“My advice: Never give up, trust your instinct, don’t let doctors fob you off, seek out the specialist help you need and don’t wait!”
Name: Michelle
Age: 37
Time TTC: 2 years
Diagnoses / Treatment: PCOS
Strategies: Ovulation Charting / Tracking,
My fertility story
When my husband and I decided to start trying for a family I decided to consult a doctor for an overall ‘health/fertility’ check-up. It was at this time through various tests and consulting various doctors that I found out I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. One doctor in particular told me to stop eating so much and start exercising more, yes I realised I needed to make some lifestyle changes but I also knew that there was more to it than that. I was very proactive in seeking a dr that was specialised in what I had and proactive in discovering what my own plan of action needed to be.
I started making the lifestyle changes and started taking the medication Metformin. This amazing little drug helped me immensely in achieving my weight loss goals and getting a regular cycle again.
After a year of TTC, we decided to take it up a notch and visited a fertility specialist that decided our first course of action would be to undergo timed ovulation testing. This meant every day for the week where you would supposedly be ovulating you would go to the clinic and have a blood test to indicate ovulation or not. You would ring up the clinic in the afternoon and they would then say “yes or no” and depending on the answer you and your partner would race home to do the deed in a very unromantic fashion.
After that, it would be necessary to wait 7 days before having another blood test to confirm pregnancy or not. After a few months of this charade, we decided to stop focusing on having a baby and focus instead on planning our wedding.
Well, a couple of months after making that decision and in the throws of wedding planning fever, a very late period made me stop and take the pregnancy test I’d done a thousand times before but this time it was with a positive result!”
The lowest point in my journey and what helped me recover from it
The hardest part of the journey was during the timed ovulation tests. The agonizingly long 7 days you had to wait before making that phone call to see if it was a “Positive or Negative” result and the anticipation as you sat on hold whilst they got your results, only to be given bad news. What helped me through that time was having something else to focus on and obsess over to take my mind off of my fertility issues.
Where I am right now in my journey
My journey is definitely over now as I have three beautiful little children. I always knew I would be a mother however that would happen, but there was a time of great uncertainty.
What I learned from my fertility experience
Never give up, seek the help and support you need. There are so many options these days.
If I had to start my fertility journey again: What I would do differently
Nothing
What I would tell someone else going through infertility right now
Never give up, trust your instincts, don’t let doctors fob you off, seek out the specialist help you need and don’t wait. Give yourself some time to relax and other things to focus on, that definitely helped me.
Infertility isn’t a path you have to walk alone.
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