If your first thought is, “What’s a Fertility Hot Seat?!” Then let me tell you!

 

I go live ONCE A MONTH on Instagram and YOU have the opportunity to join me live to get my take on your case. I set a timer for 15 minutes, you ask your question/s and I give you my answers.

 

Whether you’re chosen to go live with me or not, I may answer questions that can help with YOUR 

case. If you’ve ever thought about coaching with me or my team but weren’t sure if it would be a good fit this would be a great opportunity to test it out!

 

Did this case resonate with you? Drop a comment below!

 

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Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that I am not a medical doctor. I have been a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine for over 17 years and I will be speaking from my clinical experience helping thousands of women conceive. The office of Aimee E. Raupp, M.S., L.Ac and Aimee Raupp Wellness & Fertility Centers and all personnel associated with the practice do not use social media to convey medical advice. This video will be posted to Aimee’s channels to educate and inspire others on the fertility journey.

 

SEE TRANSCRIPT BELOW OR CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR THE FULL VIDEO

Aimee Raupp:

Hello, hello, hello. How is everyone? It is time for a fertility hot seat, which I now do once a month. Well, I think maybe I was doing it every other week. I can't remember. Anyway, it's time for my once-a-month fertility hot seat. And so maybe you know how this goes, maybe you don't, but this is how it goes. You request to join me live. Ooh, people are already requesting, so some of you know. You request to join me live, and then at random I'm going to pick one of you to come on live with me for a free 15-minute consult based on my clinical experience and my years of helping women get and stay pregnant, the knowledge I've gained in writing four books over the last, gosh, 15 years. That sounds crazy. Is that right? 2010, my first book came out, so yeah, that's fucking crazy. 14 years, I guess. So based on my clinical experience, based on my own research, based on my academic experience.

But you have to know that this is not medical advice, right? So anything I tell you, you need to clear with your medical team, because it's not legal for me to give you medical advice in this capacity. So let's be clear about that. But I have written four books since 2010, two of them are bestsellers in the space of women's health and fertility. The first one being my book, Yes, You Can Get Pregnant, and the second one being my most recent book, The Egg Quality Diet.

So if you guys haven't read those, or if you're new to me, hi, welcome. I'm also a clinician. I've been in clinical practice for two decades as an acupuncturist and herbalist. Prior to that, I have degrees in biology and chemistry, neuroscience. I'm a medical school dropout. I then became an acupuncturist and herbalist. And then since my training as an acupuncturist and herbalist, I have written those four books, I have a whole online program where I help women all over the world, I have a team of fertility coaches working under me. We help women all over the world.

So if you guys can't even get to one of my clinics, you can still work with us virtually. We do functional medicine testing, we do nutrition, we do supplements, we do Chinese medicine, we do Chinese herbs. We do mental health here at Team Aimee too. We take mental health really seriously. I now have a team psychotherapist on our team, and so she's our fertility trauma coach. And so, yeah, there's lots of ways to work with us.

I also have a six-month intensive functional fertility group coaching program. We're now currently accepting applicants for our January cohort. Yeah, that's the only way you can actually work with me one-on-one. At random I'll open up spots to work with me, but there's no rhyme or reason to that. It's just kind of when my schedule appears to be a little more open than others, I'll say, yeah, I can take on one or two clients. Those spots usually go in about a day, to be honest. Anyway, there we go. We have lots of people requesting to join me live so I'm going to go in and at random I'm going to pick one of you. Tazzy, I feel [inaudible 00:03:19]. Why don't we pick you? Let's see. Let's see. So it's not a Q&A, guys, just so you know.

Speaker 2:

Hi.

Aimee Raupp:

Hi. How are you?

Speaker 2:

I am so excited. I was manifesting this.

Aimee Raupp:

What'd you say?

Speaker 2:

I was manifesting this. I'm so excited.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, good, good, good. Oh, it makes me feel like I'm like Abraham Hicks in the hot seat. Isn't that funny? Are you an Abraham fan? That's why I call it the hot seat because she calls it the hot seat when [inaudible 00:03:53]. Hi. Thank you so much for your support. I feel like I always see your name liking things or commenting, so thank you.

Speaker 2:

I love you. I'm a huge fan, followed you on podcast and you're so great. I love all your work and everything you do. And I'm a New Yorker too.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, well, hi. I mean, I'm a Connecticut girl now, but I was a New Yorker for a very long time. So tell me what's going on. How can I help?

Speaker 2:

Hi, I'll go over my story real quick, just fertility and everything. I started trying in spring of 2019, very loosely, didn't really know what I was doing. Towards the end of the year, started doing testing sticks, ended up going to a fertility doctor in spring of 2020. She did the FemVue test. It was the saline test. Everything came back fine with that. My follicle count was on the lower end, she counted 10. My husband's sperm was not that great, but he stopped smoking weed and stopped drinking, drank water, took vitamins and everything shot up for him, so that was great. And then she did see a dent in my uterus, so she wanted to do surgery, but I got a second opinion and they did an MRI and they said, “No surgery, just might be breached. Keep trying. It won't prevent conception from happening.”

Aimee Raupp:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Then we ended-

Aimee Raupp:

They said it might be breached? Explain that to me. You mean you might have a breached baby?

Speaker 2:

Yes, that's what he said.

Aimee Raupp:

So there must be a septum. That's what I'm assuming. There's a septum in the uterus.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, yes. Like they said, but it was very slight, they didn't really see it causing any issues. And then ended up getting engaged, so we were planning the wedding and didn't try during then. After the wedding we started trying, and that was February 2022. Tried for a year, nothing happened. Went to a new fertility doctor, he did tons of testing, and then ended up getting pregnant after the HSG test, like the dye test. Is that what it's called?

Aimee Raupp:

Okay. Yeah. So your tubes were maybe a little blocked. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yes. And then I miscarried around almost 10 weeks.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Sorry.

Aimee Raupp:

No, it's okay. It sucks.

Speaker 2:

It was just a very traumatic experience. I ended up switching GYNs because it was a lot.

Aimee Raupp:

And do we know anything about the baby? Did you test tissue or anything?

Speaker 2:

They tried to, but I don't think they found anything. I was passing in the bathroom and things like that as well. I was very well taken care of. But with that pregnancy, three days before I found I was pregnant, so I was probably three and a half weeks pregnant, my TSH was five back in 2019. And then I tried to do it naturally, got it down to 3.8 was the lowest I got it. And then when I went to the newest fertility doctor who did all the testing and everything, he tested it and it was 5.2. So I went to my thyroid doctor, she's amazing, I got on medicine at three and a half weeks pregnant and then found out I was pregnant so that she was monitoring me every week. I was getting tested and she kept upping my doses. So that was definitely something in the back of my mind could have been the cause.

Aimee Raupp:

What about progesterone? What was progesterone doing?

Speaker 2:

Progesterone's always been fine, no one said anything. I've done the test myself, I've gotten tested multiple times. I went to the OBGYN actually this week, I had my yearly try to get tested and she's kind of pushing me towards seeing their REI on staff.

Aimee Raupp:

Who was this?

Speaker 2:

Mount Sinai West.

Aimee Raupp:

Okay. And then who was the doc that you saw that did all the testing that you-

Speaker 2:

Dr. Melvin Thornton.

Aimee Raupp:

Oh, I love doc-

Speaker 2:

I love him. He's really nice. Basically he told us when we were there, he was like, “You're super fertile, you can get pregnant.” And he looks at my husband. He is like, “You can get her pregnant. Keep trying. Come back and see me if you want to speed up nature.” And I was like, I left the appointment crying, little did I know I was pregnant, but it was just very devastating. So I think TSH is definitely an issue. My cycles-

Aimee Raupp:

And you're currently on meds right now too?

Speaker 2:

I'm on meds. I've been on meds. My thyroid is 1.87 was the last test.

Aimee Raupp:

Okay, good.

Speaker 2:

So she was very happy with that. And my doctor's, again, she was like, “As soon as you're pregnant, send me a message. We'll get you tested, we'll take care of you,” blah, blah, blah.

Aimee Raupp:

Okay. And then how many months has it been since the loss?

Speaker 2:

It was the end of July.

Aimee Raupp:

Okay, so not that long. Yeah. And then your period came right back pretty normally?

Speaker 2:

Exactly my cycle length. And my cycle lengths are 26 days, and from the day I started bleeding with a miscarriage, I got my period back. I don't notice clear cervical mucus. I've noticed it once, several days after ovulation, but the cycle I had after the miscarriage, it was clear mucus two weeks after. So that was-

Aimee Raupp:

That's good. And then prior, the cycle you got pregnant, where you seeing… No? So you never saw cervical mucus?

Speaker 2:

I never did, but then three different doctors told me I had it when they've done sonograms, when they checked me for paps and stuff [inaudible 00:08:52]-

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, sometimes it just doesn't descend. Sometimes there's something blocking it from coming down.

Speaker 2:

So I've been reassured several times that it's there and stop worrying about it but-

Aimee Raupp:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

I don't [inaudible 00:09:02]-

Aimee Raupp:

And then so your cycle, any cramping or clotting with bleeding, any pain, anything like that?

Speaker 2:

No. I do get bad ovulation pain. I work with an acupuncturist in the city and so she kind of guides me through that. And then I definitely feel when I'm ovulating, I know when that's happening or after it. Like I said, I've done the thermometers, all that testing, I've done the sticks and things like that, everything's normal. The cycle I was pregnant, I was waking up to pee every night, like normal. And then since then, the cycle we didn't try, fine. And then since then, every cycle between ovulation and my period, I get up to pee every night. I don't know what that means or that's something with progesterone, [inaudible 00:09:46] a little weird.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah, or just a little more pressure on the bladder. Do you have months where you think you could be pregnant and then you're not? Now that you know what being pregnant feels like, have you had any cycles-

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I've definitely had two I feel like. The last one, I was really exhausted, felt weird, and I had that feeling like I did before.

Aimee Raupp:

I would maybe go back to Thornton, so did he do or, at least look at his testing and you can go to my miscarriage panel, it's aimeeraupp.com/miscarriage. Double check if he did a miscarriage panel on you or not. You weren't obviously pregnant at that time and you hadn't yet had a miscarriage, so he might not have done it. But Thorton is great from the miscarriage department. That's the one thing I would think about to get tested for. I would also just consider adding a baby aspirin in the luteal phase after you ovulate.

Speaker 2:

What Does that do exactly?

Aimee Raupp:

Huh?

Speaker 2:

What does that do exactly?

Aimee Raupp:

It thins the blood. It also treats for a clotting factor disorder, for low lying ones. So clotting factor disorder basically means that your blood clots a little differently than others. And so the blood clots as a way to protect us to heal, to call in white blood cells, but it backfires in pregnancy because the embryo is a foreign object and the clotting factor disorder causes the blood to clot around it and it'll starve it and it'll kill it basically. So if you take a blood thinner, it'll prevent that from happening and then you can carry the baby. We don't know with your tissue, it could have been an abnormal embryo, we don't really know, right? We know about 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage and for genetic reasons.

But I think based on potentially having felt other implantations and maybe early pregnancies that didn't come through, that's a red flag to me of like, huh, you could do it one of two ways. You go and you get tested. Thornton, you already have the relationship, that might be a smart thing to do. Just say… He knows who I am. Just be like, “I talked with Aimee, she mentioned a clotting factor disorder. Would you test me for that? And I feel like I've had chemicals…” He'll hear you and honor that, he really will. That's one thing.

And then in the luteal phase, take baby aspirin, talk to your acupuncturist about some Chinese herbs maybe for blood flow and circulation [inaudible 00:12:14]. You've been doing this. And then when you were pregnant, did you get any weird flu-like symptoms or hives or any weird-

Speaker 2:

So nothing weird. I was nauseous maybe once very slightly and then tender breast. My symptoms were very mild. And then closer to the miscarriage date, I noticed they started to fade, which I feel like is normal.

Aimee Raupp:

So it could be that all along you just hadn't been getting pregnant because your TSH. First, it could have been sperm was off, TSH was off, then sperm's fixed, TSH is still off. Then maybe there was a blockage in your tube. Do you know what I mean? You could be fixed at this point for all we know. And then pregnancy just takes time. And the other thing I think about, I just had a patient who, she's had multiple losses. She had a daughter, transverse breach, then went on to have I think three losses, then went to do IVF, had a horrible IVF experience with CCRM in New York.

I'm going to call them out because they did a shitty job with her and I'm pissed at them for it. I mean, we're all subject to not doing our best. But anyway, I'm just calling them out. They never did a hysteroscopy on her, they never looked at her uterine cavity. She met with me, I told her to get other opinions. She went to two other docs who I think are great, Dr. Luke and Dr. Merhi, also doctors in New York City. Both are good friends with Thorton. I mean definitely Dr. Merhi.

Anyway, they both said this is a uterus issue, recommended a hysteroscopy. She gets the hysteroscopy. She has a septated uterus that, yes, didn't impact that first pregnancy, she carried a term, it was a transverse breech. The child was smaller. She had some restricted growth, but healthy, she's perfect. She's like a perfect four-year-old or whatever. And then she saw an OB who was high risk, and he was livid too. He was like, “Why did no one look at your uterus?” He's like, “Yes, the septum, you can get pregnant. Obviously you did, but now it's potentially causing these miscarriages, so you need to get it removed.” So that's what we did. She got it removed. They put a balloon in her uterus. She's now healed and she's not going to go back to IVF. She's in her mid thirties, we're not concerned about… She's gotten pregnant.

So anyway, that's just food for thought for you of like, do we do a hysteroscopy just to do it? And I know it's a surgery, I know you go under. I've been doing this so long, I'm a fan of it now more than anything because I feel like it just gets to the root of problems pretty quickly if there is something in there. I just had an applicant for my FFP program, and she's found out she's got this huge fibroid. And so no, she's not going to get pregnant until that comes out. I mean, all the Chinese herbs in the world, I believe in my medicine, I believe in all the things, it's going to take me… It's just like you fixing your thyroid. You can do it, it's going to take time though.

There's this fine line of, I don't know, of integrating. So that's just another thought of potentially doing a hystereoscopy and seeing how severe that septate is, because it could be severe enough that it's like… They're vascular, but they don't get the lining as far as I know. And so they could try to implant there and it'll just never succeed.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I mean it could be too. Maybe it is hitting that spot kind of thing and that's why we're missing it. So it just-

Aimee Raupp:

Well, that's it. It could be blocking your chances. I was just reading a report for one of my patients, and she has a septate, and one side of her uterus… It's not a full septate, but it's there. One side of her uterus only had a six millimeter line and the other side had an eight millimeter line. I think that's kind of fascinating. So to think about it like that too, that it's impacting the way the lining grows in the cavity too, so that could impact implantation. So those are my two thoughts of I would do the clotting factor panel, I would consider a hystereoscopy. Your gynecologist could do it too, although I think the reproductive endocrinologist might be better at a procedure like that. They seem a little more trained in it, or at least know what to look for.

Speaker 2:

The transvaginal ultrasound with Thornton and he didn't point anything out, so I don't-

Aimee Raupp:

And I feel like they don't always see them, that's the thing. This high risk, what he said to my patient was, “When your gynecologist was in there, your OB was in there delivering your daughter. She had to have seen that septum and she should have brought that up with you right away.” He was so livid with her. He was like, “I don't understand why…”

Speaker 2:

It makes you so angry.

Aimee Raupp:

Yeah. Oh my, oh my, I can't even go there sometimes. How many girls… Years in the process, and then this. And it's not a simple fix, I'm not underestimating it, but I've had a hysteroscopy, so I know what that procedure's like. It's fairly straightforward and I feel like it can solve for at least for you to feel peace of mind too. Because I think anybody who's had a loss, you want to go into that next pregnancy feeling like check, check, check, like I've looked at all the things. So you could try the baby aspirin, get the blood test, give it a few more months. If nothing, then consider the hystereoscopy.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Aimee Raupp:

That's where I would really start.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. All right, well, thank you.

Aimee Raupp:

You're welcome. Thank you. And thank you for coming on and sharing. And yeah, I just think everybody learned so much too so I really-

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love [inaudible 00:17:45].

Aimee Raupp:

Aw, thank you, thank you. So yeah, just DM me and keep me posted. Okay?

Speaker 2:

I will, thank you so much.

Aimee Raupp:

You're welcome. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Bye.

Aimee Raupp:

Goodbye everyone. Thank you.

END TRANSCRIPT

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