{"id":1862,"date":"2016-03-02T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T06:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healinginourhomes.com\/?p=1862"},"modified":"2019-05-14T03:53:41","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T03:53:41","slug":"my-mthfr-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healinginourhomes.com\/my-mthfr-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"My MTHFR and miscarriage journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Have you experienced loss? My heart goes out to you if you have. There’s a connection between having a genetic mutation on the gene MTHFR and miscarriage and I wish I’d known sooner. That’s why I share my story, because so many women who have learned about this connection have been able to stop miscarrying and have healthy babies and all women need to know about this …<\/p>\n
Around May 2010 I found out I was pregnant with our 6th child. We had 4 living children and I’d had one previous miscarriage. My first miscarriage was very early. That time, we found out I was pregnant on a Thursday, mailed out some cute announcements to our family across the country on Friday and I miscarried Sunday. It was shocking and upsetting but not hard physically. I was pregnant the following month with our daughter and I had a healthy, easy pregnancy<\/a>.<\/p>\n But my second miscarriage was different. I was planning on using midwives again for the birth and they don’t do routine early ultrasounds. While I was nauseous, I wasn’t as sick as I typically was – \u00a0I just had this nagging feeling that things were not ok. \u00a0So I set up an appointment with an OB to get one.\u00a0The ultrasound confirmed my fears. There was nothing to see, the pregnancy had not progressed past the early stages. But my body still thought I was pregnant. They offered me a D&C but I refused. We didn’t have the money and as a devoted advocate of natural birth, I wanted to\u00a0miscarry naturally.<\/p>\n At around 12 weeks I was hanging with some friends and laughing a ton when the miscarriage\u00a0began. I rushed home and lost a large amount of blood at once. I’d go 45 minutes or so with nothing, then lose a lot again. Ill spare you the details but\u00a0after many hours of this pattern, things took a turn for the worse. While my husband knelt down in front of me because I felt so dizzy, I passed out. I was transported via ambulance to the hospital where I continued to hemorrhage. What happened at the hospital is another story – but let me just say that if ANY doctor, at ANY time, does not respect your body you have every right to stand up for yourselves ladies. The rest of the night is fuzzy but I was able to avoid a D&C and they gave me something to sleep through the night as I received 4 units of donated blood.<\/p>\n For the next 30 days I was extremely depressed and it got so bad I started to wonder if I was losing my mind. I remember going to church one day and just crying and crying because I felt so absolutely lost. Then, I started to bleed again. I had retained placenta and that’s why I felt like I was going crazy. My body was incredibly confused. After all of that, I ended up having a D&C anyways and I felt\u00a0much better.\u00a0\u00a0I could finally start the healing process. But I didn’t trust my body, it had let me down.<\/p>\n Things were just different. I loved to drink iced tea before my miscarriage but afterwards I couldn’t handle any caffeine at all. I’d shake all over if I drank tea. I was anxious constantly\u00a0. We’d already had a really rough year before this happened in August and it took a toll on my health.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to 2013. I’d had a perfectly healthy pregnancy and very healing pregnancy and birth. I was head-over-heels in love with my new little girl. My body had known what to do and done it perfectly. But I was still anxious and struggled greatly with many different fears. I was also forgetful, tired, my brain was foggy and I didn’t sleep well. I’d stay up really late and my mind would come alive after 11pm (sound familiar mommies?) but the mornings were torture because I was so exhausted. I forgot important things often. But worst of all was the anxiety. I’d be sitting on the couch just watching a show and my heart would start to race like I was about to walk out on stage. And this happened ALL the time, over and over. It was exhausting. I thought it was an emotional or spiritual issue and that it was an issue with who I was. I did my best to learn to breathe slowly and try to slow things down but it never really helped.<\/p>\n A year later, I’d had enough.<\/strong><\/p>\n I was tired of feeling like something was wrong with me, like I was a bad mom and a bad Christian because I couldn’t just “relax and trust God” (this came not from the church but from certain people in my life). Nearly every afternoon I’d crash, often falling asleep on the couch even though I was home alone with my 5 children. I’d feel like I was drugged many afternoons. \u00a0I decided to find someone to help me figure out what was going on. I found a holistically-minded RN who specialized in women’s health issues. She started with a full blood panel and some saliva testing to see what was going on with my cortisol levels. I’d heard about MTHFR online and had done a little research and I requested she test me for that as well.<\/p>\n When it\u2019s all working correctly, the MTHFR gene begins a multi-step chemical breakdown process, aka methylation<\/em>, which in simplified terms, is like this:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n There are several known MTHFR genes that affect the methylation processes but there are 2 main types that they regularly test for. I had a mutation on each one of these genes, C677T and A1298C. So what does that mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have Compound Heterozygous.<\/strong><\/p>\n The body systems are intricately connected. When there is a hiccup in a system somewhere it affects your whole body. At the time I found I had MTHFR I was very anemic, my glutathione was low (see above – this is the chief antioxidant and detoxifier), my folate was high, I had anxiety and depression and many other things that\u00a0my gene mutation explained.<\/p>\n I’ve spend the last 2+ years learning all I can about my body and how best to support it in light of this new information. This is a continual process that has cost a lot of money and time and required me to seek out\u00a0a lot of different gifted alternative care providers. THANKFULLY I no longer suffer with anxiety like I did before. I still feel that way when I fly on airplanes sometimes, but not just sitting around the house. I try really hard to get to bed at a decent time and now get up at 6:30 on the weekdays to help keep my cortisone levels high at the right times and support my adrenals. There’s a lot of things I do differently now and I feel a lot better.<\/p>\n My miscarriages and the bleeding I had the second time are likely because of MTHFR. All 5 of my children had tongue and\/or lip ties at birth which are midline defects linked to low folate. I took prenatal vitamins of course but they likely had folic acid (the synthetic version of folate) that my body couldn’t absorb and use for my babies. One of my children had a heart issue that could also possibly have been\u00a0related.<\/p>\n I now take a lot of different supplements, including methylfolate (do not take folic acid), to support my body systems. I do not eat gluten or dairy because I do not tolerate them well – it is common for those with MTHFR to not tolerate these foods. \u00a0I eat a whole-food based diet and eat sugar only occasionally. Eating right makes the most difference in how I feel. I’m still regularly seeing a naturopath, chiropractor and acupuncturist to manage my different health issues. They’ve been such an incredible blessing in my life and I’m thankful for what I’ve learned and can now pass on to others.<\/p>\n Some estimate that up to 40-60% of the population may have some variation of the MTHFR gene. If you have had miscarriages or suffer with health problems such as anxiety, depression, adrenal fatigue, etc. then it may be well worth your time to be tested. Most insurances will cover it, mine did. Even paying cash its not an expensive test relative to others. My hope is that one day ALL women, will be tested for MTHFR as part of routine blood testing and check ups. It’s so vital we learn about the connection between MTHFR and miscarriage.<\/p>\n No, not at all. The relatively new study of how genes can behave based on\u00a0lifestyle and environmental factors is called\u00a0epigenetics<\/strong>. You can read more HERE<\/a> if you’re interested. The bottomline is that they are learning how what we are exposed to, what we eat,\u00a0what we do (or don’t do) to take care of our health absolutely<\/span> affects our health, sometimes\u00a0in spite of\u00a0our genes.<\/p>\n I recently did extensive genetic testing through 23andme.com<\/a>. While I have many genetic “mutations” that doesn’t mean they are active. I am working with a naturopath to figure out which are affecting me and how to best support my body.<\/p>\n This link was very helpful to me when I was first researching MTHFR, the videos at the bottom are very helpful also: Shouldn’t we all be getting tested?<\/p>\n Our bodies are beautifully complex and each\u00a0body system\u00a0is intricately connected to the others. I’ve learned to listen to my body and to reach out for help from those who are experts in how our bodies work (for me that was naturopaths, DOs, a lymphatic massage expert, chiropractors and MTHFR experts). I’m still working on putting all the pieces together, its complicated but I’m determined and hopeful that I can one day feel good all the time. I do feel better than I did a few years ago but I still battle days of terrible \u00a0fatigue, hormone imbalances<\/a>, and\u00a0toxicity issues. I am beyond-words thankful to God that I was able to have the 5 healthy children that I have.<\/p>\n My hope is that my struggle and discoveries about the link between MTHFR and miscarriage will help others to learn more about their own bodies and get the help they need. Ask your Dr. for the blood test for MTHFR next time! With love,<\/p>\n<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MTHFR and miscarriage – my story Have you experienced loss? My heart goes out to you if you have. There’s a connection between having a genetic mutation on the gene MTHFR and miscarriage and I wish I’d known sooner. That’s why I share my story, because so many women who have learned about this connection… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[428,1],"tags":[427,413],"yoast_head":"\nI wasn’t the same after that.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nWhat is MTHFR? <\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n\n
What a\u00a0defective (mutated)<\/i> MTHFR gene does to you | MTHFR and Miscarriage:<\/h2>\n
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There are many combinations of MTHFR:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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My symptoms of MTHFR:<\/h3>\n
What do you do differently if you have MTHFR?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
What does a MTHFR gene mutation mean for you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
Are we prisoners to our genes?<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
What can you do if you find out you have the mutation(s) | MTHFR and miscarriage<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
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What I’ve learned through my experience with MTHFR and miscarriage …<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n