Part One of My Infertility Story

So this is my first blog ever. 

I titled my blog Hannah to Hannah because I am named after Hannah in the bible, and like her I have fertility issues.  You can read the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 1. I couldn’t think what else to name it so there it is, it may be dumb but I guess I’m stuck. 

A quick note about my tie-dye rainbow background, I love things that are pretty and brightly colored and as a result I love rainbow colored things. As a result of that I have people ask me if I am gay. I am not gay; I just love brightly colored things. This background has no hidden meaning, only that I like to think of myself as a little bit of a hippie. My car is covered in Daisy and Peace Sign stickers, and there is a rainbow Peace Frog on the back. I prefer to go barefoot whenever possible, and I was barefoot when I got married, outside in mom’s front yard. I believe I also went barefoot at my sister’s wedding since it was also outside in a park. 

Now more about me; I’m 25, married 5 years to the love of my life that makes me laugh every single day. I’m a photographer at heart, taking mostly scenic pics but also some portraits. I have a Facebook page showcasing my work here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hannah-Love-Chandlers-Photography/282550090053

Now for my infertility story. I guess I will tell this in installments. My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for four years. We got married on July 16^th, 2006 and the following July we decided to start trying to have kids. I talked to my doctor and went off my birth control, and we naturally thought we could get pregnant right away, because that’s what they tell you, that’s why I was on birth control. “You have to use birth control or you will have an unplanned pregnancy.” I had thoughts back in high school that I might have problems having kids because I’m so irregular, but I put it out of my head and we went on our merry way trying. I was taking folic acid and prenatal vitamins, buying pregnancy tests and hoping month after month.

After about 6 months or so I saw an OB/GYN and she did an endometrial biopsy on the spot. At the time I didn’t know better, but later I learned that rarely do doctors do that test first because it is painful. Most doctors do ultrasounds and blood tests first, but this one thought that I couldn’t get pregnant because I was overweight, and also that I had diabetes because I was overweight. She told me to get tested for diabetes, and I told her that I literally had just been tested by my regular doctor a few weeks ago. She did her one test and told me that my weight was the reason I wasn’t getting pregnant. She had her office call me when my test came back and said I did not have endometriosis, but she made sure to tell the nurse who called me tell me to get tested for diabetes. This doctor had no interest in working with me or doing any tests or anything, clearly she didn’t care for overweight people. I wasn’t going to go back to her anyways, but at the time my husband got hired as a Corrections Officer in a state prison in Tennessee, so we were moving.

At the very end of ’08 or beginning of ’09, after we got settled in Tennessee and I had a new job and could afford to see the doctor again I made an appointment with an OB/GYN who said that she could tell from my symptoms that I probably had polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) but she was going to do an ultrasound and check for the cysts. PCOS is a condition where there are a bunch of little cysts on the ovaries and because of those cysts the ovaries quit working. The ultrasound showed cysts and she put me on a medicine for that called Metformin. She also gave me a prescription for Clomid, which makes you ovulate. I decided to only take the first prescription for PCOS because Metformin is supposed to treat the PCOS and restore normal function to the ovaries, and sometimes that is the only treatment women need to start ovulating and to get pregnant.

By the summer of 2009 I decided to start the Clomid and go see a Fertility Specialist for monitoring while on it. Another reason I didn’t want to start the Clomid if I didn’t need it is because the OB/GYN told me that most women when they are on Clomid (only about 5 days a month) they are much moodier than normal. I didn’t want to feel like I had PMS more than I had to, even though the doctor made it sound like it should only be an extra 5 days of moodiness. We went to the Nashville Fertility Clinic and had some more tests and we happened to go on the exact right day, because when they did the ultrasound they saw that I had two mature eggs about to drop. We were so excited, thinking that this would be our month, we had two eggs, chances were one would get fertilized. We followed doctor’s orders and had sex every other day, but we didn’t get pregnant. Now by this point we had been trying to get pregnant for about 2 years, so ‘trying’ was no longer that fun. Not that we didn’t have fun, but it just seemed more like a chore, especially when we were doing it on a schedule. Not to mention that the Clomid didn’t make me moody for 5 days, it made me moody for the entire month! Each month got worse, and it made me very depressed, always angry or crying, as well as foggy headed. I went off the Clomid at the end of the summer of 2009, and we decided to take a break.

This is where I will stop for now; I will share more in my next post.