November 2002: Meet Q.
November 2002 – June 2007: Move twice across continents with Q. Finish one degree, start and finish another, teach for a while, eventually come back home to the Great White North.
July 2007: Marry Q! Toss out the bcps, but not yet trying
October 2007: AF is still MIA. Now officially trying. Start charting.
January 2008: Visit to GP. My three month chart (total lack of ovulation), absent AF (for six months now), and extremely wonky previous history earn me an instant referral to a fertility clinic. GP does all the early bloodwork and testing, including an u/s that confirms PCOS diagnosis (which I was expecting). Bloodwork indicates I am also hypothyroid with thyroid antibodies- an unpleasant surprise.
February 2008: First appointment with fertility clinic. PCOS and hypothyroidism confirmed again. Q’s SA fantastic. All other bloodwork normal. HSG shows two tubes open and squeaky clean. No obvious uterine anomalies.
March – May 2008: Begin metformin 500 mg 3xday in hopes of encouraging my body to ovulate. Nothing happens.
June – July 2008: Thyroid is high again. Dose increased from .5 to .5 alternating with .75 each day. Take provera to induce AF and then start Cycle #1 on Clomid. Take Clomid (at ever increasing doses) for 16 days until body FINALLY agrees to yield one lowsy follicle. Uterine lining is shot to hell. IUI #1 is bfn. Now under the care of an endocrinologist who ups synthroid dose to .75 a day.
August- September 2008: Cycle #2, starring Puregon. Slightly late ovulation, four or five follicles, great lining… bfn. Pretty gutted by this.
September- October 2008: Take a break to move house, start a new degree and run a half-marathon. Of course I don’t ovulate.
October-November 2008: Cycle #3, starring Puregon and Femara. Two or three good looking follicles, ovulation on day 13, great lining…bfn. What is up with this?
December 2008: Break to go overseas and visit Q’s family. Still no ovulation (so much for taking a vacation to ‘relax’!).
January 2009: Cycle #4, same drug protocol as previous cycle. Two good follicles, perfect day 14 ovulation, Q. is still getting high fives from the nursing staff, lining is beautiful… bfn.
February 2009: Laparoscopy reveals endometriosis. F/S excises with laser. Feels we’ve now got a great shot at getting pregnant.
April 2009: Cycle #5- no fe.mara, just pu.regon. Follicle growth stalls on Day 12. Cycle officially cancelled on Day 14.
April-May 2009: Cycle #6- 100 mg Clomid Days 3-7, Pu.regon 100 starting Day 5. Decision made to convert to IVF on Day 10 after we got a good look at my now over-achieving ovaries. 14 eggs retrieved, six fertilized (one naturally, five through ICSI). Six grade 1 embryos on Day 3. Two transferred, four frozen. All that for a BFN.
FET #1 in October 2009 (now with daily pio shots and Frag.min injections- oh joy) saw both embies survive the freeze. Blood test returned an initial beta of just 3 that fell to zero two days later.
FET #2 in December 2009 added twice-daily Frag.min injections and a double dose of pred.nisone. End result: loads of anxiety and hyperactivity and insomnia. Press on. Yet another BFN. Wonderful.
June 2010: Blood tests for clotting disorders all come back negative. Q’s DNA fragmentation test result is excellent, but the FISH test showed a higher percentage of abnormalities centred around chromosome 21.
July 2010: On BCPs. Start taking Lupron at the end of the month in preparation for an August IVF.
August 2010: IVF #2, long protocol. Stimming with Repronex and Gonal-F. Stim for 13 days, 34 eggs retrieved, 25 mature, 17 fertilized with ICSI. 17 still kicking on Day 3- decision made to go to blast. Two early-stage blastocysts transferred on Day 5, two frozen on Day 6.
September 2010- HPT comes back negative, but beta at 12dp5dt is 232. Second beta (14dp5dt) is 612. We’re pregnant! Ultrasound shows one perfect embryo with a heartbeat at 6w2d. Our EDD is 12 May 2011.
November 2010- We graduate from the clinic at 14 weeks and are released into the care of our midwives.
May 2011- Our gorgeous son is born, on Mother’s Day!
