How To Cure Infertility

Numerous studies show that people with infertility get pregnant with a number of natural therapies. If you have unexplained infertility (including low sperm count), couples can enter a study (done by mail). You supply the needed labs and we review, evaluate, and send you both the treatments and instructions you'll need—free! We expect most couples will get pregnant. This is an exciting (and free) way of getting pregnant if you have infertility.

Treatments are a mix of lifestyle and supplements. For example:

FOR MEN (Can markedly raise sperm count, which is very helpful even if sperm count is normal.):

A. Life Style Education
These are important things to avoid from now until after your wife gets pregnant, as they can cause infertility. Just do the best you can with these guidelines—OK to not be perfect.

1. Avoid soy based foods (e.g., tofu, tempeh, soy cheese and milk, etc). Even modest intakes drop sperm counts by 40%.

2. Sperm do poorly at temperatures over 96 °F (which is why the testes hang below the rest of the body to stay cooler). Avoid elevated scrotal temperatures by wearing boxer shorts. Do NOT wear briefs, tight fitting underwear or jeans. Avoid hot tubs. Avoid rowing/ski machines, treadmills or jogging unless the testes can hang free.

3. Avoid aspirin, Motrin or similar medications which block the hormone prostaglandin (prostaglandins in the seminal fluid may assist sperm). Tylenol is OK in moderation (if you need high doses regularly, let's discuss).

4. Avoid alcohol when convenient, and tobacco if able.

5. When convenient, avoid meat with estrogen (i.e., get your meat from a natural foods store).

6. Avoid melatonin, testosterone, Verapamil and Nifedipine (latter two are heart/blood pressure medications) which can cause reversible infertility.

7. Increase liquid vegetable oils and avoid cottonseed oil (may contain gossypol which inhibit sperm function), palm or coconut oils or trans, hydrogenated or saturated fats as comfortably able.

B) Treatments (We will mail these free to those in the study. Begin after obtaining the first sperm sample.)

All of these can be taken together in the morning (or split up or taken any time of day). They increase sperm count and function, and your energy as well! Get your baseline sperm count sample in to the lab/urologists office before beginning these treatments. Repeat the sperm count after four months on these treatments (best if both sperm counts are done at the same lab). Take these for nine months or till your wife gets pregnant. If pregnant before four months into treatment, repeat the sperm count and then you can stop the supplements.

1. Supply overall nutritional support with the "Energy Revitalization Powder" by Enzymatic Therapy. Take ½ to 1 scoop a day as feels best (use less if gas/diarrhea) and the one capsule.

2. CoEnzyme Q10 (chewable) 200 mg/day. Chew one each morning.

3. L-Arginine 1,000 mg. Take 2 twice a day.

4. Acetyl-l-carnitine 1,000 mg/day.

5. Carnitine 1,000 mg/day.

6. Zinc 15-30 mg/day (1 a day).

7. Ribose 5 gm (1 scoop) twice a day (can use like sugar and mix in food or drinks). The second dose can be taken any time during the day (or at bedtime).

FOR WOMEN:

A) Life Style Changes

These are important things to avoid from now until after you are three months pregnant, as they can cause infertility. Just do the best you can with these guidelines—OK to not be "perfect" with them.

1. Avoid coffee and sodas (tea is OK). Coffee and sodas inhibit fertility—often markedly.

2. Avoid supplements with melatonin (which is sometimes used to treatinsomnia) as it can affect reproductive hormones. It can sometimes helppregnancy as well.

3. Only take the vitamin C and vitamin A in the vitamin powder below, and not in any other supplements without checking with me.

4. Avoid a high protein/Atkins' diet in which carbohydrates are strictly avoided (the protein in a regular diet is fine—even if you eat a lot of high protein foods).

5. No alcohol if Prolactin levels are higher than 10 (and avoid in general as is convenient).

6. Avoid vaginal lubricants such as FemGlide, Replens and Astroglide which can damage sperm. Pre-seed brand is OK.

7. If you smoke, stop till after the baby is born if you can. Smokingcontributes to infertility in many ways.

Lifestyle Things to Do to Help Get Pregnant

1. It works best to have intercourse on the day you ovulate and up to four days before (otherwise "ad lib" whenever you feel like it). It is OK to have intercourse multiple times during this period. For purposes of getting pregnant, intercourse even one day after ovulation is unlikely to result in pregnancy—but OK to do anyway for its other benefits.

2. Enjoy milk products but use regular ones that have the normal amount of milk fat (e.g., whole milk) instead of low fat or fat free milk products. In a Harvard study, high intake of low-fat dairy foods was associated with an increased risk of infertility, while an increased intake of high-fat dairy foods was associated with a lower risk of infertility. Women consuming at least two servings of low-fat dairy foods per day showed an 85% increased risk of infertility. On the other hand, women consuming at least one serving of high-fat dairy foods per day showed a 27% reduced risk of infertility. Whole milk products (instead of low fat) also taste better.

B) Woman's Treatments (We will provide). Most women will simply need to take the vitamin powder, thyroid, and if low an iron supplement.

1. Get outstanding overall nutritional support with the "Energy Revitalization Powder" by Enzymatic Therapy and a healthy, well-balanced diet. Stay on the vitamin powder when you get pregnant and through breast feeding. We will supply the powder. Take ½ to 1 scoop a day as feels best (use less if diarrhea) and the one capsule. When you get pregnant, add calcium, iron, and fish oil to optimize your pregnancy.

2. Add prescription Armour thyroid 30 mg adjusted to dose that feels best (to a maximum of 90 mg or 3 tablets). Take it in the morning, preferably on an empty stomach. Do not take iron or calcium supplements within six hours of the thyroid dose, or the thyroid will not be absorbed. Take your calcium at dinner and bedtime. If you get shaky or hyper, chest pain or racing heart, lower the thyroid dose (or stop it) and let's discuss. Stay on the thyroid through your pregnancy (it supports a healthy pregnancy). Low thyroid function despite normal tests is an extremely common cause of both infertility and miscarriages.

Armour Thyroid (Rx)—30 mg (1/2 grain = 30 mg) (natural thyroid glandular). Take ½ tablet each morning on an empty stomach for one week and then one tablet each morning. Increase by ½ to 1 tablet each 1-6 weeks (till you're on three tablets or the dose that feels best). Check a repeat Free T4 blood level when you're on three tablets a day (or your optimum dose) for 6-8 weeks.

Tips for Get Pregnant

Tips #1: Figure out when you ovulate

The biggest secret to getting pregnant faster is knowing when you ovulate (release an egg from your ovary). Think of the egg as a bull's-eye and the sperm as arrows. One of the arrows has to hit the bull's-eye in order for you to get pregnant.

Since most women release an egg once each menstrual cycle, there are only a few days out of each cycle when sex can actually lead to pregnancy. Knowing when you ovulate means that you and your partner can identify the bull's-eye and then aim for it, instead of just shooting a bunch of arrows and hoping the target happens to be there.

You can figure out when you ovulate using a few different methods. Our article about predicting ovulation walks you through them.

If you notice that you have irregular periods over the course of several months, pinpointing ovulation could be difficult. Ask your doctor for advice.

Tips #2: Get busy at the right time

Once you know when your egg will be released from your ovary, you can plan to have sex during your most fertile days: from three days before ovulation through the day of ovulation. (Starting a little sooner can't hurt; some women have gotten pregnant from sex that happened six days before they ovulated.)

You have a range of days for baby-making sex because sperm can survive for five to six days in your body. (Your egg survives for only about a day.) That means if you have sex on Monday, sperm can survive in your fallopian tubes, waiting for an egg to float by, until around Thursday – or maybe even as late as Sunday.

If you're not sure when your fertile period will be, here's an easy rule of thumb: Hit the sheets every other day. Having sex this often means you'll have healthy sperm waiting in your fallopian tubes every day, ready to spring into action whenever your egg gets released.

(If you want to have sex more often than every other day, that's fine. It won't help you conceive faster, but it won't hurt, either.)

Another tip: If you and your partner are waiting to have sex until your most fertile time, make sure you haven't gone through too long of a dry spell beforehand. Your partner should ejaculate at least once in the days before your most fertile period. If he doesn't, there could be a buildup of dead sperm in his semen when it's go time, and dead sperm can't get you pregnant.

Tips #3: Lie down on the job

For a long time, no one really knew whether lying on your back after sex (to prevent sperm from leaking out) would help boost the chances that a sperm would successfully reach and fertilize your egg.

Now there's reason to believe that staying horizontal can help. In 2009, researchers in Amsterdam found that women who lay flat for 15 minutes after being artificially inseminated (that is, a doctor inserted sperm into their uterus) were 50 percent more likely to get pregnant than women who got up right away after the procedure.

While we can't be sure that the same is true for intercourse, this study suggests that staying put for a bit after sex could help your partner's sperm along. In any case, it doesn't hurt to try.

Tips #4: Enjoy the process

If you're in a rush to get pregnant, you might find yourself feeling anxious about it. While that's totally normal, you actually have a better shot at conceiving if you aren't stressed out. The hypothalamus – the gland in the brain that regulates the hormones of ovulation – doesn't function as well when you're stressed, which means you may ovulate later than usual or not at all that cycle.

So do whatever you can to enjoy the process of getting pregnant. Having fun with your sex life (instead of a "must conceive now," Type-A approach) will actually boost your chances of success. And if you're looking to keep things spicy, good news: No single sex position is more effective for baby-making than another.