Infertility/Subfertility Timeline

Dec. 15, 2007: Get married decide to use Natural Family Planning for a year to postpone a pregnancy to try and figure out my crazy cycles and painful periods also so we could save our money (which we had very little of) and hubby could be almost done with school/apprenticeship program.

Dec. 2008: Start using the sympto-thermal method of NFP to try and conceive(TTC). I always had painful periods so I thought something was wrong before I knew something was wrong.

2008-2009: Go to a few Drs. to get help for my painful periods and all they wanted to do was put me on the pill. When they found out I was trying to have children they said "you are young once you have a baby the periods should get better" I am still waiting for that to happen!

Spring 2010: After almost 1.5 yrs. of trying to get pregnant we start to focus on other things like NFP ministry. We meet this awesome couple who teaches NFP and ask them to look at our charts to see what could be wrong. They look at our charts and immediately let us know we need to see a NaProTechnology Dr. and switch to using the Creighton Model. We call the Drs. they recommended and made an appointment with Dr. Stigen.

July 2010: Start learning Creighton and loving not taking my temperature every morning!

Dec. 2010: Go back to Dr. Stigen w/ chart and make a plan.

Feb. 2011: Do hormone blood panel which entails me getting my blood drawn every other day for almost 3 weeks, ouch!

March 2011: Find out my progesterone is way low and estrogen way high as well as my androgens are slightly elevated. Dr. Stigen suspects PCOS and Endometriosis. I tell her that two Drs. said I didn't have PCOS or Endometriosis and she says "we'll see." Still having very painful periods so she suggests diagnostic surgery.

May 2011: Diagnostic surgery happens. Dr. finds a partially blocked right tube and A LOT of pelvic adhesions that were pulling on my intestines, left tube and ovary. No wonder I was in so much pain! PCOS is confirmed. We ask the Dr. how would I get adhesions and she said it could be from some trauma to that area then I remember I was in a bad car accident when I was 16 and the seat belt jerked me back and jammed on my left side (trauma explained). Devastated that I have PCOS when I was told that I did not by other Drs. Go gluten free at Dr.'s urging.

June 2011: Go on cycle plans TTC. I am on Femara, B6, Muncinex, Fertile CM, Post Peak progesterone, N-Acetyl-L-Cystene(NAC) and a pre-natal vitamin.

Nov. 2011: Enter practitioner program at the urging of my practitioner.

Dec. 2011: Celebrate 4 years of marriage and still no BFP(Big Fat Positive from a pregnancy test). Dr. suggests we try clomid next cycle, we are cautious but will consider it.

Jan. 6, 2012: We get our first BFP and find out we are parents! We are shocked, scared and elated.

Jan 17, 2012: We lose our dear sweet baby. We name the baby Cecilia Esperanza, I had a feeling she was a girl.

2012: Body spirals out of control after miscarriage and I develop hypoglycemia. Take a year off from treatment to heal from the miscarriage and to get my body back on track.

Aug. 2012: Go see a naturopath and get on a super restrictive diet and cut out dairy(I love you cheese) and sugar as well as corn, refined carbs like white rice, caffeine, certain fruits and veggies. If you want more info. on what I did you can see that in this post.

Dec. 2012: Go back to NaPro Dr. and get a plan together she suggests clomid and we never pick up the prescription at the pharmacy. We decide to try without meds. for a few months first. We also start looking into adoption and check out agencies. We realize the cost of adoption and are putt off by it, plus we do not have time right now to focus on that with my practitioner internship and my health issues.

March 2013: Decide to have an ovarian wedge resection to try and manage PCOS aggressively. Find out DH is allergic to peanuts and wheat, so he goes gluten free too.

April 2013: Wedge resection and HSG (hysterosalpingogram). At this point only one ovary is showing signs of PCOS, praise God, and she performs surgery on only one ovary. One tube was blocked with a lot of scarred tissue so she unblocks it as best she can. Dr, says our pregnancy with Cecilia was probably ectopic.

May 2013: Recovering from surgery and will get a plan when we go back to the NaPro Dr. at the end of May. Studying for my practitioner exam that is to be May 18th!

June-Aug. 2013: Do nothing medically and let my body heal.

Sept. 2013: Do a cycle of femara again and start taking new supplement for pcos.

Oct. 2013: Decide not to continue w/ femara due to side effects. Not sure what is next and decide to look more into adoption.So we stop charting and meds.

April/May 2014: We are moving forward with adoption plans and get picked to meet a birth mother whose baby is due in July 2014. Meeting goes well and its looking good. Then birth mother changes her mind and decides to parent.

Summer 2014: We are curious to know why my cramps are still a bit painful so we go back to NaPro Dr. and she suggests a new supplement and talk to her about doing the u/s series to confirm ovulation, another hormone profile and test for mthfr mutation.  Feeling overwhelmed so we take some time to think about it all.

Nov. 2014: Find out I do have the mthfr genetic mutation.

Dec. 2014: Do ovulation u/s series. Find out I have LUFS and I am not ovulating.

Feb. 2015: Hormone profile shows my hormones are all fine so LUFS is not being caused by low hormone levels. Dr. thinks we should work on egg quality and then try trigger shots.

April 2015: We decide to not do trigger shots or pursue adoption or foster care. We stop trying to grow our family.

May 2016: Decide to grow our family by adopting through foster care system.

August 2016: Decide to go back to NaPro Dr. to re-start TTC and fix adrenal gland issues.

Sept.-Dec. 2016: Finish homestudy and foster care certification. Celebrate our 9 year wedding anniversary in December!

October 2016- June 2017: Do trigger shots which are successful but no conception and wait for a call for a foster child.

Mid June 2017: We get our 7th call and our placed with a foster son! NaPro Dr. wants us to do a detox.

July 2017: Foster son leaves our home and we discern that God is not calling us to foster at this time. Start detox program with Dr. so we are no longer TTC while on detox.

October 2017: Finish detox program with doctor and find out I no longer have LUFS!!!

October 28, 2017: Find out we are pregnant for the second time and hopefully we will get to meet this baby in July!