We began trying to conceive in 2020. We were hunkered down at home in the middle of a pandemic so we had lots of “time” to try. It didn’t go to plan. Month after month of negative pregnancy tests were eating me alive.
Finally, after two long years we decided to see a reproductive endocrinologist. All of my testing came back clear and we fell into the “unexplained infertility.”. He recommended IVF saying that would be our best shot at pregnancy. After one retrieval and three transfers, we still hadn’t even seen a positive pregnancy test.
$35,000 later, my doctor recommended a hysteroscopy, questioning if I had endometriosis. I didn’t have classic symptoms, but we also weren’t getting pregnant, so we decided to move forward with an in-office hysteroscopy. I was lightly sedated and the whole process took less than 30 minutes.
I woke up to learn I had pretty severe scarring throughout my uterus. Despite a normal HSG, my uterus was scarred together in areas. He described it as “spiderwebs.” My doctor doesn’t know when this developed, but did know it wasn’t helping. He was able to cold laser the scarring down and then placed a balloon catheter to try to prevent reformation of scars.
He recommended I come back for PRP (platelet rich plasma) 7 days later. $750 feels like a drop in the bucket when you’re so deeply invested in the process so we followed his recommendation and returned for the PRP. First they drew my blood, then took my blood to spin it down to collect the PRP. They brought the PRP into the exam room and used a flexible catheter to infuse the very small amount of PRP into my uterus. It wasn’t painful; I honestly didn’t feel much other than my bank account crying.
We were instructed to wait one month before trying another FET but he did give us the go ahead to try it naturally in that one cycle in between. It sort of feels like “ha ha” when you have been trying to conceive for so long, but we did anyway. When my period didn’t arrive as expected, I begrudgingly took a pregnancy test, honestly fully annoyed that at this point my period hasn’t arrived, because cycle day 1 is the start of the frozen embryo transfer prep. Right away, two pink lines popped up. For the first time in my life, I had no words. This is proof enough to me that my infertility wasn’t unexplained and was indeed “Asherman’s.”
Note: Be sure to find a skilled surgeon. I got lucky that my doctor was equipped to take care of it but I have read horror stories about treatment of Asherman’s (which, by the way, is often CAUSED by hysteroscopic procedures).
