By Aimee Raupp, MS LAc

This article was reviewed AimeeRaupp.com's editorial team & is in compliance with our editorial policy.

I LOVE sharing success stories with you!

Every time I ask what you want more of the answer is always, “more Stories of Hope!”

So today I’m bringing to you another Yes, You Can Get Pregnant Story of Hope!

Here Is The Full Transcription Of The Video

Facebook. Hello, Instagram. I am so happy you are here with me. I am Aimee Raupp of aimeeraupp.com, and I am honored to be coming to you to spread joy, help you live your best life, guide you towards reawakening your true self, your healthiest life.

This month on my Instagram and Facebook lives I am talking to you about stories of hope. These are stories from my clinic or my online coaching programs where women who have been trying to conceive without luck have finally achieved success. I find it really valuable to all of you who are on your path to hear others' stories and to understand that you are not alone, that there is a community of women out there who are going through what you're going through, and that you too can find hope in their stories, that they were once where you might be at now, and they once didn't have hope, and they once were filled with fear, and anguish, and sadness and found their way through it, and had their dream baby. So let's get to it.

This story is … They're all favorites of mine. I'm going to say this is one of my favorites, but I have thousands of favorites. I might cry, so just bear with me. I will call this client Sarah. I do not use real names, of course. I am always here.

This is a beautiful story of hope. What I'd say her name was? Sarah. Sarah came to me at 41 years old. So about a year prior, she was encouraged to reach out to me by another client of mine who was also a beautiful story of hope that maybe I'll share this month. They met randomly at an event, and they shared their fertility journey. My current client gave Sarah a copy of Yes, You Can Get Pregnant. Sarah proceeded to read that.

At the time, she was getting acupuncture at another fertility clinic in New York city. She was following a diet. But as you will learn, it wasn't the best diet for her. Her acupuncturist team was just not giving her the direction that she needed. She had gone through … I'll give you a little of her history. I have her chart notes, see? We also have the same birthday. She's a year younger than me, so she's currently about to turn 44.

Fertility stress management. Are you seeking Chinese medicine before? Yes. She has autoimmune condition, elevated natural killer cells, positive ANA. She was working with a doctor named Dr. Scher, who is an amazing autoimmune fertility doctor in New York city, Dr. Jonathan Scher. He's out of Mount Sinai. He's a lovely, lovely man. He's like one of the original pioneers of IVF.

She's had uterine fibroid surgery. She had endometrial scratching. She first met with Dr. Scher in January of 2015. She first came to my office in February of 2017, so two years later. In January 2015, she discovered the autoimmune issues, and they've been trying to conceive since 2012 so I was actually … Yeah, so this is about right. She got pregnant naturally in 2013, and she miscarried.

She also has a skin condition calls mastocytosis, which also falls into an autoimmune type of condition. On her new patient intake form, you can see all her fertility treatments that she wrote out here. IUI in 2014. IVF clomid natural, IVF, IVF, IVF, IVF, IVF. No pregnancies. Sorry, she had two pregnancies with those. So the IUI negative. First IVF, miscarriage. Second IVF, miscarriage. Then, IVF with PGD, IVF with PGD, IVF with PGD, IVF with PGD, all negative.

By the time she gets to me, we still have two PGD normal embryos on ice, but she's decided to stop transferring because it's not sticking. She used to miscarry, now she's just not even getting pregnant. What's her goal? To be more balanced, manage stress, and give birth to a happy, healthy baby.

Her diet, gluten-free oatmeal with berries, quinoa bowl with veg, egg, hummus, quinoa bowl chili, chicken, veggies, rice, broth, apple, almond butter, raw veggies, nuts. Pretty healthy diet, right? She's gluten-free. She's dairy-free. She's eaten her bone broth. So again, she's read Yes, You Can Get Pregnant probably a year prior, so she's kind of sort following that diet.

Joy and worry. They just bought a house. The things that were exciting her, I asked this all on my intake form. Currently renovating my kitchen. I'm excited about that. She lost her mom in 2013, lost her dad in 2015. Three miscarriages, so a lot of trauma.

Then, she's got her red flag symptoms. I mean, you guys can't see this too well because of the light, but look at how many symptoms she still has. The first thing I think when someone's eating as clean as she is, then I get to this page and I see all these check marks, something she's eating isn't right still on her diet. Something still isn't right because she's got hair loss, decreased vision, skin problems, swollen feet and ankles, allergies, she can't lose weight, she's constipated, depressed, low libido, back pain, joint inflammation, and sciatica.

The first thing I said to her, I was like, “Listen, whatever you're doing just isn't still working. Your autoimmune is still very active.” She had tons of autoimmune symptoms. Even though she's seen an autoimmune fertility doctor, she's getting acupuncture, and she's following a pretty clean diet. It's not enough for her.

So now, that's her new patient paperwork. Again, this first visit was February 7, 2017. She was on cycle day 22 at the time. Both her and her husband have the cystic fibrosis gene, so that was something that they discovered when she had her first miscarriage. That's what moved them to IVF kind of right away. Her husband got freaked out, did not … 25, or I think 50% chance that their child would have the cystic fibrosis, so they moved right to IVF and then with PGD. So four rounds of IVF wound up with two PGD normal. “First didn't survive the thaw, second didn't implant. Was following a diet,” she said. Oh. “I'm following your diet,” she said.

Mastocycstitis. That's the skin stuff all over. I think kind of like red inflamed bumps all over her skin. The kind of like freckles. They come and go. She hated them, like so embarrassing to her. Then, she had this weight that just wouldn't budge. With how clean she was eating and she's exercising, she could not lose. She was like 20 pounds overweight, 30 pounds overweight.

She was considering donor eggs. That process has been really healing for her, but they still had these PGD normal embryos on ice. She still had two left. The first pregnancy was in 2013. She got pregnant with twins. That was natural. She miscarried them at 10 weeks, and then her mom died, so filled with … She was so sad, so sad when we first met. She was very resistant to meeting me, I'm going to get emotional, because she said, “I just have been through so much. What more can I possibly do?” She was like, “I honestly just felt like I read your book, and I'm doing your thing, and I just don't need another person in my life to tell me the things I need to do.” She had a lot of anger, a lot of sadness, and I totally get it.

Lots of fertility treatments, acupuncture, Chinese herbs. I mean, she had done it all. Her digestion was good. She would get bloating or gas if she had gluten or dairy. She's, for the most part, gluten- and dairy-free. Trying, but it's hard. Bowel movements usually once a day. She doesn't eat within the first hour of waking. Instead, she goes three hours without food. Black coffee on an empty stomach. If you guys know me, I nipped that right away.

28-day cycle. She spots cycle day 20 to 23, 24. Brown, red spotting. Ultrasound showed no cyst, but she does have fibroids. Pain with ovulation. Her menstrual flow is healthy. She changes three pads, see some cloths, occasional cramps, can get night sweats before her period. Temperature was normal otherwise. Anxiety makes her sweaty. She lost both her parents. She just had an ultrasound on her thyroid, so on nodules. They did a fine-needle aspiration.

We just really talked a lot about the emotional stuff when we first met. I really just did my best to just try to let her know that I was there to support her however she needed, understanding that she had been through so many other practitioners at this point, is following so many things, and not quite sure exactly what is right for her. I think she was really there to meet me as kind of like a last-ditch effort and really because her friend kept pushing her. She really didn't want to be there, and I got it, because I get that sometimes. People come to me, and they're like, “I hate you. I hate this whole fertility process. I don't want to fucking be here. I don't want to be spending my money on you. I'm sick of this.” I get that. I do. A lot.

My general recommendations to her in the beginning, I wanted her to go 100% dairy-free. I recommended using ghee instead of butter, coconut oil, adding vital proteins to her coffee in the morning, eliminate nightshade vegetables, soak her beans. I gave her my Aimee-approved bath and beauty products because she wasn't following that yet. It's true, but it's not personal. Kelly says, “Haha.” It is. It's true. I mean, I get it. I'm like, “Listen, no one wants to be here. I don't want you to be here either. I didn't want to have a career out of this. I mean, it's amazing. It's a blessing. I think I'm doing so much more than helping women get pregnant. But God, I don't want you guys to be struggling. That sucks. You know?” So I feel you.

So again, she wasn't clean or nontoxic with her bath and beauty products. She was seeing a fertility acupuncturist who did not have her nontoxic with her bath and beauty products. Tsk, tsk, tsk to all of you practitioners out there. You have got to work on lifestyle with your patients. And I put her on liver pills.

Those were our first recommendations. I did slow and steady with her.- Hi, Ceecee. You guys are so sweet. I saw her again cycle day three. Spotted once two days before brown. Blood work and scan today. Starting [estrates 00:12:17]. Loves the e-course. I gave her access, as I do too many of my clinic patients, at a severe discount. I give them access to the e-course. And she dove right in. By the time she came to that next appointment, she was like all in, all of a sudden loved me. I think it was the e-course and just seeing the support. I talked so much about the emotional stuff. She said to me, “I think I want to go grain-free. I think I want to … ” Because I had yet released Body Belief. I think it was coming out that year. So I had all the content, and I shared that diet with her, and she dove right in. She was like, “Okay, I want to go grain-free. I'm going to go without the nightshades.”

And by the time I saw her the next time, she was doing the coconut milk in her coffee. She loved the Body Belief egg drop … The bone broth egg drop soup, it became her new thing. Her weight hadn't changed. She came to me and she was … I met her on, like I said, February 7th, and she was doing a transfer in March. I encouraged her to wait another month. She didn't want to. Then, the transfer got pushed back because she had an infection, like a vaginosis-style infection. So it gave us more time, and that's what I encouraged. She was very sad about that. I was like, “Listen, it gives us more time because your autoimmune symptoms are still very active.”

So she went grain-free, nightshade-free, and she added in a ton more vegetables to her diet. Her bowel movements changed very consistent, so good. Then, I also put her on a mitochondrial optimizer supplement that week. Sorry, the infection was an endometriosis infection. They were treating her with the antibiotics. They were not going to do a transfer, so they were repeating the scratch test. It's called an endometrial biopsy.

If any of you have had a long-term fertility challenges and you've never had an endometrial biopsy, you should consider it and talk to your doctor about it because it can reveal something called endometritis or even a bacterial infection in the uterus, which will not allow for implantation. Or if you do implant, you will miscarry.

How much time did she wait between retrieval and transfer? That last retrieval was in … It was almost six months prior, so she did one. She had gotten four PGS normals over the course of, one, two, I think, two retrievals. She transferred one, it didn't take. Transfered a second one, didn't take. So by the time I met her, she was going to do another transfer. Two had not taken. PGS normal embryos not taking. I meet her in February. She's planning to do the next transfer in March. They collected those embryos between June and I think August.

FET or wait between retrieval and transfer? That's the same thing, right? Frozen embryo transfer, you can do that whenever. I think it's better to do FETs because the body comes back down to normal and then you do the transfer when your ovaries aren't super inflamed and you weren't just making 16 eggs.

She was nervous, so I added in the mitochondrial optimizer. She's on the diet now. She's now gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, nightshade-free. Oh, I'm sorry. FET to me is frozen embryo transfer. Sorry. So yeah, I wouldn't do a fresh. I would wait. I mean, it depends. But if you've done fresh before, and it hasn't worked, I would try frozen. They show same if not better success with frozen. Sorry, FET in my brain is frozen. I'm sorry. I went right to that.

So March 24th, less swollen, skin feels a lot better, feels really good, doing castor oil packs. I had her while we were waiting, and she wasn't going to try naturally because of the cystic fibrosis thing. They're not trying naturally. She was willing to, but her husband was not.

Let's see. She also noticed eating 20 minutes after waking making a really big difference in her sleep and her energy to get through the day. Let's see. Otherwise, sleeping great. Poor sleep last night. Three and a half weeks [inaudible 00:16:50] to transfer. Oh, she also switched to Aimee Raupp beauty products. Skin great. Doing the dry brushing, caster oil. As resistant as she was to coming to see me, she dove right in.

I told her about tapping, because in the e-course there's a section on emotional freedom technique. It helps you work through the emotional traumas of their fertility journey, so she was doing tapping. At this point now we're March 28th. So we are not even two months into knowing each other. She's dropped six pounds. Now mind you, she has tried everything, not losing weight for the last three years. Six pounds fall off her.

The next biopsy comes back clean. She's on prednisone, estrates. She's doing IVIg, all the supplements, and now they're getting ready to transfer at the end of April, and she is nervous as hell. Still no grains. Cooking a lot. Feels really good. Doing her meditation, her visualization. Now mind you, she wasn't doing any of that before. Let's see. Feeling good. Waiting for period. So now it's early May. We're waiting for her period to come on to do the transfer.

Let me just make sure I'm not missing any pages here. 5/9, not pregnant. Sorry, 5/1 we'd already done the transfer so it doesn't work. Transfer doesn't work. Devastated. At this point, I'd worked with her basically … I met her again on February 7th, and so it's been … It was two and a half months that she was following my protocol, and we did the transfer, and it did not work. She was devastated. They found two more fibroids and decided to remove them because they thought maybe that had impacted the transfer. She was redoing the immune panel. Transfer again hopefully in June. Needs period before. Staying on the plan.

She gets knocked down, but she's like, “Listen, I feel better. I'm losing weight, my skin condition is better. I don't have achy joints anymore. I'm having a healthy poop every day. I'm happier. I'm meditating. I'm sleeping better.” All these things are positively improving in her life. So she's like, “I'm not going to stop what you have me on because it's obviously doing something.” We're of course devastated that she's not pregnant, right?

So then I decided. I said, “You know what? Between now and June, that's the next transfer, so we basically have a month, let's put you on Chinese herbs.” She agrees. Her friend who worked with me who also had a very similar story, autoimmune stuff, miscarriages, I put her on herbs, then transfer, or, the month before she got pregnant naturally, actually. So she said, “I want to get on the same herbs that she got on.” I was like, “Okay, well, they're going to be different because you guys are different, but I'll put you on herbs for a month.” She gladly went on the herbs.

She, let's see, also increased her omegas. That was something that we talked about. I said, “You know what?” Because she was working with Dr. Scher, but I also am always up on Dr. Braverman's research, and he does very high dose omega-3s to reduce inflammation. I said, “Let's double your omegas,” and get even stricter with a diet, like 100% no grains. Because she was still having some quinoa here and there, and I was like, “No grains, no seeds, no nightshades,” and she was into it.

They repeated the biopsy, came back negative, which was good. So no endometritis. She had increased her omegas. Now we're at May 30th. She's doing intralipids, IVIg, which she had done before with all the pregnancies. Her killer cells were at 16%. Last time they were at 14%. Normal is 12%. She was a little worried about that. Her ANA was elevated. So she was feeling a little scattered.

Then, she discovered that she had the MTHFR mutation, which I had already had her on the liver pills and I was already treating her for it, but she didn't understand what that meant. So June 13, we talked about that, and she got a period. This is a month on the herbs, and she says huge different with her period. No PMs, healthy flow, zero clots. And 6/30 transfer on Monday. She was feeling extremely optimistic. 7/6/2017, pregnant, pregnant, pregnant, pregnant. Feels fluttering, sharpest sensations in breasts, slight bloat. First beta was a 199. Bowel movements regular and good. Skin good. Feeling great.

8/29, 12 weeks on Wednesday, ravenous. Last dose of prednisone next week. Still on Lovenox and baby aspirin. Nuchal MaterniT21. Talked about amnio or not. These are my exact notes. Can you see? Oh, here I missed six weeks. So I saw her four weeks pregnant. I saw her six weeks, 7/14. Ultrasound this morning. Saw some spotting, so freaked out, but ultrasound looked great. Feeling good. Had some cramps. Do an IVIg. Breast tenderness, they just feel heavier. Stretching, sore to groin, increased urination, no food aversions, but a heightened sense of smell, nervous, anxious.

Seven weeks, 7/21. Felt morning sickness today. Saw heartbeat today. No more spotting. Cut back on the baby aspirin. Still that stretching sore feeling. Doing all the meditation, visualization. Her breasts had already started to change, like her areola had gotten dark. And she came into that appointment and she was like, “Look at my boobs.” She was so excited. It was so cute.

Nine weeks, 8/4/2017. All good. Some smell food aversions. Overall feeling good. Ultrasound today. Then, let's see. Anyway, you get the point. 13 weeks, three days. So, yeah, she's still doing her broth, is getting some headaches. So, I basically saw her through the whole pregnancy. I also got to see her, here are those notes, I had them somewhere, in my clinic. I wish I could post the picture if that's possible. Beth, you know the picture, the one of the three of us hugging with the baby in the middle, of me and the mom hugging. I got to see her five months after little man was born. I have notes from that day, and I can't seem to find them. But suffice to say it was glorious.

Oh, here we go. Baby boy five months old. So good. Had a challenging first three month. Breastfeeding with tough. Feels good. Her back feels broken. Side hip over to the spine. Her hair's falling out. Sleeping well. Diarrhea. Eating yogurt, so she's back on dairy. Maybe it's stress. 80/20 with the food. Her period came last month. Watching your histamines. Rash okay. Still there. Everything's are good at home. That was 8/10/2018, so about a year ago. And just now we're emailing to start her getting her back in because we're going to do a transfer of that last embryo.

Anyway, there's a hopeful story for you guys. I hope it's been helpful. So again, she went through a lot. And like I said, she's following a diet. She was mainly gluten-free and dairy-free, mainly. But how many transfers that didn't take? At least four failed IVs. I actually think it was more than that. She was doing acupuncture. She was doing Chinese herbs. She was on certain supplements, but she wasn't … Everything wasn't getting as addressed as it should've. So when she came to me, I mean, I really addressed the emotional piece, but I also really tightened up the belt on the diet, and that's when we saw the changes in her physical symptoms.

So for me, those physical symptoms are my predictor. If she comes to me and she's like, “My diet is this, but I'm still bloated, and gas, and I have achy joints, and this skin rash.” Guess what? The diet she's on is not working. We got to shift things. We have to change things. That's what I've gotten really good at over the years is that detective work. And what a blessing. Little man is a year and a half now, and she couldn't be happier. And now we're going to go at the age of 44 and transfer another one of those. I'll share that next story of hope in about a year.

All right, guys, I'm going to hang up because I got to go to my own acupuncture appointment. I love you guys. Again, if you want more of me, head over to aimeeraupprap.com. If you guys are trying to conceive, take my fertility quiz. I have a ton of information for you. Once you take that quiz, you get all this really good free stuff from me for weeks. Every week we send you an email with more free stuff about how to optimize your fertility. So head over to aimeeraupp.com. Take that fertility quiz. Head over to my blog. Read other stories of hope. There are so many. We release one a month, okay? God bless her and her little man. I agree, Natalie. Thank you.

All right, guys. Oh, let's see. There's questions over here. “Hi, Aimee. Hi, Aimee. Okay. So helpful. Your diet transformed my cycle.” Aw, thank you, Deirdre. “Really helpful to hear these stories. I always become more hopeful.” Well good. Can't wait to hear your recommendations for me, Ariella. Have a great day. All right, guys, I love you. You have a great day, too. Ciao.

***End of Transcription***

Aimee Raupp is a licensed herbalist, natural fertility expert and acupuncturist in NYC, offering natural fertility treatment, care & coaching solutions to women who want to get pregnant!  Get pregnant fast with natural fertility care, Aimee’s online fertility shop & coaching solutions.  Aimee Raupp has helped hundreds of women to get pregnant naturally! Aimee and her team are experts in Chinese Medicine, Massage & Eastern Nutrition!  Get pregnant naturally, achieve optimal health & vitality, take control of your health!  Aimee is excited to work with you at one of the Aimee Raupp Wellness Centers NYC. Aimee's Fertility Coaching Program is a personal guidance along your fertility journey. If you are trying to get pregnant naturally, this program is for you!  Aimee Raupp offers holistic, wellness and natural fertility books. Learn how to enhance your fertility and get pregnant naturally with Aimee’s cookbooks and diet guides!  Shop Aimee Raupp's natural fertility shop with online workshops, videos, consultation and coaching on fertility, meditation and healthy nutrition!

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