Food allergies/intolerances and infertility

Sami14vb

Hello everyone,

First of all, let me say congratulations to everyone who has made it to the other side of infertility; you give me hope.   My complete story is in my signature, but basically my DH and I have been trying to conceive for the last year with no luck with clomid and IUI.  I am on the 2ww for my first round of injectables and IUI.

For the past 7 years or so I have felt a burning sensation and deep pain in my lower pelvis after eating simple carbs and sugars.  I even feel a burning in my back.  I'm not allergic to them but I think I have an intolerance.  Anyways, I have a sneaking suspicion that this allergy/intolerance is related to my infertility, yet no doctor has ever been able to confirm my hypothesis. 

I know some women with gluten allergies were able to get pregnant after going on a gluten free diet, and one of my co-workers got pregnant after struggling with infertility for five years when she went on a diet geared towards her food intolerances-the problem is it cost $1500 to get on a plan with her specialist, and I wanted to use the expensive blood test and food plan geared towards food intolerances as a last resort.

Has anyone had success with treating their infertility by targeting food allergies/intolerances?

Thanks for any help,


Sami

CarrieB.

Have you read "the infertility cure"? That book along with acupuncture would probably be helpful.

It took IVF and FET for me to get pregnant, but a healthy diet is a great starting point when dealing with IF.

Good luck.

TJ1979

I have PCOS and while I'm not insulin resistant, controlling carbs is just a good idea with PCOS. I got pg with IUI and femara with #1, but I switched to a paleo diet before TTC #2, and got pg on my own. I wouldn't say eating paleo "treated" or "cured" my IF, but eating healthier and losing weight certainly didn't hurt.

Sami14vb

Thank you so much for the advice! I will definitely check out The Infertility Cure and the Paleo diet!

luvboston

If you have food allergies/intolerances you really need to see a good immunologist/allergist. What happens in your body is an antibody response. Your immune system could be preventing implantation. There is a specific disease when you have fructose intolerances (fodmap intolerance)You have to make the choice whether to get serious and jump in with both feet or keep puttering around.

Mrs.AmyDylan

I have seriously wondered if this is an element of our infertility. I've been eating clean (no artificial ingredients or processed food) since January. However, I still have a lot of diarrhea (sorry, tmi), which in my mind means some sort of food intolerance. I have no idea how to go about the testing, but I was going to start with my gp. 

I will say that while 1500 is pricey for testing, beyond your infertility eating something that is giving you a lot of pain could cause you further health problems down the road. There might be some testing that is covered by insurance that could give you better overall health. Good luck!!

TJ1979

@mrs.amydylan is right.  They are now showing that chronic inflammation is one of the things that causes cancer.  If you are constantly eating something that is constantly causing your lower GI tract to get inflamed, you could be setting yourself up for worse health problems down the road.  I'd definitely look into altering your diet.
Besides, who wants to live a life in pain?  I just thought that daily heartburn and pain after eating food was normal because I had always felt that way.  But now that I know avoiding gluten and dairy can make me feel "normal," why would I want to eat them?  (Because pizza is freaking delicious, that's why!)  But seriously, it's worth it not to be in pain.

kelnyc

Diet can definitely influence all of the systems of your body. I would highly recommend seeing a good acu that specializes in fertility and get on the diet they suggest. It will probably involve lots of veggies and proteins and very little dairy, carbs or sugar. It's not easy, but you will feel better. Good luck!

Sami14vb

Thank you for the advice!  @kelnyc @TJ1979 @Mrs.AmyDylan @luvboston

ExcitedKJ

I agree that $1500 is too much for a practitioner, but there are more reasonable ways if you dig, it took me a bit of online research, but I found someone near me. There should be a practitioner near you that would do the IgG and IgE testing for food sensitivities. I was able to do this and it was around 100 foods for about $200. I had this done in a large city in the US for that price. We tried for 3 years and for the last year I eliminated the foods from this test and I was pregnant within the year. They believe my food allergies were my reason for not becoming pregnant. If you have more questions, let me know!

Good luck!