My Pregnancy Story After Struggling to Conceive

 I announced some very exciting news on social media this week...

My husband William and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting twins next year.  Best news ever!!! We had been trying for a little while to get pregnant and I had been fairly open online about my frustrations and experience.  When I announced I was pregnant I had a lot of questions asking if I would share about our specific experience, so I figured I would give the background on a blog post since this would not fit well within the text limit of an instagram caption!!

 

Will and I got married in October of 2019 and both knew we always wanted kids.  We wanted to wait a bit after we got married to start trying but not forever, so I eventually went off of the pill in early July of 2020.  I had been on the pill for about 10 years, and always thought that from my own personal family experience and what you were taught in health class in high school (Cue the Mean Girls movie quote: "Don't have sex or you will get pregnant and DIE") that we would obviously get pregnant right away.  A month after going off the pill with no period, I took a pregnancy test and figured I must be pregnant because I had no period, right? Wrooooong.  Month after month, I continued to not get pregnant and not have a period.  I had heard that it was a bit common to have a delay in getting your period back after being on the pill so I wasn't super concerned yet, but as time went on and my want to have children increased, I continued to get more and more frustrated by my situation.  If I wasn't having regular cycles I knew we wouldn't be able to get pregnant easily. Between July of 2020 and March of 2021 I had only one real period during that time (when I had always been super regular prior to going on the pill) and after a bad experience at the OBGYN I thought it was time to look into options.

 

My regular OBGYN had retired during COVID, so I saw a new doctor in February of 2021 and was completed disheartened after my visit.  It had been so long since my last appointment due to COVID and I really was anxious to talk about my worries and irregular cycles.  I started crying naked in the doctors office and instead of having any compassion or listening to what I had to say my doctor looked at me like I had two heads and essentially in a professional way said I was dumb for being upset, how it could take up to a year for a healthy couple to conceive, basically I was upset and worried for no reason so buck up and get over it.  When I told her about my concern over not having regular periods she basically dismissed my question and said maybe that was just how long my cycles were (mind you again - I had ONE real period in the course of 8 months!) I left the office feeling defeated, and after another negative pregnancy test I opened up again on Instagram about how frustrated I was with lack of success for starting a family.

 

I got a lot of messages from other women who were going through the same experience which was really helpful in making me feel more comforted and not alone. One day I got a message from a local girl letting me know that she too had trouble trying to conceive and so after a year of trying went to a local fertility doctor.  She said if I wasn't having regular cycles there was medicine I could go on to help.  I figured I didn't have anything to lose so I set up a consultation and met with a doctor at Main Line Fertility.  I think a lot of girls are scared at first into looking into fertility help because your mind immediately goes to IVF and scary and expensive procedures.  I knew I wasn't anywhere near ready to talk about next steps like that, but I was ready to talk to someone who would listen and care about my situation and my feelings, and that's exactly what I found at my doctors office.

 

I did a general consultation with Dr. Brasile at Main Line Fertility and then some diagnostic tests.  I had blood work done, we had my husband's sperm tested, and I even had my Fallopian Tubes cleaned out (not the most pleasant experience in the world I'll tell ya that, but luckily it was quick).  Everything came back good on both of our tests, and my doctor said that I had plenty of eggs, but my brain wasn't sending the right hormones/signals to my reproductive organs to start ovulation. She classified it as Lean PCOS which was scary to hear at first, but told me there was medicine I could go on that typically for most of her patients, within three months would get them pregnant.  After so many frustrating months up to this point I felt extremely validated that I sought help and was able to take action to do something that would help instead of sitting around and waiting for my body to ovulate on it's own when it wasn't.

I started taking Letrozole, which is a medicine that will make you ovulate (similar to Clomid which I feel like more people have heard of).  My Dr. said that she had seen better results with Letrozole for PCOS patients.  On my first cycle I took two pills a day for about 5-6 days and was monitored by the doctor's office during the time.  They take blood work and use trans-vaginal ultrasounds to actually measure your follicles (what your eggs are before they are released) and can see them grow and tell by your fluid and lining in your uterus when you've ovulated.  During my first cycle I wasn't on a strong enough dosage to ovulate, so the next cycle I was bumped up to 3 pills a day for about 5-6 days.  I had no side effects from the medicine: supposedly if you take them too close together you can feel a bit nauseous, but I never noticed any impact.

Over the next two cycles I was monitored and confirmed that I did ovulate each time, but despite having sex at the right time, no baby came.  While it was disheartening to be able to physically see and know that everything was working right, I still felt a lot more comforted by that fact that I was seeing a doctor and if we kept trying with no luck there were other steps we could move onto next besides just timed ovulation.  Additionally, when you open up about trying to get pregnant EVERYONE and their mother seems to have an opinion about what you should be doing.  Just relax.  Start this diet.  Don't eat gluten.  Put your legs up after sex. Take this supplement.  Drink this tea.  Get acupuncture done.  Take this magical unicorn pill off amazon (I'm not even joking, and yes I ordered it.  I am ashamed.  I returned it though!!!) Use ovulation strips. Use pre-seed.  Don't worry about it.  I felt better seeing a professional and being monitored during my cycles instead of wondering month after month what old-wives tale I should try next and what might work for us.

 

 

And turns out, it WAS worth seeing a doctor because after my fourth cycle on Letrozole, the third cycle of being on a high enough dosage, I found out I was pregnant!!! We were actually away in Chincoteague, VA during this cycle so I wasn't monitored as closely - but my doctor was able to count out when I typically had ovulated on past cycles to give the date(s) where I likely would again during this cycle.  I fully believe in the power of the ocean, that salt air is healing, and how being away also helped me feel more relaxed as well.  We also made sure to get busy pretty much every day before and after my ovulation window - LOL - so that couldn't have hurt either. When I got back from my trip, I had another check up and the doctors office was able to confirm that I had ovulated not just one, NOT JUST TWO, but three eggs during this cycle.  Oy vay! The waiting game started and (of course) I was too anxious to wait the full two weeks so on a whim I tested early about 11 days post ovulation.  I had felt overall a lot more positive about this cycle as a whole, but I was still SHOCKED and ecstatic when I saw the positive pregnancy test!!!

I felt like my whole entire world changed in that instant.  I was, and still am so incredibly happy!!! I feel very blessed that we realized fairly early on what the issue was for me, and that I was able to go on medicine to fix it.  There are many other avenues that other couples have to move onto afterwards: IUIs or IVF which are not always covered by insurance and are a bit more invasive and costly.  For us, all of my monitoring and tests were just diagnostic though and so everything was covered by my insurance, I just had a $40 office co-pay each visit.  The best part about seeing a doctor was then I got to continue to be monitored throughout the first 10 weeks of my pregnancy, when typically you don't get to see an OBGYN for a pregnancy intake visit until 10-12 weeks.  It was on my very first ultrasound that we got the BIG news that we were expecting not one, but TWO babies!!! 

 

 The tiniest two little dots on the ultrasound was just the coolest thing in the world.  The babies were literally only as big as a poppy seed back then, but I immediately felt so attached and invested in each of their little lives.  It doesn't matter how small they were: they were my babies!!! Twins was overwhelming to process but we knew there was a chance for multiples due to how many eggs I had ovulated during that cycle.  I will say that I am glad I did not end up with triplets...but we are thrilled with the prospect of twins! We've always wanted two kids anyway, so I literally just feel double blessed at this point.

 

All in all, it did end up taking less than a year for us to conceive (11 months), but I fully believe that is the case BECAUSE I sought help when I did.  Anyone who has struggled to conceive knows that it is one of the most emotional journeys you can go on.  Even though I'm still in my first trimester and "not out of the woods yet" I wanted to share my experience and story so far.  I am so extremely invested in these babies already - if something happened to them now there is no way I could keep it to myself.  If anyone else is going through a similar journey, I hope you can feel comforted in the fact that you are not alone.  Soooo many couples struggle with infertility and it is still just not widely talked about to this day.  If I can give any advice, I would say to trust your gut and your body and if you feel like something is wrong, don't be afraid to seek help and find a doctor who will listen to you.  If I would have listened to my original OBGYN I fully believe I would still be waiting around with an irregular cycle, never knowing when or if I would ovulate and growing more and more frustrated and feeling more and more broken each passing month. 

Anyone who has struggled to conceive will always be extra sensitive and empathic to anyone else on a similar journey.  I wish I could reach out and give every single girl who messaged me that they are going through the same wait and hardship the biggest hug in the world.  While finding a doctor made me feel better personally, opening up about it to others going through the same thing helped as well.  There is a huge community online of those struggling with infertility and if you need someone else to talk to besides your partner, or friends who haven't gone through what you are going through, there are multiple Facebook groups and Instagram communities you and look into, and I am here as well :) The worrying doesn't just end after you get pregnant though... I pray daily that this pregnancy will last and we will have two healthy babies next year, but I still feel like a huge burden has been lifted and feel extremely blessed to be in this position.  Hugs to those on a similar journey, and I hope that me being open about my experience can help and encourage anyone who may need it <3