#January Joy 29: Set a home spa... or a home lab!

 Alternative titles to this post could be "Am I crazy yet?", "Playing mind games" or "Being a well-learned hypocondriac". Anyhow, for this January Joy prompt (they are almost over... what will I do?) a home spa was suggested. The thing is I already did the home face treatment and the mani-pedicure.  And if I must be totally honest (which I like to be) I have never been to a SPA and have no urgency to do so, even if they paid me to. I hate people touching my body, and rubbing oily stuff into me (regardless of the nice smell), umm no thanks. Maybe later I'll ask the boy, one of the few persons whom I will allow to get close to me,  to massage my back or my feet, how about that for a home spa?

In the meantime I will let you in into the craziness that goes on inside my head all the time. Welcome. You see, I should probably stop reading, and I should probably not think (or talk) at all. Then I would reach the zen. But it's not going to happen any time soon. When you have been trying for a baby for so long, when not even the doctors have the faintest idea what to do with you (well, they do the same as with all of us in this boat), when you appear to be perfectly healthy and still you are not able to complete the second most primordial and primitive of biological tasks (the first being net survival) you start going nuts. You play games. If I get pregnant this month, my mom will be able to see the tulips in bloom. If it happens next month, baby will come at the same time as the boy's birthday, what a great surprise. If I get pregnant now, what will I wear to my brother's wedding? Oh, but I already got a (supertight) dress for it. Then you start believing everthing you read. I am taking vitamin D (highly dosed, in oil capsules) because I read in the slideshow that accompanied an article on infertility that it seems to help. If someone told me that by licking frogs I would get pregnant I would do it. Or that eating 7 green gummi bears every day would do the trick, I'd give it a shot too.

 So when a dear friend told me she'd heard silent (asymptomatic, undiagnosed) coeliac disease (gluten allergy) could be the cause of some cases of unexplained infertility I started reading into it. And I found all kinds of scientific literature* suggesting  a higher prevalence of celiac disease (CD) among infertile women compared with the general population. As well as a case of a woman who went on a gluten-free diet and almost immediately got pregnant. I of course started obsessing and went on a gluten free diet for 6 days or so. Before taking such a decision I went on to ask my gynaecologist about it, but the answer I got was: "Well, there seems to be a link, but the evidence is not conclusive yet. It could be that, and it could be a million other things (like thyroid disease) but we will not go check you up and down (since the treatment protocol will be the same anyway)". I know it is NOT thyroid disease because I already self-prescribed myself that test a year ago. My thyroids are functioning perfectly thank you very much.

Getting tested was going to prove complicated as I would first have to go to my general doctor, convince her that this was needed (this is not difficult, I would simply have studied all the symptoms and told her I had them), had her send me to the gastroenterologist and then have him approve the test. Such a loss of time. In my frantic searching I found out there is a home blood-test for IgA (antibodies) against tTG (tissue transglutaminase, the primary test ordered to screen for celiac disease). As someone who would very much like to work at a biochemical clinical analysis lab, I went on and did the test. (Part of my motivation was that I was dying to have some shortbread wafers we got as a present, as well as some pita bread and a croquette). But at this point I also just wanted to know. It was lots of fun doing the test. And for once a test gave the results I wanted: it was negative. I don't have coeliac disease. Yet another perfect test to add to our mysterious list. I can go on with my cookies and cake addiction. Dear God, if you are reading this, could you please grant us a miracle soon?

*Celiac disease: an underappreciated issue in women's health. Shah S, Leffler D.Womens Health (Lond Engl). 2010 Sep;6(5):753-66. doi: 10.2217/whe.10.57.

 Primary infertility as a rare presentation of celiac disease. Rajput R, Chatterjee S.Fertil Steril. 2010 Dec;94(7):2771.e5-7. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2010.04.032. Epub 2010 May 26.

 Prevalence of celiac disease in a cohort of women with unexplained infertility. Jackson JE, Rosen M, McLean T, Moro J, Croughan M, Cedars MI. Fertil Steril. 2008 Apr;89(4):1002-4. Epub 2007 Jul 26.

 Increased prevalence of celiac disease in patients with unexplained infertility in the United States. Choi JM, Lebwohl B, Wang J, Lee SK, Murray JA, Sauer MV, Green PH. J Reprod Med. 2011 May-Jun;56(5-6):199-203.

 Women and celiac disease: association with unexplained infertility. Pellicano R, Astegiano M, Bruno M, Fagoonee S, Rizzetto M. Minerva Med. 2007 Jun;98(3):217-9.