicles and my husband's SA was rock-star.
So, I told the RE we were taking a break and going to a nutritionist and possible acupuncture if I could bring myself to it. I have serious issues with needles. I almost always pass out when they take blood.
I began seeing a nutritionist in October of 2009. My nutritionist was also a naturopath. She did all kinds of testing on my thryoid hormones and said that I have Hashimoto's disease, which is a high level of antibodies which all think my thyroid is foreign and are trying to attack it. She said the only thing to help this is a gluten free diet and she thought I should do dairy free as well. I told her that I wasn't going to do dairy free if she couldn't prove to me why I needed it. I did a blood test to see if I had any food allergies and it found that I was highly intolerant to dairy and mustard and slightly intolerant to grapefruit. She also kept wanting to do all kinds of other blood and saliva tests and give me all these supplements.
In April of 2010, I began seeing an acupunturist. She was Chinese and constantly told me that I had an American diet and there was no way I could be healthy without eating her 8 grain soup which was disgusting. I also felt like her office was really unorganized. So, I started seeing the acupuncturist in the same office with my nutritionist because she highly recommended him. He is an American and also a Naturopathic Doctor. I like him better than the first lady, but I definitely feel his needles and treatment a lot more than I did hers. He says that I am supposed to feel it.
After about 9 months of seeing the nutritionist, the tests she was doing (a very expensive month-long saliva test) showed her that everything with me was great and she couldn't believe I wasn't getting pregnant. Maybe they should do a saliva test on my husband. Well, we did and she starts telling us that he is in male menopause and all this crap. I was like, if he has had an RE and a urologist do several semen analyses on him and a full set of blood work, there is no way. Plus, the fact that although she was saying that her tests were saying that I was ovulating, I was not getting any positive results on my home OPKs. When I told her this, she said I should throw those sticks away because they are wrong. I told this to my acupuncturist and he ordered some bloodwork and it came back extremely non-conclusive as to whether or not I was actually ovulating. Needless to say, we dropped the nutritionist. We had already decided to go back to an RE and don't want to be paying for both at the same time, so it was an easy decision. Plus, we'd finally saved up enough money to pay for IVF if it's required.
I am still doing the gluten free diet. Mainly it's because I don't want to change anything right before we start cycling.
So, that brings us up to about a month ago when we started checking out the other two major REs.
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