Celiac and Infertility - How It All Came About

Celiac affects so many people (they estimate 1 in 133 people and even more are just gluten intolerant, not Celiac) yet it's almost never diagnosed, so I'm happy to spread the word.

I'm going to give you a couple links, otherwise I'll end up typing out a whole book for you to read. lol

www.celiaccentral.org/Celiac-Diseas...

www.livestrong.com/article/420766-m...

These are good starters.

Basically what causes the infertility is not the Celiac disease itself, it's the malnutrition. Celiac damages your intestinal lining, making it so that you don't absorb the proper vitamins to be able to carry a child. 

I did not always know I had Celiac... all I knew is that when I was young, I was put in the hospital due to a huge lymph node infection in my neck (it was huge enough where you couldn't see my jaw line, and I have a square face with a strong jaw) and after that hospital visit, I started getting these random rashes. Doctors could never figure out what the rash was, and it would come and go throughout my life. I didn't have the major digestive issues until I was about 28... when I started drinking beer. Before that, I had been a rum drinker, if I drank, which is gluten free, and I also tended to avoid wheat products because of how I just generally felt yucky after eating them and they made me gain weight very quickly. My rash reappeared as I drank beer and ate wheat things I shouldn't be eating... I ended up gaining some 70lbs within a year. It was RIDICULOUS. 

So, about 6 months after my first miscarriage in 2010, I started feeling terrible. I had been suffering from depression since 2009, and my health started failing, even though I had normally been very healthy and rarely got sick. I went to the doc, and they found my TSH levels were elevated, so they checked my thyroid, checked me for PCOS.... and everything came out normal and healthy except my very high TSH. I kept thinking "NO WAY am I healthy! I feel like crap!" My cycles were all over the place, I was skipping, and they were getting lighter suddenly.

I have a friend who has Celiacs... so she educated me on it a bit, because I was curious. 

One day I put it together that I had my digestive issues after having beer ALWAYS. My skin issue flared up massively after having beer and I had never put it together.

So... I did my research and got tested... I have something called Dermatitis Herpetiformis (not herpes, even though the name looks like it. lol Trust me, I freaked when I saw that) which is directly related to Celiacs. Because I have that, I have Celiacs. 

I went gluten free in December 2011, and my skin issue has since disappeared and never come back. My digestive functions are all normal now... and truly, with a little bit of humor here... I can't tell you how nice it is to not have to race to the bathroom. haha

ANYWAYS. Since going gluten free... I have found I have some major issues. Systemic Candida (yeast) tore me up considerably, and I'm still fighting it with enzymes and heavy duty probiotics. That same Candida is likely why I still haven't been able to hold a pregnancy because 9 months gluten free, I should be able to get pregnant. I have read other women are likely to get pregnant within 6 months of going gluten free, assuming there are no other issues. My cycles have finally "somewhat" regulated... but I have a theory that my lining is no good and won't hold the embryo so I believe I miscarry within a couple days.

So... for you, this is what I would suggest from all my research I have done with malnutrition and hormonal issues created from it:

Have your vitamin D checked. Mine was insanely low and I have discovered in my research that the majority of the American population is very low in vitamin D. Take a daily supplement of 10,000iu for 3 months, and it'll bring you back up. You may feel even better... just then maintain it at 5000iu. See this link for you... www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-cond...

Take your vitamin E and Vitamin A. 

Have your B vitamin levels checked. Once I went gluten free, my B vitamins leveled out on their own. I don't even have to supplement. 

Also, if you can, have Zinc levels checked, or you can check if you have these symptoms of a deficiency: (this link is great... has a ton of symptoms in there that a lot of women I know have...) www.womenshairlossproject.com/hair-...
If you decide to start supplementing with zinc, take no more than 100mg a day, otherwise it may make you nauseous. I take a 50mg supplement with my multivitamin.

I also am an advocate for magnesium supplementing as well. Even as little as 100mg supplement can help your adrenals handle your stress and cortisol levels. Cortisol signals your body is in a stressful situation, and won't get pregnant if you are that stressed, in order for nature to survive. :)

I have also very recently found out that vitamin C helps with estrogen levels so you can help make good lining. :)

And... last, but likely the most important: probiotics ESPECIALLY if you have ever been on antibiotics before. Your internal bacterial flora is important to your health, and antibiotics kill the good and the bad. Get a probiotic that as many cultures and as many strains of bacteria as possible. A normal healthy person has 100 trillion bacteria colonies within their system. I take a probiotic right now that has 35billion cultures in each pill with 33 different strains of bacteria, twice a day. If you take a probiotic and it causes a general "flu-like" feeling or diarrhea, it's working. That feeling will go away in 1-3 weeks as your body resets itself. If it's too uncomfortable, skip a day of probiotic dose to give your body a break and ease into them slowly.

Well, I still wrote you a book... hahaha

My infertility hasn't resolved itself yet... but I'm working on it. If I can figure it out, I hope I can share the knowledge with others. Allopathic (what we practice here in America with our regular doctors) medicine doesn't recognize the power of nutrition a lot, so my doctor hasn't been much help. lol But I have been told that since my Celiac was likely activated when I had that major lymph node infection when I was 7, there is probably a lot of damage to reverse and it may take my body years to get to normal. But that is just my own situation.

If you have any questions... any, no matter how TMI (I am a self proclaimed "poop" expert... because truly, your poop says a lot about a person's health)... please feel free to ask. I love it when people ask so I can share what I have learned.

Best of luck... Jess

HCG Diet and Cycle Time

I now have proof that the HCG diet can regulate your menstrual cycle.

A little (okay, a lot) of my cycle recent history...

After 2 years of menstrual issues, likely due to my pending Celiac diagnosis and the related malabsorption, my cycles were anywhere between 45 and 70 days.  Even after going gluten free in December 2011, my cycle continued to be wonky.

Since my husband and I are trying to conceive and have been since December 2010, I have been really paying attention to my cycles and what is creating my infertility.

I have a Fertile Focus Microscope which only uses your saliva to check the hormone levels that are in your saliva to see if you could consider yourself fertile.  If your saliva shows a fern pattern (which is the crystalization of whatever hormone it looks for) then you are likely fertile.

Image from getting-pregnant-tips.com

 
Ferning = Fertile = should get preggers easily... easy enough, right?

Wrong, in my case.

So in my ridiculously long cycles, I started checking the 'scope daily to see when it actually said I was fertile.

Funny enough... I was ALWAYS fertile on right around cycle day 14... which is when I'm SUPPOSED to be.  Of course, my flow doesn't show up 14 days later like it should, so I continued checking the 'scope daily to see what it did.

I have the blessing to be able to tell when I actually ovulate; it causes me pain.  It's a brief pain, but definitely different than any other pain I have ever had, so I can tell.  I've learned over the years that it means I'm ovulating.  Exactly 14 days after that pain occurs, my flow shows up.

On those days that I know I'm ovulating, I checked the 'scope... and nothing.  Doesn't say I'm fertile at all. Yet I'm ovulating??? That doesn't make any sense.

So of course, my theory came forth that my hormones and body goes through the motions of my cycle on the proper days, but my ovaries are late to the party... by like a month.  By the time I actually do ovulate, my hormones are not in the right spot, likely my uterine lining is no longer hospitable for a bouncing baby to start, therefore anything that actually does connect with the ovum, falls right through.

So... the key was to get my ovaries to show up at the right time to the party.

My HCG diet did that for me.  My last cycle date was May 13.  I got my cycle yesterday.  A 30 day cycle!!! I almost flipped.  I had started the HCG Rx Injections on May 27, which is the day I was supposed to ovulate, but I just ovulated 2 days later! I am just so thrilled with it... when I did my past rounds of the HCG injections for weight loss, my cycle always stayed at 35 days.  This is, of course, before I was diagnosed with Celiac. Ever since I have been old enough to bleed, my cycles were at 35 days if I wasn't on the pill.

So this is the first time that my body did it by itself! (kinda)

I'm just so thrilled with it, I can't wait to see what happens for next month.