The Natural Fertility Community

Hi!

I completed my fertility cleanse mid-April, so this is my second period since then, I have been bleeding for almost 10 days now, with no signs of it slowing down, as its still moderately heavy with a few small clots. Is this normal??

I am starting to worry because I started spotting 2 weeks ago this Sunday, and no signs of my period stopping. I am becoming increasingly tired and lethargic. Can someone please advise, or tell me if this is normal?? I am taking Zymessence, DIM, Women's best friend, & Pycnogenol. I have endometriosis.

Hi Strbuks77,

With your endometriosis have you ever bled like this before?

Zymessence has slight blood thinning properties, you may want to stop using it to see if that helps.

How was your period after the cleanse?

How long have you been taking all of those products? Since the FC kit?

Hi Dalene,

I have never bled this long before ever. I have had mid-cycle bleeds, but not long periods like this one before. My period after the cleanse we heavy with clots, but not over long. I started taking Zymessence with the cleanse, DIM the cycle after, and Womens best friend at the end of the cleanse. I have been taking pcynogenol for a bout a year maybe longer. I have been faithfully taking the Zymessence, DIM, Pcynogenol, & Women's Best friend every day since the fertility cleanse.

You may want to cut out the Women's Best Friend (do not take while on your period) and see what happens, take a break, the same with the Zymessence and DIM, see if anything changes.

You may also want to learn about a product for heavy bleeding days called Slow Flow.

The only way to find out if the products are effecting you is to eliminate them, see if you stop bleeding and then reintroduce them one at a time to see if one of them effects you this way again.

It sounds like you are having some major hormonal shifting.

Be sure to eat a lot of foods that contain good amounts of iron since you have been bleeding for so long, beets, spinach, unsulphured turkish apricots, red meat are good sources of iron.

Let us know if you experience any changes. No one will be around all weekend to check in, so say monday night.

Hi Dalene,

So after I stopped taking everything, the bleeding finally slowed, but I was disappointed to see brown stringy blood again, which I had not previously seen the whole period. I thought the cleanse had done its job, but now I don't know. The bleeding finally stopped by Monday thank God.

I wonder why that happened, I had been taking the Zymessence, DIM, Women's Best Friend, & the Pcynogenol since April (the Pcynogenol for a year) and it hadn't happened before. When you say major hormonal shifting, what does that mean? It can't be good for my fertility. My husband is finally back from deployment, and I thought the perfect time for me to do the cleanse was while he was gone, and try to get my fertility under control, so when he got back we could try for a baby, we were not successful previously trying naturally for 2 years, and 2 failed IUI's last Oct/Nov. So I hoped the fertility cleanse would help, along with the Zymessence for my endometriosis. I figured that is what was preventing us from conceiving. We have 2 girls the first one we did an IUI after trying for 3 years. The second conceived naturally 5 months after delivering my first. Its been nearly 5 years since we had our last child, and its a little discouraging not being able to conceive again. I had high hopes for the cleanse, along with the endo kit for my fertility. I also only have one ovary since I had my right one removed in 2003 due to a large endometrioma. So I have a lot against me right now. I need all the help I can get.

Should I continue to take the Zymessence, & DIM? I ordered some Maca too. I am hesitant to take the Women's Best Friend though. I'm not sure which caused me to bleed so long like that, but I figured one of those things I was taking did, since I stopped so soon after discontinuing taking them. I think some of them are helping though since when I started my period I normally spot brown stringy blood, but this period it was bright red, right from the beginning. That never happens. It was very slow and sketchy for a few days though before it became a full flow, but it was always red. Since I stopped taking it the brown blood came back at the end so something is still wrong.

I guess my cycle is going to be super long this month since I bled for so long. Is their anything that will help with my ovulation now that the bleeding is over? I know I should probably ovulate sometime soon. Anything that I should not take anymore that I was previously taking in regards to the long bleeding? I know their is no way to really know which one was the culprit, but I was wondering if you had any ideas of which one may have caused it.

Thanks so much for your help Dalene!

Hi strbuks77,

I think many women have a misconception about the Fertility Cleanse-that is going to be a "cure all" for all of their fertility problems and that those problems are just going to go away when the cleanse is over. Natural Fertility is more than that...it often requires lifestyle changes including diet, exercise and maybe some supplements to help get us back on track. The Fertility Cleanse Kit is meant to help build a foundation for healthy balanced hormones and to help create a healthy environment in the uterus and ovaries. Herbs alone can not create that on their own. Natural supplements sometimes take many months to be effective, we generally feel that they need to be used consistently for 3-6 months and beyond to be effective. The work slowly over time when combined with proper nutrition and exercise as well as avoiding environmental factors that may be contributing to the particular fertility issue. NFI.com is intended to give general information about herbs and supplements that are best for a particular fertility challenge, but that doesn't mean that those supplements are best for everyone. If you are wanting to go the natural route you personally may need more, you may need one on one diagnosis and care from a naturopathic physician or herbalist in your area that can choose the right formulation just for you. I am glad your bleeding has subsided. I am sorry that you are frustrated.


When I say "hormonal shift" yes this is good, because your body needs to have your hormones adjust for the better, so that you can get your hormones to balance out to healthy levels. Endometriosis is connected to an imbalance in estrogen levels. I am wondering if you are low on progesterone? You are taking DIM to reduce estrogen, but you have not included any herbs or supplements to increase progesterone. Many women have had great success using Natural Progesterone Cream to reduce the pain and swelling after 6 months of consistent use.

Hi Dalene,

I guess I did think that the fertility cleanse would help with my endometriosis, I am trying to do better with my diet like cutting out most of my diary and red meats. I want to try to go natural as much as possible. I used to see a reproductive endocrinologist, but they didn't check my hormone levels. They just did my IUI's. I am pretty sure my estrogen is out of whack due to my endometrosis. I also wouldn't be surprised if my progesterone levels were low. I forgot to mention that I do have progesterone cream I just have not used it yet. I hope I can go natural, I get tired of all the tests and needles. I have had five HSG's done. Not fun!!

I do not want another long period like I just had, but do you think it would be okay to continue taking everything, as I do believe it is helping.

The Fertility Cleanse will help your endometriosis by cleansing the liver and uterus. The liver plays a huge role in hormonal balance, it is like a filter and it can get clogged up with excess hormones from toxins in our diets, environmental pollutants as well as synthetic hormones from fertility medications.

There is specific way to use natural progesterone cream for endometriosis. These instructions are to help the endometrial growth subside, become less painful. This way of using progesterone cream for endometriosis should not be done while actively trying to conceive. Here are the guidelines for using it to help with endometriosis: If you have endometriosis, Dr. John Lee recommends using progesterone from days 8 to 26 of your cycle, to reduce the effects of estrogen on the body (estrogen stimulates endometrial growth). Take a short week off to refresh your receptor sites. He has had success with this controlling symptoms within six months. Once the outbreaks of endometriosis are tolerable reduce the usage to days 12 till menstrual cycle.

You may want to add each of the supplements you were taking one at a time. Like an elimination diet. So you eliminated all of them...start with the Zymessence, take it for a week, see how you react to it, notice how you feel. If you are doing fine then add the next one and so on.

To learn what symptoms are a classic sign of Progesterone defficiency and estrogen dominance I highly recommend reading our Progesterone Fertility Guide at this link: http://natural-fertility-info.com/progesterone-fertility-guide