Medical Update

I know I have not talked about the medical part of our journey very much, but a few weeks ago we had another doctor appointment and the timing felt right to share more. My hope is that it will help others dealing with infertility, especially unexplained, and provide valuable information. So much of what I’ve learned are things I never knew and I’m guessing there are others who don’t know either. If you have been diagnosed with unexplained infertility and would like more information about what we are currently doing, feel free to connect with me.

This post is a bit longer to outline what we’ve been up to medically this past year. I’m going to get a bit personal talking about cycles and ovulating so if that makes you squeamish, turn back now!

After being diagnosed with unexplained infertility in 2016, we switched doctors in December 2017, and started a different path of fertility care to dig deeper into our diagnosis. The protocols we started following are based off of the Creighton Model FertilityCare System (CrMS). “The CrMS relies upon the standardized observation and charting of biological markers that are essential to a women’s health and fertility.” (CRMS website) Basically, you chart your cycle every day to get a more detailed picture of what your body is telling you. The benefit is that you can compare cycle to cycle to find discrepancies and possibly determine what is going on.

In January I did a hormone assay, where they took my blood every other day for an entire cycle, to get a baseline of my hormones. Thanks to this test, I found my progesterone levels dropped in half after I ovulated, which is not what you want. By this point in our journey, we were happy to finally have found something wrong! Only in the infertility world do you rejoice when this happens because it means you have a starting point to determine what’s not functioning properly. I know, it’s totally backwards thinking. Welcome to my world.

When your progesterone levels drop like this, it is commonly known as, Luteal Phase Defect. Low progesterone has often been linked to infertility/miscarriage. Maybe you are like me and when you heard the story of the birds and the bees you thought that was it. Well, there is always more to the story as I learned progesterone is king when it comes to pregnancy hormones. I had no clue and feel I should’ve known this as a woman, but how would I have known? Let’s just say hormones were never covered in my marketing and communication classes.

Knowing we had a deficiency in my progesterone, in February we started hormone shots that included HCG and Progesterone in Oil, four times each cycle. I found a strength I never knew I had when I gave myself my first shot and am FOREVER grateful to our friends who have kindly helped with these as well. We’ve been following this regimen for the past six cycles, with no new information uncovered from my charting.

In March, I also started seeing a chiropractor who uses Functional Medicine and Applied Kinesology. “Functional Medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual.” (Functional Medicine website) I had heard of this but had no idea what it was all about. I was, and still am a bit skeptical, but figured I had nothing to lose. Through muscle testing they found some imbalances in my body, but no major breakthroughs.

I wish I had better news to share, but I’m beginning to understand that life isn’t always like that. And that’s okay. Are we extremely tired, frustrated and just want answers? More than I can explain or convey. There are times I get overwhelmed and am afraid we have SO far to go that I want to cry. Then I have days where I think what we are doing is working and it could be any month now. We know we have no guarantees either way and the best thing we can do is pray and Trust God. Period.

Can I ask you to send up a few prayers for us too? We are choosing to trust God and the direction He is taking us, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy.

*Giveaway* The past week we’ve been celebrating Living in the Wait turning 6 months! To close out this milestone celebration, I am going to pick two lucky winners and mail them 100 Days to Brave by Annie F. Downs. Email subscribers are automatically entered for a chance to win, but follow me on social media to double them. Giveaway will run until August 2 and the winner will be announced August 5. Good luck!

Disclaimer: The information provided above are my thoughts, opinions and experiences and should not be taken as medical advice or a substitute for medical care. 

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