First post

Today is my first post. My husband and I have been on the conception roller coaster for about a year as I begin this blog. I am writing this because I hope it will help me through the process and maybe be a resource for others.

My husband and I have been married for a year and a half. We were both in our mid-thirties and decided to prepare for children prior to getting married. I had been on depoprovera for almost eight years and had switched to yasmine, then yaz. I had begun to have cycles again on the pills and had decided it was time to remove myself from any artificial hormones before we got married to give them time to work out of my system.

Fast forward almost a year. My cycles had not returned on their own and I knew something was amiss. I visited my obgyn and was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome. This is a condition which causes anovulation. It has been explained to me as a chicken and egg situation. My hormone and insulin levels are out of balance which causes my ovaries to not properly function. The proposed remedy was metformin. I tried metformin and nothing really changed. Certain doses caused me to feel off and have stomach issues, other doses seemed fine but produced no results. Overall, none of the dosage levels worked. I didn't ovulate on my own.

My doctor upped the anty and decided we could try a combination of Metformin and chlomid. I have to write, I was very hopeful on this combo since I had known a few women who had successfully conceived on chlomid. As you may guess, I was not one of them. The treatment had almost no effect. I doubled my dose of chlomid and saw no noticeable difference although I'm certain my husband would disagree.

After a couple of rounds over a few months, I decided to give it a break. My mind and body had had enough. At the time, I was also going through some personal issues and felt I had too much on my plate and focusing on my infertility just seemed too much.

When I felt ready again, I called a fertility specialist. I am fortunate that a wonderful doctor who specializes in my condition has a practice less than a mile from my house. This doctor is also one of two fertility specialists in the city and is also on my insurance. Double victory!

Since treating with my specialist, I have been on Actos and my cycles returned on their own. I went from 117 pounds to 135 pounds. My cycles are not at all regular, ranging from 17 days to 56, and I don't ovulate. It can be a real roller coaster. We tried one round of chlomid while on Actos and it didn't work. My husband was then laid off his job and we took another break. Although hubby is not back to work, we have decided having a child is just not something either of us want to wait for any longer. We are moving forward and it is our first priority. I must admit, I was a smoker. I smoked ultra lights and less than a pack a day. I have been smoke free for two solid months. This week, I gave up caffeine. I am now off sweets, sodas, all alcohol, and anything else that could harm this process.

As I write this, we have just finished a round of femara. We went to the doctor and my follicle was 16mm on day 15. It should be at least 18mm to be viable. Hubby gave me an ovidrel (hcg) injection last night to help this along. I am nervous and hopeful. We have treated before, but never this aggressively. I am afraid it won't work and if it does, the rate of miscarriage is high. I am trying to reduce stress and stay positive. As I started to get serious about my treatment, I turned to the Internet for success stories and for information from other women who have made this journey. No one's story looked exactly like mine so I decided to write it myself. I hope this post and the ones to follow will offer some help to others and maybe inspire you to share your story and prayers with me.

Thank you for reading.