This blog used to be about my history of infertility and the battle to produce a baby. Now, it is just my story of how I am battling to keep my marriage alive. But if you really want to know what it has been like as a PCOS and mild Endometriosis sufferer, please read on....
I have tried to write the history of my fertility problems so many times on so many blogs, that it just gets really boring to tell. Do you know what I mean? I'm sick of telling it, sick of reliving everything that causes me so much pain, I'd rather forget it. But I'm determined to do this because I hope that it will help others who have been diagnosed.
Here we go....
At 11 years of age my periods first began.
Started getting quite heavy and painful by my late teens/early 20's
Around 20/21, I had started to gain a bit more weight. I was never really "overweight" but I was "chubby" until I got to my early 20's.
Periods got crazy (I didn't know it, but I had stopped ovulating) and I would bleed for weeks and weeks without relief so I saw my local Dr who put me on the Pill - the magic cure-all! (sarcasm intended)
Around 22/23 I began to notice the first dark facial hairs and, ashamed, I would pluck them in secrecy. Then the dark hairs started sprouting around my navel, then later around my nipples. Because my adopted mother had a hairy chin (I didn't know I was adopted at the time that I noticed all this happening), I assumed I had just inherited it from her.
Stayed on the Pill til about... 27/28? During that time, my weight ballooned to 96.4kg or 212lbs.
Not realising that the Pill was the root of all evil and was to blame for my sudden weight gain, I went to Weight Watchers and managed to lose about 20kg. This happened three times over the next 8-9 years, I would get down to the low 70's or around 160lb and then I'd hit a plateau and no matter how hard I tried, the weight wouldn't budge. So inevitably I'd give up and the weight would stack back on.
Age 29 I went to a beautician's one day in March 2004 to get a facial. I had tried to pluck my chin meticulously and thought I'd done a pretty good job of it, right up til the moment when she rubbed some stubble on my chin and said "Do you know that the hairs you've got there are caused by something hormonal?"
Lightbulb moment.
I raced home and googled (it wasn't the real Google at that time, but it was the closest thing to it) "facial hair, hormones, women" or something like that. The first answer I clicked on was about PCOS. I scoured site after site and read through the symptoms. I suddenly knew what was the cause of all my problems.
By this time, my weight was hovering around 75kg/165lb and my cycles were "normal" - around 30-35 days.
Went to the Dr and he ordered an ultrasound and blood test. At the ultrasound they found no cysts. Dr put me on a new prescription for Diane35, he said that this would help to control the symptoms of PCOS and he advised me to try to lose weight (wasn't that what I had been doing?)
I took the Pill for about 3-4 months before I started suffering side effects (tight feeling in my chest) so I stopped taking it.
November 2004 - About two months after I stopped taking Diane35, I suffered a stroke (coincidence, or just bad luck? Drs never found out the actual cause, although a blood clot was ruled out)
January 2005 my cycles were anovulatory again and I was bleeding for months non stop. Because of my stroke, my new Dr was reluctant to prescribe anything for me.
June/July 2005 I had another ultrasound, this time it showed my ovaries riddled in cysts. How could that be? In just one year, I went from having no cysts to being full of cysts? Something very wrong here, and my guess is that the machine used at the first ultrasound was faulty.
Still bleeding non-stop.
August 2005 I had a D&C to try to "normalize" my periods. A polyp was found inside my uterus and was surgically removed.
Early October 2005 and the bleeding starts again. Got married, still bleeding lightly.
Fed up, I returned to the Gyn who finally gave me Clomid.
Four cycles on Clomid and got a BFP in July 2006, miscarried at 6.5 weeks.
Next cycle on Clomid got another BFP, miscarried 5.5 weeks.
Fell into a downward spiral of depression and gave up TTC.
April 2008 a third BFP, this one was a surprise because we hadn't been "trying". Miscarried 6 weeks.
May 2008 I have a Lap/HSG and the Gyn discovers that I have a "mild" dose of Endometriosis. Lucky me.
August 2008 my fourth BFP (surprise again), carried this pregnancy to 10.5 weeks before losing my precious son Joshua to a Retroplacental Haematoma. I had my little boy sent away for genetic testing and it turns out that he is perfect, there was no sign of any retardation or chromosomal abnormalities.
Haven't TTC'd since, well, haven't "tried" but haven't tried to prevent it either.
So that's my story in a rather large nutshell. I've probably forgotten a heap of stuff so I'll add it in as it comes to me.
The moral of my story is:
If you are diagnosed with PCOS please do not allow your Dr to prescribe the Pill and send you on your merry way.
Do not allow your Dr to tell you to come back and see him/her when you're ready to start trying for children.
Start NOW, do everything you can to get your body prepared and as healthy as possible.
Don't roll your eyes when the Dr tells you to lose weight, it is REALLY important for your ovarian function and it WILL help you to become more fertile.
