Natural Family Planning
If you are interested in natural family planning, you may have heard about basal body temperature. Basal body temperature refers to your body’s temperature when it is at a resting state. Therefore, if you plan to use this method, you need to take your temperature before you get out of bed in the morning.
Tracking your basal body temperature is a fairly easy and inexpensive way of predicting when you will ovulate. You can use your best prediction if you are trying to get pregnant or if you are trying to avoid pregnancy. The first step is to purchase a special basal body temperature thermometer. This thermometer measures to a tenth of a degree, so it is more accurate than a standard thermometer. Your body temperature changes with your hormone fluctuations after you ovulate. The changes are very slight and need to be monitored closely, every day for several months.
Typically, your body temperature will drop very slightly the day before you ovulate. The day after you ovulate, your temperature will rise and stay higher for about five days. Every woman is different, so you will need to keep very accurate records in order to use this method. Most women will only experience one or two-tenths of a degree drop in their temperature before ovulation. After ovulation, some women will experience a full degree rise in temperature, while others only see about four-tenths of a degree rise.
By tracking your basal body temperature, you can very closely monitor when your body ovulates. Some women ovulate as often as every twenty days while others can have a much longer cycle. If your cycle fluctuates at all due to stress, diet, weight gain or loss, or medication, then your estimation of when you ovulate can be way off.
Use this method wisely. If you are using it to avoid pregnancy, you may not be very successful. Your egg can survive in a fertile state for up to twenty four hours after ovulation. You will need to abstain from sexual activity for a few days after ovulation to be fairly safe.
If you are trying to get pregnant, this method can be very effective for predicting ovulation. You will need to have sexual intercourse for approximately five days before ovulation and also on your ovulation day. This greatly increases your chances of conception. It may take you a couple of months to have a good estimation of when you ovulate.
If you are looking for a
Round Rock OBGYN in Texas, consider Heart of Texas Women’s Center for all of your natural family planning needs.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew Romberg, a
Round Rock OBGYN specializing in obstetrical and gynecologic care, is the President of the Heart of Texas Women’s Center. The Heart of Texas Women’s Center provides state of the art health care including surgical procedures, family planning counseling, complete prenatal care including high risk pregnancy management, in-house ultrasonography and well-woman services. For more information, please visit
http://www.hotwc.com.
Labels: basal body temperature, family planning
Preeclampsia: Symptoms, Diagnosis and Prevention
Preeclampsia is not all that uncommon for pregnant women in their third trimester. A little more than five percent of healthy pregnant women will develop Preeclampsia after twenty weeks gestation. Preeclampsia is characterized by swelling in the lower extremities, high blood pressure, the presence of protein in the urine and headaches.
The true cause of Preeclampsia is not really known, though it is widely believed that some fetal antigens trigger an immunity response from the mother, resulting in Preeclampsia. When Preeclampsia first starts coming on, you may not even know it. This is why it is crucial to go to every prenatal appointment so that your OBGYN can closely monitor your urine protein levels, blood pressure and swelling. You may not notice any symptoms at first, but Preeclampsia is usually a progressive condition. You may start to experience headaches, sensitivity to light, nausea and/or vomiting as well as swelling in the lower extremities. Sometimes these symptoms can come on rather quickly and you need to see your doctor immediately if you notice them.
If Preeclampsia goes untreated, it can easily progress into eclampsia. If it does, you may experience convulsions, seizures, blackouts and sometimes total unconsciousness. This is a very dangerous, life threatening condition. If you or your loved ones notice any of these symptoms, you should be immediately taken to the emergency room.
If your doctor diagnoses you with Preeclampsia, you will be closely monitored and you should be ready for an early delivery. Constant monitoring of mother and child is crucial for ensuring the safety of both. Bed rest or hospitalization may be recommended based on the progression of the disorder. You may be given magnesium sulfate to help keep eclampsia at bay. The only real cure for Preeclampsia is delivery. Through careful monitoring, your doctor will decide when the risks to you outweigh the risks to the baby and the baby will be delivered.
Most cases of Preeclampsia can be managed from home. The baby may be monitored for maturity about twice a week. Your doctor will most likely suggest that you deliver as soon as the baby is ready even if your Preeclampsia is mild. This is because things can get worse the further along you go. Induction is common with Preeclampsia patients and so are cesarean sections.
Talk to your doctor about managing your Preeclampsia at home. Diet, bed rest and stress levels can all have an effect on your condition. If you are in Texas and need to find a
Round Rock OBGYN, please consider Heart of Texas Women’s Center for all of your prenatal needs.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew Romberg, a
Round Rock OBGYN specializing in obstetrical and gynecologic care, is the President of the Heart of Texas Women’s Center. The Heart of Texas Women’s Center provides state of the art health care including surgical procedures, family planning counseling, complete prenatal care including high risk pregnancy management, in-house ultrasonography and well-woman services. For more information, please visit
http://www.hotwc.com.
Labels: about Preeclampsia, Preeclampsia, Preeclampsia symptoms
Prenatal Diet
Congratulations! You have your bun in the oven and you are already doing the right thing by researching how to take care of yourself and your baby. Diet is one of the foremost things on many pregnant women’s list of priorities. It is something you can do every day to ensure a happy, healthy pregnancy.
First, we will discuss what to avoid. Caffeine is the big one up for debate here. Some experts agree that a couple of small cups of coffee per day are fine. Others disagree and suggest that you are better off safe than sorry. If you just can not survive without it, then talk to your doctor about possible risks before you proceed to that corner coffee shop.
Seafood should be limited to about two servings per week. You should completely avoid fish containing a lot of mercury, such as shark, swordfish and King Mackerel. Your OBGYN may also have a comprehensive list of local fare that may also be high in mercury.
Artificial sweeteners are not necessarily bad in moderation, but keep in mind that the full effects of artificial sweeteners may be unknown. Some can build up in your system and become more harmful over time.
Some things, such as chamomile tea, may seem harmless but can actually be dangerous. Rose hip teas, ginger, lemon, and citrus peel teas have been found safe. If you have questions about your favorite herbal teas, be sure to check with your doctor first.
Your basic prenatal diet should consist of many fruits and vegetables plus some source of protein at every meal. It is very important not to skip meals. The baby will quickly rob you of nutrients that you need to sustain a healthy pregnancy.
Calcium is very important during pregnancy. You and your baby need a lot more than normal, about 1,000 mg or more per day. You may consider taking a supplement if you do not eat 5-6 servings of dairy per day. Vitamin D is also necessary for calcium absorption. Check your prenatal vitamins for calcium and Vitamin D content. Make sure that at least some of your calcium comes from food because it can be more absorbable than in pill form. If you can not have dairy, consider vegetable sources, such as broccoli and spinach.
Prenatal vitamins are necessary even if you eat a completely healthy and balanced diet. Prenatal vitamins contain folic acid, or folate, needed to reduce the risk of problems, such as Neural Tube Defects. Ideally, you should take a folate supplement from the first day of your pregnancy, or even before you become pregnant.
Iron is very important for the baby’s blood supply. You can get extra iron into your diet by eating nuts, red meat, chicken, whole grains and cereals that are iron fortified. Your OBGYN should test your iron levels to see if you will need a supplement.
Talk with your OBGYN about your body’s specific needs. If you are looking for an experienced and skilled
Round Rock OBGYN in Texas, please consider Heart of Texas Women’s Center.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew Romberg, a
Round Rock OBGYN specializing in obstetrical and gynecologic care, is the President of the Heart of Texas Women’s Center. The Heart of Texas Women’s Center provides state of the art health care including surgical procedures, family planning counseling, complete prenatal care including high risk pregnancy management, in-house ultrasonography and well-woman services. For more information, please visit
http://www.hotwc.com.
Labels: pregnancy diet, prenatal diet, prenatal vitamins
Why Hysteroscopy?
If your gynecologist has recommended a hysteroscopy procedure, you may be wondering why and what you can expect. One common reason that your OBGYN may suggest this procedure is to find the cause of abnormal menstrual bleeding. Hysteroscopy can also be used to find abnormalities in the uterine size or shape. This can help if you have had problems with a missing intrauterine device (IUD), miscarriages, infertility, adhesions or other abnormal growths.
The procedure is performed with a hysteroscope. This instrument is similar to a tiny telescope that allows the OBGYN to look around inside of your uterus. Your doctor can remove polyps or fibroids and also take biopsies of tissues that may be causing you problems. They do this by inserting tiny surgical instruments through the hysteroscope.
Most doctors will recommend general anesthesia for this procedure, though it is not always necessary. Hysteroscopy is a minimally invasive surgery because no incision is actually made. The hysteroscope can be inserted through the vagina and past the cervix. The doctor can get a good look around and even inspect the openings of your fallopian tubes. This can help to identify fertility problems.
Because this is a minimally invasive procedure, recovery time is generally very fast. Discuss with your doctor what you can expect before, during and after the procedure. Hysteroscopy is frequently and successfully used as a diagnostic instrument. In these cases, complications are very rare. The hysteroscope can also be used operatively and risks can be higher depending on what type of procedure you are having done. Again, be sure that you have a clear understanding of the risks and possible complications before undergoing any surgical procedure.
When diagnosing abnormalities of the uterus, your OBGYN may suggest that a sonohysterograph procedure be performed before you undergo hysteroscopy. This is primarily a procedure to give the doctor a good idea of what they can expect when they get inside. This can help prepare if it is obvious that an operative procedure will be necessary.
The sonohysterograph is a sonogram performed after the uterine cavity is filled with fluid. The fluid will be injected through your cervix. A fluid filled uterine cavity gives a much clearer view than a basic sonogram does. This is very helpful when searching for uterine abnormalities.
If you still have questions, please talk with your OBGYN before your procedure.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew Romberg, a
Round Rock OBGYN specializing in obstetrical and gynecologic care, is the President of the Heart of Texas Women’s Center. The Heart of Texas Women’s Center provides state of the art health care including surgical procedures, family planning counseling, complete prenatal care including high risk pregnancy management, in-house ultrasonography and well-woman services. For more information, please visit
http://www.hotwc.com.
Labels: about hysteroscopy, hysteroscopy, what is hysteroscopy
Chronic Fatigue in Women
It’s no wonder many women are prone to chronic fatigue. It is very common nowadays for a woman to commute to work 40 plus hours a week and to zoom home to the demands of children, aging parents, and running a household. She is expected to remain on the go throughout the day and often is so tired at the end of the day has trouble getting a good night’s sleep. Fatigue has a way of mounting up rather than going away after a rest period. Ordinary fatigue turns into chronic fatigue, a condition that can silently undermine their relationships, work, home life and eventually their health.
Often healthcare providers will not take conditions of fatigue seriously simply because it is not a disease. It is also considered a normal symptom of today’s busy life style. But left unchecked it can lead to an unhealthy downward spiral which includes premature aging, compromised immune function and eventually, a heightened risk of disease.
Once any serious medical condition has been ruled out, chronic fatigue begins as a deceptively simple problem where the demands on your body are greater than the support it is getting. The pattern starts as mild fatigue, symptoms persist and usually worsen with time, and a good night’s sleep leaves you feeling just as tired as before. Recognize this pattern as chronic fatigue. Check out the ways to get your energy back and restore your love of life before the condition takes over. Symptoms of chronic fatigue tend to slowly worsen over time. Women, who are multi-taskers, often ignore their fatigue until it leads to other symptoms such as depression, binge-eating and weight gain.
Symptoms of fatigue can show in many ways. For many women these symptoms ebb and flow with their monthly cycle. With chronic fatigue, these symptoms last for weeks or more. Eventually the symptoms are nearly constant. They include: feelings of exhaustion (both mental and physical), being tired in the morning, feeling rundown or overwhelmed, inability to bounce back from being sick, stress headaches, joint pain, uncharacteristic muscle soreness after physical exertion, depressed mood, loss of energy, poor short-term memory, confusion, irritability, lightheadedness, strong food cravings (particularly for sweets or other carbohydrates), dependence on caffeine, sugar or alcohol (especially in the afternoon and early evening), and “second winds” after 6:00pm.
If you feel any of these for more than a stretch of ten days or so, call your doctor to have some blood tests run. This will rule out any serious secondary conditions like bacterial infection or a virus. Most likely your doctor will be concerned because many illnesses and diseases begin with symptoms of fatigue. Remember a healthy, balanced body and mind, given adequate food, sleep and water, should not feel tired for any extended period of time. Being tired all the time is not an acceptable part of any age or modern life.
Even if your conventional blood tests return as normal, don’t disregard persistent symptoms of fatigue. Chronic fatigue is complicated. Sometimes modern testing doesn’t reveal the true results. Holistic and functional medicine does. Discover what your individual body needs are. How do you begin to help yourself when it comes to fatigue? Correcting patterns of some of the common causes is the way to start. Things that should be considered and carefully looked into are your sleep, emotional health, stress, dietary habits, nutritional supplements, water intake, and your daily exercise or activity program.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew Romberg, a
Round Rock OBGYN specializing in obstetrical and gynecologic care, is the President of the Heart of Texas Women’s Center. The Heart of Texas Women’s Center provides state of the art health care including surgical procedures, family planning counseling, complete prenatal care including high risk pregnancy management, in-house ultrasonography and well-woman services. For more information, please visit
http://www.hotwc.com.
Labels: chronic fatigue, symptoms of fatigue, what is fatigue
Emotions and Health
For many years conventional medicine believed that your health was a matter of genetics, infection exposure, and lifestyle. It was a rare exception when emotional experience also played factor to your health condition. There is now solid science behind the correlation of emotional experience and a host of diseases and health conditions including heart disease, depression, obesity and chronic pain. When looking at the body as a whole, emotional experience now plays a significant part in your overall health. Fatigue and stress have been seen as culprits in hindering your health.
Without dealing with their emotional health, no one can be really well. Little progress can be made curing a physical condition, no matter what therapy is used, until there is progress at the emotional level.
Unresolved emotional issues contribute to failing physical problems. They might be emotional experiences that happened many years ago in your childhood, hidden and festering inside the body that come out later in life in the form of an adverse health condition or disease. Often for women, menopause is a time when your body is telling you it is ready to resolve emotional issues and needs healing. Both your emotional and physical health can be healed together. It can be a time when you can reclaim your self.
The most insightful place to explore the emotional roots of disease may be the breakthrough ACE Study. In the 1990’s over 17,000 patients of a large health plan were enrolled in a study to assess the link between emotional experience and adult health. The results were stunning which gave reason to reconsider the structure of primary care in America’s medical practice.
Participants were asked whether they had experienced any of eight forms of personal abuse or dysfunctional family behavior before the age of 18, each called an “adverse childhood experience” (ACE). More than half of the patients had one ACE or more. Even more surprising was the correlation to health outcomes. Those who had experienced an ACE were more likely to have an adverse health condition or disease as an adult. The health outcomes covered a wide range including heart disease, fractures, diabetes, obesity, alcoholism, and more.
The truth is that all emotional experience affects our health, whether positive or negative, and whether it occurs in the past or the present. Negative emotional experiences appear to have more lasting health effects, perhaps because we tend to ignore dealing with them.
Some psychologists and scientists believe we have five basic feelings: joy, fear, anger, grief and love, with other feeling states being variations on these five. An emotion is what your body does with one of these feelings.
The Center for Disease Control estimates that 90% of all visits to the doctor are stress-related. There are hundreds of medical studies linking stress to a host of diseases. Stress is personal. Something that is stressful to one person is not necessarily to another, because of each person’s emotional history. Our biography becomes our biology, in a sense. People develop patterns to dealing with stress. It is important to be aware of your personal patterns and to learn to control them for your emotional wellbeing and your physical health.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew Romberg, a
Round Rock OBGYN specializing in obstetrical and gynecologic care, is the President of the Heart of Texas Women’s Center. The Heart of Texas Women’s Center provides state of the art health care including surgical procedures, family planning counseling, complete prenatal care including high risk pregnancy management, in-house ultrasonography and well-woman services. For more information, please visit
http://www.hotwc.com.
Labels: emotional health, how emotion affects health, women health emotion
Alternatives to Hysterectomy
Two of the most common problems women have that lead to thinking about hysterectomy are excessive menstrual bleeding and uterine fibroids. If you have one or both of these, perhaps you think that surgery is your only choice. But you should know that it’s not. There are alternatives to hysterectomy. Many are quite successful utilizing cutting-edge techniques and are much less invasive to the body.
About a third of American women have a hysterectomy by age 60. For some it goes smoothly and they have a relatively care-free experience. But for others it can be an abrupt entry into menopause causing severe hormonal symptoms and dependence on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which often has risks attached. Many women are unprepared for the debilitating side effects they experience after hysterectomy.
Weighing the benefits versus the risks of hysterectomy with your doctor considering your particular health condition and history, is something every woman must do when faced with this decision. As with everything, the more you know, the better equipped you will be to make the right choice for yourself. Consider carefully all the alternatives and new options available.
To be clear about the risks and what is involved with having a hysterectomy, review the basics. The uterus is also known as the womb, and “uter” is Latin for “bag”. The pelvic organ is suspended by ligaments between the bladder and rectum, and is connected to the vagina with a cervix. In Chinese, the word for uterus means “palace for the child”, which is, by any standard, just about the best description.
The fallopian tubes carry eggs from the ovaries to the uterus. The lining (endometrium) of the uterus swells with each menstrual cycle becoming engorged in preparation for the implantation of a fertilized egg. The body sheds this lining with a period if the implantation does not happen. If implantation does occur, the uterus grows for nine months to accommodate the fetus’s growth, then shrinks back to pre-baby size after delivery. This process is orchestrated by the complex communication of your sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone). During your menstruating years, your ovaries are responsible for producing most of your body’s estrogen and progesterone.
Especially if you have been struggling with heavy bleeding or painful fibroids, it may seem easier to remove the reproductive organs in one fell swoop, as a hysterectomy would do. But consider when these organs are removed, naturally this change is going to bring on complications and confusion within the woman’s total body. Only within the last century has it been recognized that the brain has primary control over a woman’s emotions, and that the removal of her reproductive organs can often cause more problems than it solves. New insight into the aftermath of a total hysterectomy (including the ovaries) reveals that many women feel totally wrecked without the natural hormonal wash from their ovaries.
Before elective surgery, explore the many alternatives that treat heavy bleeding, endometriosis, fibroids, and polyps. Current treatment options include: medical/hormonal management, D&C and hysteroscopy, endometrial ablation and endometriosis excision, myomectomy, and uterine artery embolization (UAE).
Studies into other options are continuously underway, and new techniques are being developed and researched. Although the results of these innovations are mixed, the encouraging news is that these less invasive techniques do actually work. For many women hysterectomy is a choice, not their destiny.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew Romberg, a
Round Rock OBGYN specializing in obstetrical and gynecologic care, is the President of the Heart of Texas Women’s Center. The Heart of Texas Women’s Center provides state of the art health care including surgical procedures, family planning counseling, complete prenatal care including high risk pregnancy management, in-house ultrasonography and well-woman services. For more information, please visit
http://www.hotwc.com.
Labels: about hysterectomies, hysterectomy, hysterectomy alternatives
Hypothyroidism
Low thyroid function, medically termed hypothyroidism, affects millions of women especially during the peri-menopausal and post-menopausal years. It has been usually treated in the conventional way by isolating the thyroid from the rest of the body. When it is approached holistically, however, often the problem can be cured before it becomes a permanent problem.
Hypothyroidism is commonly described as an under active or slow thyroid, but there is more to it than just thyroid activity. Sometimes the problem is thyroid hormone imbalance. It is primarily caused by the underproduction of the thyroid’s main hormone, thyroxine (T4). The liver converts T4 into its active form, triiodothyronine (T3). It then has to be efficiently utilized by the body. Disruption in any one of these processes can contribute to hypothyroidism symptoms. In order for the thyroid to be healthy, the liver must be doing its job, and adequate exercise should be maintained.
Because of the connection between menopause and hormonal imbalance, thyroid problems afflict more women than men. Hypothyroidism can lead to fatigue, weight gain, depression, high cholesterol and other symptoms. Poor nutrition also impairs thyroid function. Some women suffer from hyperthyroidism, which is an overactive thyroid. Thyroid hormonal imbalance often happens to women during menopause. Over 20% of menopausal women in the US are diagnosed with thyroid dysfunction. For women in their late 30’s or 40’s, hypothyroidism is often a good indication that they are peri-menopausal. The hormonal imbalance women go through during menopause acts as a trigger for thyroid problems. The delicate balance of hormones such as estrogen and progesterone can be upset when under stress and when not receiving enough support. Peri-menopause, menopause, and pregnancy are times in a woman’s life when hormonal imbalance is particularly common. This imbalance in the ratio between estrogen and progesterone triggers hypothyroidism.
The thyroid gland sits at the very center of the endocrine system. It is just as vulnerable to stress and lack of support as every other part of your body. In addition to hormonal imbalance, other conditions often cause or contribute to hypothyroidism. It is best not to isolate the thyroid as a single entity, but to look at the body as a set of interconnected systems. There are many symptoms of adrenal fatigue that are similar to thyroid disorders. Adrenal stress impairs thyroid function because it causes the overproduction of cortisol, blocking the efficient conversion and peripheral cellular use of the thyroid hormones at many levels. For this reason, testing for adrenal function in combination with thyroid testing is a good idea.
Natural thyroid health depends on a delicate balance among all the body’s major hormones. Optimal thyroid function can happen when this balance is achieved through proper nutrition, supplements, stress management, and regular adequate exercise.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew Romberg, a
Round Rock OBGYN specializing in obstetrical and gynecologic care, is the President of the Heart of Texas Women’s Center. The Heart of Texas Women’s Center provides state of the art health care including surgical procedures, family planning counseling, complete prenatal care including high risk pregnancy management, in-house ultrasonography and well-woman services. For more information, please visit
http://www.hotwc.com.
Labels: Hypothyroidism, what is Hypothyroidism
