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I met Iain in 1993, when I was 22 and was in my third year of teacher training college. We got married in 1994 and I spent a couple of years trying to establish my career, before thinking about starting a family. I had been on the pill for several years, so in 1995, I decided to come off it so that I could get it out of my system, as we had decided that we would like to try to start our family in about a year’s time. We then spent a year trying not to become pregnant, although our attempts at contraception were a bit half hearted! Nothing happened, but we were not unduly worried at that stage as we had not been actively “trying�.
It was almost a year to the day of coming off the pill that I first experienced severe midcycle pain. I ignored this and carried on as usual. However this started to happen regularly and then I found that I was also suffering from crippling period pain each month. In addition to this I was having bowel pain the day after my period pains, which was also so severe that I could not stand. In January I went to see my GP. He prescribed mefanamic acid to take during my period. He also mentioned that there was a possibility that I had endometriosis. This set alarm bells ringing immediately as at the time I had a colleague who had been unable to conceive due to severe endometriosis.
I decided to see a consultant gynaecologist privately to discuss my concerns. At this appointment I was told that my symptoms were probably due to a hormonal imbalance and was prescribed the contraceptive pill for six months to settle it all down. Not what I wanted as I was trying to conceive! Whilst I was on the pill, all of my symptoms settled down. At my next appointment my consultant said this confirmed his diagnosis that my problem was hormonal. However he did start tests for infertility due to the symptoms I had been having. My initial blood tests came back as normal, but unfortunately Iain’s sperm test results showed a problem with motility.
We moved to another County a year later, so I was referred to a new consultant. Initially I went to see the fertility nurse, who assured us that with the results we had we should achieve a pregnancy, it may just take us a bit longer than usual. Eventually I saw the consultant. As she examined me, there was a look of concern on her face as she asked when my last period had been. I told her it had been a couple of weeks ago. She was surprised as she said my uterus was very enlarged and it felt like I could be pregnant. I assured her that my last period had indeed been a proper one with all the pain etc that I was by now resigned to suffering each month. I was rushed along the corridor with my knickers stuffed in my handbag in order to have a scan. This revealed a problem. I then had to go to another room with better scanning equipment. It was discovered that I had a very large cyst. It was attached to my left ovary and spread across the back of my uterus to my right ovary. I was told it was a chocolate cyst and was therefore caused by a condition called endometriosis. I went back to the consultant’s room to be told “It has to come out, I have a space for you next Tuesday.� I went back to work in total shock.
I went into hospital on the Tuesday for major abdominal surgery to have the cyst removed. Before going under the anaesthetic, all I could think of was whether I would have my ovaries when I came back out. I had signed a consent form to say they could remove them both if necessary. At this stage it looked like the cyst was attached to both ovaries. When I came round, the first words I remember hearing were the nurse’s saying “Laura, don’t worry, you still have both your ovaries.� I was so relieved. I had a six week recovery period and was put on provera for three months to shrink any remaining patches of endometriosis. I was very upset that I had not been diagnosed earlier - I had been seeing a consultant for two years by this stage for goodness sake.
After the three months of provera, we were told to try to conceive naturally for six months as the cyst could well have been causing the problems with fertility. Nothing happened. Then I had further blood tests, which indicated that I wasn’t ovulating properly. My progesterone levels were low. I was then prescribed clomid for six months and was scanned and given blood tests to check that it was making me ovulate. I did ovulate on clomid, but still no pregnancy resulted.
We then went back to the consultant, who decided I should have an HSG examination, where they put dye through your tubes as they look at them under an x-ray. They found that my tubes weren’t blocked. This was a relief in some ways, but meant that we had no definite reason for a pregnancy not occurring. When I went back to the consultant, she advised that we should try IVF. I was devastated. I walked out of her room in floods of tears. I just hadn’t ever thought it would come to that. She told us that as my tubes had been clear, we would have to wait until we had been trying to conceive for five years before being able to go on the NHS waiting list for IVF.
We were due to move again as Iain is in the Armed Forces, so we made the decision to have private IVF treatment when we moved. We had our first IVF in February 2002. I had 6 eggs collected, of which all 6 fertilised. Two of the resulting embryos were very good quality and were transferred. However the cycle was unsuccessful. I slipped into the deepest depression I had ever had, in terms of dealing with infertility. It was a difficult time, when I felt a failure as a woman and was in despair thinking that it would never happen. I would never get pregnant.
I had my second IVF in October 2002. I was given an increased dose of stimulating drugs and this time had 22 eggs collected. This meant that I was at risk of my ovaries over stimulating, so I had to have my embryo transfer deferred a couple of months to let my ovaries settle down. It is now November and I am waiting for a frozen embryo transfer using some of the 15 embryos frozen from my second IVF. I am now feeling much more positive and am convinced that we will achieve our goal soon.
Laura
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