Friday, February 15, 2008

Another Avenue

As a result of THIS comment, my wife and I looked into yet another option for solving our infertility woes. The Creighton Model FertilityCareTM System is described as follows:
The CrMS relies upon the standardized observation and charting of biological markers that are essential to a woman's health and fertility. These "biomarkers" tell the couple when they are naturally fertile and infertile, allowing the couple to use the system either to achieve or to avoid pregnancy. These biomarkers also telegraph abnormalities in a woman's health. The CrMS allows a woman to unravel the mysteries of the menstrual cycle.

I contacted a lady in the Detroit area who is a "teacher" of the program - she was very kind, and very eager to provide insights on the program. What really grabbed me was her assessment of the rise of IVF clinics in the U.S. over the past 30 years. She said that IVF clinics, in general, are very eager to bypass diagnosing the root cause of a couple's infertility, opting to proceed directly to IVF - the highest margin-generating procedure they can conduct. The Creighton Model helps people figure out what is wrong through analysis of data, then offers remedies to correct the problems upon diagnosis. The lady told me that after only two months of collecting data on a woman's cycle, they can tell "a lot" of information about what is wrong. She made it very clear that there is "a lot" that they can learn in that period of time by repeating the words "a lot" two times in a row:

There is a lot, a lot we can learn from just two months of charting.

Anyways, this lady is in the process of scheduling an introductory session in which she will provide an overview of the program. My wife and I plan to attend. If we like what we see, $500 will buy the materials required to collect and track data as well as 8 one-on-one (actually, one-on-two) sessions with this lady in which she analyzes our charts, diagnoses and remedies our problems with natural methods. In the world of infertility, $500 is nothing, so we're thinking we are going to proceed. We feel as this can only help, and we can proceed with Dr. M. at the same time as we follow this course. Either way we'll learn more as we walk a little further down the road. What's even better - my hard-core Catholic parents (the ones who drag you out of bed on a Sunday morning when you are still drunk have a mild hangover to go to church) are thrilled as this program is affiliated with Natural Family Planning methods. As long as it works, I'm cool with it.

3 comments:

Tracy said...

Hi Joe,

I hate to be a naysayer, and I may be slammed for even saying this, but I charted for over 2 years, and all it told me was that I ovulate quite regularly. In fact, I could pinpoint my O-date to within hours. What it DIDN'T tell me, and what NO medical test CAN tell me, is that I have crap for eggs. And here all this time we thought we had MFI.

Anyway, it may be worth it, and this is coming from a relatively uneducated perspective about CrMS. If you think it will give you some peace of mind, and don't mind spending the money, it may be worth it to you. You also have to remember that we were running out of time. I'll be 39 this year...that does come into play when making decisions about ART, definitely.

Also, re: your blog about the post coital test. I had a thought about your being a candidate for IUI. If you don't appear to have any issues with your little guys being killed off by your wife's CM, why would you need IUI? That didn't make much sense to me...

Stay warm...

Joe said...

Tracy - thanks for the reply - and continued congrats on your pregnancy. Hope all continues to go well for you guys ... very, very happy for you.

Don't worry about being a naysayer - one of the main reasons I'm writing this blog is to learn more about this stuff, and your comments force me to think harder about things, and raise valid questions that I will ask our Doctor. I think my posts clearly demonstrate how dumb I am on infertility.

We've got plenty of time (I'm 29, wife is 27) ... and the post coital test results will be better explained by our Doctor (I hope) This is all very confusing for us, and we're pretty frustrated with the conflicting stories we're getting from Doctors, but we'll learn as we go forward.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Tracy. I charted for 6 years and pretty much had the same results, except I ended up having undiagnosed PCOS.

Also, you can do your own charting by spending less than $40 and buying the book, Taking Charge Of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. She also has forums and software you can download at http://www.ovusoft.com. Now, it sounds to me as if this is what you'll be paying that $500 for, but again, I'm unfamiliar with CrMS and they may do extra stuff.

Having said all that, buy the book, read it, and try it for a couple of months - at this point you can take the time and continue doing research as well before jumping one way or another.