Where to Begin...

"Secondary infertility is defined as the inability to become pregnant, or to carry a pregnancy to term, following the birth of one or more biological children. The birth of the first child does not involve any assisted reproductive technologies or fertility medications."  After having no trouble what-so-ever conceiving and bringing a beautiful baby girl into the world, we never could have imagined that we would have any sort of problem doing the same when the time came for us to have another.  We could not have been more wrong. Our family has been facing secondary infertility for two and a half years now.  We have been receiving treatment for over a year. Our treatment at the moment consists of me taking the drug Clomid on days 5-9 of each cycle, getting an ultrasound on day 13 to see if I grew any egg folllicles, if/when a follicle is a good size taking a "trigger" shot of HCG to release it, using a hormone patch or pill for a week or so to build up the lining of my uterus, and then reporting back to my doctor's office to have blood drawn a week later to confirm that I ovulated. I have done this for just over a year, with a couple of breaks toward the end of last year. It took about 2 cycles to find the right dosage and then my body started responding beautifully. Just a couple of weeks before we started the infertility treatments, I had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that affects my thyroid. My family doctor made the diagnosis and I began seeing him every two weeks for blood tests to help him find the right dosage of medication for me. It was tricky and I was growing tired of getting blood drawn every week between the two doctors I was seeing, but after several months we found a dosage that worked for me and I started to enjoy relief from the symptoms that had been bothering me for so long. I just knew that our problem was on its way to being solved. My body was in excellent shape at that point. Last August, we tried an assisted reproduction procedure called an intrauterine insemination after 6 cycles of me ovulating perfectly. That is when we discovered my husband would need some help too. The procedure failed and we went to Tulsa to see a specialist for him which resulted in him taking Clomid as well. If you know anything about this medication you can guess that the two of us taking it at the same time can get interesting. With both of us on Clomid, we have picked back up with what has become the norm for us and we will try the same procedure that we tried before. If we are not successful in the next couple of months, we will be referred to a fertility clinic where they will be able to try a much more invasive procedure.  The emotional toll from this whole process has been one of the most difficult trials I have encountered. I decided to start this blog for several different reasons:

1. At some point I hope to be able to help others who have struggled through this same trial. This means that I first need to share my experience. 

2.  I have found that when I tell someone our story who does not know what we have been going through over the past couple of years, it lightens the burden a bit. I only share the details with a few close friends in different areas of my life. Infertility is not something that is easy to deal with alone and those with whom I have shared my experience have been a tremendous help.  I think being open about this trial will help me handle it better.

3.  There are many friends and acquaintances, some family even, who have no idea that we have been going through this or if we have told them they do not understand or know the full extent of our situation. People assume that since we have one child we should be able to have another.  Our situation is just is not that simple.

I will make a post with more details about how all of this started for us soon and I hope to update every couple of weeks or so.  I hope you will enjoy reading my thoughts on this struggle and will be inspired in some way!