DHEA Anyone?

Travel time to and from work has long been great thinking time for me, today as I walked thru the big tunnel at the train station I realised that I had a few posts to make, but they all needed to be made one by one. So I have set myself the ambitious task of a daily post from today thru to Sunday - yikes 4 posts!

I haven't been blogging much about what I'm up to fertility wise, and that's because it's in abit of a holding pattern due to D getting some updated results.

Long before discovering blogs I was a regular infertility forum lurker, I still go back to my favourites almost daily. One of the great discoveries I made was about the wonders currently being seen with women who take dhea. In fact, the story is great, it started with a lady in US wanting to bank embryos for later use, who did some internet research and discovered dhea and started taking it without her doctors' knowledge. Each IVF cycle she went thru she produced more and more eggs - until she was producing around 25 - did I mention she was 43!

Once she'd come clean the clinic started it's own investigations and research, see link http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com/premature_ovaries.html

It's astounding stuff, almost too breathtaking to believe.

One thing I've noticed is that this is talked about on forums, but not currently by bloggers.

After our last ivf failure and my subsequent follow up with the miserable doctor, I got what is fondly referred to as 'the speech'. Basically my eggs are crap, and I should lobby one of my sisters to hand some eggs over.

Well it seems that this could be entirely false if our CFG and MS-CFG are to be believed, they think that D's boys could be the party poopers, so we're currently in the midst of getting some more tests (blog update hopefully after the weekend).

But, so as to keep up my end of the bargain, and because my mother would most likely sue me if I go near any of my sisters [egg cap-in-hand], I've explored these magic beans abit more.

In Australia the dhea recommended (micronised - not homeopathic), is a banned substance - because a bunch of athletes have been caught using it to enhance performance. You can get it but you need a prescription. That said I had no problem getting the prescription from a doctor - research in hand, and getting it filled. Incidentally my doctor said alot of his patients that ask for this - want to take it for anti-aging purposes!

Tomorrow marks the 7th week I have been taking it, the recommendation is that it takes 3-4 months to have maximum impact (to do with how long an egg takes to develop).

Seven weeks ago I walked into CFG's office with the same research and asked her if she had heard of it, she had, but didn't realise the current research being done. Incidentally it will not become statistically relevant until they have around 1000 cases. They update the website frequently, but the latest exciting thing being found is the number of spontaneous pregnancies occuring - women taking the drug waiting to cycle. As I said to D - this is a centre that makes it's money off ivf - so spontaneous pregnancy is not in their interest.

Last week CFG told me she had a new patient, 36, who had been thru 6 rounds of ivf with no result and her dr (from the big fertility house) had told her she had crap eggs and should find a donor. Same same but different different. Naturally devastated she probably did some research and tried to get a prescription for dhea. When she she handed over what the dr. had given her, the chemist he said the dosage was so small it wasn't worth taking (incidentally it was a third of what is being recommended).

So I want to add this topic into my blog in case anyone is getting the same spiel, and will blog my own results as they happen.

Just for the record, so far I have experienced no side effects (some report acne), except perhaps a slight feeling of indigestion some days.