I Might Never Have Gotten Pregnant.  I’m SO Happy I did these 8 Things!

I Might Never Have Gotten Pregnant.  But I did!  Here’s How.

To feel like a mother is one of the best feelings in this world. Kids make life more beautiful by putting colors in it. To be a mom can change your whole personality. It’s one of the most incredible experiences to get the news that you’re going to be a mother. When I heard this fantastic news that I was conceiving, I cannot express my feelings in words. This was long-awaited news. I spent a lot of time working on getting pregnant. I might never have gotten pregnant. Here’s What I did.

I used to note symptoms of possible ovulation. These symptoms include a regular menstrual cycle along with fertile mucus. However, signs of confirmed ovulation are a little bit different. These symptoms include; raised basal body temperature after ovulation and a comparatively high progesterone level during the luteal phase.  Having a regular menstrual cycle never means ovulation. It’s possible to have an anovulatory cycle (that means no ovulation.)

I started tracking my menstrual cycle

I used an application to have to track my menstrual cycle. While doing this, I also noticed the symptoms happening throughout my period cycle, for example, basal body temperature, mucus leading to fertility, and many more. There are many applications for tracking the menstrual cycle, but I like ‘Flo Living’ or ‘Clue’ because they work wonderfully. These applications are extremely helpful in monitoring the period’s duration for every month. I worked on this for about six to seven months before I conceived.

In my plan to get pregnant, I tracked ovulation with test strips

While taking tests, I noticed that the fertile window would vary month to month despite a regulated monthly cycle. I was diagnosed with PCOS as I didn’t have a positive ovulation test. PCOS stands for Polycystic ovary syndrome. It is a problem related to women’s ovary system, and it causes the overproduction of androgens.

Following are the steps I took to conceive with PCOS. Anyone can follow them at any point of her journey to conception.

• First of all, I quit using birth control hormonal pills, which I seldom used to take. These medicines regulate our body with synthetic hormones and can harm the reproductive system. Another thing caused by such medications is post-birth control syndrome, which is responsible for worsening PCOS.
• Second, I focused on my diet. I started eating a balanced diet with anti-inflammatory foods to manage what was happening inside my body. I added anti-inflammatory foods to my diet to reduce inflammation that was in my body because of PCOS. As gluten, alcohols, dairy products, and added sugars cause inflammation, I avoided these things.

• Third, I started relaxing my mind to avoid stress because our body starts creating cortisol that is not good for conceiving. Stress also causes a shortened luteal phase. This shortened phase means less production of progesterone hormone that is responsible for enhancing fertility. Taking all things in mind, I started to get enough sleep at night, yoga, and other self-care treatments. For meditation, I used to work with an amusement app on my phone. These things helped me a lot in avoiding stress.
• Fourth, I needed to have a balanced thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and blood sugar level. A regulated thyroid-stimulating hormone is essential to encourage pregnancy. An imbalanced blood sugar level is widespread in women with PCOS. Therefore, to avoid the imbalanced sugar level in my blood, I quit added sugars and ate regular meals with proteins and healthy fats.
• Fifth, I came to know from my gynecologist that most of the hormonal imbalance occurred in the gut, and we need to heal this. So I followed some tricks to heal my stomach.  I started taking a probiotic and gut-healing food. I also took food sensitivity tests for a couple of months.
• Sixth, before getting pregnant, I avoided environmental toxins because it’s well known that companies use toxic materials in make-up and cleaning products used in our houses. These toxic materials can disrupt the endocrine system that can lead to infertility in women. So I reviewed all the make-up and cleaning products used in my house and replaced them with non-toxic products.
• Seventh, I had never been fond of exercise. Still, after deciding to conceive with PCOS, my doctor asked me to exercise regularly. So I started to exercise, and it works wonderfully. I started feeling fresh the whole day after exercising in the morning. It also helped my mood a lot. Exercise is not only for women with PCOS.  Everyone can benefit.
• Finally, maintaining a balanced progesterone and estrogen hormone is essential to regulate the monthly cycle. Seed cycling is the practice of taking seeds such as sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds in your diet during the menstrual cycle to increase fertility. I did this seed cycling for a few months before trying to get pregnant. It worked a lot for me.

Learn How, Why, and When to Stop Breastfeeding a Baby.

To conclude, I conceived after doing the following things:

1. Stopped taking birth control medicines;
2. Eating an anti-inflammatory, balanced diet;
3. Relaxing my mind with enough sleep, yoga, self-care, and meditation;
4. Controlling my sugar intake;
5. Taking a probiotic, eating gut-healing foods, and taking food sensitivity tests;
6. Making sure all my makeup and cleaning products were toxin-free;
7. Exercising; and
8. Seed cycling.

These preventive measures helped me a lot to why I might never have gotten pregnant. After that, we tried to conceive, I got pregnant, and it was the most joyous moment of my life!