Your Journey Continues

There are many visitors to this blog whose fertility journey continues or is just beginning. Although Coach Louise is following a different fork in the road on her coaching path, this blog will remain as a source of information and discussion. Thank you, Coach Louise for the many posts you’ve created here and for so generously sharing your own journey with us.

To keep this blog alive, I’ll be administering and responding to comments as they come in and creating new posts. We may have a guest blogger or two from time to time as well. I do have a bit of catching up to do with pending comments, so if you are a regular follower, please bear with me.

I am a Fertility and Life Coach supporting women who are facing fertility challenges. I was on my own long, sad, and frustrating fertility journey for about 10 years. I’m sure I would have greatly benefited from having someone to talk to, who had gone through similar trials, who could help me navigate all the information, decisions, and emotions. And as I look back, I realize just how all-consuming the pursuit of motherhood had become for me; I really lost sight of the bigger picture of my life. It is my mission to help you stay connected, feel clear and stable, and continue to pursue motherhood for as long and in as many ways as correspond with your value system.

For more information about me and how I can support you, please click over to Whole Vision Coaching.

I spent this past Friday and Saturday at the Seattle Reproductive Symposium learning about the latest trends and research in reproductive endocrinology, infertility and advanced reproductive technologies. I’ll be sharing some insights from the Symposium here and on the Whole Vision Blog over time.

Please keep the comments coming and if there’s a topic that you’d like to see, please contact me. I’d love to hear from you about your journey, what challenges you’re facing, and how you cope with the roller coaster that is often a large part of the experience.

Letting Go…

Part of our experience when we go through the infertility experience is a process of ‘letting go’. When we get to grips with knowing that we are not in control of the outcome of these processes we go through, we start to let go… and allow… This was a huge lesson for me, and in my life in general.

The energy of ease this creates can only be advantageous to our experience what ever is we’re dealing with. Whatever the outcome we can’t control that. We can take charge and responsibility for the way we treat our bodies, and nurture our emotional wellbeing, but that is all. The rest is left up to the journey that is there for us, and perhaps was before we even came into being. Yes, something to think about. Everything we do and experience is a culmination of the human being we choose to be through our experiences good and bad, and if we choose it to be a force for good, then everything we experience has a gift in it somewhere.

In the spirit of ‘letting go’ I will no longer be posting on this blog. My journey on the road of fertility is at an end, and I am focusing on giving birth to other amazing things in my life. For all of you going down this tumultuous road, my plea to you, is to research all the alternatives to laying a solid and healthy foundation for your body, and mind, before you seek out medical intervention. If you’re already in the process of IUI’s or IVF’s, take out the time to be nurturing and kind to your body – treat it as a temple, and make sure you’re doing all you can to support yourself naturally and with alternative methods of support. And I wish for you success and fulfillment of your heart’s desires.

If you would like to see what I am now up to, go to www.keystoclarity.com Feel free to contact me through that website if you desire.

Blessings!
Coach Louise x

Louise Crooks discusses Fertility Issues & Coaching on Conscious Choices Radio today!

Hi Everyone!

There is always hope!

There is always hope!

Just a heads up for anyone who would like more information on the journey we go on as we deal with fertility challenges!  I have been invited to talk about Infertility and how coaching can support you going through this experience – so I am sure a lot of your questions will be answered!  If they are not, please comment on this post, with your question.  Please also comment if you liked what you heard, and want to know more.    For anyone who does post a comment on this post regarding the show, I will be giving away 5 Resolve magazines  (Resolve), that just landed on my desk today, to the lucky individuals – I will do a draw to decide who receives these great resources of info!  They have an article called ‘The Light at the End of the Tunnel’ which immediately draws my attention as its very much in alignment with my coaching philosophy!

Listen to the recording on this link  Conscious Choices Radio

Warmly,

Coach Louise

Endometriosis: An Infertility Factor? and an update.

Hi Everyone,

Spring is round the corner!..

Spring is round the corner!..

Conceive wrote an interesting article today, which I found interesting because its been something I have been wondering about for myself.  I have had severe period pain ever since I started in my early teens, and now I am 40 and I am still having great discomfort at that time of the month!  I am questioning in my own mind now, why my RE hasn’t recommended that I have a laparoscopy to check out what’s been going on inside.

Conceive wrote:

Endometriosis—which occurs when tissue that’s supposed to be lining the uterus winds up outside it—can be mild or severe, with symptoms or without. Some women with the disease will have no trouble getting pregnant. But others will need proper treatment to conceive.

To read Conceive’s article click on this link:

http://www.conceiveonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=142&Itemid=126

An update with where we are right now…

Well, nowhere to be exact!  We are in discussions (DH & I) as to whether to do a final IVF treatment or not.  He is steering towards the No and I am steering towards the Yes.  He will do it, but I want him fully invested in the process.  Why should should us women be the only ones to do any preparation… it takes an Egg AND…a sperm!!

Can you tell I have some emotion around this! Well yes, I am working on it, and know for sure that it has to be something we both want to do – together!

Warmly,

Coach Louise

Donor Eggs or Sperm: are you ready to take this step?

ostrich

Hi Everyone!

I have been absent for a couple of weeks it feels, but I am still here.  I am still in inbetween land with our next move,  so no news on our front yet.  The conversation about what we decide to do next is still lurking, but its kind of heads in sand right now….

In the meanwhile I want to share my colleague Dawn Davenport’s show on BlogTalkRadio which she does weekly, and regularly has professionals from the Reproductive community on her show as guests, so there is some great information on all sorts of topics regarding Fertility Issues.  Here is the link to go to her latest show which discusses the pros and cons of going to the option of donor eggs or sperm.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/creatingafamily/2009/02/11/Are-you-Ready-to-Move-to-Donor-Eggs-or-Sperm

I hope you find the information interesting and useful.

In the meanwhile, I can update you that I will be starting my Fertility show again in March,  where the first show will be a coaching panel with myself and Connie Barrow Peebles, talking to women going through the fertility journey.   We’ll discuss how to keep on track with life balance, taking steps to take care of yourself and all other questions you might have in this regard.  We are looking forward supporting you on your journey.  This type of show might become a regular feature depending on its success.  Come and support us!  If you have any questions that you would like answered on the show, please send them to me at louise@keystoclarity.com , or call in on the live show.  Details will be posted shortly.

You can access archived podcasts of various topics regarding Fertility at

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/KeystoClarity-coach

Warmly,

Coach Louise

Share this great clip with your friends and family!

This clip will give all of those around you an insight in what its like to go through fertility issues, IVF etc – with a touch of humor to keep us all sane!

lovingly,

Coach Louise

Get a Taste of Gratitude!

I thought this was a fun video to share with you all.  Its important for us to keep remembering what is good in our lives, when we can be so wrapped up in the negative aspects of the fertility journey!  Watch and smile….  Coach Louise

Louise’s Fertility Journey: What to do next?…

yes, not really looking forward to all that again!

yes, not really looking forward to all that again!

Hi dear ttc friends,

Well, things are hanging up in the air right now…. Yes, I was meant to start an IVF treatment in January, then we moved it to February… then….   Well, the other day DH said that neither of us had really addressed anything to instigate getting the next treatment started, and what did that mean?…  We both very briefly (I was half asleep in bed, and he was rushing out the door) talked about the resistance we both had about getting started with all of ‘that’, and also DH said that he was feeling more comfortable not having a baby, because he had grown in the last year to understand that we didn’t need a baby to make us more of a family, or for him to be happy, that he realised that he was accessing joy and happiness with other things that excited him and got him inspired.   As he hasn’t been working for the last year, I know he realises that there are financial stresses that wouldn’t help me through the treatment either to support a positive outcome.  Our bodies can be very intuitive like that.    That was kind of where we left it, but I know he needed to say it, as it seemed like a weight off his mind.

So where did that or does that leave me…  its so difficult not to jump into blaming, accusing, assuming all of these that are so destructive to maintaining positive communication in a relationship. I have had a couple of days to think about it, and let it settle before we continue the conversation.    At first – there was  an immediate understanding because I had been through a similar process of personal growth myself, which allowed me to express my fertility in other creative areas of my life.  Then – there was anger, because it felt like he had already made up his mind (assumption!!!!) and then- a what if I want to carry on? in my mind, thinking that that option might be closed to me.( another assumption!)   I think just the idea that we might be shutting the door on creating a life, was a little scarey to me.   The selfish part of me, also sees a future as a lonely old woman with no-one to visit her, I want kids and their kids to visit me!  But I am happy right now as my life is!  There’s a conundrum!

Well, we will have the rest of our conversation about this weekend and see what happens… this would be our 4th IVF (after 4 IUIs) so we’ll see, I feel kind of open to whatever transpires…. with a little anxiety added to the mix.  Just got to remember that nothing has been decided, and that we will decide together what the next step will be.

Louise

A New Study in Fertility might mean no injections!

dr-woman

Hi All,

I would love to deliver good news to you all who have endured so many awful progesterone injections during the IVF treatment!  There is a possibility that this new study that was published today, might mean a much less painful experience for those women going through fertility treatments.

Here is an excerpt of the article….

SEATTLE, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ — Patients undergoing in vitro fertilization self-administer daily injections of progesterone from two to eight weeks after the egg retrieval procedure. The outcome of a new study of an investigational formulation of progesterone could replace these painful intramuscular injections of progesterone in oil with less painful subcutaneous injections.

Seattle Reproductive Medicine (SRM), along with eight other large fertility centers across the country, has been selected to participate in a study designed to compare the safety and effectiveness of an investigational aqueous formulation of progesterone that will be compared to a form of progesterone administered intra-vaginally.

“For years patients have complained about these injections….

to read more go to this link:

http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-hospitals/20090114/AQW08414012009-1.html

and for further information go to http://www.SeattleFertility.com

I hope hearing this gives some of you with needle and pain aversion some hope!

Warmly,

Coach Louise