There are some things that many people don’t talk about. Infertility. Many choose to keep their infertility struggle a secret, to make it easier on them. ( I was one of the people), at the time, I didn’t want people to know. I didn’t want them to ask what was going on, what was the next step, I only wanted to talk about our process when I was ready. Then after many months of trying, you get what you have been wishing a praying for, you’re pregnant. All those months of infertility are in the past, people don’t tell their stories. They are looking to the future, and not in the past anymore.
That is why I have collected some women that have gone through infertility, in case you are going through this and you feel alone, please know you are not.
Know you are not alone if you are going through infertility.
Because I like to think I’ve overcome in other ways. I’m stronger for it and I’m not ashamed of it- so many women feel like it’s something they did and they’re to blame…but that’s just NOT the case. I lost my first pregnancy, my daughter, at 18 weeks. She’s now my guardian angel and has taught me so much about a condition I never even knew existed until it happen to me and I lost her. I’ve educated SO many Drs (Yes, I’ve educated them!) on my condition and the steps I’ve taken to beat my condition. So, although I don’t have my rainbow miracle yet, I’m hopeful it’ll happen someday…but I do believe my husband and I have overcome infertility but not allowing it to overcome Us. -Meghan
My husband and I started trying to have children as soon as we got married. After a year with no success, off to the doctor, we went. We were referred to our fertility facility and began immediately with testing. No problems were found with either of us and we underwent 4 IUI’s within 7 months. All 4 IUI’s were unsuccessful. On to IVF! Over the next 12 months, I gave myself hundred of shots (hubby had to help with the progesterone ones in the butt), took hundreds of pills and was at the doctor’s 3 times a week for the entire duration. I was put to sleep 5 times for 5 retrievals and underwent 5 transfers (some with up to 4 grade A embryos)! All attempts failed and we were convinced we couldn’t have children. We were exhausted physically and mentally, but we decided to try one more time! On our 6th retrieval and 6th transfer, we ended up pregnant with our little miracle baby girl! Seeing that little heartbeat for the first time made it all worth it! We would do it all over again to have her. Infertility is nerve-racking, hard on your marriage, physically and mentally exhausting, but in the end, we were rewarded with the best gift we could have ever received! – Megan
When my husband and I decided to start trying for a baby we never thought we would have such a hard time. We decided that I would go off birth control. While On birth control I had regular periods so after my 1st missed period we were so excited and nervous and then a negative test. Negative test after negative test was more disappointment. I then started buying ovulation tests to narrow down when we could get pregnant. Again those were negative. We had been trying for nine months and it began to weigh on me. Trying for a baby became work and after I would often cry because I never knew if it would happen for us and that was heartbreaking. It seemed like everyone around us was able to get pregnant right away. I was happy for them but also really sad for us. Every time someone would ask when we were going to have kids my heart broke even more. I felt like I was letting my husband down. after nine months of no period and negative pregnancy test, I was sent for a MRI to try to get some answers. That MRI showed that I had a prolactinoma. A brain Tumor in the pituitary gland. The Tumor stopped me from ovulating. After getting these results I was sent to a specialist. We had to reduce the Tumor before we could continue trying. After more months and with use of medication my Tumor was decreasing. Finally, after over a year, we were able to conceive.
We had our baby boy! We wanted to try for a second baby but yet again my Tumor was slowly growing when I was not on medication. I had to start on the medication again but this time after only 2 months we were pregnant with our second boy. Even though we are done having kids I still have my brain Tumor that needs to be monitored. After my experience with infertility, I will never again ask someone WHEN they are going to have kids. They may not be able to or have been trying for far too long and I know that heartbreaking feeling. – Shannon
I remember that feeling of seeing a positive pregnancy test for the first time after seeing all negatives for 2 years!!! I still think about that years later and what an amazing feeling that was!! We struggled with infertility for 2 years. Went through all the tests to see if they could find anything wrong and they came up with nothing. I researched on my
own and did some reading on endometriosis. I brought it up to my fertility doctor and my ob-gyn and while they weren’t 100% with me on it they sent me to a specialist and he agreed to do the surgery. They found I had severe endo!! We were so anxious to get pregnant we started trying again as soon as I was given the go-ahead after healing from surgery. We also decided to start fertility treatments just in case the surgery didn’t help. Well, the day I received my fertility meds at my door was the same day I got my +. The same exact day!!! 9 months later I delivered a healthy happy beautiful baby boy. Fast forward to 2 years later….we tried to get pregnant again. I took a pregnancy test and got another +. So exciting, no problems this time. At the 12 week ultrasound to our surprise there were TWO babies in there. We had identical twin girls!! I went from thinking it was never going to happen to this beautiful wonderful family!!- Lindsey
We got married at 23 and immediately knew we wanted a large family. However, after months of trying and nothing happening I visited my OBGYN. She put me on birth control for a few months to regulate my cycles. During those few months, my weight ballooned up. Pregnancy announcement after pregnancy announcement had me depressed and wondering why not me? I was eventually diagnosed with PCOS. The struggle to lose weight became a mountain. I used to be a dancer and now I could barely tie my own shoes. I was embarrassed and knew that if I didn’t control my weight I’d probably never become a mother. Months turned into years. Finally four years into our marriage the doctor said I was in a healthy weight range and that we shouldn’t have any issues conceiving. But those months turned into a year. Finally, I decided on a whim to call a fertility center. They got us in quickly and a whirlwind of testing ensued. Not only did I have issues ovulating, my husband had low morphology which meant getting pregnant on our own was very unlikely. Our doctor sat us down and I was expecting the worst. However, just like that, we decided on IUI. I was prescribed Clomid and ovidrel. We went in knowing the odds weren’t necessarily in our favor. The two-week wait was the worst. Finally, after over five years of trying we are expecting our first in May of 2018. No journey with infertility is the same. No outcome will be the same, but when you can find others who have lived a similar story it makes your journey not seem so scary. Never stop seeking answers. Never stop being your family’s advocate. If we can climb this mountain. You can too!- Samantha
We were 24 and 26 when we started trying to get pregnant, we tried for about 3mo when I felt something was wrong, our doctor had us wait til 6mo so we did, at 6mo of trying my husband was tested and was shown to have a 0 sperm count. Which was devastating. We moved on to a fertility doctor and fertility urologist who figured out my husband is part of the 1 in 4 men who are CF carriers that are infertile. We knew we had to do IVF, so we started the process, found out my husband’s sperm was just stuck (our first sigh of relief), so they removed them, and fertilized them with my eggs. After 2yrs from start to finish we had our son (now 4) and 2yrs after that we had our daughter (now 2), all thanks to our fertility treatments, some amazing doctors, and lots of prayers. -Deziree
I think this is a good reminder to know, we never know what other’s are going through. And if you are one who is going through Infertility, please know you are not alone! We struggled with Infertility, and now on Thursday, I will be 20 weeks along! Check out our
pregnancy announcement!
everyone!
This has been a long time “in the making” and I hope to explain it a little more, and to bring awareness to Infertility that a lot of young women don’t talk about. I was one of those women, I did not talk about what we went through, while we were going through the process. Looking back, I am still glad that we didn’t tell everyone, trying to get pregnant is enough stress alone, without everyone else wondering, and asking what is the next step.
