Fertility Challenge D4-6

Day 4: How fluoride is killing your fertility. This was new to me and this is what I found the most interesting "Did you know… up until the 1970’s European doctors used fluoride to reduce the activity of over-active thyroid patients with doses as low as 2mg/day". Now as someone with not only hypothyroid (controlled) but also a body that thinks my thyroid is evil and should die this is somewhat alarming. As I am not one to blindly accept things this is something that I will be doing a TON of research on as time permits. While in theory I am amicable to using a fluoride free toothpaste, I am not willing to drink only bottled water without fluoride added and I am not yet sure I am willing to forgo the bi-annual fluoride treatments from my dentist. As for The Captain, there is ZERO chance that I would even ask him to give up fluoride. He has severely bad teeth and as we all know dental problems that start small and turn big very quickly, and a very closely ties with heart health. Regardless of toothpaste use the things we can both do include drinking filtered water (which we do) and using other oral hygiene products (ie:mouthwash) sans fluoride. Again this is something I plan to research more and will keep you posted if I change my mind about this.

Day 5: The 4 fertility tests you probably don't know about. These were not a surprise to me and being that we had the FULL battery of IF testing done I figured we were pretty good on this front. To give you the rundown they: Thyroid function and thyroid antibodies, FSH, high vaginal swab and semen analysis. The only test that I have not had performed is the high vaginal swab. This is because our Dr believes that it is a waste of time and money and prefers to just treat prophylactically with antibiotics in the event that there is an infection underlying in either partner; including something that would be undetected by a vaginal swab.

Day 6: A simple test to do at home for your "thyroid". Now really this will not tell you if your thyroid is out of whack but it WILL tell you if you need more iodine in your diet. You use iodine to put a spot on your arm and wait to see how long it takes to fade. Don't wash it off or shower while waiting. I know that this test will likely show that I need more iodine, I have the "spot" on right now and will report back the results. If it takes less than 24 hours your need more iodine, more than or equal to your levels are good.