Little contribution from me for ladies who r TTC!!!

venusbaby · Jun 3, 2009

Hello everybody.
I know how stressful it is when TTC for long time but still no luck even though some r healthy, or some women with little problem and so on.
I would like to share my succesful story here hoping that it would atleast helpful to u all in some or the other manner. I want to contribute what ever i can here.

Medically/Physically:

I received my 1st period at the age of 15 yrs. By then itself my mom started worrying abt why i still didnt get my 1st period and also took me to the Dr who told that it is common for some girls to get periods late. So no worries and got my 1st period after i completed my Xth standard. Oh not to mention how heavy my periods used to be!!!
The first 6 yrs were vry regular except that i missed just 1 or 2 months during that entire period. Later in 2001, when my periods got delayed by 3 months, my mom took me to the gyno who asked to get the thyroid levels checked. Then came to know that the levels were not normal and i was put on thyroxine since then. In 2005, when i got married, i again missed my period for 3 n half months and everybody thought that i might got pregnant. But when tested, it came back negative and was been induced. Ofcourse the bleeding lasted for 10+ days and again had to rush to the hospital to stop the bleeding. Then the Dr said that since i had hypo thyroid,i should not avoid pregnancy which obviously delays getting pregnant. So my dh and I decided to TTC just just from our 5th month after marriage. But surprizingly, each month ended up with a negative test and i started worrying if that was right wat my Dr said. Meanwhile i had loads of stress in my married life which kept away from pregnancy thoughts.

Later in 2007, I was tested positive with PCOS and started putting me on Metformin 2000mg a day.
Though i gained just a little weight, i was told i should shed my weight to keep the levels normal also for insulin resistance.

Changes in my lifestyle:

1. For sugar levels due to insulin resistance, i completely stopped taking sugars and sweets totally. Not decided not even to eat a chocolate till i get pregnant then. Even for orange juice, i used to add 3/4th water to 1/4th of juice just to

2. Since i am a south indian, my main source of food was/is rice. So cut down rice to just one time a day with cereals in the brkfast, little rice with veggies and tomato soup for lunch , and finally 2-3 chapatis with same afnoon's curry and 2 cucumbers. I continued this for an year till i was 3 months pregnant.

3. Daily without fail, i took thyroxine on empty stomach and made sure to wait for an hr before i had my brkfast. This helps the pill do its own course of action properly on our body.

4. Took Metformin pills daily at the same time. Initially i had a horrible time dealing with diarrea and wanted to stop taking metformin. But my instinct forced me to be determined and continued no matter how much ever the diarreah (sp?) troubled me.

5. Made sure i hit the gym daily for an hour. Sometimes if i didnt have mood to go to gym, i used to walk atleast for 3-4 miles just in the name of groceries or something else.

6. Took stairs instead of elevators

7. Reduced completely any oily foods like vada, or anyting which has more oil in it.
8. No burgers, no pizzas, no ghee, no whole fat milk/yogurt.

Prayers:

1. I did pray to Subramanyeswara swamy and chant his 108 names every day.
2. Offered my sincere prayers to 'Dakshina murthy swami'
3. Read 'Sai charitra'.

Emotionally:

With all that happend in my married life, i was almost in a dying situation to tackle all problems in every walk of life. I should thank my parents for being very supportive during that phase of life.
And during this TTC phase, i should thank my dh who have been vry supportive to me emotionally.
Though i too was very low and depressed(within myself), i tried my best to divert my mind off TTC (even though i am following my lifestyle) and started thinking positively that i would at any cost get pregnant within no time. But unfortunately at the same time, my dh too got some health issues and i was vry upset and concentrated on improving his health too. So in this race, we both lost more than 20 pounds in 6 months. We both consoled ourselves that everything work out well for us and soon we will hold our baby in our arms with a big smile. This really helped both of us being strong during that phase. Even whenever i saw some of my friends getting pregnant, i just convinced myself that it was their time to get pregnant and my time too will come. Its just that one got early and one got late. But definitely i too will be successful.
Found a gyno and she put me on Clomid 50 mg for the first month. Thought i ovulated, which resulted into -ve test. Second month, she put me on Clomid 100mg, hten also ovulated, but -ve pregnancy, Third month she put me again on Clomid 100mg (since i ovulated on 100mg), then also resulted into -ve pregnancy.
During this time, i checked my BBT (Basal body thermometer) daily for 3 months to see i ovulated for sure. First month i failed to recognize the pattern, but the next 2 months, it clearly showed that i ovulated.
But meanwhile i researched a lot abt thyroid + PCOS and its course of treatment available at my place. Then after a good research, I realized i didnt need a gynocologist, but an endocrinologist in my case and found one fertility hospital where there were all a group of endocrinologists working.

Treatments:

I myself took the appointment and informed the same to my dh who felt vry happy seeing my determination and enthu and hard work.
Ok, we visited the endo and discussed what all the treatments would work best for me.

1. She first checked my thyroid levels - GOOD
2. Then she checked my insulin levels - GOOD (since i had been already on Metformin which made them normal.
3. She then checked my weight- GOOD
4. When i told her that i was already been put on clomid with 3 -ve pregnancy results, she said she wont again put me on clomid.
5. She then sent my dh for sperm test which was very good over all except that my dh morphology was very low (1%). In their point of view, mobility, quantity and quality are the first & the foremost thing to see in sperms. But even though my dh's mobility, quantity was excellent, his morphology was poor in their terms. So she finally came up with the suggestion that we had no other option other than opting for IVF. WE were shocked !!!!!! for we were really not ready with finances to affort IVF.
6. I had my HSG done where my tubes came out very clear. Then next month, i was again asked to have my uterus checked to see any polyps or any abnormalities. But thank god, that waas also very clear
7. Then i discussed with the Dr if she can offer any other alternate treatments to see if they work on us.
She said we could try having IUI's but was not sure if they really could do wonders on our case.
8. With lots of hope and prayers, we decided first to go for IUI + Injectibles. Though unfortunately our insurance didnt cover any of these treatments, by god's grace, our nurse offered us some free samples of follistim injections which lasted us for 9 days. But just one day was left without them and we could spend $300 for final injection of follistim and 2 ovidrel shots.
9. Emotionally we were very confident though physically it was painful for me to be on injections daily and that too in our belly and with daily bloodwork and vaginal ultra sounds.
10. That day came when we were ready for 2 (back-back) IUI's and we were really vry confident & positive that it would work on us FOR SURE.

End of the treatment cycle.

I prayed a lot and tried not to stress especially after having IUI's. I also made sure that i would'nt test until my 14dpo (days past ovulation). On 14dpo, with a positive mind, i tested with home pregnancy test. To my surprize, i could see a slight 2nd line. I was shocked and immediately asked in one of the blogs whether it is possible for the ovidrel injection to be there still in our body on 14dpo too. I got many answers saying that was impossible and indeed that was a positive pregnancy test!!!!
The very next day my nurse called me to have blood pregnancy done. I was even more confident and had my blood drawn. That afnoon, my nurse called up to say "Congratulations!!! ur hcg levels are 249!!! and YOU ARE PREGNANT!!!".
You could just imagine how happy we were. And the most miraculous thing happend is that, during the follicular stage, my dh went on saying that he surely could sense that i would get pregnant and also was very very confident and positive that we would get a positive pregnancy result from our nurse that afnoon. I almost all cried with happiness that i couldnt believe all our hard work would be paid off.

Today i am in my 9th month and expecting our baby in a month.

I know how horrible it is being asked by everyone that when we also would tell them the good news and all that. I, even, put my career back seat, because i felt we had so much life to take up our career at time, but cannot have children once we cross certain age and that too with these many health issues. I got pregnant at my 28th yr atlast. If i had no health issues, i would have waited for 1 or more yr for baby. But since we had little issues here n there, i had to really keep my career aside for that. And now i dont feel bad abt my decision.

I really hope that my story would atleast give u all some positive energy and could find some solutions which u might have missed, if any.

Wish u all a very good luck and i wont say those regular things to 'relax, everything will be alright' ect, instead i would suggest u to be more educated abt ur own body. Do lots of research to know whts wrong with ur body and wht treatments u would want to go for or best suit to u. Discuss ur each and every concern with ur Dr. and finally be very positive that u will surely , one day, see ur own babies in ur arms.

Good luck to u all.
Venus baby

gokusha · Jun 3, 2009

Hi Venusbaby,

Congratulations!!!!!

Your post was really very touching and motivative. I hope all the TTC ladies who reads this will surely get full hope and positive thoughts.

Thanks for sharing it. If you would have posted in TTC forum, i think there would be much chance for all TTC ladies to gone through your post.

venusbaby said: ↑

Hello everybody.
I know how stressful it is when TTC for long time but still no luck even though some r healthy, or some women with little problem and so on.
I would like to share my succesful story here hoping that it would atleast helpful to u all in some or the other manner. I want to contribute what ever i can here.

Medically/Physically:

I received my 1st period at the age of 15 yrs. By then itself my mom started worrying abt why i still didnt get my 1st period and also took me to the Dr who told that it is common for some girls to get periods late. So no worries and got my 1st period after i completed my Xth standard. Oh not to mention how heavy my periods used to be!!!
The first 6 yrs were vry regular except that i missed just 1 or 2 months during that entire period. Later in 2001, when my periods got delayed by 3 months, my mom took me to the gyno who asked to get the thyroid levels checked. Then came to know that the levels were not normal and i was put on thyroxine since then. In 2005, when i got married, i again missed my period for 3 n half months and everybody thought that i might got pregnant. But when tested, it came back negative and was been induced. Ofcourse the bleeding lasted for 10+ days and again had to rush to the hospital to stop the bleeding. Then the Dr said that since i had hypo thyroid,i should not avoid pregnancy which obviously delays getting pregnant. So my dh and I decided to TTC just just from our 5th month after marriage. But surprizingly, each month ended up with a negative test and i started worrying if that was right wat my Dr said. Meanwhile i had loads of stress in my married life which kept away from pregnancy thoughts.

Later in 2007, I was tested positive with PCOS and started putting me on Metformin 2000mg a day.
Though i gained just a little weight, i was told i should shed my weight to keep the levels normal also for insulin resistance.

Changes in my lifestyle:

1. For sugar levels due to insulin resistance, i completely stopped taking sugars and sweets totally. Not decided not even to eat a chocolate till i get pregnant then. Even for orange juice, i used to add 3/4th water to 1/4th of juice just to

2. Since i am a south indian, my main source of food was/is rice. So cut down rice to just one time a day with cereals in the brkfast, little rice with veggies and tomato soup for lunch , and finally 2-3 chapatis with same afnoon's curry and 2 cucumbers. I continued this for an year till i was 3 months pregnant.

3. Daily without fail, i took thyroxine on empty stomach and made sure to wait for an hr before i had my brkfast. This helps the pill do its own course of action properly on our body.

4. Took Metformin pills daily at the same time. Initially i had a horrible time dealing with diarrea and wanted to stop taking metformin. But my instinct forced me to be determined and continued no matter how much ever the diarreah (sp?) troubled me.

5. Made sure i hit the gym daily for an hour. Sometimes if i didnt have mood to go to gym, i used to walk atleast for 3-4 miles just in the name of groceries or something else.

6. Took stairs instead of elevators

7. Reduced completely any oily foods like vada, or anyting which has more oil in it.
8. No burgers, no pizzas, no ghee, no whole fat milk/yogurt.

Prayers:

1. I did pray to Subramanyeswara swamy and chant his 108 names every day.
2. Offered my sincere prayers to 'Dakshina murthy swami'
3. Read 'Sai charitra'.

Emotionally:

With all that happend in my married life, i was almost in a dying situation to tackle all problems in every walk of life. I should thank my parents for being very supportive during that phase of life.
And during this TTC phase, i should thank my dh who have been vry supportive to me emotionally.
Though i too was very low and depressed(within myself), i tried my best to divert my mind off TTC (even though i am following my lifestyle) and started thinking positively that i would at any cost get pregnant within no time. But unfortunately at the same time, my dh too got some health issues and i was vry upset and concentrated on improving his health too. So in this race, we both lost more than 20 pounds in 6 months. We both consoled ourselves that everything work out well for us and soon we will hold our baby in our arms with a big smile. This really helped both of us being strong during that phase. Even whenever i saw some of my friends getting pregnant, i just convinced myself that it was their time to get pregnant and my time too will come. Its just that one got early and one got late. But definitely i too will be successful.
Found a gyno and she put me on Clomid 50 mg for the first month. Thought i ovulated, which resulted into -ve test. Second month, she put me on Clomid 100mg, hten also ovulated, but -ve pregnancy, Third month she put me again on Clomid 100mg (since i ovulated on 100mg), then also resulted into -ve pregnancy.
During this time, i checked my BBT (Basal body thermometer) daily for 3 months to see i ovulated for sure. First month i failed to recognize the pattern, but the next 2 months, it clearly showed that i ovulated.
But meanwhile i researched a lot abt thyroid + PCOS and its course of treatment available at my place. Then after a good research, I realized i didnt need a gynocologist, but an endocrinologist in my case and found one fertility hospital where there were all a group of endocrinologists working.

Treatments:

I myself took the appointment and informed the same to my dh who felt vry happy seeing my determination and enthu and hard work.
Ok, we visited the endo and discussed what all the treatments would work best for me.

1. She first checked my thyroid levels - GOOD
2. Then she checked my insulin levels - GOOD (since i had been already on Metformin which made them normal.
3. She then checked my weight- GOOD
4. When i told her that i was already been put on clomid with 3 -ve pregnancy results, she said she wont again put me on clomid.
5. She then sent my dh for sperm test which was very good over all except that my dh morphology was very low (1%). In their point of view, mobility, quantity and quality are the first & the foremost thing to see in sperms. But even though my dh's mobility, quantity was excellent, his morphology was poor in their terms. So she finally came up with the suggestion that we had no other option other than opting for IVF. WE were shocked !!!!!! for we were really not ready with finances to affort IVF.
6. I had my HSG done where my tubes came out very clear. Then next month, i was again asked to have my uterus checked to see any polyps or any abnormalities. But thank god, that waas also very clear
7. Then i discussed with the Dr if she can offer any other alternate treatments to see if they work on us.
She said we could try having IUI's but was not sure if they really could do wonders on our case.
8. With lots of hope and prayers, we decided first to go for IUI + Injectibles. Though unfortunately our insurance didnt cover any of these treatments, by god's grace, our nurse offered us some free samples of follistim injections which lasted us for 9 days. But just one day was left without them and we could spend $300 for final injection of follistim and 2 ovidrel shots.
9. Emotionally we were very confident though physically it was painful for me to be on injections daily and that too in our belly and with daily bloodwork and vaginal ultra sounds.
10. That day came when we were ready for 2 (back-back) IUI's and we were really vry confident & positive that it would work on us FOR SURE.

End of the treatment cycle.

I prayed a lot and tried not to stress especially after having IUI's. I also made sure that i would'nt test until my 14dpo (days past ovulation). On 14dpo, with a positive mind, i tested with home pregnancy test. To my surprize, i could see a slight 2nd line. I was shocked and immediately asked in one of the blogs whether it is possible for the ovidrel injection to be there still in our body on 14dpo too. I got many answers saying that was impossible and indeed that was a positive pregnancy test!!!!
The very next day my nurse called me to have blood pregnancy done. I was even more confident and had my blood drawn. That afnoon, my nurse called up to say "Congratulations!!! ur hcg levels are 249!!! and YOU ARE PREGNANT!!!".
You could just imagine how happy we were. And the most miraculous thing happend is that, during the follicular stage, my dh went on saying that he surely could sense that i would get pregnant and also was very very confident and positive that we would get a positive pregnancy result from our nurse that afnoon. I almost all cried with happiness that i couldnt believe all our hard work would be paid off.

Today i am in my 9th month and expecting our baby in a month.

I know how horrible it is being asked by everyone that when we also would tell them the good news and all that. I, even, put my career back seat, because i felt we had so much life to take up our career at time, but cannot have children once we cross certain age and that too with these many health issues. I got pregnant at my 28th yr atlast. If i had no health issues, i would have waited for 1 or more yr for baby. But since we had little issues here n there, i had to really keep my career aside for that. And now i dont feel bad abt my decision.

I really hope that my story would atleast give u all some positive energy and could find some solutions which u might have missed, if any.

Wish u all a very good luck and i wont say those regular things to 'relax, everything will be alright' ect, instead i would suggest u to be more educated abt ur own body. Do lots of research to know whts wrong with ur body and wht treatments u would want to go for or best suit to u. Discuss ur each and every concern with ur Dr. and finally be very positive that u will surely , one day, see ur own babies in ur arms.

Good luck to u all.
Venus baby
Click to expand...

venusbaby · Jun 3, 2009

oops, sorry, i thought i posted this in TTC forum..
i think due to being in 9th month, i am somewht messy :bonk..

Request to the moderator:
Moderator, i would be grateful to u if u could pls move my post to TTC forum.
Thanks gokusha..

roopanair123 · Jun 3, 2009

hi venusbaby..

wow..that is indeed a very inspirational experience for all TTC ladies !! hearty congrajulations to you on your pregnancy and now just some days remaining for you to hold your dreams in your arms !! thumbsup

BEST OF LUCK AND HAVE A SAFE DELIVERY !!

platinumsweet · Jun 3, 2009

HI VENUS BABY
CONGRATS!!!!
your story gives me inspiration and hope. thanks for the wonderful post.
have a safe delivery.
regards
ani

Vasumathy · Jun 3, 2009

Hi Venusbaby,
Congrats on your pregnancy! Take care & enjoy your life with your little one!

Very good & inspiring one! All TTC ladies need to read your TTC journey!
Thanks for sharing with us!

As a moderator: Before even start to read the content, with title itself i thought this need to be present in TTC forum and why it is in 'I'm pregnant forum'! Then you & Usha confirmed to put it in TTC. Now it is in its own place!

Raindrop · Jun 3, 2009

Hi Venus Baby,

Your post clearly shows that dedication and perseverence with confidence and positive attitude will definitely lead to success!

Hearty Congratulations and best wishes for a safe delivery! Enjoy every moment of the same as its a dream come true for you after having lots of patience :thumbsup

Take care!

TrueLove · Jun 3, 2009

Hi venusbaby

Thanks for such a wonderful post. It will be very useful for all the TTC ladies.
your story is such an inspriring one. congrats on your success . God bless your child.

kites · Jun 3, 2009

Thanks Venus Baby for sharing your sucess story, this will surely help many TTC couples

hydgrr · Jun 3, 2009

Hi Venusbaby,
Congrats on ur pregnancy. ur story is truly inspirational. Ur determination and hard work really help u succeed. ur story will really help us all whenever we are down or feel sad.
-priya