Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge - Day 4

Dealing with Infertility for three years gave me plenty of time to find resources all over the Internet.  People were always amazed by the amount of knowledge I had regarding Infertility but it definitely helped me.  It helped me to understand what was going on with my body, it gave me the power to tell my OB/GYN that I didn’t want to use them anymore, I wanted to be seen by a specialist who dealt with true Infertility and it gave me something to do.

I was pretty much attached to the IF Board on The Bump.  There’s so many acronyms, different hormones that could be affecting your fertility, medications to take, etc. that I learned a lot from these ladies.

Fertility Friend has a great tutorial that every woman who is struggling to get pregnant should read and help understand their bodies better.  I don’t think that as soon as a couple decides to have children that they should be charting and stress themselves out with all of this BUT if you’re curious about it, it explains everything and has an easy to use chart to chart your monthly cycle.

My RE has a Facebook page, which was great to see so many success stories and to commiserate with other women who were struggling.

There's so many places on the Internet to help those who are struggling with IF get support or learn more about what their options are.

Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge - Day 3

Wordless Wednesday

The moment I felt "healed"

Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge - Day 2

I suffer from Infertility.  Infertility is defined as not being able to get pregnant despite having frequent, unprotected sex for at least a year — or for at least six months if the woman is age 35 or older.

Specifically I suffer from amenorrhea, the absence of my period.  I get a period maybe every 6 months, if that.  Since I successfully had a pregnancy and birth, I've only had two spotty periods and they were induced with progesterone supplements.  I've done all testing for Infertility and there is no explanation for it.  My Fallopian tubes are clear, all my blood levels are normal, I have eggs in my ovaries, I just don't ovulate and get a period each month like other women.  I also needed some pretty strong drugs to achieve a strong enough ovulation and the RE had determined I needed a progesterone supplement to sustain a pregnancy for me to carry to full term.

1. Infertility is a common problem.  10% of women in the U.S. will experience problems with getting pregnant.
2. Infertility is not something to be ashamed of.  I felt best when I shared my struggles with others and had shoulders to cry on.  I could not have gotten through my two pregnancy losses and the failed medical cycles we went through for over 2 1/2 years without the help of friends and family.  There is no reason to fight it alone.
3. Go to a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE), don't just stay with your OB if you are struggling. An RE does much more monitoring for you.  I went through 7 cycles of Clomid with my OB before I moved onto the RE and realized the OB was not even monitoring me properly.  They were giving me doses of Clomid each month with no monitoring and I wasn't even ovulating on it.  Those were wasted months and took their toll on my body, my mental well-being and my marriage.
4. Yes, it will seem like everyone else is pregnant and most likely they are.  It sucks, there's no getting past that suck ass feeling either.  Wine helps.
5. Look into resources, there's the Compassionate Care program, I did NOT qualify, but know that others have.  I know my RE works with a foundation that donates money to families in need of money to help pay for treatments.  So don't just assume that you can't afford it.  I was lucky enough that my RE gave me medicine donated from other patients who no longer needed it.  I had over $2,000 in injections my cycle I got pregnant with Hayden and I didn't have to pay for any of the medicine that month, just treatments.

Some posts from the past:

http://wifeyadventures.blogspot.com/2011/01/plan-and-my-upcoming-weekend.html

http://wifeyadventures.blogspot.com/2011/01/blanket-thank-you.html

http://wifeyadventures.blogspot.com/2011/01/hello-again.html

http://wifeyadventures.blogspot.com/2010/09/latest-for-project-baby-making.html

Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge - Day 1

I'm going to try the Health Activist Writer's Challenge for 2013 again.  I didn't do so well last year but I'm trying to do more for myself and one of those things is writing, using a creative outlet.

I thought by engaging myself in the challenge, it would kick start my activity on the blog again and help me carve out a space of "me time" each day.

I've always struggled with my Infertility, even as a teenager when I didn't realize that I did have Infertility issues.  When Hubby and I first started dating my period would not show and I'd worry I was pregnant, silly me didn't realize at the time how hard it would be for me to get pregnant and I'd take tests all the time just in case.  I mean I'd been used to it in high school when my period was sporadic to say the least, but as an adult who was sexually active, it was more of a risk and as I gained more weight, my period became non-existent. I started researching IF online.  It became more important to figure this out when Hubby and I decided to marry.  I had joined The Knot to help plan our wedding and the next obvious step was to go to The Nest and The Bump so we could start trying for a baby.  From there I found lots of resources and blogs dedicated to other women suffering from IF.  Hopefully by sharing my stories about IF and using a specialist to finally achieve my dream of becoming a mother, I can educate other women about their bodies and answer questions for them.