Justin and I started trying to get pregnant in Dec of 2006. I had been told by several doctors that due to my medical history (details to come later) that I would probably never be able to get pregnant on my own. Now I KNOW that God created me to be a mom, I know His plan for me was to conceive and to bear my own children. However, I don't know how He planned for this to happen. At first I struggled with the thought of taking fertility drugs. Was that against God's will? Would it work if it wasn't? Was that lack of faith or trust in God? But I came to the conclusion, with the help of a lot of Godly people, that God gave us medical intervention. If He didn't want us to use doctors or medicine, I think we would know it.
Here is a thought: If you were diagnosed with a disease and your doctor gave you a prescription to cure or treat that disease, would you take it? If you knew that by taking that medicine your quality of life would improve and may even lengthen your lifespan, wouldn't you go get it filled immediately? Just as a sick person needs medicine to make them well, an infertile person needs medicine to make their body function as it should. This is the very reasoning that made me realize that I am not wrong for seeking medical intervention in my pursuit of parenthood. If I would do anything for my children when I have them, wouldn't it make sense to think I would so anything to get them here?
All of that to say that I have in fact tried a few rounds fertility meds. In the beginning of 2007 I took Clomid for three months. Clomid is a harsh drug that had significant side effects for me. I had intense mood swings, headaches, hot flashed and I was just overall unpleasant. After three rounds of trying to get pregnant on Clomid my doctor referred me to an RE (Reproductive Endocrinologist, AKA fertility specialist).
Dr Dunn, our RE, was amazing. He was very welcoming and very comforting in this hard time. Justin went with me to our first appointment and we agreed when we left that we feel very comfortable with Dr Dunn and are happy that he is our RE. Before we arrived Dr Dunn had gone through my medical file, which is about 2-3 inches thick, and made himself familiar with my extensive medical history. It was so nice to sit in a meeting with a new doctor and not have to tell them everything I had been through. He knew everything and had found some things that my other doctors hadn't caught. He informed me that he would not have tried Clomid with me because he knew from my chart that it wouldn't have worked. In the meeting he said that I will have a very difficult time ever conceiving on my own. He didn't say it was impossible, he just said it was unlikely. Nothing he said made me think for one second that he was just trying to get us to do the expensive treatments. I knew he had our best interest in mind and we trusted him.
Dr Dunn ran some tests on me and we found out that I have a good a egg reserve to work with and my FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) was good. Those two things were a huge relief for me. If either of those had been bad, we would have needed to look into possible egg donation (using another women's eggs and Justin's sperm).
So now our IVF journey begins....
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