I guess a little background couldn't hurt. I have been overweight and had high cholesterol since early childhood, despite being raised by awesome parents who did not shovel fast food or sweets down my gullet. I reached menarche at age 14, which while not unusually late for American teens, was unusually late for the women in my family. My periods have been wildly irregular since then. I usually only have 1-2x a year, though I do get withdrawal bleeds on birth control and when taking a progesterone challenge. I'm not sure if I've ever ovulated.
My mom took me to the pediatrician when I was 16 to make sure nothing obvious was wrong with my reproductive parts. I don't remember much about this, but we were assured that irregular menses in teens was very normal. I saw an OB-GYN for the first time when I was 18, to start birth control (for pregnancy prevention purposes, ha, ha). I was again told that everything was fine. I saw another OB-GYN at age 19 or 20, who did my first transvaginal ultrasound. Everything was where it was supposed to be, and I was again told not to worry. This cycle repeated itself over and over throughout my early 20's. I would see an OB-GYN to complain of extremely irregular periods when not on birth control, fatigue, weight gain, and lack of libido. One doctor told me I was wasting her time since I was not actively trying to get pregnant. One (male) OB told me that women just have low libidos, and that having sex was like taking out the garbage- sometimes you just have to do it for your partner's sake.
During this time I went on and off birth control, tempting fate (by risking an unplanned pregnancy) just to see what would happen. I never got pregnant. I rarely menstruated without birth control. In November of 2007, one month before I graduated form nursing school, my high-school sweetheart proposed. We began planning our November 2008 wedding, and decided not to use any type of contraceptive in May of 2008. I was willing to risk walking down the aisle pregnant if that meant that my body worked.
It didn't. A year later, in April 2009, we saw a reproductive endocrinologist. We first learned that my husband's swimmers are the Michael Phelps of sperm, meaning our infertility is solely female factor.
After another transvaginal ultrasound and day three labs, I was told that I have borderline PCOS. The next step was Clomid and IUI, which meant getting an $850 HSG. We declined for two main reasons: spending $850 on an HSG when my tubes are likely patent (no history of STD/PID, only one sexual partner EVER) seemed exorbitant, and we were newlyweds- IUI seemed like a BFD that we weren't ready for yet. We were only 24; we had time to wait.
I have been off birth control for 2 years and 9 months. During this time, I have not menstruated without taking progesterone to cause a withdrawal bleed. I have not ever achieved pregnancy. I take metformin, but I don't know how helpful it has been since I am not insulin resistant. I need to lose weight, but that is a whole other post. The next step seems to be Clomid, of which I am very apprehensive. Multiples are 10 times more common in Clomid pregnancies. I very strongly desire to have a natural childbirth in a birth center (also another post), which is a little more challenging in a multiples pregnancy. To add fuel to the confusion fire, I am currently in the middle of nurse-midwifery school, meaning that I am B U S Y. I think about being pregnant and having a child during most of my waking (and many of my sleeping) hours. I will be 26 in one month. When I was in college, I dreamed of having four to five babies two to three years apart starting at age 25. Now I'm hoping for one, and a healthy pregnancy.
Where do I go from here?
