Wendy

… as told on my Instagram - voice.of.infertility

It’s #CIAW and I’m sharing our story to raise awareness about infertility.

To summarize: Met in 2006 and we got married in 2011. We started trying for a family in 2013 or so. We thought. I stopped taking oral contraceptives and menses never returned. I was diagnosed with Hypothalamic Amenorrhea in 2014. Between 2014 and 2015 I tried clomid three times and failed, Letrozole twice and failed. I tried daily GonalF injections and monitoring with timed intercourse twice and fail. Tried daily GonalF injections and IUI epic fail. Sample was frozen because husband was out of town during cycle. Sample did not survive the thaw rendering cycle useless. It was such a dark day and a true turning point.

I took a 4 month break and hoped my body would ‘right’ itself. It didn’t. Decided to proceed with IVF resulting in 30 eggs, 24 mature, 21 fertilized and only 4 survived till day 5 and 6. High amount of eggs landed me with a severe case of OHSS resulting in cancellation of our embryo transfer and a ‘freeze all embryos’ cycle instead.

Body healed. Queue ‘16. It took 27 days to respond to estrogen and have my body ready for embryo transfer. Thawed one, it died. Thawed second embryo, it died. Thawed third embryo, it survived, hatched out of its shell and was transferred back home to me. It worked! Currently 18 weeks pregnant!

Lessons learned: Family is not who we’re related to by blood. Those are the people who; on my side of the family have caused us the most stress during the journey. Find those who empower and encourage you, related or not, and embrace them. Other lesson learned, my husband is stronger, more loving, caring and compassionate than I ever would have known otherwise.

#InfertilityMatters #WeAre1in6 #1in6 #Infertility #InfertilityAwareness #IVFSuccess #UnnaturallyKnockedUp #OctoberBaby #SecondTrimester #AVoiceOfInfertility #TTC #TTCCommunity #TTCSisters