tell me about vitex

babyjones · 01-03-2004, 08:14 PM

i have heard a lot of pregnancy success storries using vitex. my first question is what is it exactly? is it all natural? i want to take a break from clomid, but i don't want to break from ttc. and i thought i would try it. does any one have a vitex succes story to tell? and how did you use vitex? does it have any side effects? tho, i'm sure the s/e CAN NOT be any worse than those with clomid.

tia

amy

Bekah1999 · 01-03-2004, 10:00 PM

I have not gotten pregnant on Vitex, however I have seen some cycle improvements.

Af used to hang around for almost two weeks, now she comes and goes in a week. My face used to be broken out all of the time, and now it is clear as can be. I used to have no sex drive, now my dh is one happy hubby. In general, I feel sooo much better. I can not put it into words.

I started out with 500mgs a day for two cycles just to see how I reacted. I'm very sensitive to meds and so always start low and work up. The first cycle and 1/2 of the next, my acne actually got worse, but I had heard that it can help with acne and that it can take 3 to 6 months to see any changes. So at the start of the 3rd cycle I upped my dosage to 1000mgs a day. Once I did that, my face cleared up and I believe I have actually o'd this cycle! A first for me on my own in years!

Hope this helped,

babyjones · 01-03-2004, 10:06 PM

thanks! where do i start though? do i hve to wait to start a cycle? i don't have periods on my own. but i would be happy with that for now. i just want my body to work like it's supposed to. and dh would love for me to have an increase in sex drive. after ttc for 5 yrs, i hve none left.

.

emmao · 01-04-2004, 09:47 PM

As far as I know, if you're entirely irregular (as I am) you can start taking vitex whenever.

As has been mentioned, it can take quite a while for it to work (it took about 6 months for me to get AF, although my skin improved very quickly) so patience is required.

As far as side effects are concerned, I've read of a small number of people having an allergic skin reaction, but nothing major.

best of luck,

emmao

babyjones · 01-05-2004, 02:37 AM

i'm sort of taking a break while i try to lose some weight. i think while i'm not using clomid, follistim,etc, i will use vitex just to see how it works with my body.

i was also wondering if anyone knew if there were any bad reactions for diabetics. i take 1500 mgs of glucophage xr every night.

thanks for the info!

amy

paigettie · 01-05-2004, 02:53 PM

when I came off 9 months of clomid I went straight to vitex. It worked better than the clomid, kindof. My cycles were about 5 days or so shorter than on clomid, and my lp went from 11 days on clomid to 13-14 days on vitex. I even got pg a year ago, but m/c'd after only a couple of days. Since then, I've noticed that I atleast O every cycle, even though some of them are still long, but that usually has more to do with my allergy season. This last cycle was right in line with what is normal for me on vitex, so...Hope that helps you some.

Paige

KDS25 · 01-05-2004, 04:33 PM

I wanted to interject my experience with vitex. Keep in mind, however, that most PCOS ladies I've read about seem to do well on vitex. That wasn't the case for me, however. During the time I was on vitex, my already elevated testosterone jumped from 65 to 98! I started having a dramatic increase in hair growth at that time due to the increase. Vitex is often recommended for PCOSers so apparantly it works well for most, but somehow it seemed to respond negatively to my makeup.

babyjones · 01-06-2004, 12:43 AM

paige- i'm very sorry for you loss. it has taken me months to recover from a m/c, emotionaly. thank you for the information. and good luck to you.

kds25-i'm sorry vitex hasn't worked for you. are you trying something else? if so what? and has anything in particular worked for you in the past? i hope you find what works!!! and good luck to you too.

thanks guys, for all the helpful info.

amy