This page documents, in brief, our journey toward conception. Scroll down to the bottom to see the latest update!
May 2009 – Abandoned contraception!
July 2009 – Went to our naturopath to begin the natural fertility path.
The summary of the first few appointments:
· Queen Naturo sent us for blood and saliva tests, testing for many many things including all the necessary hormones. She began a regime of herbs and vitamins for both of us.
· A series of results show my hormones are all over the place and need much balancing. Tests were done for FSH, LH, P4, E2, E1, P4:E2, testosterone.
· Very soon, PCOS is suspected and herbal treatment for this starts.
- Began using Maybe Baby to determine ovulation.
September 2009 – Started acupuncture treatments.
Between the two of them – the team of Queen Naturo and King Acupunc - they have a 100% strike rate with all their patients achieving pregnancy, including those that have been through several rounds of IVF. All accept one, achieved conception within one year. Amazing stats!
August 2009 – Began seeing the doctor for help.
· Because of my age, she didn’t want to wait a year and immediately sent me off for more hormone tests and after those results came in, she referred me to the fertility clinic.
· All tests indicated that I was not ovulating.
November 2009 – First appointment at the fertility clinic.
· Blood tests, sperm tests and pelvic ultrasound scheduled. Clomid will be prescribed if tests confirm no ovulation.
December 2009 – Second appointment at fertility clinic.
· Results of tests seem to indicate that I am ovulating now (which I believe is a result of the herbs I am taking and the acupuncture). GYN does not want to put me on clomid. I have felt myself, some signs of ovulation for the first time in months.
· Egg count is high.
· All hormones are within acceptable ranges.
· The pelvic ultrasound has some unusual abnormalities which she is not looking any further at. What the…??? From what the doctor said and showed me during my scan, I suspect that what she is seeing is my PCOS healing from my herbal treatments.
· Other test results are good and she is beginning to think I may end up with a diagnosis of unexplained infertility.
· D results are all good.
She schedules two more cycles testing for ovulation (progesterone) plus an HSG scan.
December 2009 – Queen Naturo sends me off for blood tests to test my homocysteine levels and find out what levels of B12 and folic acid MY body needs.
December, 2009 – I’m unable to get all the GYN fertility tests done due to Christmas and will need to postpone everything a month.
January, 2010 – I find out my homocysteine levels are out of whack and Queen Naturo reassesses all that I am taking and ensures that I have exactly the right amount of each vitamin every day.
February, 2010 – have my HSG scan.
· Find out my results in March after one more progesterone test. Either my tubes were blocked or my muscles were severely spasming. Test was VERY painful. Took several days to fully recover.
March, 2010 - results from HSG scan are all clear. Nothing wrong!
April, 2010 - saw acupuncturist again. Herbal medication changed. Given forms to get all the original tests done again and see how much improvement there has been and what we need to do now.
Needing a break from the whole process. It's been nearly a year without success. Just chilling out and once more, finding my positivity and trust in the rightness of everything.
May, 2010 - results of the tests show good improvements in all areas except one - E2. So, she has put me on herbs to give that estrogen some power to kick out an egg. I'm also on progesterone to help hold a conception should it occur. I've taken a break from acupuncture.
June, 2010 - having a really long cycle, but the pregnancy test was negative this morning (June 22). Cycle is now 39 days. Still waiting to see what happens.
July, 2010 - 36 day cycle. Better but still too long. Another cycle should see the new hormone treatment settle everything down again. Having ayuveda treatments again. Really helping with creating a good fertility flow throughout my body and a healthy uterus. Am hopeful.
October, 2010 - stopped seeing Queen Naturo for pregnancy. We both feel she has done all she can to help us and it is now time for a break. We are so disappointed that the one thing D and I believe in so much (naturopathy) has failed to help us conceive. It is so disappointing.
November, 2010 - decided to see my other excellent naturopath for a while. I will give it three months. I'm really not feeling hopeful about the ability of natural medicine to help us. But still thorougly believe in it.
February, 2011 - no more fertility naturopathy for us. :(
April, 2011 - for the first time in two years, I feel like I have ovulated.
May, 2011 - I've ovulated again! And we see the OB to begin the IVF process this month.
June 1, 2011 - we are PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!
June 12, 2011 - miscarriage at 6 weeks.
September, 2011 - referral to a new OB, because the last one was awful.
November, 2011 - After a two month wait to see the new OB, with the appointment made for fertility treatments, we arrive at the clinic, wait for over an hour, only to have her tell us she doesn't do IVF anymore. What the???!! Ever heard of a phone call to let patients know things have changed for you. Left her office after just 10 minutes with a new referral. Of course, we were still charged $165. grrrr
February 2012 - Met the new OB. Fourth time lucky. She is WONDERFUL and so is the whole clinic. We are so happy!!
May, 2012 - IVF/ICSI - Round one. Only got one embryo out of the 10 eggs retrieved and it wasn't a good one. Implanted but failed.
August 2012 - ICSI - Round Two. Discovered a polyp on my uterine wall. It was removed at the same time as egg retrieval. As a result, we weren't able to go ahead with transfer. We only got 6 eggs. One developed into a reasonably decent embryo and was frozen.
October 20, 2012 - Wedding Day! And is turns out, also conception day...
November, 2012 - ICSI - Round 3. Desperate to get some good embryos, so we are doing a full round instead of using our frozen embryo. The months of my biological clock are ticking by and we want to get the eggs before I get too old.
Can I even call it number 3? I had a strange period. We were one week into the drugs, when I casually mentioned my unusual bleeding to the doctor who had been away when I started the drugs. She was a little concerned and sent me off for a pregnancy test. What the??!!
Later, in the same phone call, we found out we were pregnant but it wasn't looking good. It turns out my "period" was excessive implantation bleeding. The pregnancy was tracked for the next two weeks without much hope. There was concern that it may have been an ectopic pregnancy. Fortunately that wasn't the case. I started bleeding at 5 weeks. There is much more the story. See here.
December 10, 2012 - Left for our honeymoon! A much needed break.
January, 2013 - Turns out I came back from our honeymoon pregnant! What the??!! Two in two cycles after only one pregnancy in three and a half years??!! Once again, a non-valid pregnancy. Miscarriage at 6 weeks.
As a result of three miscarriages, I have been tested for a multitude of things, including miscarriage causing antibodies. Will take 6 weeks for those results to come through.
January, February 2013 - not coping with the losses. And struggling with waiting, yet again, to do a full round and get some eggs.
February 26, 2013 and on - ICSI round 4. I really struggled with this round on an emotional level but it went so smoothly! Puregon and orgalutron. With ovidrel trigger. Harvested 6 eggs, fertilised 5, transferred 2. The rest stopped growing and were not frozen.
Two weeks later - BFP!
First Blood Test March 26 - HCG 99
Second blood test March 28 - HCG 256
Third blood test April 1 - HCG 1935
7 Week scan - heartbeat!!
8 Week scan - still a beating heart and growing well.
10.5 week scan - looking good but size is a little small.
12 week scan - no heartbeat. D+C the next day. End of line. Devestated.
5 weeks later - results of the DNA test showed a little girl with Trisomy 18 Edwards Syndrome. Mostly fatal in uteruo or within a week of birth. 1 in 2000 chance of conceiving with this genetic disorder.
August 20, 2013 - Frozen Embryo Transfer. Our final embryo, Nemo, was transferred today.
Unfortunately we found out on the 28th that the transfer wasn't successful.
By the next day we had made our decision not to continue with infertility treatments.
Our journey towards baby is over.
