Well it came today. The statistics are amazing. Between 1990-92, 367 couples came to them with varying fertility problems that had lasted from one to ten years and included multiple miscarriages and "unexplained" infertility. With their program, 327 pregnancies resulted with no miscarriages or low birth weight/early babies, and no babies needing special care. That's an 86 percent success rate with infertile couples. It seems too good to be true. The program itself was started in the '70s by people who wanted to correlate all the info about fertility that was building up in the research world and provide practical applications. It mostly relies on the idea that you want to be nutritionally perfect and avoid letting toxins into your body. You want to make sure that all your trace minerals are at the right levels and avoid food additives and pesticides.

From what I can tell they advocate complete abstinence (for men and women) from alcohol and smoking. They will do a hair analysis to check for nutritional deficiencies and they also advocate getting completely checked for all genito-urinary infections, as they have found that many infertile couples have asymptomatic infections that seem to affect fertility. They have a book and cookbook and I just don't know what to do.

I really would like to avoid drugs and would love to eat myself to ovulation. The leaflet says that often women coming off bcp have too much copper and that affects ovulation. However, I don't know if I believe it and I don't know if I am ready or able to make a complete change in my diet etc... We already eat almost exclusively organic fruit and vegetables, but neither of us is vegetarian and I don't think either of us really wants to be. This diet doesn't actually say you have to be, just that you should search out organic meat and drink whole milk, etc. I don't know if I could give up all of my treats -- like white toast and cookies -- so easily, but I really want a baby. Plus the books and hair analyses cost money and I don't want to be suckered.

Then again FORESIGHT is an official charity here, run by volunteers, and they are not veggie gurus opposed to western medicine. They admit that they can't do much for blocked tubes, but say that following their program can improve your chances for success with methods like IVF. They say it takes about four to six months to see results from this program, and we have been talking lately about trying alternative methods for five months, until our anniversary, before taking the plunge into fertility drugs.

I really want to believe that this could work, but it seems so deceptively simple, and at the same time hard. When have I ever been able to stick with a diet? Well I did do a colon cleansing diet for a month in college: no wheat, no sugar, etc. I did manage to stick to that, but I got the worst flu I had had in years at the end of it, and it really affected my faith in things like that. I have always been a believer in organic foods, but this just seems like a big step. I don't really know why I am fighting it (fear of having to give up chocolate?), because really it couldn't hurt. I suppose we will need to talk it out tonight or over the next week. It would require more sacrifice on Jon's part than he has had to do so far. No pints in the pub on the weekend. He'll never be able to live it down. He used to say that when I stopped drinking so would he. I never really believed he would manage. It would take a lot to separate an Englishman from his pint.

It would appear to be stupid not to do this, but it seems like it could be a lot of work, watching everything we put in our mouths. Maybe I am just having the angst of a generation raised on pills that fix everything. Why should I change my diet and lifestyle just to get pg? I really just want a pill that I can take that doesn't affect anything else in my life, just gets me pg. Maybe I need to grow up and get over quick fixes. In any case, if we do decide to go through with this, I will keep you posted on the all the gory details.