You’ve received your fertility evaluation from your fertility specialist and now know the reason you’ve been having trouble getting pregnant. Happily, your condition is treatable. Your next step is to choose an infertility treatment plan. Choosing a plan depends on:

• the cause of your infertility

• your age

• your overall heath

• your lifestyle, including your ability to pay for infertility treatments

Medical Infertility Treatments

Happily, a number of infertility treatments are available to you. The three best known medical infertility treatments are:

• fertility drug therapy

• surgery to repair damage to or remove abnormalities from reproductive organs

• assisted reproductive technologies such as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization

Medical infertility treatments, even with their risks, have helped millions of women get pregnant and deliver healthy babies. But you might prefer a more natural infertility treatment. Happily, once again, you have options.

Natural Conception

You probably learned about natural conception and rhythm in your high school health or biology class. The latest research shows that the optimum time to get pregnant is the day of ovulation. The second best time is three or four days before menstruation, with frequent intercourse.

Along with following the natural cycles of your body, you need to maintain a healthy lifestyle as part of your natural infertility treatment. That means exercise (of course) and taking in the things that boost fertility and avoiding the things that increase the risk of infertility.

Doctors recommend you avoid:

• tobacco

• alcohol

• caffeine, especially coffee, but even that found in cola and chocolate (sorry)

• xenoestrogens, chemicals found in pesticides that show up on fruits and veggies (go organic)

Doctors recommend you increase your intake of:

• leafy green vegetables, legumes, chicken liver, and others sources of folic acid

• Brazil nuts, cod, tuna, and other foods that contain the trace mineral selenium

• oysters, toasted wheat germ, sesame seeds, and other foods that contain zinc

• salmon, halibut, walnuts, and other sources of omega-3, one of the essential fatty acids

You can also get these nutrients from supplements. But before taking any supplements-or any of the so-called fertility herbs such as Vitex agnus-castus-check with your doctor or pharmacist for any possible harmful drug interactions, especially if you’ve ever taken birth-control pills or fertility drugs.

Massage

Energy bodywork as an infertility treatment has a number of advantages: it’s noninvasive and drug free; it has no side effects; and it usually feels good. Who can turn down a nice massage? Besides the feel-good effect, bodywork as an infertility treatment works. Massage:

• helps to stimulate growth of reproductive hormones

• increase blood flow to reproductive organs

• decrease stress

• contribute to a healthy pregnancy by boosting the immune system and strengthening muscles for childbirth

Reiki, reflexology, and the Wurn Technique are used as fertility massage. The Wurn Technique, in particular, has proven very effective as an infertility treatment. This procedure works by breaking down adhesions (scar tissue) that interfere with the normal functioning of the reproductive organs.

Acupuncture

A mainstay of Chinese medicine, acupuncture has been used for centuries as an infertility treatment. According to the principles of Chinese medicine, acupuncture needles are inserted in specific points in your body to help stimulate blood flow to the reproductive organs and restore hormonal balance. As a natural infertility treatment, acupuncture is often teamed up with herbal medicines in capsule of tea form. (Go for the capsule; the tea usually tastes terrible.)