Summary of the Journey thus far...

When I got married in August of 2009, I never expected that my husband and I would have such a hard time conceiving. However, after 3 and a half years of marriage, and no pregnancy, we decided that it was time to go see an infertility specialist. In April of 2013, I was seen by my family doctor, who referred me to the gynecologist, who then referred me to the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility clinic at Madigan Army Medical Center. I personally have never had a normal menstrual cycle and honestly never thought anything of it. However, because of that, it turns out that I do not ovulate on my own. Therefore, no eggs are being released and it’s a little difficult to get pregnant when you’re not releasing any eggs. At my first appointment at the clinic, the doctor went over all of the tests, procedures and medications that I was going to be trying. The first test was blood work, that’s easy enough. However, throughout the past 9 months, I have had soooo much blood drawn; I am surprised I have any left. Then, I had to get an HSG done. A hysterosalpingogram (HSG) is an X-ray test that looks at the inside of the uterus and fallopian tubes and the area around them. During this procedure, they insert a catheter into the uterus and then insert a dye into the catheter which then flows out of the fallopian tubes. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced! The main purpose is to make sure that your fallopian tubes are open and that there are no blockages, which there weren’t, my tubes and uterus were fine. However, they inflate a balloon inside of your cervix in order to keep the catheter in place so that the dye is inserted into the proper area. This was a killer. It was extremely painful to the point that I literally said “holy shit” during the procedure. Not my greatest moment, but it is something to laugh about afterwards. Now, moving on from that horrific memory… Once we were aware that my fallopian tubes and uterus were good to go, I was put on the lowest dosage of Clomid (50mg). In which case, my body laughed at me, and not one follicle was formed. Now, after every round of meds, you go in to get a follicle scan about 10 days after the start of your cycle. This is an internal ultrasound that is used to check the size and amount of follicles that have formed. Since there were no follicles, and no signs of ovulation, the doctor upped my dosage to the middle dose (100mg) then sent me on my way. At this point, we had success! We had a few follicles forming and therefore we thought that we were going to get lucky on our second round. Boy were we wrong. Once my cycle started back up, and I knew I was not pregnant, I called the doctor and they started me on my next round. Round number 3 was 100mg Clomid again. This time, it did not work. There was nothing of significance. This was a huge disappointment for me. I was sure that we were making progress and to have fallen back to nothing, killed me. Round number 4 was 150mg Clomid. Now, I was doing the HIGHEST dosage! This had to work, right? Well, in a sense it did. It did cause me to form good sized follicles; however, the round in itself was unsuccessful as I did not end up pregnant. So here we are… it’s time for round 5, we do another round of 150mg Clomid and it was a failure, again. Now, what you have to consider is, Clomid turned me into a complete and utter mental case. I was so up and down at all different times. I could not control my emotions and I am sure that my husband wishes he could have locked me up for a week at a time when I was on those meds. They were horrible! At this point, after round 5, the doc decided to switch me to another med as the Clomid was causing blurry vision which could become permanent. So, we had to preserve my eyesight! Now, round 6, I start on Femara. They start me on the middle dosage (5mg) since clearly my body does not like to cooperate. That did nothing. No follicles. As the doc said “it’s pretty quiet in here”. So for round 7 they up me to 7.5mg. 3 pills a day for 5 days followed by 3 days of hormone injections. This seems to work! We get some good news and go on our way. However, again, I did not end up pregnant. This is 7 rounds of feeling like a complete failure. Round 8, I decide this IS going to be our round! I start my cycle, on my own, while home visiting family (it is VERY uncommon for me to start a cycle on my own without any meds forcing it to begin…). So, as I am home, my husband gets a hold of the REI clinic and gets them to call my meds into a pharmacy back home. Thankfully, I was able to get my meds and then start them on time and not miss out on this round of meds. This time, I was doing 5mg and the hormone injections. At my follicle scan, the doc spotted ONE follicle which was 14mm and seemed to be collapsing (they want follicles to be between 18mm and 22mm in order to ensure a mature egg will be released and therefore ovulation will occur). The doc requested that I come back in a few days so that she could check up on the 14mm follicle and see if it had grown to maturity. When I went back to the doctor, she confirmed that the follicle was indeed collapsing and dying off. It was heartbreaking to hear. Until she had a surprised look on her face and said that she found a 22mm follicle! You have no idea the relief and joyfulness that I felt at that moment. Now, this was my time, this meant that I was going to be able to try IUI (Intrauterine insemination – Artificial Insemination)! I had been waiting for this time for so long! The doctor recommends that you have 3 or more successful rounds before moving on to IUI. I had just had my 3rd successful round that did not result in a pregnancy, so I got to choose to have IUI, and I was so incredibly happy. I finally had my IUI. It was a little bit more painful than I expected. Not as painful as the HSG, but a similar type of pain. The procedure was quick, which definitely helped. My husband’s numbers were high and it seems that with my 22+mm follicle, we should have a good sized egg. Meaning, we had a very good shot at getting pregnant that round. However, again, it was a failure. I started my cycle one night and had a complete breakdown. I was so incredibly sad and honestly did not know how to feel anymore. I was at a complete loss. After I got over the fact that it was unsuccessful, it was time to contact the infertility clinic and start round 9. For this round, they decided to start me on dexamethasone along with the 7.5mg of Femara AND the hormone injections. 10 days later, I went in for my follicle scan. At my appointment, the doctor did not find any follicles. However, my uterine lining had thickened indicating that my body was cooperating. Since there were no follicles, the doctor asked for me to go and get blood work done to see if I had ovulated. The blood work came back that I most likely did ovulate. So, we did not get to try the IUI this round, but we did have a chance at pregnancy since I did still ovulate. I went in on cycle day 21 to have my progesterone checked to ensure ovulation did take place. My progesterone level was at 20.5 which indicates that ovulation did happen! So... now we wait... I technically ovulated over 2 weeks ago, and my cycle has not yet started. I took a pregnancy test a few days ago and it was negative. However, I could have been testing too early. If my cycle does not start within the next couple of days, I will be heading to the clinic to have a blood test done! Fingers crossed!