I went to a different doctor and I was told the same thing...I was too skinny (I was 115, 5' 5"). I was given the pills again and repeated the whole process. This time when my period stopped I waited about a year to go to the doctors. (By the way, I've never really been on birth control of any kind - so I can't blame any of this on that.) I was 26 and wanted to know what was going on. I went to another doctor. I told her my history and that I wanted to figure it out what was wrong. She did too. She actually had my blood tested. My numbers were way past those of a normal woman in menopause. I was referred to a fertility doctor to check me out. He did a sonogram to look at my ovaries to see if there was any activity. There was a little. He told me, I had premature ovarian failure (POF) and I had maybe a 5% chance of it reversing or fixing it with medication. I was not married or even in a relationship at the time...so I held on to hope that one day I would be able to have a baby on my own.
Now, I'm 34, and want to have a baby with my husband of 2.5 years. Luckily, I knew about this when we were dating and I told him it would be unlikely for me to have a baby on my own. We had discussed our options early on in the relationship, making going through all this now a lot easier.
The one positive thing about all of this is for the past 8 years I have not had periods, PMS, cramping, etc. We never had to schedule around them, too bad that is bad for me health wise. I have to worry about my bones losing calcium, heart disease, brain weakening, etc... I wonder what effects the hormones are going to have on me now. I will soon find out and oh have those dreaded period again.
I hear ya! I went six years without a period. I'm not enjoying them now.
ReplyDeleteOHSS is Ovarian Hyperstimuation Syndrome. When they retrieved my 48 eggs my ovaries started to overproduce estrogen. It was dumped in my abdominal cavity and I started retaining fluid. I'm 5'0. My small frame can't handle that much fluid in one area. It was quite painful, but over now. :)
Congratulations on Baby Aden!
ReplyDeleteI have premature ovarian failure too. My story has many similarities to yours, although the reason behind my diagnosis differs. I had nearly constant periods in college; saw several doctors who put me the pill then a stronger pill and so on. Doctors all told me there was nothing to worry about I was young and healthy and have plenty of eggs. They are doctors; I trusted them so I took the pills and dealt with the cycles.
Well, I married at 28 and started trying within a few months. After a year, went to see an infertility doctor went through all the same tests you did and all they could tell me was that we had unexplained infertility. Really, thousands of dollars for that diagnosis?
Started seeing a new infertility doctor, same deal.
Switched to another clinic. First thing they did was a Day 3 FSH blood test, found out my FSH was really high for my age ... signaling menopause. Turns out that all those really long cycles were my thyroid attacking my ovaries, damaging and expelling my eggs.
So, they suggested we jump to IVF. We did and held out hope that I had any good eggs left. Sadly, even on the highest IVF protocol it didn't work. At 29, I was infertile.
Next step was an egg donor. This was such a surreal process. Looking at pictures and profiles "shopping" for the biological mother of my child. It was a difficult process for me to say the least. We got 6 embryos, transferred 3 fresh, didn't work. Last month we transferred 3 frozen, didn't work. The doctor is now researching our case; he doesn't know why IVF isn't working on someone my age, now 32.
I'm sorry for the long post, it's just nice to know someone else out there had some of the same feelings and experiences I've been dealing with and has been successful. It's been 4 years of a lot of stress and disappointments. What worked for you? How did you stay positive and deal with your feelings? Any tips for dealing with friends/family?