Dear TTC Diaries,
My diary entry about my TTC journey comes from a very different perspective not that I am 37 weeks pregnant. My personal journal from the past 3+ years has many displays of raw and sad feelings. I feel compelled to share my story in hopes that it helps another woman also experiencing unexplained infertility.
We began trying to conceive in our prime when I was 24 and my husband was 25. We have always led a very active lifestyle and we are obsessed with our health. I don’t say this to brag, but to convey that we were already leading a healthy lifestyle so this likely did not factor into our infertility.
The “trying part” is pretty straightforward. We tried earnestly, tracking BBT, LH, and cervical fluid from the start. We timed things just right, and we never once saw a positive pregnancy test. After one year, we sought help from an infertility doctor. We had full work-ups; full thyroid panel, sex hormones, semen analysis, HSG, SIS, clotting factors, endometrial biopsy, in addition to all of the “basic” labs. Every game back “perfect”, which honestly was more frustrating than not since we didn’t know where to focus our energy.
We understood 5 rounds of timed intercourse using Letrozole, then moved to Clomid. Then, we completed 3 IUIs. At this point we were 2 years into the journey and beaten down. Our friends seemed to be conceiving like rabbits, some onto their second pregnancies, yet we could not get a positive pregnancy test to save our lives.
I found it hard to take advice from friends and generally steered the conversation away from fertility. But, at night, I would pour over blogs, articles, Google Scholar, Reddit, etc. for hours hoping for some glimmer of hope. I tried many things I had read there: legs up after intercourse, acupuncture, Mediterranean diet, gluten free, low-dose naltrexone, and a myriad of other supplements.
One day I read the story of a woman with unexplained infertility who was undergoing IVF. Her doctor recommended blood thinners and she was asking why in the fertility group I was a part of. Many women shared that despite not having impaired clotting factors, their doctors also recommended blood thinners and they were successful after trying this.
I scheduled a virtual appointment with our infertility doctor straight away. At first he was reluctant to try “what I learned from the internet” but he did say for some women, blood thinners can help. He said they don’t know if it is an unknown clotting factor or if somehow thinning the blood supports implantation. He wrote me a script for 3 months worth of Lovenox and told me to come back after 3 months if we were not pregnant to discuss “moving forward in another direction”.
We got pregnant on our first cycle on Lovenox. We still don’t have a “reason” but blood thinners did appear to be the solution. I have stayed on Lovenox my whole pregnancy and will remain on it for 6 weeks after birth due to a suspected increased risk for clotting.
If you’ve thrown the kitchen sink at it and are still not getting pregnant, please consider asking your doctor if blood thinners may be helpful for you.
Yours in light,
Joy
