So I went to see my always happy, never stressed acupuncturist, Dr. Jiao, and he immediately looked at me and said my face didn't look so "good." I told him about my dental problems, how I'd basically given myself non-cavity cavities by clenching my teeth so hard that they cracked, and of course I also mentioned my dad's great teeth, which led Dr. Jiao to mention that he went to a dentist once in 16 years (not 16 months, mind you) and his teeth, of course, like my dad's, were perfect. No stress here.

It's pathetic to admit (which I did not, to Dr.... more

My son just lost a front tooth, which is very cute. There was another tooth behind it, just waiting to take its place.

I mentioned in an earlier post that even though my father went through starvation conditions during the Korean War, he died without a single cavity. We kids were raised in a somewhat similar way, in that we didn't get much in the way of sugar and soda, especially not in comparison with the typical American diet.

So I have perfect teeth, too. The kind that make dentists peer in my mouth and go, "Wow!" My dentist in New York... more

Nancy, our fearless editor, had a great post about her granddaughter's astute observation of a correlation between fertility problems and obesity, and she mentioned how Polycycstic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is probably one of the most common conditions and causes of female infertility.

Interestingly, it is also secondarily related to obesity because it involves hormonal imbalances, particularly insulin resistance. Sound familiar? In my post... more

I've been talking a lot recently about how stress impacts your immune system (and believe me, I'm not done!), which makes you less healthy, more prone to disease, and ultimately, less fertile.

So I want to switch to the half-full mode and talk about things that can help your health, wealth (fewer doctor's bills), and fertility--bloom into life, here.

I am in a parents' group for children with a severe chronic illness. Most pediatricians have told us we just have to live with our children's pain, digestive upset, etc., that it was just part of that... more

My sister was just visiting, and she suggested the TV remote as a possible icon for MAN FERTILITY, and my husband was a good sport, as we insisted we need a "hairy arm" for the picture, and posed for the picture. Now, not only an environmental historian, but hand model, too. Wow!

The glass of beer was a nice idea while it lasted, but I recently found out that alcohol can diminish male fertility, so that's not an appropriate icon. I think we are down to the POWER DRILL (yikes! That arm is even hairier!) and the REMOTE. ... more

Even if you don't believe in global warming (which I do) you don't have to be a climatologist to see that something wacky is happening with the weather--tornadoes in the midwest? Snow in the Joshua Tree desert? I was doing a lecture in Connecticut last week in the middle of a snowstorm--and a huge thunderclap scared us all out of our wits.

In the Arizona-Phoenix area, the drought there has gone so long that animals have stopped reproducing. And why? STRESS.

I hope this sweet picture of my son wading in the Atlantic will help instill a nice sense... more

There is another reason I am drinking lots of green tea (and coffee). I need the strength to get through our taxes.

Being a writer is stressful enough (think of facing the blank page every day) but the tax thing is a chronic worry. We have tons of unreimbursed medical expenses because of our son, and then I have the complications of my freelance work. I try to keep good notes, calendars, copies of receipts, but then when it's time to go flying out the door to another doctor's appointment, often I am forced to just chuck the receipts in an ever growing mess of... more

Here's my little Korean celadon tea set. You will see it's very cleverly made, with a bowl like cup (the clay is very thick-walled, so it gets warm in your hand, but not hot, so you don't need handles--plus it's nice to cup the bowl in your hands, as is traditional). And then the cup comes with a build in clay filter that fits right in it.

As said previously, I'm trying to drink more green tea for health and fertility reasons, but I also use the filter to drink... more

This is me trying to chill out with my little Korean tea mug.

My nice acupuncturist, Dr. Jiao, is always getting after me to de-stress. In Korea, it is customary to use tea to de-stress. I mentioned to him that I really like this green tea-ginseng combo tea, but that ginseng gets me too wired because I have too much of a "yang" personality (in the yin-yang circle, yin is female energy and yang is male) and ginseng is also very "yang." He gave me a great idea to add a little honey, which is very yin, to the tea, and yippee, I can drink it.

Even better, on one of my favorite... more

Susan, a visitor to the Fertilityblog and who writes her own blog left an interesting comment on my post fretting about whether to add or not add another sibling for our son. This is what she said:

Ah, Marie, you know what the rub is? They're all right. Siblings are a blessing AND a curse. I was one of those only children who always wished for siblings. But I was thinking Brady Bunch and the Von Trapp family. I really did not have any clue about reality.

This reminded me... more