"How you got here" stories

I'm not a member of this board (yet?) ... but I thought it might be nice to see everyone's story on how they got here. Perhaps it'll give inspiration to all of us still hanging back on the infertility board!

Thanks to those who share with us!

Re: "How you got here" stories

well technically i graduated from here already, but here is the story

its long...esp if you read the birth story too!!

Re: "How you got here" stories

Great Idea

DH and I decided in November of 2009 that we would start TTC. I came of BC and in Dec got a BFP! Wow fast huh? Well the next day I started bleeding and had a MC. Told we had to wait a few months before we could start trying again. We waited until february. In march, got another BFP only to have the same thing happen to me once again. My ob sent me for a ton of blood work. A few days after easter my OB called me directly (which is never a good sign). She told me that my blood work showed that I have a Balance Recpirocal Translocation. Genetics. Went to Genetic counselor and found out that we could end up with a pregnancy that would stick but the chances were less than 50%. They suggested IVF. We went for our first IVF appointment at East Coast Fertility in December of 2010. The RE had great hopes that IFV would be a success for us. After fighting with the Insurance company, we got our approval to start our first cycle in april 2011. There were a few issues and some confusion so dh and I decided we would wait it out another cycle. What was another month. Well May 2nd I realized I was 6 days late on getting AF. I POAS and it was another BFP! Called RE immediatley. She had me come in for blood work the next day. Beta was great but progesterone was low so she started me on suppositories. Here I am. 39 weeks today. Its amazing how after so much time and heartache something came along on its own. Good luck ladies!

Re: "How you got here" stories

DH and I decided to start TTC in Feb 2010 and got pregnant the first month. Very exciting until I started spotting around 6wks, I went to the doctor and they said everything looks ok, fast forward to 7 wks and I lose the pregnancy. I was told to wait 3 months before trying again. In that time I began to break out in a petechia rash. I visited a dermatologist, regular doctor and OB. Turns out my blood was clotting and I was told I should visit a RE when trying to get pregnant. Now it had been an additional 8 months and nothing, we decided to go see a specialist. My first appointment with Dr.B was the beginning of January 2010. We learned that my DH had bilateral varicocele's and I had elevated FSH, LH, some clotting issue and PCOS. We started on femara and I stalled with one egg at 13mm. After another failed month of just femera w/IUI's we added in injectables. After 2 months of injectables w/IUI's we got our BFP. I then stayed on progesterone until 12 weeks and I am still on baby asprin. I am now 37 weeks and I feel blessed every minute but I am still worried sick

Message edited 12/28/2011 5:31:20 PM.

Re: "How you got here" stories

We started TTC in early 2009. After a couple of early losses in just over a year, I saw Dr. B for a consultation in August 2010. He ran the full battery of tests, and found that I had a balanced chromosomal translocation. He explained that we could get PG on our own, and likely have more losses, or do IVF. He also had my family tested. Turns out that my sister has the same translocation, and had no trouble conceiving, so he changed his main diagnosis to PCOS. Had 4 IUIs. Two BFNs, the 2 BFPs, both that did not last. The final one, in April-May 2011, ended with a D&C. Chromosomal analysis indicated that the baby had an unbalanced translocation. So now, we knew that in my case, the translocation was likely the main cause of my issues. I took the summer off, and started IVF in September. Got my BFP on October 5th, and have been a happy nervous wreck ever since. 16 weeks tomorrow, and I look pregnant, and I still don't believe it. So anxious for my next doctor's appointment on Tuesday!

For more details, my IVF journal is HERE

Re: "How you got here" stories

These stories are so inspiring. I'm so happy for you each one of you, and can't wait to be able to join you all on here someday.

Re: "How you got here" stories

I am 33 and DH is 34. My first month off the pill (2005) surprise BFP, ended in a missed m/c around 7 weeks.
Trying and trying and trying we go to ECF found I had a bicournate uterus, which was removed via a D&C. 3 IUI's and 2 IVF's later still nothing. No further teting was done. June 2009 I decide to see Dr. Braverman, after reading all of the wonderful recs on this board). I had all of the initial bloodwork, and even had an in office hysteroscopy. He finds I have elevated NK cells, but other than that everything looks good we will go ahead with IVF once AF arrives. AF is now late so I test - and surrpirse BFP again! And again ends in a missed m/c around 11 weeks (4 years to the day!).
We tried another IUI in January 2010 but nothing. So we started a fresh IVF cycle. I get to the ER and they get 5 eggs all fertilized and all frozen. Transfer is cancelled due to poor lining.
I went in for a lap in July of 2010 and ready to start again. Dr. B is pretty sure that my lining is my main issue (since I have been able to get PG on my own, twice). I also started acupuncture 2x a week. I started another IVF cycle in March of 2011, my lining was incredible at 9.6 around the time of the ER. They got 7 eggs, 6 were mature and 5 fertilized naturally. We transferred 2 embryos 1 from the fresh batch and 1 from a frozen batch from a previous cycle. To my amazement it worked!!! I am now almost 36 weeks and could not be happier.

Re: "How you got here" stories

I already had my baby but I'll play!

I was dx with PCOS long before I even met Dh so I knew it wasn't going to be "easy" but boy oh boy, never knew just how hard it was going to be!

All total took us 4.5 years (3+ with professional help), treatment with 3 RE's plus one consult with a 4th, too many IUI's to count and 2 failed IVF's. One we never even transferred, only had 1 embryo peter out before day 5 (my decision to push to day 5). And a MIRACLE SURGERY! In all those years never had a BFP, not so much as a chemical. Turns out (tx to Dr. Braverman's quick thinking) I had egg quality issues and the PCOS was the least of my problems. I responded to the drugs and ovulated but the eggs were never going to make viable embryos. On a positive note, DH had great little swimmers, so we were free and clear on his end.
Finally, we stared talking donor egg. I pulled out my wild card: Ovarian Drilling Surgery. It can cause ovarian failure but I figured if we were talking donor egg then it wouldn't matter if my ovaries failed completely anyway and it might help. So, Dr. B was on board, found a surgeon that was skilled with this very rare procedure (though BIG in the UK) and withing weeks I was ovulating on my own. Did a medicated IUI, BFN. Had a cysts after that so had to go on BCP. Decided one last push at IVF (since I was on BCP anyway). Well, my new and improved ovaries busted out 2 follies in a few days. We converted to an IUI...

37 weeks later I gave birth to my little lovey, my raison d'etre.

And that is how I got here!!

Re: "How you got here" stories

In March 2008 I went off BC and did not get a period for 4 months. I always had very irregular cycles but never knew why. Since I knew it would take me forever to get pregnant with 60-90 day cycles, I went to an RE in Nov. 2008. They diagnosed me with PCOS even though my only symptom is irregular periods. DH has very low morphology but very high counts.

We did some medicated cycles just to get me ovulating, then we did 3 IUIs and nothing. We decided to move to IVF with ICSI in summer 2009. We did our IVF cycle in July 2009 and it worked the first time!! I also went to acupuncture during the cycle and the 1st trimester. We had our DS in April 2010.

After nursing my son for 14 months I got my period back a month later. And then it came every 5 weeks, so I thought maybe my body was normalizing. We tried for a few months and nothing, so we went for a FET in October and had a chemical. We had no embryos left so we decvided to go for IVF again. We only got 4 embryos this time and transfered 2 on day 3. The rest did not make it to freeze. Amazingly we are pregnant with twins!!!! I feel so blessed and can't believe how lucky I am to have this work for us twice.

Re: "How you got here" stories

i actually wrote something on this few weeks earlier. I started trying in June 2010. We had nothing happen and then 9 months later- BFP- miscarried the day after i found out. Chemical pregnancy. My doc let me go another 4 months, but i started to realized 1. i wasnt ovulating, 2. my cycles were getting longer andlonger. He sent me to an RE. After 2 months of testing found i had a brain tumor(prolactinoma or micro pituitary adenoma). Basically my body already thought it was pregnant- oops. I started on medication and even though my levels were normal, my cycles still werent normal. So i thought about trying acupuncture- loved it, and around the same time i started- i conceived my little one. I am not 10+ weeks pregnant, and couldnt be happier. Although i didnt spend much time on any boards, the women here are amazingly supportive and nice and welcoming. THey all deserve their own little blessings..cause they were all a blessing to me with their kind words.

Re: "How you got here" stories

I've actually been here twice now and I feel so blessed to have been able to get pg with IF treatments. Thank God for science!!

I got married January 09 and went off bc right before our wedding. However. I was told getting pg on my own would be extremly difficult because I had been diagnosed with pcos when I was 15. In March I went to my ob after not havving a period since Dec. My ob suggested I see an RE because she believed I needed IF treatments. I set up an appointment right away with the RE. I started with metaformin but nothing hapened. In August of 09 I went on clomid. At first I didn't respond but as we increased clomid I started getting matture follies. I had 3 iui's and was convinced my last one didn't work. Well to my surprise on 12/15/09 I got a bfp. My dd was born in August of 2010.

In May on 2011 I was extremly shocked when I took a hpt and got a positive. I was sooo thrilled. I really could not believe that I was pregnant on my own and we weren't even trying. Sadly that pregnancy ended in MC . We were devasted and my ob said we should hold off on seeing an RE. I waited 2 months and I didn't get a period so I made an appointment with the RE in August 2011. My re wanted to start right away with 200 mg of clomid (which is what I was on when I got pg with dd). I was sure I'd have big follies but nothing. Because of my pcos my RE was relucant to put me on injectables and was suggestioning we go straight to IVF. But before we did that he wanted to give clomid one more try so I went on 250 mg of clomid and had my iui on 9/15/10. On 9/20 I got a bf at only 10dpo. I am currently 17 weeks and extremly excited to have dc2 on the way.

Re: "How you got here" stories

I got married in september 2008 and started trying right away. I went off birth control 1 month before the wedding. We tried on our own in for almost most a year. In July 2009 we decided to see an RE to have some testing done. Some of the test came back showing DH had a low sperm count. Although we were still waiting on some other test results we decided to move forward with unmedicated IUI with my next cycle. I wanted for my period to come but it never did. We were elated to find out we got pregnant on our own. At 12 weeks we had the NT Scan which came back abnormal. We went to see a genetic counselor who suggested me do the CVS. Which we did. The test came back that the baby had something called triplody (an extra set of every single chromosome). It is not compatible with life. At 14 weeks we made the heart breaking decision to termenate the pregnancy. We had testing done on the baby and it showed that it was also a partial molar pregnancy and I was told I couldn't try again for 6 months and would have to go for blood test for the next 6 months.

Once we were able to try again, we got pregnant right away (July 2010). only to discover a few weeks later that it was the pregnant never developed and we had a Blighted Ovum. At this point, we deceided to go back to the RE for more testing. Every thing come back normal except DH sperm count came back low again. We decided to move froward with Medicated IUI. 4 IUIs all BFN. In Feb. 2011 we felt that IVF was going to be our best chance considering DH's count was so low. First IVF cycle was a BFN (March 2011). FET(may 2011) resulted in A BFP and I am currently 35 weeks.

Re: "How you got here" stories

My journey was easy compared to most. I didn't post much on the IF board because we were very blessed and didn't have as much of a difficult journey as some people.

I have PCOS.
We were trying for over a year the first time. Finally used clomid and metformin with my regular OB and finally moved on to an RE. First IUI with clomid and metformin and we got our BFP with DD.

I got PG on my own after DD, but we lost that one around 7-8 weeks.

With this pregnancy, I went back to the RE because I didn't know if we wanted just to go right back to IUI. Because I got PG on my own the second time and had a good track record of O-ing on clomid, 3 rounds of clomid and we got our BFP.

I take none of this for granted. I have the highest regard for you ladies that have had such a hard journey to get here. But sometimes I feel like I didn't belong on TTC or IF but fell somewhere in between.

Re: "How you got here" stories

DH and I were married in April 2010 and I came off birth control right away and we started trying in May 2010 I got pregnant in September 2010 and had a Chemical Pregnancy a few days after I recieved my BFP, We tried again in October but the OB said my Hormone levels were alittle off and to see a RE, I started seeing the RE in January 2011 and had 5 IUI's done 3with Clomid and 2 with Injectables. I got my BFP in September 2011 and I am now 21Wks with Triplet Girls and couldnt be more happy. I know my journey is not as long or intense as some other people but it felt like forever for DH and I. My advice is just hang in there and try not to stress over it, Its funny because the last IUI I swore it was not going to work and I was all set for trying IVF my next cycle I had it all planned and to my suprise when I wasnt thinking about it I got Pregnant.