Yesterday I told you about the planning I went through leading up to going off birth control, and now that I am past the six-month mark of TTC, clearly things have not been moving like clockwork. Today I am going in for a blood test (finally) to figure out what's going on, and I'm really hungry because I normally eat a big breakfast every morning when I first wake up. All in all, though, I'm thrilled to be getting blood drawn today.
Here's what got me to this point.
I went on birth control in March 2004, and up until that point in my life I had pretty normal periods. No, I wouldn't get my period every 28 days, but so few women actually do. I fell in the "normal" range because I would get my period every 30-35 days. In college I was definitely influenced by the hormones of all the girls I'd live with -- I was clearly not the alpha female -- so my body and my cycles would naturally adjust to the bodies of the women around me.
Throughout my life I have never had any gynecological problems -- no STDs, no pregnancy scares, no abnormal test results. I also have a clean bill of health -- I have no known diseases, regular blood pressure, ideal BMI. I've never been hospitalized. I have been on antibiotics twice in my life, once for a wisdom tooth that got infected and once when I got a big splinter. Besides that, the only medication I've ever taken is birth control. I've never smoked or done drugs, I drink both alcohol and caffeine moderately, I eat a well-balanced diet with lots of delicious and healthy home cooking, and I get moderate exercise. I even go to the dentist every 6 months.
So, after I went off birth control in July 2010 and got the bleeding (a.k.a. "fake period") that follows finishing a pack, I was a little surprised that it took me 45 more days until my next cycle began.
Then cycle 2 was never ending.
On day 60 of cycle 2 in late October I called the nurse at my doctor's office. I told her I'd been concerned that I was neither getting my period nor did I appear to be ovulating.
The first nurse I talked to asked, "Oh my, now are you sure you're not pregnant?"
"Well, five negative pregnancy tests and no symptoms would suggest that I'm not pregnant," I said.
She still said she thought I should come in immediately. "Can you be here in a couple hours?"
Well, no, my job is totally inflexible, so that wasn't happening, but I told her I could come in tomorrow late afternoon. She said she would have another nurse set up the appointment and call me back.
Twenty minutes later when nurse number 2 called, she asked, "Are you running many miles a week? [No.] Are you drinking daily? [No.] Did you have abnormal periods before you went on birth control? [No.] Are you sure you're not pregnant? [Yes.]." And then, the real kicker, "Honey, you're young and you have nothing to worry about. It can take up for a year after going off birth control for your cycles to regulate themselves."
I expressed dismay, seeing as this was not the same information my doctor shared with me in August 2009 when I did my pre-conception visit. Pretty obnoxious. I knew, based on some research, that it could take a few months for my cycles to be more normal, but even then I felt I was way outside the normal range. The nurse did tell me, though, that I was overdue for my annual appointment, so she scheduled me for one in early December. (Funny side note: when the OB thinks you might be pregnant, they can get you into the office that day, but for any other concern you have to wait six weeks.)
Fortunately, my ovulation predictor kit indicated that I finally ovulated on day 69 of cycle 2, and I got my period on CD 76 (which also indicates a short luteal phase, but I'll take it for now....more on that later.)
Cycle 3 lasted 65 days and I ovulated on day 54 (meaning I achieved an 11-day luteal phase...go me!). Cycle 3 is also when I got serious about fertility charting. (That's the subject of a whole different post.)
In the midst of cycle 3 I had that annual exam in early December. My doctor assured me that I needed to time sex appropriately for pregnancy achievement. Well, duh. Trust me, we are. Then she instructed me to email her as soon as I got my next period and she would be able to somehow miraculously pinpoint the 10-day window during which I am most fertile and therefore, according to her, we should be having sex every other day (we were already having sex every other day, and every day during my most fertile phase around ovulation). Somehow someone with a 45-day cycle, followed by a 76-day cycle, followed by a 65-day cycle could be told what days to have sex and it would magically work? I internally rolled my eyes and promised to email. In the meantime, she told me it wouldn't hurt to check my thyroid function just in case, so she ordered up the blood work and I headed down to the lab. Good news: normal thyroid function.
So, a week and a half ago when cycle 3 ended I emailed my doctor my cycle history since going off BC pills. She wrote back and told me, somewhat to my disbelief, that we need to get to the bottom of what is causing me to have such irregular cycles. FINALLY. So, she ordered up some blood work and told me to go to the lab as soon as I could.
That brings me to today, waiting here for the lab to open so I can get my blood drawn and then eat. I feel like today is a bit of a milestone in the TTC process because my doctor has actually acknowledged that something may be wrong. Yes, I've been a little annoyed that she hasn't taken me too seriously up to this point, and I'm still considering switching OBs, but perhaps showing her that I have been charting my information has convinced her that I mean business. Maybe, in small way, I've managed to take back a little control.
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