I am 41 years old (young). My husband and I got married 20 months ago. I had a son before we were married and he will be 22 years old in May of 2014. I never imagined I would want to have children past the age of 40. I always thought I would have more children before now. While I am excited to do IVF since we have almost all the risk factors for infertility: blocked tubes, low sperm morphology, endometriosis, age, and a few others. I am not even one to even want to use medication or doctors for something as seemingly simple as getting pregnant. We found a great doctor in Orange County at Life IVF Center. He believes in and uses minimum stimulation medication. This is the way I roll.
So I have been retaking a bunch of blood, urine, and stool tests I took when I first got really sick in 2009. The tests are much better! They are not completely perfect – yet. I am not really looking for perfection anyway just total health and to be able to grow healthy babies. So I found out some new things too like that I was a little low in Omega – 3 oil DHA which is what baby brains are made of. I started supplementation of that. I’ve got low protein specifically taurine, cysteine, and isoleucine. Protein helps make baby muscles as well as many other things. What I learned from this lab test is that isoleucine an essential amino acid which can be low because of zinc deficiency, protein malnutrition or gastrointestinal dysfunctions. Taurine is a conditionally essential amino acid. Ok your now going to learn more than you ever wanted to know about only one of the 21 essential amino acids. This was written on my lab results, “Taurine is an important antioxidant, neurotransmitter (CNS), osmoregulator (intracellular magnesium and potassium) and a component of bile acids. (I no longer have a gall bladder and while I still make bile from the liver I might be low because now there is no place to store it) Taurine is a key scavenger of hypochlorite ions, thus a shortage of taurine after viral or bacterial infections, or exposure to xenobiotics (eg. chlorine, chlorite, alcohol, aldehydes) can result in excessive inflammation. Taurine insufficiency is commonly associated with magnesium deficiency, chemical sensitivity, non-epileptic seizures, bile insufficiency with or without dyslipoproteinemias, and deficiencies in essential fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins. In humans little taurine is derived from cysteine and most taurine is derived from the diet. Foods that are relatively high in taurine include red meat, organ meats, fish and shellfish. Taurine is often very low in people who consume meat sparingly and/or patients with excessive exposure to chemicals.” Wow what a mouthful. This is my life right now sifting through results that read like the above. What a joy (sometimes) to read through. Not really this was not really what I ever signed up for in life.
So do you know what I am going to do to correct this problem. First I am going to make an effort to eat fish at least once a week. I am going to take a magnesium supplement, a taurine supplement, some type of bile supplement since I don’t have a gall bladder and I am even going to make chicken liver sometime soon and maybe eat it once a week. We used to eat chicken liver growing up and while I truly hate the stuff this type of liver should have many nutrients protein included specifically taurine. The sacrifices have already begun. My desire to have babies twin baby girls to be specific is so strong I will do whatever I can to bring that about even eating liver. I’ll have to let you know how that comes out. I think that’s quite enough for today stay tuned.
Love you all
Joan