Our Fertility Journey

Falling pregnant isn't supposed to be hard. Well that was the expectation that I had anyway. I always thought that I'd stop taking the pill and we would fall pregnant within the next few months... little did I know that it really is not that simple! Actually for us it was quite a journey.

In September 2014 Dylan and I had our wedding alongside our friends, family and of course our furbabies. After that we decided it was time to take our relationship to the next step and add a baby to our family.

I delayed coming off the pill as I honestly thought it wouldn't take long and was worried that I would fall pregnant before we went on our Honeymoon- which was planned a few months after our wedding.

I should have known better! Before going on the pill (at 21 years of age) I rarely got my periods. They were very sporadic and sometimes I could go months before getting them.. Now at 16 years old, I really didn't care that this was happening and thought nothing of it as I had no other symptoms.

The first two months after coming off the pill my periods came on time with no issues. I thought wow, maybe the pill actually fixed whatever was going on. But on the third month they were late and each month they kept getting later. By month six they hadn't come at all.

When they first started coming late I would get excited, only to be let down my a negative pregnancy test. So it was around this time that I decided I need to see a Doctor.

The first thing my GP Doctor said to me was that I was young and healthy and its normal to take up to 12 months and that I should wait another 6 months before running tests. As I had not had my periods for an entire month I said I did not want to wait and asked her to send referrals now as I needed to know if something was wrong. So she sent me off for scans and to test for PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome) and endometriosis. I still remember her looking at me and saying that as I have no physical symptoms that she would not think I had either of these.

I still remember the day I went back to get my results. I nervously walked into her room sat in the blue patient chair and waited. She confirmed something that I feared, I had been diagnosed with PCOS and my body was not ovulating. I sat there nodded and listened as she sent off referrals to a fertility specialist. As soon as got outside and into my car I broke down and let all the tears out that I had been holding in.

I had my first fertility specialist appointment and he prescribed me with Clomid, and another drug that was to bring on my period. Once my period had started I was then to take the Clomid and this was supposed to help my body ovulate. I had to get blood tests at certain stages during my cycle to confirm that everything was working. He also sent Dylan off to get this sperm tested.

Unfortunately, after two months on Clomid my body still was not ovulating.

However, some good news was that Dylan had good swimmers. So I was provided with two options to move forward with. I could be referred to another fertility specialist at Monash to discuss pre-IVF options or to get surgery where they would laser the cysts off my ovaries. I did not like the thought of surgery so I opted to be referred to Monash to discuss the pre-IVF options.

Now I had never looked into IVF so I really didn't know much about it. Nor was it openly spoken about as much as it is now. I knew it involved needles, but I had no idea that I would have to inject myself. The Monash specialist spoke to me about injections that were not IVF but something similar they offer (not as expensive or as in depth). However, the thought of injecting myself made my head go light and Dylan would not have been any better at it- we make sure a good pair haha.

So he gave us the option of adding Metformin alongside the Clomid to see if this would make any difference.

First month of doing this my body ovulated! I was so happy and thought that we were finally on the right path and it couldn't be much longer. Again, I was way off!

After four months of doing this with my body ovulating my Doctor had to check to make sure nothing else was stopping the pregnancy. So I was sent to have my fallopian tubes checked for blockages. This was not a fun procedure and for anyone who has to get this done, do yourself a favour and DO NOT Google it. Google likes to show the tools they used to use, and even though its not a pleasant experience its not as bad as you can read online.

Fortunately, but also unfortunately as I wanted answers my tubes were clear.

My Specialist put me into the case of 'Unknow' as there should be nothing stopping me from having a baby. He then told me if I wanted to conceive a child I would need to go down the IVF path.

Now I have nothing against IVF at all, but it wasn't a pathway I was ready for. I was not mentally ready for that nor did we have the funds to cover the costs... and after all of that it is not even guaranteed that it would work. So we started looking at alternative methods.

This is when I found my Naturopath- Naturopathic Health. I was absolutely amazed by what she could tell me about my body with just a blood sample. She could talk about my PCOS, she could tell if I hurt my back and even when I picked up a parasite from eating out!

Within 4 months she had me off the Metformin and Clomid and I was getting my periods naturally every month! We learned about heavy metal toxin poisoning and how that can effect fertility, so she also helped me to detox these out of my body.

My PCOS was clearing up and everything seemed to be on track. But then it all fell apart!

I was asked to be a bridesmaid at my cousins wedding and I may have had a little bit too much to drink. Okay I had a lot to drink, and I hadn't been drinking for a while. Anyway long story short, the alcohol had reversed most of the good work I had done. I knew alcohol was bad for your body, but I guess this just kind of put it into perspective just how much of an affect it really does have. So I decided to cut the alcohol, which wasn't that hard, as I was determined to make this work.

Again, everything was looking good and PCOS was clear, I was ovulating but still nothing. I was still in that 'unknown' area. I had heard of people using Acupuncture to help conceive and this is also used with IVF so I thought why not add this as well. I booked an appointment with Rae from Healing Rays Acupuncture.

Rae suggesting that I also cut out dairy due to the affect it can have on a PCOS body, and to stop eating meat after 5pm due to how long it takes our bodies to digest it. Cutting out dairy was HARD as I was an avid milk drinker, especially chocolate milk. But when you are determined enough you are capable of anything.

Around this time Dylan and I also decided that even though we were doing all this, we wanted to focus on something else. So we looked into booking at holiday with friends of ours. We started selecting locations and things we would do.

Well after 4 months of adding acupuncture, I had the best wee of my life!!!

It was a normal Saturday morning, I got up took myself to the gym. When I got home Dylan was still in bed so I had my shower to get ready for my acupuncture appointment that morning. My periods were late, but I did not let any pregnant thoughts in as this had been common and I was too nervous to take a test- as I had been let down so much over the last 4 years. However, Rae had said that if my periods were late and I had an appointment I need to make sure if I was pregnant or not, as this would change her needle points.

So I took the test! Before I could even lie the test down on a flat surface the two positive line appeared. I sat there for a while in shock before bursting out in tears. I then ran into the room to wake Dylan and let him know the good news. I had always wanted to do one of those cool pregnancy reveals, but I was too excited to wait.

I'm not going to lie, taking this pathway did require a lot of patience and a complete lifestyle overhaul. However, the way I look at it was I was healing my body and understanding the underlying causes of what was causing some issues. ​

I do want to clarify that I am not shutting down IVF at all. In fact after our holiday that never happened I was giving it that year and I was ready to do IVF myself. But I feel in sharing my story it may help people who are also not ready for IVF and show them that there could be other options out there for them.

I hope you enjoyed my first blog post.

Kιɾʂƚιɳ Sιɱαɾα xx ♥