My Story

Hi, I am Tatrina and married to an amazing man (I will simply call him J in these posts). Here are some relevant things to know about my life on this roller coaster ride that is life with PCOS and infertility. 

• I am now 29 years old, we started trying to conceive (TTC) when we were only 18/19 years old. I had always had irregular cycles so we knew something was wrong.
• I have never had regular cycles, to the point where I simply do not get a visit from AF (aunt flow) without Provera or birth control
• Took me 3 referrals (starting at age 18) to different doctors until I found my OBGYN who finally took my symptoms into consideration and formally diagnosed me
• Once diagnosed via ultrasound I started a few clomid cycles at single dose level, my blood work showed no signs of ovulation but I would suffer some harsh side effects from the clomid and this lead to me spacing cycles far out (like 3-6 months apart)
• At 22 years old I started to really get serious about pushing for answers, this lead to me forming a good connection with my OBGYN which to this day I still appreciate and value. Her and I worked together to get some answers and map out a plan, it went something like this over the next 3 years;
• A fresh ultrasound showed I have highly cystic ovaries with a dermoid cyst on my left ovary - she was borderline about removing the cyst but we determined we would "wait and watch" it to see if it changed
• Starting the referral process to have us accepted into the fertility program at the Royal Alex. I was informed at the time that the wait would be approximately 18-24 months. 
• We decided to do concurrent clomid cycles starting at double dose and ending (at this point) with one triple dose cycle. Blood work and ovulation kits all showed no ovulation in the 4 cycles we attempted.
• I lost 50lbs over the 10 months after the failed clomid cycles
• We decided to attend the private clinic in Red Deer as our referral to the Royal was taking so long. I booked an appointment in December for May.
• In March of 2014 I realized I had a one month supply of clomid in the medicine cabinet (leftover from the previous rounds) and asked my doctor if it was safe to take it and she said "cannot hurt" 
• I managed to get a positive ovulation kit, my first ever, and then the day 21 blood work showed ovulation did in fact occur. We were lucky enough to become pregnant this month and have an almost 3 year old son now
• Due to complications with my pregnancy and the discovery that my dermoid cyst had nearly doubled in size my OBGYN decided it was best to do a laparoscopic procedure to remove the cyst. This was a very insightful procedure as we learned quite a bit;
• my uterus and ovaries have quite a bit of scar tissue surrounding them, in fact she noted my right Fallopian tube was "adhered" to my uterus which lead her to do a HSG while I was under general anesthesia
• the HSG showed my right tube is 100% blocked
• my left ovary's cyst is not removable without significant damage to my ovary as it is apparently in the center of the ovary - she made the call not to remove it as this is the only ovary I could ovulate out of and become pregnant without IUI/IVF

So where does this leave me? Well my OBGYN (who kept myself and my baby healthy and safe through a tricky pregnancy) talked about options and the best solution is monitored cycles using injectable medications and with closer cycle monitoring then she can provide. 

Luckily for us PCRM is a private fertility clinic which has opened in Edmonton and accepted us right away. We had our original consultation in January of this year (2017) and recently (August) decided to take the doctor from PCRMs advice and do IUI. The amazing thing about this clinic is how ready to go they are, no long delays, no run around, and best of all I can email the nurse to follow up and book appointments.

I am scared and nervous about how the IUI cycle(s) will go, how my body will react to the injectables and also the costs... cause yikes that is a lot of money!!

I am very open to questions about pretty much everything I have gone through so feel free to post comments :)