But maybe you're skeptical. Understandable.

I'm asking you to think outside of the box here.

But first, let's talk about your doctor's "solution," IVF. The first problem with IVF is it’s highly expensive and most insurance companies do not cover it. The second problem with IVF is it’s NOT guaranteed to work! And, on average, it can take three cycles before you are successful! And still...NOT guaranteed. Now, take the initial cost of IVF ($12,400 average), plus IVF meds ($3,000 average), times THREE!

The cost is astronomical. There’s no need to put that number in black and white here. You get the point.

And all of the risks associated with IVF are just scary!

The second "solution" your doctor might offer is surgery to try to repair your tubes. Here’s the problem with surgery. Some may think that surgery would be the simple answer. Can’t the doctors just go in the tubes and cut out the scar tissue and fix them? Seems logical enough, right?

The seemingly simple solution of surgery to correct this issue is not so simple at all. The problem with surgery (which, in this example, is just a fancy word for 'cutting') is the formation of scar tissue. Surgery or 'cutting' actually CAUSES scar tissue or adhesions!

The fact of the matter is scar tissue is a normal healing response from the body whenever trauma or injury occurs. And intelligently, the body views surgery as an injury, a violation. Once injured, the immune system jumps in to repair things, which leads to inflammation and the production of scar tissue called a fibrin matrix. And when we are trying to eliminate scar tissue and adhesions in our delicate, thin-as spaghetti-strand fallopian tubes, this is a double-edged sword and an unnecessary risk, in my opinion.

From the time I was a little girl,

I carried around dollbaby after dollbaby,

knowing in my heart that one day I, too, would be a Mommy.

On occasion, I would even put a balloon up my shirt,

and look in the mirror at myself, imagining that I had a baby in there. I smile at my innocence now, but I tell you this to let you know that I truly feel your pain.

Obviously, life didn’t quite go as I had planned it as a little girl.

I grew up, got married, and waited. I waited for the month when I wouldn’t get my period, and I would announce to my husband and family and friends that I was having a baby.

The problem was...I kept waiting. Month after month ...after month. Every month when my period came, I would be heartbroken.

I would go through the same vicious cycle of emotions every single month.

It went something like this: First, heartbreak. Then, despair. Then, I felt like I was letting everyone else down. I felt like a disappointment. I felt discouraged. Then, it turned into begrudging acceptance. Then, at the end, a ray of hope came... for next month. At least, my body was doing one thing right, I thought to myself. Next month will be the one.

So after about a year of this vicious monthly cycle of disappointment and dread, I finally decided it was time to go get some professional help. I scheduled an appointment with a fertility specialist. I wholeheartedly expected them to just check me out and give me some fertility drugs and send me on my way, and then I would get pregnant the next month! Again, I now smile at my naivety and innocence.

My appointment day came.

It was a cold, dreary New Jersey day. Was that a sign or what?

I was told that they would be drawing some blood to check my hormones and also performing a test called an HSG to check my fallopian tubes. So, after my blood was drawn, I was taken to an x-ray room and told to lay on the table (feet in stirrups, legs spread wide eagle, you know the drill). The doctor came in shortly after, and proceeded to stick a tube inside my cervix (ouch!) and then he shot some dye inside of me and started taking pictures with the x-ray machine. His face went from normal to perplexed or concerned. I was hoping it was just his ‘serious doctor’ face.

After taking a few pictures, he told me to get dressed and he would meet me in the planning room. I thought, OK, sure, that wasn’t as bad as I thought...now I can get my fertility drugs and go home and start making this baby already! Again...you got it, Naive Jodi once again.

So, I go to the planning room. I wait for the doctor. It felt like five years. It was probably only five minutes.

He finally comes in. He has that same 'serious doctor' face on again! My thoughts: What the heck, dude?? So, he sits down and shows me the x-ray pictures. I see what look like sausages on both sides.

He says to me in a matter-of-fact fashion, “Jodi, your fallopian tubes are blocked. You also have hydrosalpinx in both tubes.

IVF is your only option.”

Hydro-what? I-V-what?? Wait a minute! Re-wind! Huh??

That’s what I was saying in my head. I pulled myself together and was able to murmur through my tears, “What do you mean doctor? I can’t have a baby naturally??”

He says, again matter-of-factly, “No, Jodi, your fallopian tubes are blocked and damaged and you cannot have a baby naturally. You will have to do IVF.”

I said, “Well, how much is IVF?” He says to me, with no pause or concern at all, “It’s about $15,000. Your insurance MIGHT cover it, but they usually don’t. You’ll have to find out, but I doubt it.”

When I tell you my heart sank...It was in my feet!! I left the doctor’s office in tears, hopeless. All of my dreams of motherhood had just been stomped on and destroyed. As I walked to the city bus, I couldn’t tell the difference between the tears on my face and the rain that was now pouring down on me. I was choking on my tears. I was CRUSHED.

As I sat on the bus on the way home, all I could think about was not being able to look in the mirror and see that big belly looking back at me like I did when I was a little girl. Not being able to experience the miracle of childbirth. Not being able to hold and nurse my sweet baby. Not being able to watch my child grow up and witness all of the joys of motherhood.

Then, as I got to my stop, I walked to my house, opened the door and there was my husband ('former' husband - you’ll see one of the reasons that is in a moment).

I burst into tears and told him I couldn’t give him a baby. He was stunned. He didn’t know what to say or how to console me.

Then I told him about IVF and maybe we could save up for it. He didn’t want anything to do with it. He said it was artificial and he wouldn’t do it. Talk about throwing salt in my wounds!

So, what did I do? I threw myself into my bed and stayed there for two days straight! Depressed is not the word. I was DONE.

I only got up to drink some water, use the bathroom, pray and go back to bed. While I was lying there, between sleep and wake, I had some thoughts and visions. I thought to myself, 'hey, maybe I can figure this out. That doctor doesn’t know everything! He’s not God, after all! Who is he to tell me I have no other options?!'

So, at that moment, I jumped out of the bed! I ran to the computer, sat down and started typing, 'how to unblock blocked fallopian tubes'. Nothing. Remember, this was over 15 years ago.

Then, I typed, 'how to heal scar tissue'. OK, there were a few suggestions. But most of them were only addressing scar tissue on the outer skin, not internal scar tissue.

So, I kept digging. I went on like this, for months and months, spending most of my time on the computer. (I blame my poor vision I have now on this timeframe.) I kept tedious, meticulous notes.

I started trying different things - aloe vera juice, different vitamins, a Caribbean bushman’s disgusting herbal concoction that tasted just like dirt water and hennessey.

No lie. I was relentless. I was desperate.

Then, I even found a professional Homeopath and hired her to help me. She tried to help me for two solid years, trying remedy after remedy. Each different thing I tried gave me so much hope that I just knew this one would be 'it'! It would cure me and I would have my baby finally!

But none of this worked. And, again, I found myself back in that vicious monthly cycle. Month after month, Aunt Flow (my period, in the 'trying to conceive' world) would show her face. She was nothing, if not consistent.

I even went so far as to try a crazy-expensive massage therapy in Florida that was supposed to help open blocked fallopian tubes. Well, after that experience, all I came home with was memories of a fun vacation with my mom. Bless her sweet heart for coming out of her own pocket to try to help me. I feel so bad that it didn’t work. Again, the disappointment.

At this point, I knew if I was going to solve this problem and heal myself, I was going to have to go all in and formally enroll myself into alternative medicine school. I did just that in 2012.

I enrolled in school to be a Naturopathic Doctor. I knew that I could heal myself. I just needed the correct information, the proper tools, and a bodily environment conducive to healing.

By only day three of my new healing protocol, I started seeing visible signs of healing! I knew, without a doubt, that it was working.

So, I continued on, with full confidence that I WOULD heal myself! It was just a matter of time, patience, and consistency.

I began documenting my journey - the amazing supplements I had learned about in school and was using to heal myself, the timing and combination of these supplements, supplement schedules that should be followed, some other powerful techniques and therapies to help move the process along even faster, etc.

It was all so exciting to me. I knew I would one day share this with the other women in the world that were suffering, just like me.

I knew that one day, I would be telling these women,

“No! IVF Is NOT Your Only Option!”

And you CAN, in fact, heal your own body

and naturally conceive your baby.

After following my protocol, that I appropriately coined, The Fallopian Tube Formula, for a good and consistent amount of time, I finally decided to go to the doctor and get a follow-up HSG.

It was a sunny Virginia afternoon; the weather was great. I laid down on that table, put my feet up in those stirrups and told my doctor to “Beam me up, Scotty!” She laughed as she placed the tube through my cervix and began to shoot the dye into my uterine cavity. I watched on the monitor as I saw the dye fill my uterus. She said, “the uterus looks good.”

I closed my eyes for a moment while I prayed.

Then I heard her say those beautiful words.