Natural Fertility Aids - Vitex Agnus Castus

Also known as chaste berry, this herb can help with infertility issues in that it assists with the following:

• it helps to restore hormone balance, which in turn helps to regulate your menstrual cycles
• in regulating your cycles, it can bring on ovulation if you have not been ovulating regularly, or if you're having anovulatory cycles
• it can also bring on menstruation if it has been absent
• it's helpful in fixing a luteal phase defect, by maintaining progesterone levels during your luteal phase

Vitex is not a hormone and so it doesn't increase or decrease your hormone levels - it acts on the hypothalamus and pituitary glands to balance hormones.  And there are no harmful side-effects to using vitex.

As it is not a fast acting remedy, it may take several months to begin noticing any changes in your cycles and fertility, so don't give up on it after only a month or 2.

Since vitex affects your hormones, you should stop using it as soon you become pregnant!

I started using vitex tincture (about the same time that I began with B6 supplementation), and from month 1 my luteal phase was lengthened by a few day (it was a little too short), but in month 2 my ovulation was delayed by 3 days.  Since I'm not sure which supplement is doing what, I've since discontinued the vitex early in my 3rd month of taking it, but continued with the B6 - this way I can assess which supplement is actually helping and which one is delaying ovulation.

Natural Fertility Aids - Evening Primrose Oil

Evening primrose oil (EPO) assists in the production of fertile-quality cervical fluid, increasing it's quality (making it more sperm-friendly) as well as quantity.

Fertile-quality cervical fluid is good for fertility in that it:

• aids the sperm to easily move through the cervix and uterus to the fallopian tubes, and 
• helps the sperm stay alive and mobile for several days inside the uterus / fallopian tubes

The longer the sperm remain alive, the better the chance of conception, especially if intercourse happened a day or more before ovulation. 

Fertile-quality cervical fluid is produced around the time of ovulation, during your fertile days.  You should notice an increase in cervical fluid during this time, and fertile-quality cervical fluid should have a stretchy, slippery, clear, egg white quality to it.

I've seen EPO supplementation suggestions anywhere between 1000mg per day, to 3000mg per day, so do your own research to determine what is safe for you.  Important: EPO supplements should only be taken from cycle day 1 up until day of ovulation (ie it is not be taken after ovulation onwards) - this is because EPO can cause uterine contractions during pregnancy, and this is obviously not conducive towards sustaining a pregnancy.

EPO is an essential fatty acid so it has an array of other health benefits.  So if you wish to continue taking EFA supplements after ovulation, use flaxseed oil (also an EFA) between day of ovulation until your period begins again.

Natural Fertility Aids - Vit. B6

I started taking Vit B6 supplements about 3 cycles ago when I realized that I *may* have a luteal phase defect - fortunately LPD is one of the easiest fertility issues to cure!

Vit. B6 helps to regulate your reproductive hormones, thereby improving any LPD problems.  LPD makes it more difficult to systain a pregnancy and can result in an early miscarriage.  B6 (or maybe it's the entire B-complex) also makes your wee like a neon yellow colour...so don't get worried if you see that, hehe.

It's recommended to begin supplementing with about 50mg of B6, and then you need to see if that helps, otherwise the dosage can be increased bit by bit until you begin to see some improvement.  The max amount of B6 you should supplement with is 200mg, because I've read that taking too much B6 can actually cause damage.

I began supplementing with 25mg B6 - it was included in a Mega B-Complex supplement I was using.  Then I realized that the zinc I was taking also included 10mg of B6, so I was getting in 35mg B6.  After using it for just 1 cycle my luteal phase was increased from about 9-10 days (on average) to about 14 days - wow! :D  However during the 2nd cycle of use, it went down again to 11/12 days...I'm now in my 3rd cycle of using B6, but I've upped the dosage to 85mg in total, so I'll have to wait and see what happens!  I have read though that it can take a while for some supplements to have an effect on your fertility, so I won't be jumping to any conclusions just yet, maybe it's too early for that.

As a side note - I began taking B6 and vitex agnus castus at the same time, and during the 2nd cycle of use my ovulation was delayed by 3 days (and my ovulation is always on the same cycle day).  So I don't know who's to blame for this, but some have said it's the vitex and someone was of the opinion that it was the B6.  I think next cycle I'm going to stop with the vitex, and until then.....the mystery remains.