The Journey

It was not easy.

Well, I did think it is going to be easy but in reality, it was not and it came with countless of tears and heartbreaks from disappointment. This post will be full of information on our infertility journey.

I was diagnosed with Endometriosis in the middle of February 2020 when I went for a full body check-up. The last time I checked was back in 2017 and it was all good. When the gynae told me that the cyst was quite big - 4.5cm, I was really worried. 

He said it will definitely affect my pregnancy chances as the cyst was blocking the pathway to my fallopian tube on the left. Plus, we will not know which side of my ovary will ovulate during the month. On top of this, we were waiting for my blood test report on cancer marker as he also found a few fibroids in my uterus. The wait was nerve breaking but, thank goodness, my report is clean. Hence, all I needed to focus was Endometriosis.

As I did not want to opt for a surgery straight, I decided to take medication and with more workouts at home - which slowly paid off overtime. It was 2.9cm in March and less than 1cm in May. However, the gynae still wanted me to undergo Laparoscopy Cystectomy and Hysterocopy. He mentioned there were polyps that needed to be removed as well.

As it would be my second abdominal operation, I was not keen on doing it. Hence, I went to seek for a second opinion in a bigger hospital. That gynae told me that he did not see the need to do any operation as my uterus looks clear. When I told my gynae that I did not want to proceed with the surgery, he called me the morning I was supposed to admit for the procedure. He tried to convince me with the reason that MiCare had approved the Letter of Guarantee for my admission which was not easy. He said he had a patient whose Letter of Guarantee was rejected even though he had made 4 appeals. Of course, I did not listen to him and stood firm on my decision.

Later, I went to see another gynae which was recommended by a friend. As I wanted him to do his own assessment, I did not share with him on my previous consultations with my first gynae. Eventually, I did share with him but that was after he had shared his assessment with me. He, too, mentioned that my uterus is clear but suspected that I might have P.C.O.S.. He did not assess further to confirm this. I stopped getting my consultation from this gynae after my second visit and focused on the treatments since we found out another root cause to our infertility. 

It was until February 2021 when I went to get consultation from another gynae in the same hospital of my very first gynae. He is actually my sister-in-law's gynae. Man, I had seen 5 different gynae in less than 2 years.

But what triggered it?

Well, we were trying to conceive naturally so, for a few months I had been doing a lot of peeing and tested with ovulation test kits to see if I was ovulating. It was not fun when your sex life is determined by the result.

However, that month was different. I found that my LH had been on the high side with Clearblue smiling at me for close to 5 days. It was definitely not normal. The gynae told me to return on the 21st day of my menstrual cycle to conduct hormone test. Besides that, we had a long chat and I was glad that he was my go-to gynae moving forward. 

When the report was finally out, it was confirmed that I have P.C.O.S. - my LH was on the high side whereas my progesterone was really low. Hence, this was affecting my ovulation but it was not hopeless. Fortunately, there are some medications to counter this condition - Metformin to be the top on the list followed by Clomiphene (Clomid).

I started with Metformin which is commonly used by patients with Type 2 Diabetes as well as for weight loss. Weight loss? Yeah, I was not sure about this until the second day I took the medication. I was feeling alright on the first day but, things did not look good the next day onwards - headache, body sore, diarrhea and abdominal pain. I stopped fasting during this period too. Thinking that my body would need some time to accept the drug, I continued taking it. However, as these side effects had been going on for a week, I informed my gynae and he told me to stop the medication as my body was not accepting the drug. 

Thus, the next medication for me would be Clomid but this could only be taken on the first or second day onwards of my menstrual cycle and before that, both my uterus and ovaries need to be clear as well. If I ever took Clomid without proper checking and should there be any swelling or cysts in my uterus or ovaries, Clomid will worsen the situation. The only side effect I had from taking Clomid was I had a high fever during my ovulation period. As we were not sure if it was really due to Clomid or I could have been contracted with Covid-19, I went to take a swab test and fortunately, the report came out negative. Hence, we confirmed that my high fever was due to Clomid. This only happened during the first month I took the medication. It did not happen again for the next few months.

We continued to try along with me consulting my gynae and took Clomid every month. Sooner or later, I was able to take on the pressure and disappointment - I cried less. I also started going for Traditional Chinese Medication and its acupuncture. Spent a lot of money there, of course. Making baby was not sexy to us anymore. And I believed I did not mention that we found the root cause of our infertility after such a long time. Hence, coupled with that, it was more difficult.

After 6 more months of trying, we decided to take another step further - In Vitro Fertilisation - which I shall share more in another post.