I made it to 5 weeks today! and I am sorry Ihavent been posting much, but I have been really out of it lately, and just got done car shopping, and might have a new car, if loan is approved.
9 Babies got everything crossed for you honey.....take it easy...hope its just a blip., I have 2 friends who had a bleed at 6 weeks and they have healthy babies..
My period is due tomorrow, am doing pregg tests every day...I am very gassy, feel like there is a balloon about to expolde on the left side of my abdomen.....I am so wishing the weeks away., as I am sure everyone here knows that feeling., If I could just frast forward 8 months to know if all will be well.!
I have been on my thyroxine tablets now since January so this along with taking baby asprin since january is the only new thing so far this pregnancy...My thyroid function is improving and my gp is happy with the results so far..
I have been reading a bit recently about dhea for egg quality and increasing egg reserves.,also it has had an effect on lowering miscarriage rates from what I've been reading. ....if this pregnancy doesnt work out then I think I may well try it...Here is what i have read, the link is
https://www.centerforhumanreprod.com/about_newsletter_0508.html#dhea
New findings: DHEA also reduces miscarriage rates - especially in older women
As reported in previous issues, CHR continues to accumulate data on our DHEA experience. Toronto West Fertility Associates, in Toronto, Canada, is a facility also doing the same. Anecdotally, we’d heard they had similar results to ours, and last December they were kind enough to send us their complete data bank on DHEA usage at their center.
Their pregnancy experience results were, indeed, similar to our own, and we were especially interested in their miscarriage rates. As we have repeatedly noted in our UPDATEs, we have come to believe that DHEA supplementation may reduce the number of chromosomally abnormal embryos (aneuploidy). We reached this conclusion after making two observations:
In a small number of women who underwent PGD after being treated with DHEA, we found lower aneuploidy rates than in women without DHEA supplementation. Unfortunately, women in need of DHEA usually have small embryo numbers and, therefore, only rarely qualify for PGD. This kind of data accumulation is, therefore, very slow and so far we have not reached statistically robust enough numbers.
2) Our second, related observation was that we noted a surprisingly low miscarriage rate in DHEA pregnancies. Since miscarriages, especially in older women, are mostly due to chromosomal abnormalities, this observation, too, suggested the possibility that DHEA may reduce aneuploidy rates. To reach statistically robust conclusions, once again relatively large (pregnancy) numbers were required and we therefore, up to this point, have been cautious to not over interpret our own data.
This is why the timing of the arrival of the Toronto data was so exciting; these data not only confirmed the high pregnancy rate in very unfavorable patients with diminished ovarian reserve, but demonstrated an identical reduction in miscarriage rate to the one observed by us (when compared to national IVF data). Since the combined data sets between CHR and the Toronto center involve an adequate size patient sample, we are now confident to state that DHEA supplementation significantly decreases the miscarriage rate in women with diminished ovarian reserve.
Indeed, we even can go beyond this statement: While a reduction in miscarriage rates is seen in women of all ages, the reduction is smaller in women below age 35 than in women above age 35 years, where the reduction often exceeds 50 percent. This, of course, should not surprise since miscarriages are known to increase with advancing female age. Most of these miscarriages are, however, due to aneuploidy and this observation brings us back to where we started from: Our new data, on the decrease in miscarriage rates after DHEA supplementation especially in older women above age 35, strongly support that DHEA, indeed, reduces chromosomal abnormalities (aneuploidy rates) in embryos.
The importance of this observation cannot be overemphasized. Since older women represent in the USA the most rapidly growing age group of women having babies, our findings may have significance far beyond those older women who require fertility treatment. Indeed, if confirmed by further studies, DHEA may become a supplement to be given, like prenatal vitamins, to all (older) women contemplating pregnancy.
We, of course, have submitted an abstract on this exciting data to ESHRE and a full length manuscript is in preparation.
Participants Wanted
As a final news item in regards to DHEA, we are getting ready to launch the prospectively randomized DHEA study in younger women (under age 38) with so-called unexplained infertility, which we previously announced for early 2008. If you are interested in participating and/or are a physician who wants to have one of your patients considered for this (free of charge) study, please contact us.
Any one else any experience or thoughts on dhea?
Mandy X
How many dpo are you?
