The first week of June holds a special place in my heart.
The chaste berry trees are in bloom.
And it is the week that both of our embryo transfers took place. The two that gave us our sweet baby boys. So what in the world does a frozen embryo transfer have to do with a purple flowering tree? Well I am about to tell you.
When I first found out I couldn’t get pregnant on my own, I begin to seek out any advice and help I could find. I read books and articles and met with holistic doctors and an acupuncturist. I changed my diet, I drank fertility smoothies that tasted like chalk, and I eliminated anything from my diet that was deemed harmful. In addition, my acupuncturist mentioned I start taking chaste berry supplements, also know as vitex.
Vitex or chaste berry is native to Italy and Greece and has been used as a medicinal herb for many years to help with gynecological problems.
Vitex increases luteinizing hormone and inhibits the release of Follicle-stimulating hormone, which thus boosts the levels of progesterone production and improves the chances of getting pregnant and maintaining the pregnancy. And as my acupuncturist stated, with a diagnosis of “unexplained infertility” it couldn’t hurt to try!
So I began taking the supplement, drank the smoothies, did acupuncture, and went through with the IVF. And in 2016 Liam was born. Three years later we followed the same routine. And the day before Bear’s embryo transfer, we took a walk around Colonial Lake to clear our minds and have a picnic by the water.
On this day I noticed the beautiful purple flowers growing on the trees along the lake. I am sure they have bloomed here every year, but this was the first year I had noticed. Will has an app on his phone that allows him to identify plants. We used the app and much to our surprise, this purple flowering tree is the vitex/chaste berry tree, the same as the supplement I was familiar with.
I snapped off a tiny stem and brought it home. It layed on our kitchen window sill the entire next day as the embryo was thawed from the petrie dish and placed into my body. It sat there through the two week wait until we got the call that I was pregnant. It sat there during a very long and nauseating first trimester. And it sat there on February 14 when we finally brought our baby Bear into this world. It was only after this that Will and I were able to throw the now colorless, dry stem away. We no longer needed that good luck charm as our new good luck charm was sleeping quietly in his basinette.
As a reminder, I am not a doctor or acupuncturist. If you are struggling with infertility please consult with your doctor about vitex supplements to see if they are right for you.
And if you have any of these beautiful flowers growing in your region, definitely check them out. The ones seen here grow along Colonial Lake in downtown Charleston. And now every year around this time, we have a picnic dinner here in the park next to the chaste trees and count our beautiful blessings.
xx
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