My husband and I were married in March and were trying to get pregnant by July. Long before we wed, we discussed how we wanted to start a family immediately. We knew we may not get pregnant right away, but were ill prepared for the path our conception efforts would take.

Because we wanted to get pregnant quickly, I started charting my Basal body temperature from the beginning. It was only three months before we knew something was wrong. I had a flat temperature for three months straight and I had also ceased having a regular monthly cycle. I had recently had a string of urinary tract infections and thought they could be related, so I went to see my OB. She ran some tests and found that I had no trace of infection left, then suggested my lack of menses was due to the stress of getting married and trying to start a family. She said I should relax, practice breathing exercises, and keep a journal. After a few more months and still no regular cycle, I went to a new OB. She also told me that I was causing my own problems through stress and if I just relaxed, I would be fine. A third OB said the same but agreed to do a fertility workup after we’d been trying for a year.

One year after trying to conceive, we started the fertility workups with our new OB. She could find no reason I was not ovulating, so started me on Clomid. The first month of Clomid I ovulated and experienced a chemical pregnancy. That would be the last cycle I would ovulate while on Clomid. My OB tried a series of dosages and varied the days of my cycle the Clomid was taken, but invariably I would end each month with a dosage of progesterone to bring on a cycle so that I could start again. Several months later, I was finally able to get an appointment with an RE.

My RE did a complete fertility workup on both my husband and myself. Everything from PCOS to endometriosis to male factor infertility was ruled out, and we were given the unfortunate diagnosis of “unexplained infertility.” I reminded my new doctor about the repeat UTIs that happened just before our problems started, but he said that infections had already been ruled out and they did not affect our current problems. My RE kept me on Clomid, monitoring me through ultrasound. He said that I was producing follicles, but they were not dropping for some reason. We added an injection of Novarel to my monthly drug cocktail, which was meant to force the follicle to drop, which was followed shortly by IUI. The Novarel did not work; I still did not ovulate.

My husband and I reached the conclusion that we were spending far too much time and money on fertility treatments when we could be devoting our efforts toward adoption. At the end of two years, we agreed on one final month of trying to conceive, then we would start adoption proceedings. I went to my RE with the news and told him that I wanted to try something else. I’d done some research and thought that a stronger drug would be the practical choice for our last ditch effort. My RE agreed to a cocktail of Clomid combined with Repronex, followed by Novarel. At first, it seemed as though the Repronex was not working, so my RE increased the dosage. At that point, my ovaries kicked into overdrive. I produced 20 follicles. Through some fancy dosaging, my RE thought he could get the largest of the follicles to increase in size enough to release while the others stayed behind, hopefully dissolving on their own. In the end, eight of the 20 follicles released and though our RE advised against it (fearing multiples), we continued with the IUI. We became pregnant with a singleton, our son.

After giving birth to our son, we wanted to get pregnant again, but my husband and I agreed that we would not pursue fertility treatments. It was too emotionally and physically draining, and with the money that we might spend on fertility treatments, we could put our son through college! We thought that it would have to happen the old fashioned way or not at all. Our doctors assured us that it would not happen at all as I simply was not ovulating. We still didn’t know why. The latest doctor I had seen had suggested I had andometriosis, a disorder that is undiagnosable without a hysterectomy.

About three more years passed when I decided to dig out a book I had bought just before we got pregnant with our son. It is called “The Infertility Diet” and suggests natural ways to cause one’s body to cooperate. I was still holding onto my idea that the recurrent UTIs from years earlier had contributed in some way to my problems. I learned that andometriosis, like endometriosis, can be caused by the same toxins that contribute to yeast infections and UTIs. Through the infertility diet, I stopped eating any foods that could contribute to the growth of yeast – this included yeasted breads, sugar, and all dairy. At the same time I was training for my first marathon. Toward the end of my marathon training I was finding myself exhausted all the time and after a couple of months on the diet, I had not yet experienced a cycle. I thought that marathon training in conjunction with the dietary change was causing my body too much stress so I decided to start the diet again once the marathon was over.

A few days after the marathon, I found myself very ill. I felt fine except for extreme nausea, which is not uncommon for me after a race. What was uncommon was the amount of time it lasted – after nearly a week of constant illness, my husband picked up a pregnancy test. We were shocked when it was immediately positive – the test line showed before the control lines! A visit with the doctor confirmed the pregnancy. We are now in our 2nd month and are still working on overcoming the shock of getting pregnant without medical intervention!

Hello everyone,

I want to introduce myself and share my husbands and my hard fought 10 year infertility story with you.  My name is Leisha and I hope that you find our story inspiring and also keeps your faith up.

My husband and I dated for 9 years before we got married and always talked about having children.  After we married we tried right away to have a family.  We just didn’t know that it would lead us down a very long path.  By no means was this easy for us.

We thought like many other couples that we would get pregnant right away.  We tried for several months, but still did not.  We consulted with my OBGYN to see if there might be something wrong with me.  He suggested that we try naturally for a year.  After trying  for a year my OBGYN suggested that we go through Artificial Insemination for at least six months.  My husband and I tried for a year hoping that one of the extra months we might get lucky, but we did not.

By now my husband and I were beginning to think that there was something wrong with one of us.  My doctor suggested that we go through some tests.  The tests showed that one of my tubes were blocked.  I also mentioned to my doctor that I was having lower abdominal pain for quite sometime.  He suggested that I have Laparoscopic Surgery to see what was causing me the pain.

During surgery, my doctor found that my fallopian tubes were blocked and that I also had Endometriosis.  He fixed everything that he could and told us to keep trying.  After several more months, we still weren’t pregnant.  I had another dye test that showed one of my tubes was clear and the other one was blocked.  My husband did some research on massage therapy in which we traveled from Wisconsin to Florida for.  Unfortunately that also failed.

We talked about what we were going to do next.  After ALOT of research we decided to try  In vitro fertilization .  We went through one fresh cycle and two frozen cycles and finally became pregnant!  Seven weeks later we went for our ultrasound and found out that we miscarried.  Words cannot explain what we were feeling.  After the failure of our last frozen cycle, we decided to take a break.  I remember the IVF doctor telling us, “don’t wait too long because it looks like your time clock is ticking”.  What he meant was that I didn’t have many follicles left to produce.

Due to me having more abdominal pain and the theory that my tubes may be allowing fluid to drown my embryos, I ended up having another laparoscopic surgery, this time to remove my fallopian tubes.  This was devastating to us because , not only was my time clock ticking, but now I couldn’t get pregnant naturally.

My husband and I talked about trying IVF one more time.  We didn’t know that after 10 years of trying to conceive  this would turn out to be our last time… ever.  Since the tests showed that I did not have alot of follicles left I was double dosed with fertility drugs in hopes to produce more.  I ended up with 10 follicles, 8 which were good, and only 5 turned into embryos.

After a week we found out that we were pregnant, and after 8 more weeks we were able to see three heartbeats…Triplets!.  We struggled with almost losing them several times.  I was on bed rest after the first 9 weeks due to bleeding.  I was admitted in the hospital at 23 weeks, just one day shy of my 24th week.  I can remember the NICU doctor telling me that I don’t want to have these babies at 23 weeks.  I didn’t know that they can’t save a baby if born prior to 24 weeks.  We had our ups and downs and scares in the hospital, but at the end of 31 weeks and 10 long years, we were blessed with 2 boys and a girl.

I wanted to tell our story in hopes to inspire infertile couples.  When it looks like all else has failed never give up your hope or faith.

<!– ckey=”78943BFB” –>