TW: Loss

I told myself that after I made it through this journey I would come back to share my experience in case I could help someone else. 

I’ve had irregular periods all my life but was never officially diagnosed. I was on birth control pills for ten years just to keep them regular, so when I got off to try to have my first baby, I was quite surprised that I got pregnant on my second cycle. It turned out that this was a perfect 28-day cycle because my baby measured exactly what she was supposed to. This was like the only perfect cycle I’d ever had. It went on to be an uneventful pregnancy and everything went fine. Then a few years later I went to try for my second. 

I went off birth control again for the second time. This time I got pregnant on my third cycle, ovulating on day 16 or 17. Just ten days after testing positive, I experienced a loss. That threw me into pregnancy obsession and I started using Inito to track my cycles and see what’s happening. Month after month I observed 5 week cycles, ovulating around day 21. I tracked everything and planned the timing perfectly every month and yet got a BFN each time. 

My cycles then started getting more irregular, stretching to 7 to 8 weeks. I observed my body attempt to ovulate and fail. That same day I started getting excruciating pain in my left side. It turns out my large follicle turned into a cyst. I eventually ovulated successfully weeks later but the progesterone levels for that cycle were considerably lower than all my other cycles. 

Finally 7 months into my journey ( and right after the cyst) I saw a fertility doctor due to my age of 37, just turning 38. He put me on letrozole and I ovulated on day 14 (with the help of a trigger shot). Just 7 dpo I saw the hcg increasing. I was pregnant again. Unfortunately I experienced another loss, a missed miscarriage discovered at 10 weeks, even after seeing the heartbeat at 6 weeks. That was truly devastating. 

During this time I started taking a handful of supplements, changing my diet, walking 10k steps a day. Whatever I could do to improve my egg quality. 

Eventually I was able to start letrozole again. This cycle ended up being very painful at ovulation time and I saw the same pattern of low progesterone. An ultrasound confirmed my follicle had once again turned into a cyst. 

At this point I was told I had to wait two more weeks to start letrozole again, which had me distraught. I was so mad at my body for betraying me like this, especially when I was paying so much money. Two weeks later I start the process over and my follicles have already started growing during this time, although they started stalling out, which was seen in both my dipping estrogen (after it had already started rising) and the spotting i experienced for days after. 

As we monitored my follicles we saw that there was a larger follicle to begin with, but it wasn’t growing at a good pace. Smaller follicles started to catch up with it, but it was still in the lead. My doctor basically alluded to me that the irregular growth pattern indicated this was not a good egg but since it’s the largest follicle, it will ovulate no matter what. So the goal was to get a few new follicles to ovulate with it — the ones that were growing rapidly and looked promising. 

This time I ended up ovulating naturally without a trigger shot. 10 days later I got a BFP, which is now my 8 week old baby boy that’s asleep on my chest. When I went to the 6 week ultrasound to confirm heartbeat, we did see that I had three corpus luteum. So I ovulated three eggs and one stuck. 

I know this was a long story, but I just wanted to share a few things I learned from my experience that might help you:

1. I could not get pregnant on my 5+ week cycles. I assume my hormones during these cycles were not supporting good egg quality. I easily got pregnant on all of my 4 week cycles. 

2. The pain i experienced during cycles was due to a cyst forming. 

3. When I had random spotting mid cycle, it was when my follicles stalled out and stopped growing. (It was easy to connect the dots while monitoring my hormones and symptoms).

4. This last cycle was not a perfect cycle but letrozole recruited new follicles to grow, so they grew under ideal conditions in the correct timeframe (if that makes sense). 

5. For all the worriers out there, it’s ok if your progesterone dips. It goes up and down as you can see in my chart. 

If I didn’t go to a fertility doctor and get on letrozole, I definitely wouldn’t have my baby today. Please if you’re struggling, seek help if you can. Those months prior were agony to me. Sometimes our bodies just need a little help to do the job right. At least that was the case for me. 

Wishing you ladies all BFPs soon!

BFP for My Lean PCOS Girlies