Trying for a baby, why does it have to be so difficult? Heather, who blogs at Bargain Mummy Buys, gives an account of trying to control an uncontrollable situation.
Sometimes I look at this picture of me as a bride and it feels like a different person. In that picture I had no idea of the journey ahead, the agony, the torment, the anguish and finally the delight.
It all started a few months after the wedding. I had always assumed getting pregnant would be the easiest thing in the world; it certainly seemed to be so for everyone else I knew. Six months on and I became obsessed. I spent a fortune on ovulation kits, thermometers, loads of pregnancy tests which all left me disappointed and I just could not work out what the problem was. Being someone who likes to be in control I couldn’t cope with the fact that this was something I couldn’t control and nothing I did seemed to work: giving up alcohol, caffeine, taking supplements, taking and plotting my temperature.
I started to look at pregnant women and think, how did you do it? And of course every time I heard about another pregnancy it was like an arrow through my heart, what were we doing wrong? In despair I went to the doctors who took some bloods and sent me for an ultrasound scan, I assume to check for endometriosis. Everything seemed to take forever.
My parents, seeing my distress, offered to pay for us to see a private consultant. We got an appointment straight away and I felt better because at least now something was happening and we were one step closer to our take home baby.
He referred me for a procedure called a HSG which basically meant having dye squirted through my fallopian tubes and then an X ray machine was put above my tummy to see if there was a blockage or not. Everything was fine of course; there was no blockage. I had done some research online about the HSG procedure and was interested to see that the conception rates in the months following rose dramatically. I mentioned this to the doctor at the time but he said he had never heard of that and to wait a month to make sure all the dye had cleared out before trying again. I am one of these people who think they always know best (aren’t we all?!) and by this time had no faith left in the medical profession so we decided not to wait.
I was getting to the point where I was abandoning hope of ever having a child. My cycles had always been really irregular so I didn’t think anything of getting to day 36 but on that day I decided to do a test as we had a consultant appointment the next day and I knew he would ask me if I had tested. I just put the test down on the sink and didn’t even bother looking at it, then it caught my eye and for the first time ever there were two lines instead of one! The elation that accompanied that discovery was like nothing I have ever felt before.
I believe that we conceived that month due to the HSG but I don’t really know why, it is something that I have always wondered about.
Heather — Bargain Mummy Buys
You can also say hello to Heather on Twitter!
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kelly Edwards
Friday 27th of January 2012
I know how you felt it took us nearly a year and a half until we got our positive, certainly understand the feeling when you look at other pregnant women as they seemed to be everywhere.
I believe we became pregnant when we relaxed about it as I started to come to terms it wouldn't happen then it did. I now have a 9 month old baby boy.
Good Luck
Kelly http://everythingbabyblog.blogspot.com
Bargain Mummy
Friday 27th of January 2012
Thanks for your lovely comments. I googled about the HSG afterwards and apparently it has been documented that conception rates rise after the procedure. Something to do with the tiny cilia in the fallopian tubes start working better. Stay posted for the next installment coming soon!
Jennifer Howze
Monday 23rd of January 2012
What a nice story. I hadn't heard that about people who had had HSG, but you often do hear of people getting pregnant after deciding to adopt or foster or just not have kids at all. Maybe it's something to do with the reduction of stress - as you said, you suddenly felt like *something* was happening once you had the appointment.
Here's to the two little blue lines.
Iota
Monday 23rd of January 2012
Do you think that squirting the dye into tubes could actually clear a small blockage?
This is a great post. Thanks for writing about a really sensitive and personal issue.