Never once in my life did I think I would struggle with infertility. None of my family members have really struggled with fertility, although my mom did struggle to get pregnant with me for a year or two, but I don't think she had any problems after that.
I knew infertility happened, but it wouldn't ever happen to me, would it?
It did. Now, I'm not someone who's waited for years to get my first child. When we really started trying, it only took 5 months to get little E. And I haven't had to wait for many years to get another one. But we've been trying/not preventing for TWO years. When you are trying for something, that's a long time.
Last year I had two miscarriages. I don't know why, but I have been feeling like I'm broken ever since, especially because I don't know what went wrong. This year, my cycle has been all sorts of craziness, and that's not normal. I have very regular cycles, and have since I got them again after E. (They were fairly long cycles at 5 weeks, but they were consistent.) So when I had a week of bleeding every other week through the month of March, I knew something wasn't right, so I set up an appointment.
I got an ultrasound done, and I was told my ovaries were enlarged. The Dr. believed it was PCOS, so she ordered some blood work. My first round of blood work was mostly normal, but my testosterone levels were a little high.
The doctor ordered more blood work (they ended up doing the wrong test, so I had to get more blood drawn today) and my testosterone was almost double what the normal range is. So, I am one of many women who have PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome).
I've done a little research on it. In the most basic form: my ovaries are not producing the right amounts of the right hormones. In my case, my enlarged ovaries are on hyperdrive and producing too much testosterone. I have to wait for the one blood test to make sure that nothing is wrong with my adrenal glands, but I finally have a name for why getting pregnant has been a struggle.
Our current course of action is to see what my body is doing, and whether it's ovulating irregularly, or not ovulating at all. Depending on what my body is doing, we'll make decisions for what is best for our family.
I am so happy to finally have a name. Something that I can make a plan of action for and hopefully get the baby #2 that we have been wanting for a while now. I'm sad that I have PCOS, because it can be, and usually is, a chronic condition. But I can fight this and figure it out. I don't know yet how much I will alter my diet. I do plan to keep exercising( or exercise more regularly), and trying to eat healthy. Having our next baby won't be easy and there's still some waiting to do, but I finally feel a little bit of hope that something can be done.
