Intro

Welcome to my infertility blog – where I hope to share my ups, downs, thoughts and dreams!  

I have recently started posting on thebump’s TTTC board and have loved reading other people’s blogs and the journey that they been on.  I figured this would be a good outlet for me to share my husband and my journey in trying to conceive.  

About us:

Me: 30 years old (about to be 31!) I love running, animals, British period movies/shows and making lists!

DH: 30 years old (he is also about to be 31 because our birthdays are 5 days apart!) He loves triathlons, and eating!

We have been married for almost 3 years.  Our anniversary falls right in between our 2 birthdays so it is a very exciting 5 day time period each year!  We have a dwarf rabbit named Stewie who we estimate at 4.5 years old and a 14 month old goldendoodle named Winnie.  We love to travel and be active. 

Our TTC journey thus far:

When I was about 18-19 I noticed my cycle started to gradually get longer and longer and my period started to get smaller and smaller until it was pretty much nonexistent.  This was also around the time where I went onto birth control pills so whenever I brought this up to the doctors they would tell me that the birth control I was on could do that, so I assumed this was a normal thing.  When I was about 25 years old I started to get concerned that I never got a period on my own and so the ob/gyn had me go off birth control for a few months to see if it would come back.  It didn’t come back on its own so they jump started it with progesterone.  My period came back for a few months then gradually went away again.  Since this was before we were married and even thinking about TTC I sort of had the attitude of “well that is weird, but hey I can restart my cycles with drugs so I guess it isn’t a big problem” and I went back on BCPs.  

Fast forward a few years and DH and I are both 29, married and want to start getting ready for a family.  I go off BCPs  in July 2011 in hopes that my period would come back on its own.  We wait until my ob/gyn annual appointment in January 2012 to discuss my issues with the doctor.  The doctor runs some blood tests and an ultrasound and gives me a diagnosis of PCOS.  I was somewhat surprised by the diagnosis because from my research I always thought PCOS meant you had a lot of acne, hair growing everywhere and were overweight – none of which I showed.  But the other symptoms of long irregular (or nonexistent) periods, elevated testosterone and “string of pearls” like ovaries were all symptoms I have.  

After my diagnosis we went through the following cycles with the ob/gyn:

January-February: Progesterone to start period

February-March: Progesterone to start period, Clomid 50 mg with only 21 day b/w which showed progesterone level of 1.2 (did not ovulate)

March-April: Period started on its own after 37 days, Clomid 100 mg with only day 21 b/w 0.7 (did not ovulate)

May-June: Made appointment to see Reproductive Endocrinologist, did not take any medication this cycle.

Thoughts on medicated cycles with ob/gyn:

Looking back I have a lot of different thoughts on these cycles.  After being on TheBump I have learned that taking Clomid while not properly being monitored is a BAD thing, and I can definitely see why.  While taking Clomid I would get hot flashes, mood swings and cramps so bad that when I ran I would have to stop halfway through a run because they hurt so bad.  Since I wasn’t being properly monitored I had no idea what was going on inside my ovaries – were they responding at all?  Was I developing cysts?  No idea.  I also feel now that the 21 day b/w would have been way too early to test me because of my long cycles I probably wouldn’t  have ovulated until day 22-24 (based on my recent charting) so taking a blood test on day 21 would have totally missed the ball.  

In early June we went to see an RE:

June-July: initial appointment and bloodwork.  Period came on its own on June 13 for a 35 day cycle

July-August: due to where I was in my cycle at our initial meeting we had to wait another  month to get CD3 b/w and ultrasound as well as an HSG on CD6.  

Results with RE:

Based on all the bloodwork, US, HSG, SA, etc the RE confirmed that I have lean PCOS, but that my tubes are open and DH’s SA was normal.   Based on this info and the fact that I have already tried Clomid 50 & 100 mg’s he suggested doing a round of Clomid 150 mg + trigger shot + IUI.  

We are currently waiting for the red she devil to show up so that I can go in for my CD3 b/w and ultrasound so I can start taking the Clomid on day 3-7.  

So that is the nitty gritty on us.  I hope my next posts are more interesting than just the medical side of things but I figured it best to put our TTC journey out their first so you could see where I am coming from!