Infertility Background (TMI FYI)

I was put on birth control pills when I was 16.   Not because of concerns about getting pregnant but because I had an ovarian cyst rupture (at least that is what they thought happened) and by putting me on birth control I wouldn't have to worry about it.

From the time I was 16 until I was 26 I took a pill every morning that kept my cycle in control, regulated my hormones, and suppressed any symptoms that there might have been something actually wrong with my reproductive system.   I went off birth control for about 6 months in college because the co-pay was out of my budget and "eh, I'm not having sex so it doesn't matter".   During that time I had one cycle that went for over 50 days, so I should have known something was wrong but I was young and stupid and just assumed it was my body "getting used to being off birth control."   Shortly after that I went back on the pill and never thought about it again...until...

When my husband and I decided it was time to start a family I went off of birth control and we naturally assumed that in a few months I would be pregnant.  On December 27, 2011 I took my last birth control pill, and chaos ensued.

Initially because I had been on birth control for so long I didn't know what normal was.   Painful cramps (to the point of tears, heavy bleeding, mid cycle cramping, unpredictable cycles, I had it all.   At one point I even said - if this is what it's like then it's a wonder that any women aren't on birth control when they aren't actively trying for kids.   What I didn't know is that what I was going through wasn't normal.

Then it got extra crazy...from July through September of 2012 I had a cycle that lasted 69 days.   I took a pregnancy test on day 39, it was negative, I took another pregnancy test on day 45, another negative I also was having horrible headaches and was afraid to take any medicine because...what if the tests were wrong...so I called my doctor and their response was "are you sure you did the test right?"  (How do you pee on a stick the wrong way????) They told me to wait one more week and if it still didn't start then to make an appointment. On day 66 I finally had an appointment with a nurse practitioner.  She was amazing and didn't even order a urine pregnancy test - she trusted that I knew how to pee on a stick by that point- and went straight for the blood test.   By this point I had been suffering sever cramps, headaches, nausea, bloating, moderate weight gain, swollen breasts and every other bad symptom of pregnancy you can think of for over 3 weeks, and I wasn't pregnant.  The nurse ordered a pelvic ultrasound for a few days later and finally on day 70, the day before the ultra sound, my period started.   They did the ultrasound anyway and found what they thought was a small fibroid in my uterus.

After multiple gynecologist visits, more ultrasounds involving injecting saline (aka saline sonogram) and some X-rays involving dye being injected into my uterus (yes, it is just as pleasant as it sounds) I eventually found myself with a referral to a reproductive endocrinologist and the determination was made that I needed to have surgery to remove the growth (which they still had not fully determined if was a fibroid, polyp or a tumor that could be cancer--no big deal...) and scheduled the surgery for May of 2013.

After I had my surgery (dilation and cutterage) things got much better.  My cycles adopted a regular 34-35 day schedule (while long, at least they were regular) and everything was hunky-dory with my follow up appointment.  I was cleared to start the baby making process, with one problem, my husband is active duty in the US Navy and was deployed at the time.  So no baby making fun for me until he got back.   He got home in November of 2013, so I will pick the story up there in my next post...this one feels like it is getting kind of long.