So this cycle I discovered that all those “natural” supplements can do a number on you.

On Friday night I accidentally took a double dose of maca, a yam-like root vegetable grown on some mountains somewhere in South America that’s concentrated into pill form and is awesome for righting your hormones. Except I may have overdone it.

Let me back up.

I’ve never been the most regular of people. Ever since I became a woman at 14, I’ve had the most unpredictable of cycles, and I never really tracked it or paid much attention to it (apart from being surprised and annoyed every month) until my mid 20s.  Then when I became an iPhone user and was able to track it, I obsessed over it like crazy people track chemtrails. Honestly, I got one app and then another, and then when we started thinking about babies I got another two and became obsessed with the data side of it. It’s fascinating.

When you decide to start trying, it’s a lonely world.  Unless your friends are all super open about it taking absolutely ages for them to conceive, it’s a private thing and not discussed. But then you get online and find forums of absolutely wonderful and supportive people (as well as a whole lot of batshit crazies) and realise that talking about all of this stuff is good and shouldn’t be taboo. I don’t even blink when someone talks about the most TMI of stuff on there, and we’re all anonymous. Almost all of us can universally agree, though, that we wish we had more people in our lives talking openly about how hard it can be to conceive, even if there’s nothing wrong with you.  And yes I am aware that here I am saying this from an anonymous blog..

The main issue I have with it all is getting too much into my own head and not being able to figure out what’s going on with my cycle sometimes. Last month I was sure my body was trolling me because I started spotting before my period for the first time and I just threw my hands up in the air.

This month I thought something crazy was happening again as I suddenly had mid-cycle bleeding. All of the intarnetz will tell you this is one of 3 things:

• Ovulation bleeding! You are having such a strong O that the egg has burst from the follicle like a leaping modern dancer and is on its merry way, lucky you! Who cares if you’ve never had this before, it’s obviously what it is!
• Estrogen has gone a bit crazy and caused you to have a bit of a bleed. You’re gonna bleed all the time now. Lucky you!
• You have PELVIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE OR AN STI YOU SLUT

But luckily for me, I realised (after a comment on a forum post) that duh, yes, I took too much Maca.

They recommend with Maca that you start low and build up. It’s supposed to help libido and ahem, fluids, and also just general hormone balance. I pretty much have always felt like my long crazy cycles are due to an imbalance, and for the first few weeks loved taking Maca.  But then I took way too much on Friday and on Saturday my body’s reaction was to spot. And spot and spot. For days.

And being on our 6th cycle (attempt), I started to feel a bit despondent so I went along with suggestions from kind strangers. I do think it helped in certain ways, but it alarms me how much effect an extra dose had on everything.

So no more Maca for me.  For now.  Have you had any issues with natural supplements?

PS:  Supplements I do take and recommend (so far)- Prenatals (obvs – I take Rainbow Light Prenatal One), additional Vitamin B6, additional Vitamin D,  and Omega-3.