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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

bee pollen and royal jelly...does it work?

I am sure that when trying to conceive, most women are up for trying just about anything! I have heard some pretty neat ideas, and some funny ones, but I like to pass the information along as you never know when one might just do the trick! Here is a storey from a client of mine who has used bee pollen and royal jelly and wanted to share her journey and her information in the hopes it might help someone else as well. 

 I'm not really sure what it does exactly that helps me, but I've read things like it's "good for your eggs".  :)  It's also been called the bee's equivalent to fertility drugs.  Here is a link with some good info:
 
It's hard to find good links to sites that aren't trying to sell the product.  I think it's still valid information, but I get turned off by what looks like a commercial.  But, if you'd like me to gather some links up for you, I'd be happy to do so.  Like I said, I still think the information is valid.
Anyway, here is my story and what we did:
 
We began TTC in December 2006 (I was 34 and DH was 36).  No luck for a few months.  I had been researching different natural things for us to try, but was particularly interested in what I had read about bee pollen.  I decided to add 1 tablespoon of bee pollen to each of our daily post workout smoothies.  The bee pollen was in granule form.  Propolis and royal jelly both seemed to have great fertility benefits as well.  So, I decided we should also eat royal jelly everyday.  We would eat 1 teaspoon in the morning and 1 at night (on an empty stomach).  The kind we used was bought at GNC and it's royal jelly preserved in honey.  (I'm not a big fan of honey, so it's rather hard for me to choke down, but it's worth it!)  We did this for 2-3 months and got our first BFP!!  Sadly, that pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 5.5 weeks.  We stopped taking the bee products.  I'm not sure why, we just didn't take it anymore.
We tried for a few more months with no luck.  So, we had a fertility work up.  It was discovered that I have a uterine anomaly due to a birth defect (nothing to do with fertility itself and nothing to do with my miscarriage).  I won't go into the boring details, but what it boils down to is that I only have a chance to conceive when I ovulate from the right side.  The good news was that all other fertility test came back with excellent results!  So, we kept trying for a few more months....
No luck.  So, we decided to try the bee products again.  This time, I ate the royal jelly only once per day...in the morning.  And, my DH took bee pollen capsules (2000-4000 mg per day....when he remembered).  I figured since the queen ate royal jelly and the workers ate bee pollen, we should do it that way, too.  If it didn't work, we would take it up a notch. 
About 3 months later, I got another BFP!

As in anything that you read on the Internet or interested in trying, please consult with your dr to ensure that this does not interfere with something that you might already be taking. And if your allergic to bees, please do not try the bee pollen! lol

I also have found other information that I thought might also help explain some things about this topic

Bee pollen - Taken with Royal Jelly can possibly improve or eliminate menstrual problems. Is rich in vitamins, minerals, nucleic acids, and steroid hormones. Strengthens the pituitary gland. 

Sarsaparilla - Contains both male and female hormones. For men, it increases sperm count especially when taken with Ginseng. For women, it balances female hormones, strengthens the pituitary gland and enhances both FSH & LH. Contains progesterone. 

3 comments:

Chele said...

If you have a reaction to bee stings or insects bites, you shouldn't use this product or if you do, use it under doctor's care. I know many that have had an allergic reaction to it.

Anonymous said...

You don't need a "doctor" to take products from a bee-hive. People have allergies to all kinds of things. I can consume any bee-product as can millions of people without problems. Sure you should go slow in the beginning but no reason to be afraid to take real food.

Anonymous said...

I have had 3 miscarriages all due a blood clot disorder, I also discovered that at the age of 30 my eggs were more like a women in her 40's. I decided to take 2000 mg of Royal Jelly/Bee Pollen in pill form along with a bunch of other stuff- I don't know if I'm pregnant yet but my accupunturist could already noticed that I am very balanced this cycle. I'll post back with my results, only 7 dpo today :-)