New beginnings

I have a personal blog for family and friends and noticed that my struggles with infertility were beginning to take over that blog. This was never my intention, so I've created this blog as a public forum.

I plan to share my personal struggles in the hope that it will help others dealing with similar problems.

I will start by sharing my background in trying to conceive:

-M and I started dating in 2001. Very early in our relationship, we decided that a family was incredibly important to both of us. We would wait until we were married and at a good point in our lives, but we really wanted to have children.

-In 2007, we got married. We decided to wait until we found a bigger place to start trying to start a family.

-June 2008- We moved! We decided to start trying that month in celebration of our larger home (chosen specifically for our future family).

-The first 3 months I thought I would get pregnant right away. I was taking home pregnancy tests 2-3 times a month!

-After the 4th month, I started charting and joined some online message boards. Maybe this trying to conceive business wasn't as easy as I thought.

-October was a weird month. I spotted for 6 days and had a really short cycle. I was mildly concerned, but I just figured that I was having an off month.

-By December, I was concerned. 6 months and no sign of pregnancy. My charts showed clear ovulation, and we were timing everything perfectly.

-By January, I was spotting every month for 5 days before my period. I went to the doc with charts in hand mentioning my concern. I was in my 30's. I was having abnormal spotting, and I wasn't getting pregnant. He thought I was jumping the gun, and he made me feel like I was crazy for going to him.

-By April, he agreed to run some tests. A saline ultrasound(which hurt like heck!) and some bloodwork. They came back normal.

-After a year, I went back and said that I wanted to talk about other infertility testing. Again, the doctor reprimanded me for being too concerned about fertility. I was in tears the entire way home. He made me feel like I was crazy. He did agree to run a few tests though.

-A little later, I has an HSG done to check for tubal blockages. Again, everything was normal.

-After that, I gave up. We needed a break, and ran into a minor financial crisis. No more charting. No more worrying about charting. Nothing. I figured maybe those fertile people knew what they were talking about. Maybe it would happen when I stopped trying?

-By October, I started spotting heavily every month. It would be for about 8 days before my period, and then I would have a full period. Last month I decided to get it checked out. I asked for a different doctor. He was great! He understood that after trying for 18 months, that spotting was not a normal symptom and could be related to my infertility.

That is where I am today.