In my last post, I finally opened up with you about our infertility journey.
Today and for the next few entries, I want to spend some time bringing you up to speed on what's been going on. That is unfortunately a lot of ground to cover, but this story is not complete if I don't start at the very beginning.
I know that often times along this road, I would read blog posts and wish that the author had provided more information than just the story. I want to provide as much information as possible to my readers. However I understand that for some this info is either too detailed or simply TMI. So going forward, I'm saving most of the medical descriptions(unless relevant to the story) until the end of the blog post, there for your information.
So now I'm going to hop into my time machine and go back to August 2014. (Please forgive me if the post isn't all that thorough, I'm trying to recall events from over 18 months in the past!)
Ultraman Canada is a 320 mile, 3 day triathlon. I had been training for this race for a better part of a year, with many more years leading up to the point that I could even consider applying to the race (yes, you must apply and be selected to compete.) Going into the race, I had been training for 20-25 hours a week since February. Now, many women completely lose their menstrual cycles when training at such an intense level. I, on the other hand, had a peculiar reaction. On Day 1 of Ultraman Canada, I had been bleeding for 76 days. Every day.
I won't elaborate.
Now like I said, I'd been training since February 2014. Once I started bleeding in May, I saw very very little effect on my training. So, I kept doing what I was doing. With the grueling training, a full time job, and planning for our October wedding, my "lady days" as I call them were the furthest thing from my mind. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but still wouldn’t have changed anything. I would have started this race no matter what!
You can read more about Ultraman Canada on my blog, HERE.
Two days after collapsing during Ultraman Canada, I scheduled an appointment to have an MRI in Houston when I returned from Canada.
The results of my MRI were emailed to me (yes, emailed). I was told I had what is called a bicorniate uterus, and that we should come back when we were ready to begin about having children. There was no mention of infertility.
I bled for a total of 94 days.
Chad and I married on October 26, 2014 in Driftwood, Texas at the famous Saltlick Barbeque. I couldn't have asked anything better. I married my best friend and love of my life under a tree above the vineyard.
In the spring of 2016, we started to discuss having our first child. With my history of irregular cycles, I thought it would be best to chart for a few months before we started trying. What I found after a few cycles is that I was entirely all over the board. However with the help of ovulation tests, I discovered that I was in fact ovulating.
We made an appointment with an OB, like we were told to do. After a quick medical history and an ultrasound (no blood work!), the OB further diagnosed polycyclic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). The doctor reassured me that this wasn't a big deal and that we would take the first steps to getting us pregnant with the use of Clomid.
I started taking Clomid during my cycle in September of 2015. I was told to come back in for a follicle count on the 16th day of my cycle. The follicular ultrasound revealed that I was unlikely to ovulate, and the cycle (from the doctor's perspective) was abandoned and we were to try again next month.
Now, an ultrasound on day 16 would assume that I was a textbook patient and had perfect 28 day cycles, which is the average cycle length for healthy women. But my medical history, which the doctor had taken during the initial visit, revealedthat I have had numerous cycles that exceeded 45 days! I wasn't buying that the Clomid was unsuccessful!
I continued to use the ovulation tests at home. They revealed that I did in fact ovulate about one week later.
After the dreaded 2 week wait, a pregnancy test revealed a faint positive. But, the following morning the positive had turned negative. I had a chemical pregnancy in October 2015.
All through out my Clomid cycle, I was never very comfortable with the doctor's approach. I felt like she was too quick to prescribe a cookie cutter plan and failed to evaluate me and consider my medical history. So, I made an appointment for us to be seen by a reproductive endocrinologist.
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The medical stuff..
Bicorniate uterus - Known as a "heart shaped" uterus, bicornaite uterus means that the uterus has two horns. This can make it harder to carry a baby to term, and usually results in a C-section.
Charting - This is where a woman tracks her menstrual cycles in order to predict ovulation. Tracking can include anything from observing cervical mucus, cervical position, basil body temperature, and of course tracking menstruation itself.
PCOS - Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a hormone disorder typically characterized by the appearance of cysts on the ovaries. The cysts cause the ovaries to malfunction which grows the hormones out of whack, which ultimately leads to issues with ovulation. The patient will usually present with multiple distinct symptoms caused by the hormonal imbalance such as facial hair, acne, menstrual irregularity, and obesity.
Clomid - Clomid is a drug that is used to help produce follicles, which eventually leads to ovulation. The use of Clomid can often to pregnancies of high order multiples. This is because the ovaries will often produce multiple eggs which are then fertilized and implant into the uterus. Many, many, many of the families of multiples you see on TV were formed by the use of Clomid.
Follicle - a Follicle is found on the ovaries. An egg develops inside a follicle, one egg per follicle.
Ovulation - During ovulation, a follicle releases an egg into the Fallopian tube where the egg is hopefully met by sperm. If the egg is fertilized, it continues to travel down the Fallopian tube and to the uterus to implant and grow into a baby.
Follicular ultrasound - This is an ultrasound preformed via a transnational wand (through the vagina as opposed to being done over the abdomen like you see in TV and movies). The ultrasound technician will count the follicles on the ovaries, measure the volume of the ovaries, and measure the lining of the uterus.
Ovulation test - This is an at home test with moderate reliability. The test is preformed on a urine sample over multiple days. The test is supposed to measure the increase of luteinizing hormone (LH). A spike in the LH triggers ovulation.
2 week wait - It takes 2 weeks from the time a woman ovulates to the time that a pregnancy test can reliably detect a pregnancy. The longest 2 weeks of your life. You must go about as if you are pregnant, but you have no idea if you really are in fact pregnant
Chemical pregnancy - A chemical pregnancy occurs when there is enough hCG (the pregnancy hormone) for the test to detect a pregnancy, but the pregnancy failed to develop further and was was lost shortly after. No, this is NOT a "false positive". The likelihood of a false positive is extremely low. Modern home pregnancy tests are extremely accurate. You are more likely to get a false negative (where you are actually pregnant but the test does not detect hCG) than to get a false positive.
