Patiently Waiting | A Diagnosis

In June, we officially hit the 2.5 year mark of trying for another baby. It’s weird to think it’s been that long since we started this journey. Never did I imagine the walk we would go through to have baby #2.

After a year of trying for our second baby, we went to my OBGYN for some testing to see if there was a reason we weren’t getting pregnant. We did some basis testing that showed everything was normal for the two of us. We were told that based on those tests, there was a good chance we would still get pregnant, so we decided to wait and see if anything happened. It obviously didn’t, and we might even still be waiting without any further testing except for the fact that in the last year I have had some increasingly challenging health stuff that I decided to go get checked out with a fertility specialist.

Long story short, after visiting with our specialist and getting further testing done on Josh and me, we have some stuff going on that makes sense now as to why we aren’t getting pregnant, mainly my diagnosis of endometriosis. When I first talked to my doctor about my symptoms and things going on, she immediately thought it was endometriosis (endo). The symptoms for endo are so random that I had no idea that my lower back pain, severe cramping, stomach issues, and infertility could be related. I looked at the list of symptoms and literally had every single one of them. It was like a light went off and I finally had some clarity on what was going on.

In addition to the endo, I have a low egg reserve. She said this could be biological and was born this way, my body has released too many eggs thus far in my life, or the endo has caused my egg reserve to be low. Either way, it’s not something they can do to fix this; but I do have less eggs than I should at this age. There are some hormonal things going on as well, but are related to the low egg reserve.

She said that there is a chance I have had it for many years and just never knew and that the lack of birth control and pregnancy the last 2.5 years has finally brought it all to light the pain and symptoms I have. I have had some symptoms for years, but never put two and two together. It seems that I probably shouldn’t have been able to get pregnant so quickly and easily with Levi, but that just reaffirms to me that he is planned from the Lord for a very special purpose in our lives.

Unfortunately, endo is chronic issue and isn’t something that can necessarily be cured. There are some things that can be done to help with the symptoms. Ironically, the #1 thing recommended by doctors to keep endo symptoms and pain at bay is birth control- not very conducive to help someone who is trying to get pregnant. Another thing that often helps with endo pain is pregnancy- so here’s a nice Catch 22 for you. The other option is to have a surgery to clean out the scar tissue from the endo. This doesn’t cure you, but it does take away the symptoms for a while. The downside is that there is no telling how long this will help. Some women have relief for years and some have their symptoms back within months. My best option in trying to get pregnant would be to do the surgical ablation to remove the endo or possibly something called an excision.

We are praying through our decision and what to do from here and what we ultimately feel the Lord leading us to do. I’m honestly relieved to finally have a diagnosis and an understanding as to 1) why we aren’t getting pregnant and 2) why I have had so many issues this last year in regards to my women’s health. I wish there was a cure, but at least I do have some options to hopefully help the pain go away. I’m ready to start feeling better. Over the last few months, it has gotten increasingly worse and has caused me to not be able to workout and be active the way I like to; it has kept me at times from being able to do things I want to because I’m in too much pain to get out of bed; and has caused a lot of stress. I’m ready for a change.

Thanks so much for walking this road with me. If you are a fellow endo sister, please reach out. If you know someone who has endo, I would love to talk to them. I have a few friends who have it as well and I have gotten a lot of information and advice from them. It’s nice to know there is a community of ladies supporting each other who have endo.