Day two: Our back story (and a few things I can't stand).

Before I get into this whole blogging thing any further I should explain that I will use words like vagina, semen, sperm, cervical mucus, ovaries, uterus... etc. in my posts. At this stage in the game I think all of the western hemisphere has seen me undressed from the waist down. I have had discussions with countless people about everything from sex organs to sexual positions. I have no humility remaining. It's all about the facts from here on out.

Oh, and I absolutely refuse to refer to my period as "AF", my husband as "DH" or a negative pregnancy test as a "BFN" and I will never say "baby dust" in wishing anyone luck in conception. Ick! Chat room speak is a giant pet peeve of mine and as it turns out I'm not 14 years old so referring to my menstrual cycle as Aunt Flow seems a little immature. I promise I'll try not to be crass but if medical terminology turns you off then you may as well give up on me now. Now that that's out of the way...

I don't plan to share our experiences in chronological order so I'm going to share our back story so you have a sense of where we're coming from. We started "trying" in February of 2008. Well... more accurately I should say we stopped using birth control in February. By June I was charting and using ovulation predictor kits. In September I made an appointment with my OB/GYN to chat about our situation. I'm going to side step here and say that I see the best OB in the world. I'll refer to him as Dr. J from here on out. He's so awesome, totally no nonsense, completely committed to his patients and willing to work with women who need reproductive assistance (as opposed to sending them to a reproductive endocrinologist who are often not covered by insurance). Being the down-to-brass-tacks guy that he is, he immediately gave me a prescription for Clomid and explained that we would increase the dose monthly if need be. I nodded happily as he explained the incremental steps in which they administer the drug, sure I'd be pregnant that month. 

Obviously that was not the case, so I saw him the following month. He increased my dosage and ordered blood work. This "basic intervention" went on for several months with no indications as to why we weren't conceiving. All of the labs were normal. My husband's semen analysis was perfect.  We have "unexplained infertility".

In the spring of 2009 I was having a routine ultrasound (as I always do on day three of my cycle, before Dr. J will prescribe the stimulation drugs) when we made a discovery. I have a uterine fibroid. I know this is going to sound insane but I was so excited. Certainly this is our issue. Get that puppy off of there and let's get on with it. I immediately scheduled a hospital ultrasound (Dr. J only has the trans-vaginal ultrasound in his office) to get a clearer image of the beast and plot our course of action. While we were at it we scheduled a hysterosalpingogram (HSG). The test to check fallopian tube function. Brimming with hope I waited out the two weeks until my test, happily buying maternity clothes and making lists of things we'd need for the nursery.

The ultrasound was simple (as simple as anything can be with an incredibly full bladder). The doctor determined that my cyst is a Subserous myoma (on the outside wall of my uterus). Good news and bad news; it's the least problematic of uterine fibroids but it's not likely the cause of our fertility issues. Ugh, I really was hoping this would be our answer. The HSG went well too. It hurt like a son of a gun but the results were what we'd hoped for. My fallopian tubes were not blocked. We were back to the drawing board. 

Okay, this post is getting excessively long. I will have to explain more soon. For now I'll end with this: If you are going through fertility struggles I'm so sorry. I wish you the best of luck. Hang in there. It's so, so hard.

xo, Mrs. B