My story begins with a simple missed period in September 2013. I’d been on the contraceptive pill for a lot of my adult life so wasn’t too worried. They often came late and only hung around for a few days. Nevertheless, I went to see the doctor. ‘Come back after you have missed six in a row,’ I was told. I walked out of his office and on the way home decided that I would go back if I missed the next one. To miss six in a row I thought ridiculous. Sure enough my next period was a no show. Back to the doctors I went, requesting a different GP to my last visit.
For the next year I had blood tests, which apparently were all normal. We changed my pill several times, the mini pill facilitated a bleed in June 2014. I thought we’d sorted it. Great.
Then back to nothing the next month…
This is when I demanded to be referred to a specialist. Looking back I should have been referred much earlier. I should have pushed or, in my opinion, my GP should have realised they didn’t know enough and sent me to someone who did.
I saw the specialist a year after my first missed period. I went to see a gynaecologist. I assumed I would walk in and have a chat about how to proceed. I was wrong. Within the course of that initial meeting we discovered I was unlikely to have children. Dagger, meet my heart.
The ultrasound showed less than a third of the eggs a woman my age should have. She explained that I wasn’t producing enough oestrogen naturally so needed to go back on the combined pill immediately to make up for this. She also wrote to my GP requesting they organise a bone scan. I was sent to have yet another blood test. This time looking for specific hormones related to fertility. The next few days waiting were awful. I wasn’t optimistic, but I had hope that there would be something that could be done. At least my bone scan results were acceptable.
I went back in to see her a month later. She told me I had a very low fertility level. My hormones were that of a lady looking at menopause. Fabulous. Now what?
Someone very close to me had had recent success at an IVF clinic in Spain. I thought that there might be something they could do. I spoke with one of the founders of the clinic, who was the gentleman recommended. I’d emailed him all my results. During the phone call he said that he was so sorry but I would have less than a 5% chance of IVF working, over three cycles. I was devastated. My one last hope vanished.
Read the full story by downloading our PDF.