Success Story: High prolactin & miscarriages – Mary & Robert

Her head peaks around the corner of the door asking if I’m ready for her. I wave her in and a tiny figure wearing a bright pink and purple top walks through. Mary is 43 years old but I wouldn’t have given her a year more than 35 and would have believed it if she told me she was 30. Sitting down she tells me why she has come to see me. Although happily married for 8 years with her best friend Robert her heart’s wish has not been fulfilled yet: a little baby. They have tried for as long as they have been married and she has fallen pregnant only twice. Both pregnancies ended in miscarriages within 12 weeks, and the last one was 5 years ago.


unexplained infertility & miscarriages

Mary seems emotionally very balanced. She talks openly, says she finds it easy to forgive, and she generally comes across positive and happy. Until I ask her about the pregnancies that is. She suddenly starts to cry and it even catches her by surprise too. “I thought I had processed that grief”, she says.

Medical tests say nothing is wrong with the couple. Only a few fibroids were found with Mary, but the specialist said they shouldn’t be a problem. Infertility does not run in the family at all either. They are one of the many couples with unexplained infertility.

When I promise her that with treatment we will get her to be the happiest, healthiest possible version of herself and hopefully prepare her for pregnancy, she responds with “that sounds great to me, we have already accepted that God may never let me be a mother, but I want to do everything I can that is within my own power”.


Why no baby?

Although the gynecologist said that Mary was in good enough health to conceive and that the fibroids were not an issue for a pregnancy the latter could be questioned. Fibroids increase the risk of pregnancy complications and there are no other clear indications of why Mary has had the miscarriages. Perhaps she has even been pregnant more often than she thinks, but did the embryos never get a chance to implant due to the fibroids.

I also wondered about metal toxicity which often causes repeat miscarriages. And what about her grief? Was she possibly suffering “emotional infertility” because of the two losses?

Of course we cannot leave out Mary’s age either.


However, if a patient is having regular cycles and if ovulation can be re-established, I do not see why there should be a problem with conceiving.


Also, I couldn’t figure out why Robert would not come to the consultation with her or why he wouldn’t get himself tested. She also wouldn’t let me in on her libido, so I wasn’t even sure if they made use of her fertile window well enough every month. All I knew was that he owned a bakery, so all I could really do was have her warn him to be careful the swimmers wouldn’t be as exposed to the oven every day.


Sepia for Mary

So all I could do was look at Mary’s symptoms; emotional, general, and physical. I was tempted to give Natrum Muriaticum which is a major grief remedy and people needing this remedy find it hard to open up. Some other remedies came up high for me as well, but the one the won was definitely Sepia.

Sepia is maybe the most well known hormone imbalance related remedy.


A typical keynote of Sepia is “has never been well since pregnancy / miscarriage / menopause / starting menses / contraceptive pill”. As I said, a major hormone remedy.


However, I don’t like prescribe renedues because they are known for something. Homeopathy is all about picking a remedy that suits you as a person. So I checked Sepia’s typical symptoms with Mary’s, and they were almost a perfect match:

  • Bearing down pain with miscarriages in combination with nausea at the smell of food
  • Premenstrual irritability with her husband
  • Feeling better from exercising (“I feel toxic if I don’t”, Mary said)
  • Dreams about babies (although this makes sense if you want to fall pregnant!)
  • Wanting to be alone when crying; feeling worse from being comforted (Natrum Muriaticum has this too)
  • Light, dark, clotted periods (although Sepia can also have very heavy, long lasting ones)

What made me prescribe Sepia in the end though, was the fact that it was the only remedy that covered both the miscarriages in the third month and the fibroids.


The following month

The following consultation Mary says she feels much lighter and less toxic. She has perspired more and loves that feeling! Also her emotions felt more stable before her period and in general she feels happy with the remedy.

She did have a bit of a headache again pre-menstrually and although her period was not longer, it was a little heavier the second and the third day, as well as being bright red while before it was dark and clotted. It felt more like the type of menses she had in her teens. Music to a fertility homeopath’s ears as this meant her hormone balance was improving!

Over a period of four months I prescribe Sepia to Mary several more times going up in potency. She keeps feeling better and better. She learns more about her body and charts her cycle to discover if she is ovulating. Five months into treatment she says she wants to stop. She doesn’t expect to fall pregnant anymore at her age but says she is ok with it and she is so much happier and healthier than before our work together.


An imbalanced anterior pituitary gland

Several months later she calls me to say that she has been to the GP for recurring headaches.


A blood test showed she had raised prolactin levels and she is booked her for a scan the following month to check for a tumor on her pituitary gland.


Anxiously she asks if homeopathy could do anything for her at all.

The anterior pituitary gland is the one responsible for prolactin production. Prolactin is the hormone responsible for milk production and is also the one that prevents women from getting pregnant when breastfeeding. You see, prolactin inhibits the production of LH and FSH, the hormones that stimulate the ovaries to mature & release an egg.

With Mary’s history, I wondered if her prolactin levels may have been slightly raised all along preventing ovulation. Little enough to seem normal on tests, but bad enough to prevent ovulation. So I decide to aim treatment at balancing her anterior pituitary gland rather than a possible tumor.

Balanced and pregnant

It is truly miraculous how some patients go through a long process until suddenly their treatment and health unfolds like a jar that pops open after twisting and turning, or a knot suddenly untangling after pulling and pushing. Mary’s blood test after a month came back with her prolactin levels within a normal range and the scan that had been booked anyway came back clear; no tumor.

 


A month after that she fell pregnant and this summer [2018] her beloved baby girl will be turning five years old!