Our Story

I met my husband on an online dating site in 2003. We became really good friends and started dating in 2008. I started taking Depo provera in 2003, and when DH and I were living together in 2009 I decided that I wanted to start a family with the man of my dreams. Unfortunately DH(my boyfriend at the time) and I weren't on the same page.

In January 2010, after my depo provera shot, I asked DH if I could stop taking Depo and to my surprise he said yes. I was so excited to finally get off birth control and try to start a family. Months went by without getting a period which was very frustrating. I thought that maybe I was pregnant and took multiple tests in 2010 that were all negative.

In September 2010, after being very annoyed with no period, I went to my GP and asked him for help. He prescribed me Provera to take for 5 days and said I would get a period within 2 weeks of my last pill. 2 weeks went by, then a month passed and still no period. 2 of my cousins at the time were pregnant and it made me sad that I couldn't get my period back to start trying.

Finally on December 8, 2010 I got my period. I was so excited I ran out of the bathroom and told DH that AF arrived and we were going to have a baby. Stupid me thought that was going to be my last period before I got pregnant. When AF was late I was convinced I was pregnant so I went to the store and bought a bunch of tests that were all negative. AF was late, the tests were negative and I started freaking out thinking that the Depo Provera screwed up cycle and I would never be regular again.

In February AF came back and I was so excited to be able to try again. My closest cousin who is like a sister to me just had a baby. I remember holding her in the hospital telling myself that the next baby I would be holding in my arms would be mine *cry*. Now my cousin's baby is almost 3 and I still don't have a baby.

DH and I had sex 3-5 times a week like my doctor suggested. Month after month went by and I always got a period. After we got married in March 2011 I had enough of months going by without getting pregnant. Even though people like my mother in law kept telling me to wait for a couple of years and enjoy our marriage with just the 2 of us, there was no way in hell I was going to just sit by and wait.

I never get a positive ovulation test. I thought that maybe my timing was off, so in April 2011 I bought a clearblue fertility monitor and started taking my temperature every morning. That's when I discovered that my cycles weren't quite normal. I ovulate late in my cycle and have a luteal phase defect.

In June 2011 I turned to internet forums for support and to talk to others who were going through the same journey. I started to notice that everyone on these forums were getting pregnant after sometimes 1-3 months of trying. I couldn't figure out why all of my online friends were getting pregnant but I wasn't. Concerned I went to my new GP and told her that if there was nothing wrong with me then I should have been pregnant by now. She agreed and referred me to a fertility clinic.

In October 2011 I met with an RE for the first time. At the time he seemed like he wanted to help us get pregnant. He ordered me a SHG, blood tests and a round of cycle monitoring. He ordered DH blood work and a semen analysis. According to the RE my day 3 blood tests and cycle monitoring were just fine, but DH's SA was below average. The RE suggested IVF with ICSI, but since we didn't want to jump right into IVF we decided to try other stuff first. I asked my RE for a 7DPO progesterone test because of my short luteal phase. The test revealed my progesterone was too low at 2.2. The RE prescribed me Clomid, HCG and progesterone.

I was very happy thinking we found a solution. I thought progesterone and clomid would do the trick and I would be pregnant that cycle. But I was wrong, and AF came. I did another round of cycle monitoring with Clomid and progesterone and noticed something weird. My antral follicle count seemed lowish to me. I had 9 follicles between both ovaries and I had just turned 28. The RE convinced me that everything was great for my age and I had a lot of follicles. I went home and started doing some research. It turned out that I wasn't normal compared to other 28 year olds. Other women my age had 10+ follicles on EACH ovary. I was very confused and when I saw my RE again I told him about what I had seen online. He told me not to look on the internet. Everyone is different and I am fine. I also found out that day that my FSH was 10 which is very high for a 28 year old, but again my RE convinced me that it was normal for my age and that FSH and AFC fluctuates.

Then I started to notice another problem, my lining. My lining was always so thin and never got thicker than 6 or 7mm. I asked the RE about it who said I was normal and then told me to stop comparing myself to others. The Clomid gave me cysts so I was prescribed Femara instead. I didn't respond to the Clomid like I should have. My online friends would get 2-4 mature follicles, but I could only ever make 1. Not only that but my follicle would grow rapidly fast making me ovulate before day 10, but according to the RE that was normal.

In March 2012 I was going to have an IUI. When my one and only follicle was mature the doctor prescribed me HCG and told me to come back for my IUI. I asked him how thick my lining was and he said 5mm. He said 5mm was thick enough and I had nothing to worry about. I didn't believe him so I said forget the IUI and I would try again next cycle.

I tried again the next cycle and my lining was a bit better over 6mm so I thought I would give the IUI a try. When that failed we decided to try an IUI with Gonal-F. I thought maybe fertility needles would give me more follicles. The fertility clinic told me that after 10 or so days on Gonal-F I had 3 mature follicles(later I found out I only had 2 and that they lied to me). I was excited to finally have more than 1 follicle and my lining was thick. Unfortunately the cycle didn't work.

I went back to my RE who ordered me an HSG, AMH and a DNA fragmentation for DH. My HSG and DH's DNA fragmentation came back normal, but my AMH was low at 1.2. Even though the AMH test result stated I have low ovarian reserve, the RE said I was fine and the problem was my husband. He said the only chance we had was IVF because the sperm wasn't getting to my eggs.

My FSH fluctuated between 7-12, my AMH was 1.2, my AFC ranged from 2-9 (once it was 12), and fertility drugs didn't work. I told DH that maybe we should get a second opinion because when comparing myself to others online it was obvious that I had a problem. DH really liked our doctor and told me to believe in him. DH hadn't realized how much information there was online. He didn't realize that I was obsessively looking at threads that were over 100 pages long with thousands of posts from women who had better outcomes to drugs then me.

In 2013 we tried IVF. I went into my doctors office telling him that I wanted to try something else besides Gonal-F because it doesn't work for me. He put me on Puregon, which is the same as Gona-F, and Menupor. I knew this wouldn't work, but I went along with it. On cycle day 2 of IVF I had 8 follicles between both ovaries. I was happy with my AFC because that's on the high side for me. 4 days after medicine on cycle day 6 my ultrasound showed 1 mature follicle at 18mm. All of my other follicles were gone. The next day on CD7 my one follicle was 20mm and my lining was very thin so I asked for the cycle to be cancelled.

When I went back to my RE for another plan he said that there were no other plans and for my next cycle he wanted me on a higher dosage of FSH. In my experience a higher dose of FSH results in only 1 fast growing follicle so I declined. When I asked the doctor what would happen if we couldn't make it to retrieval he said we would need donor eggs. I'm pretty sure this is when DH started to get frustrated with the doctor because when we went home he started looking at forums and compared me to lots of women and started doubting our doctor.

I thought about it and decided I wanted to use donor eggs because financially using my own eggs didn't make sense. When I brought up the idea to DH he quickly said no that we would figure something out. I presented him with all the pros when using donor eggs. I told him that we could spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars trying with my own eggs with the high possibility that nothing would work. I reminded him that early menopause runs in my family and the more time we waste with my own eggs the worse it will get. I also reminded him that autism and mental delays run in my family. He didn't say anything to me, but I could tell he was thinking about it. For the whole day he was online looking at IVF threads and various forums. All of a sudden he had a disgusted look on his face, turned to me and said I think you have an egg problem. He pointed out a very long thread of IVF statistics and told me that I was nothing like other women. Yup, that's what I have been telling everyone all along.

The next day out of the blue DH turned to me and said, "do you know that in the US and Mexico they have IVF guarantee programs?" I did some research and pointed out to DH that I wouldn't qualify for any of those guarantees because my AFC, AMH and FSH didn't meet the requirements. Not long after that DH looked at me and said, "let's do it! Let's use donor eggs". I was so excited that he was on the same page as me and finally felt confident that we had a good plan even though I still wasn't sure if he was serious. He must have been serious because later that night with a confused look on his face he turned to me and said the same agency my fertility clinic uses for donor eggs is way cheaper and guarantees a take home baby.

DH called the business office at the egg bank who then sent him a PDF presentation of the program and prerequisites. Luckily for me I had most of the prerequisites they wanted. We booked an appointment with the doctor and shortly after that we picked an egg donor. I am currently in the middle of my donor egg cycle and am waiting for the transfer.

There's nothing in the world that DH and I want more than a family. I hope this works because I have no idea what we will do next.

UPDATE September 7: I HAVE A ONE YEAR OLD!!!!