I believe I have celiac disease. My Aunt has tested positive. And my father negative but I don't think they were right about him. I had a doctor tell me I could go on the diet and I would know within a week if I had it. And I strongly believe I do. I have been eating mostly gluten free for a year now. I say mostly because I cheat just enough to not get severe symptoms. I know I shouldn't and I CAN tell it affects me but without an official diagnosis I make excuses and push it as far as I can.

So here is the dilemma. Unexplained infertility and miscarriages run in my family. In fact for 4 generations not one female born to my father’s side has had children. My father being one of 6 kids and my grandfather one of 13, there were alot of opportunities. I am 28 and want to start trying very soon. I know if I have celiac that I need to be better about my diet and I absolutely will. I would do anything. But I thought I need to be tested properly first so that Dr's will take me seriously. Only I would probably have to go on the diet again for who knows how long and then off it again for another extended period of time. And that concerns me. What advice can you give me? What would you do? I'm afraid to wait to long and reduce my chances of pregnancy even more. Any ideas how long you have to be back on the diet for to be tested?

If you have to limit the gluten you eat to avoid symptoms, then you have a gluten problem, be it celiac, preceliac, or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. What difference does it make? Your symptoms would show that you are having a reaction, and that can't be a good thing.

You could always get tested by Enterolabs. Your "cheating" is probably enough to give you antibodies, assuming you are gluten intolerant. This wouldn't tell you if you are officially celiac. But it gives you a test result, without your having to make yourself sick (and do damage to your body) -- just to have a doctor tell you what (I think) you already know.

I'm sorta in the same boat, except that I'm much older.
There were two females in my family and neither of us could get pregnant. I finally did at 40 once I started taking lots of herbs and multivitamins, but then she came 8 weeks early.

Cheating is so easy when you don't know if you are really celiac. I am also cheating based on symptoms, but I never had the typical celiac symptoms. I'm an IBS'er. I'm currently doing experiments to test what does or doesn't cause my symptoms to reappear. I guess I'm gonna have to start a journal so that I'm sure what's affecting me. I don't feel that wheat is actually very healthy whether gluten intolerant or not, so I'm not wanting to go crazy, but I miss flour as a thickener and pizza mostly.

http://www.celiac.com/categories/Celiac-Di...Celiac-Disease/

Here are some articles that might be of interest.

Thanks for the input. My cheating usually consists of contaminated foods not straight flour. Like rice krispies or soy sause if I just have a little. It still makes me sick, but I can function if I don't do it too often.

However, if you have Celiac, functioning does not equate to "no damage being done."

The executive director of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness had fertility problems and tells her story here: http://www.celiaccentral.org/Other/Alice_Bast/272/

Heidi Collins of CNN is a spokesperson for the same group and also had fertility issues: http://www.celiaccentral.org/Newsletter/Ne...nouncement/305/