The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill
My husband and I have been married for almost 4 years now. Our whole marriage he has been in school either for Engineering to then a business degree focusing on accounting. We always talked about having a family one day but didn’t want that to be a reality until he was done with school. Flash forward to December 2017 and discussions started to happen more frequently about starting a family. My Husband was set to graduate in May 2018. We decided that we wanted to go ahead and try because if we got pregnant, he would be graduated before our baby would be due.
Month after month of trying, tests came back negative each time. I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 15 but have had normal cycles ever since. Yes, there were months that occasionally would be in yo-yo but I didn’t think anything about it. I started to get concerned because surely it doesn’t seem to take months to get pregnant. I voiced my concerns with my husband and suggested that maybe we should talk to my OB/GYN and see if there was anything we were doing wrong. Heck, even a few pointers would be nice! I was able to speak with my OB/GYN and discussed that PCOS does have a huge effect when trying to conceive. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome causes a woman’s hormones to go whack and produce more androgen than needed. Androgen is basically testosterone and can harm the estrogen needed to mature egg follicles.
After consulting with my doctor, she suggested that start taking Metformin so it helps reduce the amount of sugar that is in my body which increases the amount of androgen made. Okay, easy enough! This should work. Nope- think again! This is when my mind starting to race because we weren’t getting pregnant so I decided to schedule a consultation with a Fertility Specialist.
May 2018, we sat in that waiting room, nervous as we didn’t know what to expect after our appointment. ” Bethany, you can come this way .” When I heard those words, I knew there was no turning back. As we sat down with the Doctor, my heart was racing the entire time. They had my paperwork from my OB so they could see my history. The doctor could tell I was nervous as I sat in this comfy chair, and quickly reminded me that she was only here to help us get pregnant and everything would be okay. After talking for almost two hours, the doctor decided that she wanted to do an ultrasound just to make sure there was nothing that was preventing us from conceiving. Here I am, laying undressed from the waste down and having not only my husband in the room, but two strangers I just met staring at my insides. ” Oh, that doesn’t look right. What is that? ” my doctor said to the nurse. I immediately started to panic and asked what she saw. You have a bicorunate uterus BUT….. there is something in your uterus that doesn’t look right. Me being me said, Okay then what is it? Come to find out, it was a uterine septum that was dividing my uterus. I was then told we needed to have a MRI to see how far it went into my uterus because this could be why we weren’t getting pregnant.
We decided to go back to my OB and get a second opinion just because I trusted her and we couldn’t afford to spend four grand on a MRI to confirm what the doctor saw. My OB was able to do another exam that would allow her to capture images of what exactly was inside me and only pay a copay since it was done in the doctors office. ” I do see you have a uterine septum that seems to go all the way down your uterus. This will prevent sperm from swimming correctly and will not allow a baby to grow. This has got to be removed in order for you to get pregnant.” We decided on surgery and on July 31st, I went back to have this septum removed. The doctor was able to remove the septum, fibroids and a few cysts that had developed as well. Recovery was rough, but it was like I was given a clean slate. Weeks went by and STILL no positive test. My OB decided that I should take a fertility medicine called clomid to ensure that I was ovulating. Our journey took a different path that I was not sure we were ready for….
The B Word 