I have always had severe menstrual cramps as long as I could remember, I never thought anything of it just that it was a normal thing since I noticed that my mother and older sister had similar menstrual cramps. When I turned eighteen I was diagnosed with Endometriosis and soon after that with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, both which cause infertility.
At the time I was engaged to my husband, he was with me during my diagnosis, laparoscopy and recovery time. I asked him once if infertility would affect us and he said " I feel in love with you, not your fertility" and assured me we would be parents through adoption or our own. We got married two years later, I was twenty at the time and he was twenty- four, we decided to wait one year before we would start try and conceive. We had a plan: try a whole year naturally and if that did not have success then we would try and seek fertility treatments but we went through some life-changes and financial struggles and we had to put our plans on hold.
After three years of trying to conceive naturally and with a healthy diet plan we have no success and started to seek fertility treatments. My OB scheduled me for a Hysterosalpingography (HSG) but since I had my period three times a year it was hard to know when to schedule. While I was waiting for my next appointment, we decided to just relax and celebrate Valentine's Day early without food restrictions. But the following day I had painful cramping and we both knew it was either my period was coming or my endometriosis is back. Since this pain was worse than my past pain we both thought it was best if we went to the ER.
This night changed my life completely- what I thought to be menstrual cramping or cycsts turned out to be a BABY! When the ER doctor let us know I was expecting I was in shock and a lot of questions crossed my mind. We found out I was only four weeks and I was so worried for weeks, woman who have PCOS have a high chance of having a miscarriage and this was my biggest fear. Hearing that beautiful heartbeat at my eight week appointment was indescribable.
My pregnancy was not the easiest one, I had to constantly be monitored, developed gestational diabetes and had a difficult and long labor but all of it was WORTH IT because I knew God gave me this precious gift for a reason.
Everyone told me "once you get pregnant, it will be so easy to get pregnant again", this was a lie and I learned that the hard way. Once my daughter turned one I was so eager to start trying to conceive thinking it would be so easy. My OB reminded me that there is no cure for Endometriosis and PCOS and that I needed medication to help my body. We tried Clomid for four months with no success, did an HSG, and I am currently trying Femara with Metformin in hopes that this might work.
Although there is no cure for Endometriosis and PCOS, I do not let that overcome me because I know God is much greater than that. God gave me a word this year HOPEFUL, and it has only been two months since the year has started but I have had that word in mind daily. I still have hard days where I ask myself if I am crazy to be believing this, but then I realize if it wasn't for God I would be doing a lot worse emotionally, I truly believe that God has kept me standing in this journey and when I feel defeated he has put my husband there to lift me up and remind me that something greater is coming.