Fran Meadows, Author The Truth Behind The Secret "Infertility"
Your Infertility Stories
My infertility Journey
My story begins at the age of eighteen. I married my high school sweetheart in June of 1997. We knew we wanted to be parents and thought it would be easy just like all our friends had it easy. Boy, were we wrong! I always had menstrual periods that were not regular and I thought they would regulate as I got older. Once, again I was wrong! After being married for ten years I decided to go Dr. Hunting. I found from my Doctor that I had PCOS after a long blood test and talking in detail with what was going on with my body. I was told to take Metformin, I did with no success.
I did get pregnant and didn't know until I miscarried at work when I was about four weeks along. This was in 2008. Now we will be married for sixteen years this year and still no baby, or pregnancy. We decided that we want to do it all natural we want it the old fashioned way. With this said we are not giving up! We still have hope and we want to share our words of encouragement with everyone. Love is what you make it and without love you will never have happiness. I’m comforted with the Love of GOD that when I do have a child I will love it unconditionally and never take for granted the struggle it took to get where I am today!
GOOD LUCK TO ALL! MAY GOD BLESS US IN THE PROCESS THAT COMES EASY TO OTHERS AND DIFFICULT TO SOME! NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS!
I did get pregnant and didn't know until I miscarried at work when I was about four weeks along. This was in 2008. Now we will be married for sixteen years this year and still no baby, or pregnancy. We decided that we want to do it all natural we want it the old fashioned way. With this said we are not giving up! We still have hope and we want to share our words of encouragement with everyone. Love is what you make it and without love you will never have happiness. I’m comforted with the Love of GOD that when I do have a child I will love it unconditionally and never take for granted the struggle it took to get where I am today!
GOOD LUCK TO ALL! MAY GOD BLESS US IN THE PROCESS THAT COMES EASY TO OTHERS AND DIFFICULT TO SOME! NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS!
Infertility, Saddened by Adoption, Miscarriage - Now A Look To The Future
Written By Trish
Think Positive: Infertility Support
So, tonight I feel inclined to share my journey. Here goes: My husband and I have been married 5 1/2 years. This September it will be six years and we've been trying to have a baby since we got married. We knew we were ready.
After about two years of not conceiving we took our first step and went the GYN Dr., she said that since I'm irregular she would start me on a BC and on Metformin to help regulate me. That helped for a few months, so we stopped the BC and began trying and after about 6 months of still no success she said that there was nothing else she could do until I lost weight...I was shattered!! No labs to see if I was ovulating, no ultrasound to check my ovaries or such.
About 6-7 months after I began feeling funny and was having a lot of lower abdominal. pain, so I went to my PCP and he finally did an Ultrasound and he found about 4 cysts on my ovary. I was then put on a different medication to try and decrease their size and it helped! Meanwhile, we were talking about finally going to a local infertility DR about 2 hours away. Before we got the chance to go the hospital where we work was bought by another company and after trying to find out if our new insurance would cover infertility we learned they DID NOT:( another heartbreaking moment.
I was lost and had no clue what else to do; we were at a standstill and it felt like we would never be able to have a baby. Well, a little over two years ago we had a girl come to us and said that she was going to give her baby up for adoption. We were asked if we would to be the parents, without a second glance we both said, "YES!!" We had baby shower, got the nursery all together, I went to all the Dr. appointments and had everything ready. Then a week before she was due to have my baby girl, she sent me a text and told me that she changed her mind and was going to keep my baby...I could not move!! I left work early that day(yes I was at work), and did not leave my bed for a week, my husband finally said you've got to move around it's not going to help you just laying here. I knew he was right but I just felt so numb. Two of my very close friends then came over and helped me out of my funk; I thank God for those two girls every day!!
So let's move forward to this year...in April I began feeling weird, always sick to my stomach, tender breasts, mood swings and some CRAZY cravings...my husband was like your pregnant, I said there's no way. Well low and behold May 1st I took a test and it was POSITIVE, I was ecstatic!!!! A few weeks go by and we're still in ahh...but then I begin cramping and spotting, I'm freaking out telling myself it'll be ok, just put your feet up and relax well then on May 15, I lost my sweet angel...My angel in heaven..this sweet angel joined her brother Caden that I lost in 2002!! So I have two very sweet, special angels watching over me and enjoying their time with their great grandparents, and one day we will meet!!! I love and miss them every day and I pray one day that God will bless us with a precious bundle of joy!! FOREVER MY ANGEL♥
So that's my journey so far...it's nowhere near being done..I won't give up and one day I will have my arms full of baby love!!!
Lots of prayers and baby dust to you all!! May all your journeys be a lifetime of memories and with a sweet ending!!
♥♥ Trish
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My fertility journey became a journey into the green revolution!
Written by Diana Palmentiero
of Fertility Wellness Group Many women think of their infertility issues as a struggle. Having lived through the “struggle” twice and survived, I have come to realize that I was on an incredible journey. I just didn’t realize it at the time. My journey began in the spring of 2004 when I was 37, married for 6 months and trying to conceive for the first time in my life. The first month we tried, I became pregnant. Wow, that was easy! Then at 5 weeks pregnant, I began bleeding. I was shocked, confused, disappointed and every other emotion you can be when you miscarry, especially the first time you are pregnant. After the first miscarriage my husband and I tried again for several months but we were once again disappointed when I miscarried the second time I became pregnant. Now my feelings included “what did I do to cause this to happen?” I was a healthy woman with no medical issues and now I had had 2 miscarriages in less than a year each time I had been pregnant. Somehow this must be my fault. Miscarriage is not a topic that many people discuss so I had no one to talk to about it. I was becoming increasingly despondent. If I wanted to feel better, I knew that I needed to take action. Being 38, I realized that my eggs were not getting any younger so my husband and I decided to visit our local fertility doctor. The next thing I knew he was telling me that I had a little problem called high FSHand that I had a less than 1% chance of having a “take home baby.” I was going to need his help and quickly. So we started fertility treatments. I was put on the highest dosage of fertility drugs that anyone could possibly take and then felt like I had PMS for 24 hrs. a day, 7 days a week. Between the high dosage of fertility drugs and the emotional roller coaster that I was on, I became depressed. If someone looked at me the wrong way, I would start to cry. Holidays didn’t help either. The worst was having to go to the hospital to wait for someone else to give birth. I spent most of the time in the bathroom crying until the baby was wheeled up to the nursery glass window. After 6 months of roller coaster emotions and only being able to go through 2 IUIs, we did not get pregnant. Although I desperately wanted to have a child, I hated all the medications that I was on so I began to explore other options. And where do you turn to when you need alternate solutions? The Internet, of course! That’s where I started to read about acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. The idea behind it is that “infertility” happens when a woman’s body is not in balance. I never realized that so many things in our bodies need to happen perfectly for conception to occur. When a woman’s body is not in balance and it’s trying to have a baby, then either (a) conception won’t happen, or (b) as in my case, it will happen, but a woman won’t stay pregnant. I then discovered a book called “The Infertility Cure” by Dr. Randine Lewis. What a great title! Who wouldn’t want a “cure” for their infertility, as if it is a disease? I quickly ordered one. Here’s a link to find out more about her at The Fertile Soul. Dr. Lewis also holds retreats so I found out where her next retreat was being held and headed out to Austin, Texas. By this time it was January 2006. What a life altering experience the retreat was. It lasted for 5 days. Along with Dr. Lewis, there were dynamic speakers, classes, spa treatments, and group healings. Dr. Lewis herself claimed in her literature that I “would enter a lifestyle path that [I] won’t ever want to leave.” One of my favorite sessions of the retreat was on nutrition. She stressed the importance of eating whole, natural and organic foods and especially not eating foods that are processed. She also stressed eating gluten-free and dairy-free. Before I knew it, I had lost 7 lbs. When I came home from the retreat, I felt like a changed person. Although I had a back-up plan to start IVF a few months later, I believed that I was going to get pregnant without medical intervention. Dr. Lewis referred me to an acupuncturist, Dr. Michael Berkley of The Berkley Center, who performed acupuncture and prescribed herbal teas from a pharmacy in Chinatown called Kamwo. And sure enough, one month after I came home from the retreat, I was pregnant! As I continued on my pregnancy journey, I realized that Dr. Lewis was right and that I wanted to continue on the path that had helped me to have a child. I made some changes in my life that I had learned at the retreat which would also be beneficial for my unborn child. My husband and I continued to eat more natural and organic foods. When my daughter April was born in 2006, we decided that she would be breast-feed for 1 year and eat organic baby foods when she began to eat solids. Later, as I was cleaning the house and April started to crawl around, I realized that I did not want her to breathe in the fumes from the cleaning products that I was using. This made me change my cleaning products to more eco-friendly ones. My fertility issues and experience at the retreat made me aware how important it is to know exactly what is going into your body, no matter how it goes in. When we tried to have a sibling for April, we again went through the same struggles. April was nine months old when I had my third miscarriage after 5 weeks. We again decided to try acupuncture and herbal teas. Dr. Berkley referred me to Dr. Yaron Seidman of Hunyuan Fertility. He made some further, individualized dietary suggestions such as eating more liver. (That wasn’t much fun.) The next time we had a miscarriage, I had not been using acupuncture long enough. That’s when I knew it was time to give my body a rest. We took three months off from acupuncture and trying to conceive. When we began again, I started going to acupuncture and brewing and drinking herbal teas. This time it worked and my son Cody was born in July of 2009. And now, almost 6 years and 2 kids later, I am doing things that I never thought I would do. For the past 2 years, I have joined Sport Hill Farm’s Cash Crop program, so that my family can enjoy farm fresh vegetables. We now eat mostly organic foods from meats to breads to cookies and jellies. We recycle as much as we can and use healthier cleaning solutions. My fertility struggles led me on a journey to where I eventually became a part of the “green revolution.” Who knew that would happen but I think it is incredible! Visit her website at: http://fertilitywellnessgroup.com |
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Angie's Infertility Journey
By Angelica Astry I wanted to share my infertility story with you...it is a very long story which I have many blog posts about, so I will give you the shortened version. On July 15, 2010, my husband, Casey and I decided to start trying for a baby. I wondered if I'd have trouble conceiving because I have irregular cycles and PCOS, I never imagined everything I would go through though. I went to a gyno for the first time that September and was started on Clomid. I did 5 cycles of Clomid with no success. During the 5th cycle, I decided to start going through a reproductive endocrinologist. With the RE, I was then started on Femara, which my body responded more to. I then started doing IUI's combined with Femara and Ovidrel to help me ovulate. After a few rounds of no success, I was started on Follistim which is an injectible medication. I did a total of 5 IUI's. I also had a Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy as well right before the last IUI. In January of 2012, I started the medications for my first round of IVF. The egg retrieval and transfer took place at the beginning of March. On March 26, I got the call that I had a positive pregnancy test. We had 1 embryo transferred because that was the only healthy embryo that we had. I felt great being pregnant. However on May 21 at our NT ultrasound, the baby had no heartbeat. I had the D&C surgery on May 23. I was 12 weeks, 6 days when I had the D&C. I am sad, but we will try again. We found out that IVF works for us, so we will start that sometime in the hopefully near future. Thank you for reading my story. I post a lot on my blog, most recently talking about my miscarriage. The website is angelicaastry.blogspot.com. Lenore's Infertility Journey
Written By Lenore Pranzo Why does it seem that everyone in the world is pregnant and having babies when you have been trying for years and spend every waking moment thinking about it? I wish I knew. God knows you don’t want to hear the word infertility ever, yet it seems to be on the tip of your tongue and front of your brain constantly. Ten years ago, when I was 32 and married a few years I thought I could have babies quite easily. Why wouldn’t I, I was young and healthy? Sound familiar? The journey started with my OB whom I had been seeing since I was a teenager. Someone I trusted with my fertility health. Her philosophy with me was, come to me if you don’t get pregnant in 1 year. Needless to say with cycles that varied from 34-49 days using the standard method of ovulation detection was impossible and frustrating. Fast forward to one round of clomid and not even being able to bring my cycle to under 35 days it was scratch that and move on quickly to FSH and insemination. All the standard tests were normal. The struggle began and so I tried to educate myself on fertility and how to enhance it in any way possible. After two unsuccessful cycles with fertility drugs I made the decision to consult a proven fertility clinic, Connecticut Fertility Associates in Norwalk and Bridgeport. After one cycle resulting in hyper stimulation the suggestion of IVF was made. I was tired and decided to just take a break and keep seeing my acupuncturist to treat my long cycles (possible PCOS) without medical treatments for a while. I looked for support groups and didn’t find any in the area. However I was anything but private about my fertility health. I found talking with a few friends here and there resulted in finding others who were experiencing or had experienced similar struggles. The support and hope was helpful. Through my fertility journey I went back to school and became a therapist and used my education to help me through the ordeal. After almost 4 years of trying to get pregnant naturally and with assisted technologies, IVF with acupuncture seemed to be the best combination. This approach resulted in a twin pregnancy and full term birth of healthy boys. Over five years later I can be brought back to that period of time in an instant hearing a story of someone trying to get pregnant or miscarrying. Don’t go through this alone. Look for support online and from friends and family. If they are not supporting you the way you need, then tell them what you need from them. If they can’t do that for you, then look for help elsewhere. Healthy relationships make for a healthy you. Visit her website at http://fertilitywellnessgroup.com Mother Of Two Angels In Heaven
Written By
Heather Hopkins Hi I'm here to share my story. This picture represents the two babies (those are my positive tests) that my husband and I have lost due to miscarriages and unexplained infertility. I'm 25, married, and struggling with "unexplained" infertility. My husband and I fell pregnant in Feb 2011 but miscarried at just 6 weeks. Doctors said it was a chemical pregnancy so not really a 'baby'... We fell pregnant again in May 2011 after trying for those 3 consecutive months. At our first scan at 12 weeks the Doctor said it was a blighted ovum..basically a sac measuring at 5 weeks with no signs of a growing fetus. Again, not really a 'baby'. We decided to miscarry naturally which happened later that week this was on August 5th 2011. I had a period the beginning of September so we began trying again that month. Here we are middle of June 2012 and after tests and doctors appointments and exams my doctor cannot explain our miscarriages or infertility. I have recently decided to try an OPK instead of trying to guess when I'm ovulating. With the stress and pressure and struggle with depression, my periods have been extremely irregular. So my journey has just begun but I'm not going to give up! Visit her blog: h-hopkins.tumblr.com Twitter: @Hopalong25 |
