The journey a woman takes trying to conceive, is her own. It is her story, her pain, her heartache, her battle and hopefully her triumph. The journey and the road are different for everyone, and I want to create a place where these narratives can be shared. Whether you have experienced miscarriage, you were unable to become pregnant, you were diagnosed with a condition which prevented pregnancy, you had undiagnosed infertility, or you know someone close to you who is struggling, you will find someone in this forum, who you can relate to.

-you are not alone-

AUDRA’S STORY

“Our journey to have a baby started like most every other couple. We stopped all birth control and started tracking my cycles. For a while they were all over the place, but I had heard that was common coming off of Depo Provera shots, so we didn’t pay it much attention. I had been told that it could take up to a year to get it all out of my system since I had been on it for 5 years, so when we still hadn’t conceived after a year I was bummed, sure, but not worried. Then one year quickly turned to two years. Now we were getting concerned. My cycle was pretty regular now so something must be going on. However, I was so embarrassed that I didn’t want to ask my doctor. I hated admitting that there was a problem. Meanwhile, with every pregnancy and birth announcement, my heart broke a little bit more. In 2012 I went in for my annual exam and my doctor asked why I didn’t have kids yet, pointing out that I was getting older. As tears welled up in my eyes I told her that we had been trying but had been unsuccessful. She referred me to her colleague who happened to specialize in reproductive medicine. I saw him that next week and he ran a battery of blood tests along with ultrasounds. Together we figured out that I was borderline PCOS and I wasn’t ovulating on my own. And so we started using Clomid. Let me tell you, that drug is pure evil. I was a raging ball of hormones when I was on that stuff. The first month I took it, we tried the old fashioned way. I clearly had ovulated, but my cervix was sealed shut, like it was packed with cement. Insemination was the only way this was going to work. So month 2, we did the Clomid, plus I took shots of Robitussin twice a day like it was tequila in order to thin my cervical mucus in order to get an instrument through to introduce the sperm directly into my uterus. Let me tell you what a fun process that was! My husband was thrilled at the idea of making love to a cup, especially when there were people out in the reception area who knew what he was doing!! However, he got it done, they got the specimen ready, and we rushed to the doctor’s office to have him inseminate me. Sadly, I got my period 2 weeks later. The insemination had failed. So the next month we doubled the dose of Clomid and went for it again. Now, I think it’s worth mentioning that this time, my husband had a very severe infection in his leg that made providing a specimen much more difficult this time. As a matter of fact, while I was being inseminated, he was in the ER being treated for this infection with IV antibiotics. They even left his IV in to have him come back 12 hours later for another dose! Whether it was the higher dose of Clomid or the infection in my husband’s leg, we don’t know, but this IUI (intrauterine insemination) was successful! We were pregnant!!! The pregnancy was relatively uneventful and I did everything right. I gave up caffeine and drank only water, ate only organic foods, no fast food, no processed foods, I got off of all of my meds. At 38 weeks and 6 days, at 2:12am, we welcomed our little bundle of joy, Tobias Eugene into the world.”

“Whatever fertility struggles we had must have been fixed by that ordeal because when we decided to start trying for our second, we expected difficulties again, but we conceived her within 3 months, and our last baby was a total surprise that we didn’t even know we wanted or needed until she was born.”

To read more narratives, please follow the below link:

– Her Story –