The cone of silence

I have fantastic friends. They're supportive, loyal and we tell each other everything. Until now. All of a sudden, there are hushed voices and whispers, innuendos and sidelong glances, all in the name of failed conception.

It's a strange phenomenon, but when people - especially close friends - know you're trying to conceive, they don't want to let you in on the news about others who have successfully achieved pregnancy. I am now the last to hear about friends of friends who are pregnant. Some of my friends have even gone as far as withholding stories, information and anecdotes about their own children.

This, of course, is nothing if not thoughtful. It's kind of like when your friend's relationship is on the rocks, the last thing you want to do is gush about how in love you are. So, I'm writing to say: it's okay. Really. I like hearing about others who have managed to get pregnant. I mean sure, the wildly competitive side of me wishes I had gotten pregnant first, but really, pregnancy is something that should be celebrated, not reduced to petty competition, right...? Right.

In the beginning...

Well here it is, my first post. I suppose now would be as good a time as ever to fill you in on what prompted me to wax lyrical about making babies.

Chris and I have been trying to get pregnant for eight months now - still within a perfectly acceptable, normal conception time frame. Unless you're a low-patience high achiever like me, then it's an eternity. I was absolutely certain it'd be a slam dunk the first month. Oh, how blissfully ignorant I was back then...

After four months of failed attempts, I took action - outside of the bedroom. I enlisted the help of a dynamic duo, a husband and wife team of Naturopathic Doctors whose practice focuses on fertility and healthy pregnancies and births. After my first appointment, I was sent home with a (graphic) handbook titled The Justisse Method for Fertility Management, charts to fill out and a medicine-cabinet full of herbs, vitamins, oils and powders that promised to do everything from cleanse my liver to boost my faltering adrenal glands.

As it turns out, there's something I like to call the Golden Triangle, a nice, helpful trifecta of glands and organs related to pregnancy achievement - healthy ovaries, a balanced thyroid, and robust adrenals. I was seriously lacking in the last two of the three. One month and one $300 "spit test" later, and it appeared I also suffered from slumping progesterone and a.m. cortisol (a.k.a. hydrocortisone, a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal cortex); never a good sign.

Herbs/oils/powders were altered, treatments continued, charts were analyzed, cervical fluid was examined, and bi-weekly acupuncture sessions were commenced. I'm still not pregnant, but my oh my have things changed. I no longer experience the down right unpleasant PMS I've suffered from my whole life and other indicators of success are positively shifting. I'm a believer.