Vitamin D and Infertility

So you know how I said in my last post that my gyno had me get some blood tests done?  Just about everything checked out normally.  

Geez, between this and the infertility testing, you'd think I'm the perfect female human specimen!  Sure, I had a deviated septum in my early twenties but that was easily fixed with a simple surgery at 23 & I've rarely had a sinus infection since.

Yeah, there was the back surgery for a herniated disk at 26 too, but that could really happen to anyone...

And of course there's always the pink elephant in the room, my weight.  The clinical charts say I'm obese, but the IVF specialist I saw down in IL said I wasn't so overweight that it should be effecting my infertility, and she warned me that a crash diet would be worse for my infertility than the amount of extra lbs I'm carrying.  Robbie said he's convinced I'm ovulating like clockwork like I say I am.  He does want me to work on losing weight though, just in case it might help.  A book I read said losing just 10% of your body weight can improve your fertility, sometimes for unknown reasons.  Sounds like the varicocele repair surgery improvement rate.  Anyway, maybe I'll talk to B about me getting a personal trainer again after we finishing paying off this trip to India (he's joining me TOMORROW for a week of vacation here!).  I had a personal trainer before our wedding and lost 20 lbs in 5-6 months.

Anyway, I digress.  My point was that my test results always come back perfectly healthy.  Which of course is a relief, but also sometimes frustrating and even maddening, since what I want most besides pregnancy and a baby is some answers as to why I'm not getting either of them.

Ok, so blood pressure, cholesterol  pre-diabetes screening, thyroid levels, etc all checked out great.  There was one huge red flag though this time.  Turns out I have a vitamin D deficiency!  I don't mean that explanation point to indicate I'm excited or anything, just surprised.

I guess a vitamin D level of 30-100 is normal, and 20-30 is considered insufficient   My level is 13.  That is considered a deficiency.  So I did some quick googling, and get this, overweight vegetarian women living in northern climates often have this problem... and frequently suffer from infertility as well!  There have been some studies of other infertility research done which correlates vitamin D supplements with increased fertility.  

I'll have to look into all this with better a more critical analysis of the research of course, but I called B right away and told him to bring me some vitamin D pills so I can start taking them right away when he joins me here in India!  

In the meantime I'm trying harder than usual to remember taking my pre-natal vitamins (I often feel defeated after so many years of taking them and not ever getting pregnant, which makes me ask, "what's the point?").  But they of course have some vitamin D in them and anything I can do to help at this point is worth trying!  

Also, when the smog clears in Delhi, I'll have to step out without sunscreen for 15 minutes or so.  Maybe we'll make an India baby when he gets here.  Or at least I'll get a tan.  Either way, it's a win-win I guess :)