Getting to the root of my fertility issues.

I want to give you all a little reproductive history before I dive into what I did medically to get pregnant. I started my period when I was 11 so pretty early but not crazy early. I was always in a lot of pain and had heavy periods, especially for my age. I realize now that I probably should have mentioned these things to my mom but instead I just hid everything from her. I am writing this part to encourage everyone to get help. If you are in a lot of pain or something doesn’t feel right. GET HELP! Don’t be like me and hide it—especially you younger ladies.

1. PCOS

So after I had been trying to get pregnant for a while the doctor thought I had PCOS. I had all the classic signs: I was overweight, had heavy periods, had ovary pain, my acne was HORRIBLE and I wasn’t ovulating( according to ovulation test). They prescribed me metformin right off the bat which is supposed to help with insulin resistance one of the main causes of PCOS. So I started taking that and let me tell you that was a whole experience in itself. Metformin is hard on the belly. After I was put on that I thought all of my symptoms would go away. WRONG! but at least I knew what my problem was or at least I thought I knew.

2. All the pain!

So I have had horrible pain for years. I don’t just mean pain a few days before your period, I mean pain the entire month! Yes, you read that right! The WHOLE MONTH! I was in so much pain that I wanted to stay in bed or I had to take Tylenol to ease them up. Some pain would even bring me to my knees. I would have the most random pains too. It would feel like someone was stabbing me in my uterus when I would sneeze really hard. It was so odd. Finally, after around 6 months of trying to conceive, I brought all of these things to my doctor’s attention and she thought it sounded like Endometriosis. If you are anything like me you are probably like Endometri-what? I had no clue what that was. She explained it to me a lot of things started making sense. All the painful periods and random other pain were all explained. One major problem though, the only way to actually know if you have it is to have surgery which no one wants to do but I was so ready to have a baby I was like ok let’s do this. I even agreed to have it done on Valentine’s Day because I was so ready for a baby.

3. Hysterosalpingogram 

I know you just read that big long word and thought what the heck is this girl talking about because I said the same thing when they said it to me at the doctor’s office. I had no clue what it was so I’m sure most of you don’t either so here is the short version. They pretty much just put dye into your uterus and fallopian tubes to make sure there are no blockages or obstructions that can cause you not to get pregnant. (Also FYI this isn’t covered by most insurance but if you have it during the surgery for the endometriosis most doctors will do it for little to no cost since they are already in there). I just wanted to make you all aware of this because if you are like me you don’t know all the technical terms of it all.