I was a real ‘girly-girl’ when I was little. I didn’t play in dirt or climb trees. I preferred to be inside playing dolls with my sister. All I wanted to be when I grew-up, was a Mum.
My husband and I had been married for 6 months when we decided to start trying for a baby. I was so excited, finally we were going to have our own little family! And at that stage, I’d never dreamed that we would have any troubles at all falling pregnant.
I stopped taking the Pill immediately and began taking Folate tablets and doing as much reading up as I possibly could on conception and early pregnancy. Of course I got a period a few days after stopping the Pill and I believed we would get pregnant on our first month of trying. I began watching for the signs that I was ovulating.
When I didn’t get a period again by the 30th day of my cycle, I excitedly and mistakenly thought that I was pregnant. But the home pregnancy test said otherwise, it was a negative result. And so began the beginning of a long phase of not knowing what was going on. I kept watching for signs of late ovulation but my period eventually showed up again, 3 months later.
I had read that sometimes when stopping the Pill, your body takes awhile to get back into ‘working order’ so I took this new cycle as a new beginning, with a whole new bundle of hopes. This would be my lucky month.
But once again, the ‘normal’ cycle length dragged out and continued on. No pregnancy and no period. And by this stage, I guessed no ovulation either. My husband and I were getting quite anxious and decided we were getting nowhere. It was time to get some help, although at the time I was frightened because most of the experts say that it can take time to conceive the first time and that investigations usually aren’t carried out until you’ve been trying for at least 12months.
I booked into a doctor and he tended to agree with my thinking that I wasn’t ovulating. He ordered heaps of blood tests to be done and re-booked me in for the following week to discuss the results.
That following week, I was completely humiliated. This doctor informed me that my blood tests were all of normal readings for hormone levels and that our difficulty in conceiving was ‘all in my head’. That I was trying too hard. I went home and cried and cried.
Eventually I took it in my stride and I began doing relaxation sessions and exercising more to clear my mind. My husband and I tried to just enjoy our couple time and not to think of sex only as a way of conceiving.
But 3 months later, we were no closer to having our baby and there was still no sign of my period – I’d gone almost 6 months without it. I did some reading up on hormone levels and wondered what exactly my results had been, seeing as though that doctor didn’t actually show or tell me.
I managed to get a copy from the pathologist and was quite horrified to read how very low my Progesterone levels were. No wonder I wasn’t getting a period, let alone conceiving! I booked into a more understanding and thorough doctor for some answers.
This doctor took one look at my blood test results and referred me to a gynaecologist. He suspected I may have PCOS – Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and ordered a fresh set of blood tests for the gynaecologist, as well as a semen analysis from my husband, just to rule him out as part of the problem.
My husband came with me to the first appointment with the gynaecologist. This doctor was fantastic. My husband’s results were fine but my hormone levels, particularly the Progesterone levels, were a big problem. During an ultrasound, there were many clearly visible cysts around my ovaries. My gynaecologist diagnosed me with PCOS, all the evidence was there.
In fact, thinking back to my adolescent years, I guess the evidence had always been there. I started my periods young at only 12 years old, I would often get dark bodily hair on my belly or nipples, erratic/irregular cycles and I had terrible acne, which was the reason I was put on the Pill at 16 years old. PCOS comes in many shapes and forms and symptoms vary from person-to-person. I just hadn’t had a reason to suspect it until I had trouble conceiving.
We discussed our options with the gynaecologist. Of course I knew of IVF for when people had troubles conceiving, and I knew of people who fell pregnant easily too. But I never knew there was any ‘in between’ or even what sort of problems warranted that. Apparently I was an ‘in-between’ and the action we chose to take was Ovulation Induction using a fertility drug called Clomid.
