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

Hello, Facebook. Hello, Instagram. Welcome. I'm Aimee Raupp of aimeeraupp.com and I am excited to be here with you. Thank you so much. I know I was meant to come on at noon and it's 12:08. I had a melting-down toddler so I was managing that. And happy to be with you guys now and, as always, honored. It's my pleasure to come to you live every week and share with you tips and tools and strategies on how to optimize your health, your life, live your best life.

And for the month of August, we are doing what we call on our website our Stories of Hope. And so, each week for the month of August, I am highlighting a different case from my clinic or from my coaching clients on their ability and their success in overcoming their fertility challenges and the role I played in that. And really just I'm actually taking cases literally from the clinic, and here's my clinic chart on this client, and reading to you the whole story so you can identify yourself in some of this story and hopefully take pieces of it, learn from it, get hope, feel inspired. So, let's get into it.

So, this is the case of… Well, we'll call her Ann. Why not? I'm just making up the name. She came to me at the age of 38. She's now currently 39 and a half. And should I… Spoiler alert. Let's see. She is 39 and a half and she is about to have a baby any second. But prior to getting and staying pregnant, she had some challenges. And let's talk about those challenges.

So, when I met her, and like I said, she was 38, she had already been working with Dr. Jeffrey Braverman of the website and the clinic, preventmiscarriage.Comfortable. She actually was referred to me by Dr. Braverman. She lived out in Long Island. She's an attorney. And so, her main reason for seeking treatment: I want to conceive and carry a healthy, happy baby with minimal medical intervention, if any. She had had acupuncture before. She was actually seeing an acupuncturist as well. She had also done naturopathic work, chelation, supplements, neural therapy, IV infusions, acupuncture, energy work. And, as I said, she was seeing Dr. Braverman. She had had a diagnosis of endometriosis and inflammation. See: attached blood work. So, I'll be able to make sure I have that. I can pull that up actually right here so I can kind of go through some of that with you too. I had it pulled up, sorry.

And she had already had two laparoscopic surgeries with Dr. Braverman. So, she had one in June of… I'm sorry, September of 2013. Prior to that, she had had a handful of miscarriages, then she didn't really… She said too many to talk about. So two, three, four. Devastating obviously. And she… Sorry, I want to see the paperwork. So, she had the first lap in 2013. I had recurrent miscarriages, was diagnosed by Dr. Braverman with endometriosis. After the 2013 lap, which was Stage 3, it was successfully removed and she conceived her son naturally. So, any of you on the fence about finding out if you have endometriosis or getting the laparoscopic surgery, I think this is right here, just… She wasn't even working with me at this point. This was just a good Story of Hope right here.

She was, at this point, 2013, so she was 33, 32 years old. And she had had several miscarriages prior to the lap, found Dr. Braverman. He diagnosed her with endometriosis. He did the laparoscopic surgery. She went on to get pregnant and stay pregnant. She carried her son to term, using just prednisone and Lovenox. And she conceived her son naturally.

When they started trying for baby number two, same thing started happening. She started having miscarriages again. Dr. Braverman went back in in June of 2016 to do another lap and he didn't find any endometriosis at this point in time. Her inflammation levels were elevated but there was no endometriosis. So, the endometriosis had stayed away, which is a great sign. And I think a lot of women worry about this from the perspective of if they get surgery, will it stay away for good. So, although the endo was gone though, she had another two miscarriages. And so, at that point, she started to do IUIs and then she had a chemical pregnancy. So, she had two miscarriages and then she did the IUIs, had a chemical pregnancy. And it was around that point that then she just decided to take a break and didn't want to actually continue on. And her and her husband were just burnt out.

So, April of 2018, she signed up to do a new patient consult with me online. And we did our whole intake. And she was already on… So, I'll just tell you some of her symptoms. So, at this point, she knows she has inflammation. Her diet is, for the most part, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free. She was eating Sakara, which you guys might know. Sakaralife.com. So, it's like a vegetarian/vegan type of meal service. Their food is all organic and clean but they do use a lot of nuts and beans and, again, not a lot of protein, animal protein. Then she would have a salad or a bowl and then she would have fish, veggies, rice, taro, stir-fry, gluten-free pasta, dark chocolate. Those were her main intake of food. She liked more hot than cold foods. So, at that point too, she was still experiencing headaches, migraines, hair loss, dry skin, dry scalp, eczema, excessive sweating, shallow breathing, gas, hemorrhoids, mood swings, low libido, joint inflammation, and, again, like I said, had had several miscarriages at that point.

So, we did her intake and… Let me just pull this up, sorry. I want to show you her supplement lists too. Sorry. I had it here. I don't know where it went. Kimberly C. New patient paperwork. Here we go. So, no joke, her initial report that she sent me was 110 pages. That's how much diagnostic she had had at that point. Now, at this point too, I have a great working relationship with Dr. Braverman, so he's really… What he said to me was, “I don't know what else is going on because the endometriosis has gone but there's still inflammation. So, will you work with her and do that, you know, the diet stuff that you do?” basically was his question.

So, her supplements… So, she got to sleep by 10:30 every night. This is what she writes on her supplement list. Getting to sleep by 10:30 every night. I exercise four to five times a week. I have eliminated gluten, corn, milk, soy, sugar, food coloring and additives. I eat organic. I chew my food carefully. She takes some homeopathic supplements, which I wasn't… I'm not very familiar with, so just go over those. She was taking an immune support. She was taking vitamin D, a multi-mineral complex, cod liver oil, a prebiotic. She was taking the HMF Forte probiotic. She was taking curcumin. She was taking phosphatidylcholine. Then for premenstrual syndrome, again, this was the naturopath had her on a lot of homeopathic stuff, also had her on evening Primrose oil.

And then she included all of her Braverman reports, which he writes on here: Currently 37 years old; history of Stage 2, 3 endo; lap in 2013; and a negative lap in 2016 with Vidali. And I wonder if I could read you some of the things from the report because I know some of you guys know things about natural killer cells, etc., etc. So, summary… right. You're Th1 biased in your immune system; elevation of many IC ratios; elevation of HLA-DR T cells; positive level of anti-thyroid antibodies; increase in all CD4+ T cell IC ratio. So, consistent with immune activation basically. So, her immune system was still on high alert but there was no endometriosis, which was confusing because typically, the endo is what's triggering the immune system on high alert.

So, that was one of the main reasons that he referred her to me, like I said, because I think he felt like last time, okay, we did the lab, boom, she got pregnant naturally. Everything was great. We did the prednisone, Lovenox, great. This time around, no endometriosis to be seen but her inflammation levels were still high and now she's starting to have the miscarriages again, even doing the Lovenox and the Prednisone. So what is going on?

Okay. So, anyway. I do my intake with her. And, like I said, she had quite a few what I call red-flag symptoms. She was definitely still showing inflammation in her body. Her labs show she's positive for thyroid antibodies. She had normal C3 complement; normal C4 complement; negative for ANAs; negative for anti-phospholipid antibodies. Her D was a little low. It was a 48. So, in the past, she had had the anti-thyroid antibodies but she had also had the anti-phospholipid. That was now normal, which is a great sign.

So, we had retested in June from a February test. So, compared with your results from February, there was a… But she had had a miscarriage in between, so this is probably part of it. There was an overall increase in activation in your immune system at the cellular level. This is evidenced by the increase in almost all TNF-alpha positive, interleukin-17 positive. And for some of you guys, this is going right over your head but I know a lot of you guys are interested in what exactly are they testing when they test at Braverman's clinic or any of these reproductive immunology? This is what they're testing. They're looking at interleukin, TNF-alpha, CD4, natural killer cells. They do really, really detailed tests on antibody activity in your body and inflammatory activity. Okay. So, I feel like this'll get boring for you guys now at this point. So, that's where we were at.

And so, for me, I then sent her… This is my follow-up. These are my follow-up recommendations to her. So, you guys can see how detailed I get with my clients. Okay. So, okay. Based on the TPO antibodies and she also had Epstein–Barr and Lyme antibodies and the elevated NK cells. I want you to go… because she wasn't actually 100% gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free. So, I said, “You need to go 100%. In addition… ” So, Body Belief had just come out. In addition, I'm going to have you read Body Belief and I'm going to actually… You're going to follow into that program.

So, Body Belief is yes, you can get pregnant but you're also going nut-free, bean-free, nightshade-free, in addition to a couple other things. I gave her the Body Belief eating plan to help you navigate. Ideally, you're going to remove all of these foods and then slowly reintroduce. In the meantime, before you enter into the Body Belief eating plan, make sure all nuts, seeds and beans are soaked and sprouted. I like the Go Raw brand. I put her on bone broth. She wasn't currently on bone broth. I was having her eat protein within the first 20 to 30 minutes of waking because she was not doing that. I gave her a list of on-the-go snack ideas. I told her with eggs, I wanted her to remove the egg whites because she was obviously hosting still some inflammatory response. And chances are the endo would've started to come back at some point, is what I'm assuming. Had her start sending me a food diary. Okay. So, we went from there basically.

So, at that point, I then saw her in the clinic. Want to just make sure that I have… At that point, then I see her in the clinic and… Sorry I keep losing this. C-A-P-O-C. Don't know why my… O-C-A. My email keeps just blanking out on me and I'm not holding the records. It's kind of frustrating. Okay. So, I have the comparative test results. I just went over those with you. So, at this point, I now… She comes into the clinic in May. And she did the whole Purify Phase from the Body Belief eating plan. She stuck to it very well.

These are her comments: Digestion is phenomenal, no gas, no bloke, no pain; energy is great even with high stress levels; her hair stopped falling out; the red dots on her legs calmed down; not as mentally racy; can sit and be still; her dry skin was getting much better. They did not try to conceive.

So, this was her plan. She was going to follow my protocol for three months and then start trying to conceive. And she just wanted, again, do it as naturally as possible. She didn't want to do any more IUIs or anything like that. She just wanted to… If this is meant to happen, I want to do it this way.

Now, mind you, at this point, she's 38 years old. So, her first pregnancy was six years ago, so she was 32. And then she had the endo surgery again, then went on to have more miscarriages 2015 and then stopped. So, it's now 2018 and she's like, “I… ” They haven't tried. They decided not to try. She just was mothering her one child and really trying to figure out what was next for them because did they want another child? She had been exhausted by the miscarriages.

So, she's eating every two to three hours. Found that tough. Eating a lot of ghee, is that okay? This was one of her questions. Eating upon waking is challenging. Needs to drink more water. I also had recommended the magnesium oil to her.

June 1. We had just gotten the second round of blood work from Braverman in. Shows inflammation but he feels like she should go for it, meaning go for trying to get pregnant. Feels less patient irritable. Her period had come on cycle day 27. She got no headaches before her period, which she would normally get headaches. She got one on cycle day four but really mild. Her first two days of bleeding were still on the heavy side, clotting. So, she bled through. It was super heavy. Her face felt a little puffy. This was the other thing. She got a case of like an infection in her face while she was pregnant with her son and it would flare up here and there. And there was a lot of frustration and anger coming up for her, which was another part of the case that we were beginning to address. There was a lot of trauma.

And so, as her and I continued to work and unpack, I mean there was lots of tears on the treatment tables. She would come see me for treatments but she'd also do coaching sessions with me. And the coaching sessions, she would just love to focus on the emotional piece. And so, there was a lot of anger at her body, a lot of fear that she was just going to continue to have miscarriages, fear that she wouldn't have another child. Instagram, you paused for a second, sorry. So, that was the stuff that we were working through on that one-on-one basis.

Come August, she actually still is in just the early Reawakened Phase of the Body Belief diet. So, she's only reintroduced fruit. And she's still basically in the Purify Phase of the Body Belief diet, which if you don't know what that is, you can go and you can check out Body Belief. There we go. Okay? And I do have an opt-in for you guys too on my Eating For Egg Quality. So, I'll share that in just a little bit, so if you want some more information on things to do to improve egg quality. Okay.

So, in August, she's doing great. She thinks they're going to start trying again in the fall. This is what they've decided. She still feels emotionally kind of blocked, wants to work through that. I now have her on Chinese herbs because I'm trying to regulate the menstrual cycle. It's still on the heavier side than I want to see. It's still very clotty. So, my goal there was to invigorate blood, which is typically our… improve the quality of the blood and invigorate the blood. That's typically the diagnosis in a case like this where there was clotty, dark menstrual flow, history of the miscarriages, some of her other symptoms like the joint pain and she would get spots or floaters, she would get the headaches. So, I'm invigorating blood. And it's a custom formula. I typically do custom formulas for a lot of my clients. So, I have her on a custom granular formula that she's drinking a tea every day.

September. No dairy. No gluten. She had almond flour and quinoa at that point. Feeling pretty good. She's keeping the almond flour and the quinoa to one time a week. Her stomach was slightly off though. So, she was like, “Maybe I can't do that many grains.”

Then, at that point, like I deal with a lot of my clinic clients, I give them access to the ecourse. So, at that point, she felt ready to dive into the ecourse because up until then, she was very emotionally still just not ready to even get on board with the whole fertility thing again because it was, as you guys know, if you've been in it for a while, becomes a full-time job. And talking about fertility again was really reliving a lot of the trauma for her. So, she, between our September and October visit… because, mind you, she was seeing another acupuncturist weekly. So, she's coming into the city to see me once a month. She dove into the ecourse. She loved it. She loved the community. She was so… just learned even more from the ecourse. And the ecourse, my Yes, You Can Get Pregnant ecourse, has so much to help you unpack the emotional pieces. And so, she really took that in and worked through these emotional pieces.

And she was also cruising around and somewhat active in the Facebook group. And there's a very clear statistic out of Harvard that women in support groups get pregnant twice as fast as women who are not. So, she was starting to partake in the support group and starting to feel a sense of community and I think, in that, really starting to release the trauma and the fears because she was seeing all these other women that were going through it with her and cheering each other on and she was feeling really supported. And so, that was beautiful.

So, she had just seen Dr. Braverman. He was encouraging her to do Letrozole, which is similar to Clomid. It's am ovulation-inducer actually but it causes you to promote more than one follicle while you're ovulating so that increases your odds of getting pregnant naturally. She didn't want to do it. She said he recommended then, if you're trying naturally, Lovenox and the progesterone. And she was really emotional about it because it was like, “Oh my gosh, are we going to do this again? Am I really ready to start trying?” So, this is now October of 2018.

And so, she was really on the fence about trying again, so we decided to hold off and wait a little bit. And I also recommended reading the book, Spirit Babies, so she's reading the book, Spirit Babies. She has a really deep sense that her previous miscarriages were guiding her to healing and that she needed to find out more about her health because the general gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free approach was not working for her. Seeing the naturopath with all the supplements and all that was supportive and helpful but wasn't making all the difference. And she then took like her 23andMe and her data there and met with a geneticist and got some even more information, which was interesting. The diet wasn't very different than what we had her on. It was a little less fat. It was a couple of things that the geneticists tweaked. She had had the MTHFR mutation. Mind you, she's still on the Chinese herbs at this point. She's still pretty much on the Reawakened Phase of the Body Belief plan.

So now, we're in almost six months of Reawaken, Purify and Reawaken Phase, which, at that point, most all her symptoms are gone. She's not having headaches anymore; no more joint pain; her digestion is spectacular; her periods have now regulated, where the flow isn't super heavy; the clots have gone away. She's now… Let's see. She's turning 39 in April, so she's getting a little anxious about baby. But dry skin is better. Dry scalp, eczema, sweating. The low libido was definitely more emotional, so now she's back. She's re-engaged in her life in so many beautiful ways and feels good and optimistic and excited.

In December, she got pregnant. And there we are. So, I see her in January. She's eight-weeks pregnant. She's anxious as hell. I'll get emotional for a second. I write in my notes: Braverman's MIA. Not sure what's going on. And now, we know in retrospect, at that time, Braverman had been dealing with his own health challenges and his own health battle. And so, yeah, she was one of the last pregnancies that I think he was really involved in in my cases before he passed away in April.

Her Treg cells were slightly off. She was paranoid about that. The prednisone was making her anxious. She was still doing her N-Acetyl cysteine, her glute thyroid, her probiotic, her cod liver oil, her calcium, magnesium, her prenatal, Quercetin, tumeric. And she was really tense because she was really, really, really anxious. But at that point, we are, like I said, eight-weeks pregnant and then I continued to see her every other week through her first trimester. She found an OB out in Long Island. Really likes some. The nuchal, Panorama, all that. Because remember, she got pregnant naturally this time. He recommended the Leterol. She never did it. And now, she's usually on these lives. I don't see her, so I'm assuming we are home, having her…

Yeah. So, Laura, just to your question, he encouraged her to just try naturally with Letrozole at home because she had gotten pregnant on her own naturally in the past. But then, at that point too, they had done IUIs at 2015 and she didn't want to do them again. She was just like, “I want as little intervention as possible.” So, mind you, now, she is, like I said, about to give birth any moment. And did the prednisone, Lovenox and I don't believe any IVIgs or anything like that through the pregnancy. She just stayed on the prednisone and the Lovenox. And we had her on some Chinese herbs through the first trimester as well. And she continued to see her acupuncturist the whole pregnancy.

She doesn't come into the city really anymore because it's such a pain in the ass when you're that pregnant but we keep in touch quite a bit. And yeah, she's about to, if she hasn't already, given/give birth at the age of 39. So, a total of, I would say… again, she was kind of vague with me between the chemicals and the actual miscarriages but I think before the first pregnancy, two or three; and then before the second pregnancy, we had about three miscarriages; and then pregnant naturally at the age of 38 and carried a healthy, beautiful baby or is about to carry a healthy, beautiful baby to term.

But the biggest shift for her was… So, this was one of my cases where, again, he referred her to me in May of… or no, March of 2018. And it was around that time that I had had a handful of cases with Dr. Braverman that were these really stubborn endometriosis cases. And he just felt like he wasn't getting where he wanted to get and he couldn't figure out why. He couldn't understand why the inflammation wasn't going down. And so, he saw… but he saw my girls, they were responding really well. And so, he called me, he said, “What are you doing?” And I said, “It's basically like an autoimmune paleo diet but I mix in some Chinese medicine stuff and lots of bone broth.” And he said, “All right, just… ” And he put me on his website. “You're going to become our nutrition person. Whatever you're doing is working, so just… ” And then he started sending me clients. And so, Ann was one of those clients and… yeah, and here we are. And so, let's see. Oh, BRI Dream Team. You guys are sweet.

So, does anybody have any questions? Does anybody see themselves in this case? I know you probably do, Laura. Yeah, it it all worked out in the end, which is amazing but she went through a lot of losses, which all of you guys out there have gone through losses. We know how much it sucks and I send you lots of love. And if you haven't read Spirit Babies, I highly recommend it.

And so, if you guys wanted to check out my Eating For Egg Quality free PDF, just head over to aimeeraupp.com/eggquality. So, Instagram: The link is in my bio. Facebook: Aimeeraupp.com/eggquality and you can opt in to get my free PDF on Eating For Egg Quality.

But again, if you see yourself in Ann's case and you suspect you have endometriosis, you know you have endometriosis, you've had more than one miscarriage, this is what you got to follow. You have to follow this protocol in here. You must. You must, you must, you must, okay? This is the book for you. This book is amazing and is for you as well because of the mental-emotional piece and obviously, it speaks specifically to fertility. This speaks more to autoimmunity but the diet in here is a little more aggressive than the diet in here. And this is what you need to be following. This girl was gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free and it still wasn't working. So, for all of you who have tried the diet and you are not getting the results you want, you might have to upgrade the diet a little bit, okay? So, okay. So, again, aimeeraupp.com/eggquality if you want the free PDF on tips to improve your egg quality.

And stay tuned for… Wait, is this our last Story of Hope, Beth, for August? What are we… It is, right? Oh my gosh. Okay. Because it's the end of August. I can't believe that. Is this really the last one or do I have one more next week? Oh yeah, I have one more next week. Okay, good. We have one more Story of Hope next week, which makes me excited because I really like doing these and I pulled…

So, basically, I write up a Story of Hope every month on my cases but I brought home all these cases, look at this, this is how many charts, a lot of charts, of cases that I have yet to write up. This case, I'd never written up. And so, I'm trying to do that because you guys, if you follow me and you read my blog and if you want more of these Stories of Hope, go over to aimeeraupp.com. That's where you can get even more of these. I'm sure there's a Story of Hope that relates to you. So, I figured I would pull charts from the clinic of stories that I never wrote on and share them with you this way because it's just so lovely. So, okay, I love you guys. I will see you next week.

Again, if you want more information on me or if you want any of our incredible free fertility resources, head over to aimeeraupp.com. Take the quiz on the homepage and that gets you into a funnel that basically every week, you're getting incredible free information from me on optimizing your fertility. So, really take advantage of that. We really thought this funnel through. Every week, like I said. We don't bombard you with emails but every week, you get something really valuable and important to optimize in your fertility, mentally, emotionally, physically and nutritionally. I have so much information and resources for you, so take advantage of them, okay? Thank you so much. Love you, guys. Bye. Bye, guys.

***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!

Shop Aimee Raupp Beauty – Natural Hormone Balancing Skincare.  Achieve natural hormone balancing with the Aimee Raupp Beauty Line of organic, gluten-free, dairy-free & cruelty-free skincare products! FREE US shipping!  Natural Oils, Creams & Balms for Face And Body. Unbeatable anti-aging results!

FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow me on social media so you don't miss these sessions live!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bodybeliefexpert/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimeeraupp/?hl=en

Enter your email at www.aimeeraupp.com to get my latest tips on living your healthiest life!