Marriage| Year 1

Married | October 5, 2013

We had every intention of trying to start a family together right after marriage. We wanted it to be fun, non stressful, so agreed to "try" without "trying" too hard. If that makes sense! The thought of putting too much thought into it took away from the excitement. So that was our plan...well, our plan to not plan anyway.

I went to get a check up in January 2014 at my Gynecologist. I explained to them I had just got married and that we wanted to have kids very soon. They then wanted to make sure everything was healthy for me to do so and began running some tests. They also told me not to get too discouraged within the first year of trying because it takes most couples at least a year to get pregnant. But of course I thought to myself, "Well surely we will get pregnant before then."

All of my test results came back just fine and I immediately stopped taking contraceptives. It was all up to us now and we were beyond excited for this chapter in our life. And then, the problems started...

About 4 or 5 months after that appointment with the Gynecologist, my cycles started going hay wire. They were all over the place and it was frustrating to me because I knew something was off. This could not be good for us trying to have a baby. I had been on birth control for about 7 years, so my first thought was that it could be normal that my cycles aren't so perfectly timed each month now. I had issues with that before BC, but did not remember it being this bad. When I was a sophomore in high school, I had a cyst bust on my ovaries, which is why I was put on BC in the first place. Worst pain ever by the way!! No one at that time ever mentioned future problems with cycles or having children. Which is why I did not freak out too much, yet, about my cycles.

I happened to be coming down with an illness and had an appointment with my regular care doctor. While I was there, I had told her that I was trying to get pregnant and was about a week late on my period. She immediately got excited and said she wanted to take a pregnancy test. I thought, "Oh my gosh, could this really be it? Could we really already be so lucky as to have a little baby growing inside of me?" But that was just the excitement talking...It ended up being negative. I was not too discouraged just yet because I knew it was still early for us. But little did I know, this was the first of MANY negative pregnancy tests.

She sent me off to have a pelvic exam done and a vaginal ultrasound to check my ovaries and see if anything was off that could be causing my periods to be so sporadic. Bud went with me to have these tests done, thank goodness. I did not know what to expect so it was nice having him there. All in all, those results came back fine as well.

A couple months later, I had a follow up appointment with my Endocrinologist. I have Hashimoto Hypothyroidism Disease, so have to have that checked twice a year. While meeting with my doctor, I also explained how getting pregnant was hopefully in my near future. She then wanted to run a few extra tests to make sure everything was spot on. I told her I was having issues with my periods, which she explained could be stemmed from my thyroid being off, but that she wanted to check one other thing. After quizzing me about some symptoms I had been having and a quick ultrasound, she concluded that I had a touch of PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome).

Just great. Something else I have to worry about. She made sure I knew, women that had PCOS could still have children, it just may be a little harder for them. She wanted to put me on a medication, Metformin, to help with my cycles. Let me just say right now...I HATED being on this medication. It made me feel terrible, every day! I stayed on it until the end of the year, nothing had changed with my cycles, and did not get pregnant. It was only making me sick, so I was done with it.

So here we were, our first year of marriage, wanting and hoping for a baby, but no luck yet. I felt like we had gotten absolutely NOWHERE. However, our journey was far from over!