Chinese Herbs

Lesliem0901 · September 2014

Hi all. My Accupuncturist wants me to continue taking Chinese herbs after transfer to help keep my body temp elevated. She had me stop during stim. What are your personal opinions? Take or stop? My temps are a little low and it's making me freak out...TIA

ronniesgirl1981 · September 2014

I would not take them my RE was okay with it. Good luck with your cycle!

Jzyla · September 2014

The term "herbs" is very generic - it really depends what it is and why. I trust my TCM practitioner with my life so have been taking specific herbs for specific reasons throughout. Right now (between retrieval and transfer) I'm just taking arnica (not a C herb) for healing and inflammation, but I will be starting an herb tea post transfer that is anti-MC, which I have taken post-O in the past. I informed my RE but did not 'ask' permission, since they woudn't know what would or wouldn't interact anyways. If you ask, many RE's will say absolutely not, just because they don't have the information to understand the herbs and want to err on the side of caution. My TCMP is very experienced with fertility and IVF and I trust her recommendations. If you're not sure, or don't have that trust, I wouldn't recommend it.

siempre595 · September 2014

I'm anti-herb. We do not know what is in there and some alternative medicines can actually be quite harmful. I would not do this while doing IVF. If you want to try it on a break cycle, that's another story, but this could really mess things up.

tifga · September 2014

My temps are usually pretty low but artificial progesterone makes me hot as hell. Do you know how artificial progesterone makes you feel? There are also little things you can do without herbs, ginger tea once a day, wearing thermal socks (I love my thermal socks!!).

But I am with everyone else I don't think I would use herbs during IVF.

Lesliem0901 · September 2014

tifga said:
My temps are usually pretty low but artificial progesterone makes me hot as hell. Do you know how artificial progesterone makes you feel? There are also little things you can do without herbs, ginger tea once a day, wearing thermal socks (I love my thermal socks!!).
But I am with everyone else I don't think I would use herbs during IVF.

That's the thing. I am hot as hell from the Endometrin. I barely sleep w/ a sheet on and sweat like Richard Simmons. I adore my Acupuncturist and do trust her. She took the herbs during her pregnancy. She tells me that my bbt needs to be 98.6 to sustain a healthy pregnancy and I'm no where near that...

tifga · September 2014

That doesn't sound right. The simple fact is no one knows why some people get pregnant and some don't. But I don't belive the deciding factor is your body temp.

Do you know what your temps are after ovulation? Maybe you aren't as low when you have progesterone in your system, mine are usually up .1-.2 degrees after I ovulate.

The fact is while your acupuncturist might be awesome she doesn't know what could go wrong with herbs and the hormones you are being pumped full of. Feels like it is too much a risk of a bad reaction to me and if I used them and something went wrong I don't know how I would handle it because I know I would blame myself.

It is so easy to get stuck in that fear cycle (I know I do it most days) "if I do X then everything could go wrong, but if I don't then things could still fall apart". And when that starts it is so hard to believe that anything will be ok.

I am big into acupuncture and TCM (or any kind of natural treatment) so there are other ways to raise body temp if you are worried, I really love https://www.naturalfertilityandwellness.com/ and she had a couple posts about raising body temp.

Try not to worry so much (says the pot to the kettle).

On a completely unrelated note we have pretty much the same TTC history, weird!

ky29 · September 2014

Mine suggested them for natural cycles, but didn't bring it up for medicated/ivf cycles From what I've seen, I probably wouldn't take them on my ivf cycle.

CML11 · September 2014

@tifga‌ ginger may thin your blood, not typically recommended.
@Lesliem0901‌ herbs are something you have to be very careful with when TTC. Talk to your RE. A lot of them have side effects that stimulate your uterus and such. It's not worth it. I feel like if it was something that would help, my RE would be telling me to take it.

Lesliem0901 · September 2014

I appreciate the feedback. I am holding off for now.

JerzGrl07 · September 2014

When I asked me RE if I could do accupuncture, her response was "absolutely, just please don't take any herbs"

tptbabe · September 2014

My ND took me off all supplements prior to starting priming even. (My RE was fine with them right up until stimming.)

My understanding is that your BBT is related to the amount of progesterone your body is producing? Since you'll be on supplements, I wouldn't worry about it, particularly after transfer.

przemosbabe · September 2014

I wouldn't take them during an ART cycle. I did this once during an IUI and my follices were all over the place until the last day when they all were finally the same size. I don't know if the herbs are to blame for this but I had done a few other IUI cycles with just acupunture and I didn't have this repsonse. So for that reason I wouldn't take then during ART but wouldn't mind during a natural cycle.

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