Our struggle to conceive by Ainsleigh Searle
09:37
When me and my husband decided we wanted to have a baby, nothing could stop us! well apart from us getting married first, but as soon as we were married that was it….we would become parents!
I was so naive.
The wedding came and went, so did the honeymoon……and nothing. But at this point I still wasn't worried at all. I even remember thinking to myself well if I get pregnant now then I will have a May baby and we can go on picnics and lovely walks ect! I mean seriously naive to try and plan your pregnancy around having a summer baby!
A few months went by and I was getting a little impatient, but still I knew these things took time. Finally at 6 months into trying I decided I was far to impatient to wait any longer so I booked an appointment at my GP just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong. I got the whole “your still young, it will happen soon!” and “keep trying we cant really start any tests until at least a year of trying” ! So I left the doctors quite frustrated but there wasn't anything I could do other than keep on trying!
A year had passed since we started trying for our baby, and still nothing. I started to realise now there could be a problem with one of us and we needed more tests doing to find out, so I went back to the doctor, and so the many tests began!
Blood test after blood test, urine test after urine test.. the lot! It's probably a good job that I'm not bothered about needles because the amount of times I had to have blood taken and they could never find my veins either! The Blood tests came back ok, I had the right levels of progesterone needed to ovulate every month which was a relief. The doctors main advice for me at this stage was “keep trying” and “try to relax” ( the three dreaded words when trying to conceive!), so I did one of those things! My husband got an appointment at his GP to have some tests done to make sure everything was tip top , so they referred him to the hospital for a semen analysis. Thankfully everything was ok on his side. I was then referred to the hospital for an ultrasound to check my ovaries where ok, again everything was fine! so the fertility specialist I was seeing suggested I have a Laparoscopy and Dye test done (a small procedure done under general anaesthetic to see if you have any endometriosis of blocked tubes) again everything was ok, although the specialist did say I had a bit of endometriosis but he removed it there and then while I was still dreaming of rainbows and bunny rabbits!
The fertility specialist told me if I hadn't got pregnant within the next 6 months after the operation then he would put me on fertility drugs. My next step was Chlomid, a tablet that is a non-steroidal fertility medicine. It causes the pituitary gland to release hormones needed to stimulate ovulation (the release of an egg from the ovary), i’m still not too sure why I was offered this when I was already ovulating myself, but it didn't last long anyway I was took off it as I was having visual disturbances!! Still no luck for us! I was sure when they told me I could have an IUI done that I would fall pregnant this time! but no…..the first IUI failed. We were offered 3 rounds of IUI but they also offered to give us IVF if the second attempt failed.
Being the impatient woman I’am me and my husband decided to try one more time with the IUI then move straight to IVF if that failed. We were scheduled to go into the fertility clinic for our second IUI attempt (which I wasn't feeling hopeful for at all!) and one night I decided to do a pregnancy test because I was a few hours late (yes they come like clock work for me!) and “OMG” is that a pink line !!!!! IT WAS…..I was pregnant!!! I couldn't actually believe it I had to take another 5 tests before it actually sunk it!
I was very happy to ring the fertility clinic up and cancel my IUI and tell them I was finally pregnant after nearly 3 years of trying! From my experience if you are trying for a baby and it is taking a little longer than you thought please go to the doctors and have some tests done! its the best thing I did because it got the ball rolling for all the other tests and procedures that finally led to me becoming pregnant ! (although I fell pregnant naturally I still swear that the IUI I had done the month before had something to do with it! maybe it just cleared the way!! who knows!) and now we are blessed with our gorgeous little man Mason, who we count our lucky stars for every day!
Blood test after blood test, urine test after urine test.. the lot! It's probably a good job that I'm not bothered about needles because the amount of times I had to have blood taken and they could never find my veins either! The Blood tests came back ok, I had the right levels of progesterone needed to ovulate every month which was a relief. The doctors main advice for me at this stage was “keep trying” and “try to relax” ( the three dreaded words when trying to conceive!), so I did one of those things! My husband got an appointment at his GP to have some tests done to make sure everything was tip top , so they referred him to the hospital for a semen analysis. Thankfully everything was ok on his side. I was then referred to the hospital for an ultrasound to check my ovaries where ok, again everything was fine! so the fertility specialist I was seeing suggested I have a Laparoscopy and Dye test done (a small procedure done under general anaesthetic to see if you have any endometriosis of blocked tubes) again everything was ok, although the specialist did say I had a bit of endometriosis but he removed it there and then while I was still dreaming of rainbows and bunny rabbits!
The fertility specialist told me if I hadn't got pregnant within the next 6 months after the operation then he would put me on fertility drugs. My next step was Chlomid, a tablet that is a non-steroidal fertility medicine. It causes the pituitary gland to release hormones needed to stimulate ovulation (the release of an egg from the ovary), i’m still not too sure why I was offered this when I was already ovulating myself, but it didn't last long anyway I was took off it as I was having visual disturbances!! Still no luck for us! I was sure when they told me I could have an IUI done that I would fall pregnant this time! but no…..the first IUI failed. We were offered 3 rounds of IUI but they also offered to give us IVF if the second attempt failed.
Being the impatient woman I’am me and my husband decided to try one more time with the IUI then move straight to IVF if that failed. We were scheduled to go into the fertility clinic for our second IUI attempt (which I wasn't feeling hopeful for at all!) and one night I decided to do a pregnancy test because I was a few hours late (yes they come like clock work for me!) and “OMG” is that a pink line !!!!! IT WAS…..I was pregnant!!! I couldn't actually believe it I had to take another 5 tests before it actually sunk it!
I was very happy to ring the fertility clinic up and cancel my IUI and tell them I was finally pregnant after nearly 3 years of trying! From my experience if you are trying for a baby and it is taking a little longer than you thought please go to the doctors and have some tests done! its the best thing I did because it got the ball rolling for all the other tests and procedures that finally led to me becoming pregnant ! (although I fell pregnant naturally I still swear that the IUI I had done the month before had something to do with it! maybe it just cleared the way!! who knows!) and now we are blessed with our gorgeous little man Mason, who we count our lucky stars for every day!
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