Infertility Because Of No Soy?

[Lockheed]

Okay, so I may not be posting this in the right location, but I'm hoping that it is close enough that people are okay with it. I have a 15 mo baby boy who is just fantastic! I stopped breastfeeding shortly after he turned 1 mainly because I wanted to have another baby and my cycle had not returned and knowing that breastfeeding can discourage cycling, I thought this might help. Well 16 weeks later and I'm still not cycling. I've been really depressed about it. DH and I were just convinced that since our first baby was an "oops" baby that it would be easy the second time. So doc did some lab work. Turns out my estrodial (estrogen) level is really low. Lower than in postmenopausal women. This might explain the slight decline in my bone density despite supplementing with an extra 2000 mg of calcium a day and 800 iu of Vit. D and throw in some magnesium there along with weight lifting and low joint impact exercise (namely walking a lot). I'm doing it all right? But being good celiac that I am (sometimes...) I go back to my diet. Am I getting enough calcium - yes, am I getting enough vit. d- yes, am I getting enough magnesium - yes, am I really gluten free - okay 99.9% of the time I am absolutely positive that I am gluten free so the absorption shouldn't be an issue or as much of an issue. Right? But it's all still going wrong! I have lost weight and I do feel fantastic but my body still isn't normal. So after doing some research I found this article: Open Original Shared Link which sounds like me after having the baby to a T. I was really shocked. I never thought my issues after having had the baby were related.. and then in the article it makes a rather off handed comment about soy helping with post menopausal issues and it occurs to me - I don't eat soy. Maybe I don't eat any of the foods necessary to produce enough estrogen. Maybe my bone density is low, now because of a lack of calcium but because I don't have enough estrogen to encourage bone growth because I'm not eating the foods that do that. But then I think, no I never would have gotten pregnant the first time if that were true. Then I read the comment on Black Cohosh also helping. I had been drinking black cohosh tea to get rid of a nasty yeast infection (which also was probably caused by the lack of estrogen) when I got pregnant with my son. I had no clue! I had only been drinking it because a friend of mine recommended that and I didn't have the time or money to go to the doctor and still had 30 days till my insurance kicked in. So now I'm off to add things into my diet that promote estrogen such as Black Cohosh, Chaste Tree Berry (or chasteberry) and my doctor also recommended adding cholesterol into my diet as it is essential in the conversion process so I guess I'm looking at nuts and shrimp for that one. I'm now apparently a case study in his office. I'm so excited to see if this really works. I just wanted to post in case someone else is in the same boat.

[lonewolf]

"my doctor also recommended adding cholesterol into my diet as it is essential in the conversion process so I guess I'm looking at nuts and shrimp for that one."

You might want to try things like butter, cheese, beef and whole milk to get more cholesterol. Nuts are cholesterol free and shrimp has some, but not a lot.

I'm sorry I can't be of much more help. I don't recommend soy to anyone, for anything. You might want to get a second opinion or have your doctor do some further testing. I'd want to know what all my hormone levels were and figure out exactly why they're out of balance. Good luck!

[Lockheed]

Currently I drink whole milk, cheese (mostly cheddars), red meat, eggs, etc. I will admit I'm not big on nuts and good seafood in the middle of Texas is hard to come by. I did send him a follow-up question on eating more cholesterol. I asked him if he meant LDL or HDL or just in general. He's pretty responsive so hopefully I'll have an answer from him by tomorrow.

[darlindeb25]

I agree with lonewolf, I do not recommend soy for anyone.

It's all hype when they say soy is so good for menopausal women. I do not have an estrogen problem, nor do I have a problem with calcium. I had a bone density test done in Oct, I'm doing good. I am now almost 53, went into menopause at 42, was over that hump at 49, had a hysterectomy for unrelated reasons last year, and I do not eat any soy, I am intolerant of soy.

I have read so many bad things about soy. I feel bad now that I gave it to 4 or my 5 babies, they were all lactose intolerant.

Maybe it's time to see another doctor, one who might know what is going on.

[Lockheed]

My doctor isn't recommending that I eat soy. Maybe I've confused everyone on that some how. He's aware that I have a sensitivity to soy and don't eat it. But soy when processed in the body synthesizes and estrodial like compound. That's why it is fairly effective in dealing with post-menopausal symptoms. What occurred to me though was that by being on a limited diet, maybe I'm not eating enough of the foods that support the production of estrogen or synthetic estrogens. Soy is just an example of one of those foods that I'm abstaining from for good reason. So now I'm on a quest to broaden my dietary horizons and see if diet alone can fix this issue. But it's probably also a genetic thing, because I don't know of that many gluten-free Soy Free women that are also infertile because of low estrodial levels. But honestly, I don't know that many gluten-free Soy Free women either. I'm pretty happy with my doctor because he will explore these unknown areas with me and if I know him he's probably on the phone with every specialist he can dig up in the country anyways.

[purple]

My doctor isn't recommending that I eat soy. Maybe I've confused everyone on that some how. He's aware that I have a sensitivity to soy and don't eat it. But soy when processed in the body synthesizes and estrodial like compound. That's why it is fairly effective in dealing with post-menopausal symptoms. What occurred to me though was that by being on a limited diet, maybe I'm not eating enough of the foods that support the production of estrogen or synthetic estrogens. Soy is just an example of one of those foods that I'm abstaining from for good reason. So now I'm on a quest to broaden my dietary horizons and see if diet alone can fix this issue. But it's probably also a genetic thing, because I don't know of that many gluten-free Soy Free women that are also infertile because of low estrodial levels. But honestly, I don't know that many gluten-free Soy Free women either. I'm pretty happy with my doctor because he will explore these unknown areas with me and if I know him he's probably on the phone with every specialist he can dig up in the country anyways.

The following is from my notes I took a couple of years ago when I thought my dd had endometriosis(allergic to gluten we found out), so I don't have a web site for you, sorry.

Progesterone is the precursor to other hormones, if not enough produced each month-all the other hormone levels will become either too high or too low. The whole system will become unbalanced causing problems of all sorts throughout the body. Progestrone is made from cholesterol. Body cannot produce hormones like progesterone w/o GLA (gamma-linolenic acid).

Do a major search on low progesterone and fertility, I think it could help.

[home-based-mom]

Do a major search on low progesterone and fertility, I think it could help.

For what it's worth, there are natural progesterone creams on the market that are absorbed through the skin so you would get the benefit of it no matter what shape your digestive system might be in.