Entries from September 2008 ↓

Once you have received your fertility treatment, you will have to wait at least 14 days before you can have a pregnancy test at the clinic but if you are impatient, home tests are reasonably accurate and easily available. Even so you must bear in mind that there’s a risk of a test indicating a false positive result if it is carried out before this time.

There are, or course, other indications of pregnancy that you will discover, for example: abrupt mood changes, sore breasts and the desire to use the toilet more frequently, sickness, missing your menstrual cycle, tiredness and greater sense of smell and taste. Acai is good for you and mothers in the Amazon rain forest actually consume large amounts of Acai berry after child birth.

Many clinics stay in touch during the early weeks of pregnancy and carry out a few ultrasound scans to ensure your baby is growing normally. There are others who do not offer continued care, in which event you will have to sort out your own prenatal care and birth.

Don’t forget that the fact that you have become pregnant might bring strange feelings particularly if you have been attempting this for a long time so it may take a little while to adapt to the fact you’re having a baby. This should not worry you too much as, many pregnant mothers have them if they learn they are having a baby and it impacts those that have had a natural pregnancy every bit with those who have employed the use of a fertility clinic.

Some women find pregnancy hard going but physically your pregnancy is unlikley be any more unusual to someone who hasn’t had fertility treatment. At times however, it may be necessary to have extra scans at the hospital. These include previous miscarriages (or stillbirths), if expecting more than one baby not forgetting of course, your general health. The pregnant womans age is also a factor especially when the expectant mother is more mature because as you age the more likely it is that problems will happen.

Currently there are over a million babies globally that have been born by using fertility treatment such as IVF for example and there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t be healthy children. Inspite of the successes this does not mean ther will never be any problems because all medical treatment and every pregnancy carry some risk, even those conceived through normal means, but fortunately nearly all of the problems are small. It might be easier said and done but try to slow down during the pregnancy and enjoy the time as much as possible.

It is a sad fact that the number of women who have a miscarriage after receiving fertility treatment like In Vitro Fertilization is just a little higher than those who get pregnant naturally. Usually this happens for two main reasons: the first being that a pregnancy test is performed early into the pregnancy following the fertility treatment. From time-to-time, where a woman has conceived through normal means, she could have what she considers is a late period but it is where the embryo hasn’t implanted. The second reason is down to age because women who have fertility treatment are normally older than those who don’t, and the risks of miscarrying increase as the woman gets older. It is obvious that such an emotive subject will raise questions but they would be best answered by your own fertility clinic consultant.

The term male impotence is defined as the condition where a man has an continuing problem attaining and maintaining an erection for intercourse – something which is thought to affect upwards of 30 million males in the U.S. from eighteen to seventy years of get older. It wasn’t that long ago that the problem was believed to be purely a psychological problem but that has changed with current thinking that as much as seventy five percent being of a physical nature. Although as males get older it becomes more difficult to get and maintain an erection, a individual’s general health, lifestyle, medication and mental wellbeing all have a part in the equation. There are a number of physical responses involved for an erection and when there is a problem with these, male impotency happens.

However, the underlying problems, be they medical, medicinal or lifestyle, can be cured and once that is done so can the male impotence condition. Hardening of the arterial blood vessels can cause male impotency when blood cannot get to the penis in sufficient quantity to enable an erection. Just as easily, this situation can be caused by damage to the nerves that control blood flow to the penis. A quarter of males with diabetes also suffer with male impotence according to recent research. There are numerous other medical conditions that can affect male impotency including: Parkinson’s disease, MS and injuries to the spinal column. There are also occasions where surgery to the prostate, colon, rectal area and bladder also cause male impotence owing to damage to the nerves and blood vessels done during surgery. Medicine designed to help males with high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and other problems can also interfere with nerves or blood circulation to the penis and be the grounds for male impotence. Strangely, being a tobacco user does not make you any more likely to suffer male impotency than that of a non-smoker.

Nonetheless, among men with certain health problems, those who smoked were much more likely to have rock solid erection problems. In addition to this, if a coronary condition is added to the equation, more than twice the amount of males who smoke, will suffer from male impotence, compared to those who do not smoke. Alcohol when consumed to excess, is also a cause of impotence as it interrupts the hormone level and if it carries on, can in reality damage the nerves and in a quarter of cases, this impairment is permanent as is the male impotency. A male who is depressed, under stress, or troubled about his “performance” during sex may unable to have an erection.

Once a man also realises that as he ages he may occasionally have a male impotency problem then he is able to adjust to this fact. Usually, as men age they require more manual stimulation to be come aroused. Frequently the erection when it does come about may be less firm and it might take longer to ejaculate. Nevertheless, irrespective of the cause, most incidents of male impotency are treatable.

If recent medical research is anything to go by, man impotency is a bigger problem than was at first thought and in America for instance, erection problems affect ten percent of males aged between 18 and 70 but worse still is the figure of over half of men in the 40 to 70 age range. These studies estimate that anything up to 30 million men in America need some form of impotency treatment. A safer solution is all natural extenze, which can help with this problem by giving you more stamina and sexual desire.

Productive impotency interventions have been established to improve closeness and gratification, improve sexual aspects of quality of life and relieve symptoms of depression. Premature ejaculation is not, as many people think, an erectile problem and accordingly it does not impotence treatment.

Most physicians support the idea that impotence interventions should go forward with the least interfering treatments to the most interfering and this means cutting back on any detrimental drugs as an initial consideration. The next stage to consider is psychotherapy and modifying the person’s behavior, if this doesn’t work then the use of vacuum cylinders is looked at then drugs, both oral and injected, embedded cylinders and finally, surgery itself.

Impotency treatment using methods that help psychological problems, decrease anxiety associated with intercourse by utilising the male’s partner to help him unwind. Techniques like these are frequently used to treat impotency that is based around a physical problem.

Impotency treatments that use drugs can be founded around those taken orally, injected or inserted into the penis. After much debate, the wonder impotency drug Viagra was given approval for use by the FDA in March 1998 and it was the first such pill to be employed and needed to be taken an hour before sexual intercourse. Nevertheless, there are limitations in its use as it cannot be used more than once each day and unlike injections, it takes longer for the erection to occur. Oral testosterone can lower the amount of impotency treatment required by many men with low levels of natural testosterone – all the same, some discovered improvements following their use, may just be examples of the placebo effect.

Many males gain an erection by employing an impotence treatment which injects drugs into the penis, stimulating it to become full with blood. However, a continual erection and sometimes scarring, are unwelcome result utilising this type of treatment. Pellets inserted into the penis via a pre-filled applicator are able to give an erection in as little as ten minutes and can last up to an hour.

Vacuum cylinders that encase the penis are a type of impotence treatment that uses a partial vacuum to draw blood into the penis thereby making an erection. Once the vacuum cylinder is withdrawn an elastic band is put around the base of the penis to maintain the erection during intercourse.

Owing to the size of the problem, impotence interventions are improving all the time so before any decision is made it is worthwhile speaking to your doctor first. Before using any form of drug or device for treating impotency, prescribed or not, it is worthwhile inquiring any possible side effects.

In mainstream medicine, doctors often focus on patients’ symptoms. Symptoms point to a diagnosis, which in turn dictates a treatment plan.

“Ayurvedic medicine is fundamentally different,” explains Deepak Chopra, M.D., creative director and cofounder of the Chopra Center for Well-Being in La Jolla, California, and author of several books that helped introduce Ayurveda in the United States. “Ayurvedic physicians don’t just ask, ‘What symptoms do you have? They also delve into who you are.” And who you are involves more than ,your name, age, and occupation. It refers to your constitution, which Ayurvedic physicians believe is a fundamental factor in health and disease.

Only a few hundred Ayurvedic physicians have practices in this country. But that may change as interest grows and more training programs are established.

A Healing System Steeped in Tradition

The term Ayurveda is a combination of two Sanskrit words: ayus, meaning “life,” and vid, meaning “knowledge.” According to Scott Gerson, M.D., founder of Ayurvedic Medicine of New York, this alternative healing system dates back some 4,000 years to the Indus River valley in what is now Pakistan.

Ayurvedic medicine has much in common with Chinese medicine. For example, the two share a belief in life energy-called prana in the Ayurvedic system, qi in the Chinese system. “Life energy” is more than a spark that animates living creatures. It’s an overarching cosmic consciousness that connects everything in the universe.

According to Ayurvedic teachings, prana is embodied in earth, water, fire, air, and space (ether)-the five elements that make up all things, including the human body. In Ayurvedic medicine, each of the elements governs specific body parts and functions, with the body itself viewed as a microcosm of the universe, explains Kenneth G. Zysk, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Asian studies department of New York University in New York City.

The element earth influences the body’s solid components-bone, skin, nails, and hair. Water controls blood, digestive enzymes, and other bodily fluids. Fire fuels digestion and thinking as well as a number of other bodily processes. Air regulates breathing, the nervous system, and all movement. And space, the most abstract element, governs the cavities within the body-mouth, nose, and respiratory tract.

Each of the five elements also corresponds to one of the five senses. Earth is linked to smell and the nose; water, to taste and the tongue; fire, to sight and the eyes; air, to touch and the skin; and space, to hearing and the ear.

The five elements are constantly interacting with one another and with the “outside” world. Together, they form the three fundamental units of the human body: the seven tissues (dhatus), the three waste products (malas), and the three constitutions (doshas).

• The seven dhatus are blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, the reproductive organs (sukra), and digested food (rasa).
• The three malas are urine, feces, and sweat.
• The three doshas are Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.

When the five elements-manifested as the seven tissues, three waste products, and three doshas-are in balance, the body is healthy. When they are out of balance, the body is vulnerable to disease.

Ayurvedic physicians believe that most disease arises from what they call ama, a liquid sludge created by a combination of improperly digested food and imbalance among the digestive enzymes. Ama travels around the body, gravitating toward weak areas as determined by a person’s constitution. Ama’s effects can be neutralized through dietary changes, which is why Ayurvedic prescriptions often contain detailed instructions about which foods to eat and which to avoid.