In describing what I mean by the title of this guest blog, I want to point you into the direction of a popular documentary, Forks over Knives. It begins with a quote by Hippocrates, the famous Greek doctor and father of Western medicine. To paraphrase him, he says to let food be your medicine. From there, the documentary goes into how we treat food and how modern pharmaceutical companies have done a good job at keeping us alive, but are not making us better. There’s no money in a well patient or a dead one.
In the documentary, they treat those who take handfuls of medicine each day, simply with a new diet. They are all able to get off their medication and lead healthy lives. Now this is not to say that medicine and healthcare don’t have their role in helping people. Many people are able to get better through medicine, but it shouldn’t be the only answer, especially when there are no answers. This is certainly the case when it comes to infertility.
When men and women are confronted with infertility and are told that there is no reason for it, it can be very frustrating. It could also be very tempting to treat unexplained infertility with fertility drugs. Unfortunately, fertility drugs like Clomid can bring serious consequences. There is a linkage between more than six cycles of Clomid and ovarian cancer. While you certainly want to become pregnant, you don’t want to put yourself at risk doing so.
And the numbers aren’t great. Even if you don’t suffer any side effects or worse; the chance of conceiving a healthy child is only 28%. And the numbers are much lower if you’re over the age of 40. Then it’s as little as ten percent. So what are your options?
If you’ve exhausted all other options, you may want to consider taking a step back. Rather than taking drugs that don’t stand a good chance of working, it might be a good idea to take a lesson from Forks over Knives. Instead of depending on fertility drugs, reexamine your body.
Is your diet sabotaging your efforts to get pregnant? There are certain foods out there that can affect your ability to conceive. What is your sleep schedule like? Are you overly stressed at home and at work? These could affect your fertility too. Thinking outside the box may bring the solution that drugs can’t.
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