My Story

Our love story began in high school and continued to grow through out the years. Strangely I've always known having our family wouldn't come easy for us. As a teenager I suffered from irregular cycles. I consulted with several doctors from the moment I turned 18 and was always pushed off saying I was still young my hormones just needed to regulate themselves. I hit my breaking point when the last Doctor I saw had the nerve to tell me "What's the hurry you are only 22 years old? My wife and I just had our first after we both finished our doctoral degrees." My jaw dropped at the absurd comment he made. I was there questioning why I hadn't fallen pregnant in the last couple years of not using protection. An ooops was bound to happen right? Obviously I became extremely concerned that something was seriously wrong and I didn't want to wait until I was in my 30's to find out having a child wouldn't come easy. A month after I turned 23 I finally sought out a reproductive endocrinologist's opinion. We discussed the ridiculously long cycles I was having or not having. The fact that I had been to the ER once before due to severe pelvic pain, turned out to be a ruptured cyst. At the whooping age of 23 I was diagnosed with PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Given my age he had extremely high hopes I would get pregnant right away with Clomid. After our first failed IUI he became very pessimistic. He sent me to get an HSG done to check my tubes. Unfortunately, my cervix was not cooperating and it was an epic fail. We went ahead with a second IUI plus an increase in clomid dosage. My body had a hard time with the higher dosage that my lining was thin and it surged before Follicles were matured. Again his pessimism began to show that he went as far as telling the nurse to give me a pamphlet for IVF. He argued that I was extremely young that the only possibility it wasn't working because my tubes were blocked. Now he was that far off with his presumptions as I do have one blocked tube. Although I always ovulated from the good side.

We ended up doing 2 IUIs with our first RE then moved on to a new specialist. It was important to me to feel like a person not a number or another statistic in their books. Our new fertility clinic was amazing. We ended up doing another IUI which failed at that point I had accepted it wasn't going to work. My age played a big factor in my protocol. My new RE didn't feel comfortable using IUI + injections. The risk of multiples sky rocketed with my age and therefor there was no way they were going to allow me to even try. In our preparation for IVF we discovered I suffered from uterine polyps, a blocked Fallopian tube, and a tilted uterus. After suffering from two miscarriages further testing confirmed I am a carrier of 2 mutations of MTHFR and tested positive for lupus anticoagulants. Finding this out was probably the hardest pill I had to swallow. When we discussed IVF our Doctor didn't believe we needed those gratings since I was "young". There's never a day I don't regret pushing them to do it anyway to cover our bases. I wish I just would have checked everything off the list as a precaution. It wasn't until my miscarriages that I dove in to be my own advocate on what could be causing them. I jotted all my concerns and set up a consult with my new RE, same clinic. Did I mention I saw 3 REs at this clinic? My first went on maternity leave at the start of my IVF cycle. The second left after my first miscarriage and didn't bother to say his goodbyes. Then came Dr Balthazar the angel God sent my way. We share the same Birthday and we managed to knock me up and keep me pregnant so I can have a Leo just like his mama.

Regardless of how much fear was in my heart I was grateful that this diagnosis allowed us to have a successful and healthy pregnancy. This journey wasn't easy that I found myself questioning if I would ever have the privilege to be called mommy, not just angel mommy. The fear started building up when I saw we had 3 remaining embryos left from 10! We had 1 fresh transfer of one beautiful embryo, 4 FETs that varied between 1 & 2 embryos. FET #4 was our successful cycle with one embryo. If Infertility wasn't enough I had to deal with sporadic heavy bleeding through my first trimester. We honestly thought it was going to end up in another miscarriage just like the previous two. With Gods grace our little miracle held on and I stopped bleeding at exactly 10 weeks.

Never would have thought we would be going down this road at the whooping age of 23 and finally ending at 26. Three long painful years but we never gave up. Keep on fighting and always be your own advocate during this struggle. Yes REs are knowledgeable but you aren't their only patient. If you pushed them in the right direction you will become a team in your success.