Interesting Pregnancy Stuff...

[LJSDesigns]

I am sharing this because I thought it was really interesting and might be helpful information to someone.

Someone I know tried for 15 years to get pregnant with no luck. In that time she saw a number of doctors and did a few rounds of hormone therapy, IVF too, I think and still did not get pregnant. Then she tried a different doctor who did a blood test first and came back to her and told her that her insulin was high. Now this is a woman in her 30s with no history of diabetes, normal weight, etc. but her insulin was high and her hormones were low like the other doctors had found. But this doctor said that the insulin was the issue and she was not ovulating because of it. She had Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS,) which the other doctors missed because she was atypical. (Yes, atypical health things are an issue with me.) Anyway, she went on a special diet to control her insulin, had IVF again and has a daughter who just celebrated her first birthday.

They want to have another child, so were talking about another round of IVF, which is expensive, when low and behold, she found out last week she is pregnant. One her own, no treatment because her diet is helping control her insulin, which means she is able to ovulate.

I am not sure how well known this issue is with people who are atypical, but I know she went to Chicago for treatment without success for a while, and Chicago is not a small town doctor kind of place. Because she did not fit the typical description of someone with an insulin issue, it was overlooked for years and years, 15 of them to be exact.

Knowing that it seemed worth while to share her story in case there was anyone in the community, or any one in the community knew of anyone who was struggling to get pregnant and did not fit the Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) mold. Doctors don't always think outside the box like they should, but if you are the one in the box, you need them to. Or you need to help them by having information like this.

Hope no one minds this kind of random share, but like I said, I thought it was worth the time.

[jaye]

I had PCOS, my son is a fertility baby. I was maxed out on the drugs and down to my last round when we found out I was pregnant. I had already suffered a loss at 11 weeks. I started to bleed with my son and they quickly put me on progesterone suppositories until I was 5 months. Then I needed a c-section as I didn’t dilate even after having a foley the night before. Funny how I couldn’t get pregnant but I also couldn’t get him out, lol.

Due to issues with my ovaries and hormones he was to be my one and only. I ended up having a complete hysterectomy at 34, my son was 4. Four years later I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, stage 3. Having my ovaries removed probably saved me due to the aggressiveness of the cancer.

[MamaBee]

I was diagnosed at age 26 that I had PCOS and told I wouldn't be able to have a children... Jake was born when I was 32 (we just started to try and bam, happened the next month). When we went for child number two - it obviously never happened. I was never told that PCOS is tightly connected to becoming insulin resistant. I know that now... and that I wished I pushed more about my thyroid issues. Doctors didn't want to look more into anything when I complained about symptoms.

[LJSDesigns]

Originally Posted by MamaBee

I was diagnosed at age 26 that I had PCOS and told I wouldn't be able to have a children... Jake was born when I was 32 (we just started to try and bam, happened the next month). When we went for child number two - it obviously never happened. I was never told that PCOS is tightly connected to becoming insulin resistant. I know that now... and that I wished I pushed more about my thyroid issues. Doctors didn't want to look more into anything when I complained about symptoms.

That stinks! Doctors make me so mad because everything is about the money. So I guess it is really insurance companies that make me mad. Health care, good health care should be a right, not a luxury. One of my soapbox issues, but I will contain myself. PCOS as it relates to insulin should not keep people from having children if they can learn to control their insulin with diet. And people who want children will do that.

And Drs. discount thyroid issues way too often, which is crazy since it controls so much.

[LJSDesigns]

Originally Posted by jaye

I had PCOS, my son is a fertility baby. I was maxed out on the drugs and down to my last round when we found out I was pregnant. I had already suffered a loss at 11 weeks. I started to bleed with my son and they quickly put me on progesterone suppositories until I was 5 months. Then I needed a c-section as I didn’t dilate even after having a foley the night before. Funny how I couldn’t get pregnant but I also couldn’t get him out, lol.

Due to issues with my ovaries and hormones he was to be my one and only. I ended up having a complete hysterectomy at 34, my son was 4. Four years later I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, stage 3. Having my ovaries removed probably saved me due to the aggressiveness of the cancer.

Wow, isn't it weird how something bad can lead to something good. My cancer was discovered when I developed a horrible case of GERD, which is basically acid reflux. If I hadn't been getting checked out for that, they would not have found the cancer.

I was scheduled to have a hysterectomy when they found out I had cancer so I had to put that off for a while, I was thirty four at the time, and finally had it about 10 years later. By that point they had to take the everything but one ovary. I was okay with it, because I had suffered years of heavy bleeding not to mention having my period for 9 months straight. It was debilitating because of the blood loss. I sometimes refer to is as a gift, but I was way done with having kids. It is harder when you still want kids. Truthfully, one was always enough for me.

[HavaDrPepper]

No experience in this area for me but over 35 years ago I was on a bowling team with a gal that just could not get pregnant. The doctors couldn't find any issues with either her or her husband so they went the adoption route.

Less than 1 month after they got their child, she found out she was pregnant. They ended up with 2 kids 8 months apart in age. That was the end of bowling season and I ended up moving away so I don't know if they had any other children. The doctors put it down to the stress of trying to conceive and once they went through the adoption process, they were more relaxed and magic happened.

So it never surprises me to hear of someone that struggled getting pregnant actually getting pregnant on their own later.

Another case I've followed is a couple that met because of the show The Bachelor. They were on different seasons but ended up meeting and falling in love. They married and struggled to have children. They did IVF and had their darling little girl in 2016. In 2018 they decided to go back for IVF for their 2nd (and last) child and had to go through testing again. While waiting to start the process she found out she was pregnant. Their darling little boy was born later that year. According to her, God had a plan for her and allowed it to happen. I follow them on IG and the kids are so dang cute. In fact I named my current dog after her!

[rach3975]

Originally Posted by LJSDesigns

Hope no one minds this kind of random share, but like I said, I thought it was worth the time.

Share away! You never know when that kind of random bit of info is going to make a huge difference for someone. I don't have any pregnancy-related stories to share, but in the rare disease community there are so many times when a random encounter or symptom in common ends up being the key to getting a diagnosis or treating something that your doctor didn't know how to handle. (My son has Smith-Magenis Syndrome, which occurs once in every 15,000-25,000 births depending which study you go by. Lots of sharing of info that leads to solutions in the SMS community!)

[Leablahblah]

I think it's amazing and wonderful that it happened to your friend Lorie after so many years. And you are right. Doctors can overlook a lot of stuff. We have to be advocate for ourselves in a lot of cases. Thanks for sharing this.

[tjscraps]

We got pregnant within a year with our first, and then tried (and tried and tried) for #2, finally giving up when she was 6. My hubby is diabetic, I had a tumor on one ovary and had to get it removed, the cards were just against us. Dr's basically said to count our lucky stars we had one, and not wanting to spend her whole college fund on another we gave up.

2 years after we gave up I thought I was diabetic (peeing lots and SO tired), went to the dr and found out that not only was I diabetic I was 8 weeks pregnant. Surprise! Insulin dependent from 9 weeks on, 2092 pokes later our spitfire was born. Hubby had lost about 30 lbs within a short period of time when his insulin was under control finally, and boom got pregnant. I guess my point is insulin levels for the dad can also play a huge role!

[LJSDesigns]

Originally Posted by tjscraps

We got pregnant within a year with our first, and then tried (and tried and tried) for #2, finally giving up when she was 6. My hubby is diabetic, I had a tumor on one ovary and had to get it removed, the cards were just against us. Dr's basically said to count our lucky stars we had one, and not wanting to spend her whole college fund on another we gave up.

2 years after we gave up I thought I was diabetic (peeing lots and SO tired), went to the dr and found out that not only was I diabetic I was 8 weeks pregnant. Surprise! Insulin dependent from 9 weeks on, 2092 pokes later our spitfire was born. Hubby had lost about 30 lbs within a short period of time when his insulin was under control finally, and boom got pregnant. I guess my point is insulin levels for the dad can also play a huge role!

That is more good information to know. Thanks for sharing!

[LJSDesigns]

Originally Posted by Leablahblah

I think it's amazing and wonderful that it happened to your friend Lorie after so many years. And you are right. Doctors can overlook a lot of stuff. We have to be advocate for ourselves in a lot of cases. Thanks for sharing this.

I've been an advocate for both of my parents, so I guess it is a role that I think everyone needs to take for those they love. To be fair, my mom used to go to the oncologist with me and listen to what he had to say because I tended to block a lot of it out, it was so overwhelming. So we helped each others and that is what it is all about, right? If this helps one person, I feel good about it.

My friend is on cloud nine. She is going to be 38 soon, so the baby years were slipping by and now she will have two by the time she is forty. She wants to be done at forty and told me her husband is trying to figure out how to slip a third one in before that. LOL Good for them.

[HavaDrPepper]

My parents did not choose to have only one child.

My mom found out when I was 10 years old that her uterus was tilted and was pretty much natural birth control. Then when she had female issues and had her hysterectomy when I was 21, the surgeon asked her if she had any children. She said she had a 21 year old daughter. His reply... consider her your miracle because I don't know how you ever got pregnant with the way your uterus was positioned. He wondered if it was repositioned when she had me but couldn't say one way or another for sure. (This surgery would have been in the late 70's).

Also remember I am 65 years old so pregnancy and giving birth was so different than it is today.

[lovely1m]

So the tilted uterus causing infertility is something they thought was a thing back then, but it has since been proven not to be an issue. Your mom probably had other issues that caused infertility and could possibly have added scar tissue to her uterus. I, too, have a tilted uterus.

Originally Posted by HavaDrPepper

My parents did not choose to have only one child.

My mom found out when I was 10 years old that her uterus was tilted and was pretty much natural birth control. Then when she had female issues and had her hysterectomy when I was 21, the surgeon asked her if she had any children. She said she had a 21 year old daughter. His reply... consider her your miracle because I don't know how you ever got pregnant with the way your uterus was positioned. He wondered if it was repositioned when she had me but couldn't say one way or another for sure. (This surgery would have been in the late 70's).

Also remember I am 65 years old so pregnancy and giving birth was so different than it is today.

[HavaDrPepper]

Originally Posted by lovely1m

So the tilted uterus causing infertility is something they thought was a thing back then, but it has since been proven not to be an issue. Your mom probably had other issues that caused infertility and could possibly have added scar tissue to her uterus. I, too, have a tilted uterus.

Quite possibly but scar tissue was never mentioned when she had it taken out. The surgeon said he had never seen a uterus tilted that far back and felt it probably was tilted when she did get pregnant but something happened possibly in child birth that caused it to tilt even further. She got pregnant fairly quickly and kept trying to have another child but it never happened. It was the mid 60's when she was first told it was tilted by a young doctor that had joined the practice and the late 70's when it was taken out by a relatively young surgeon.

Medicine has come a long way in the last 60 years...

[joelsgirl]

My mom had two uteruses and only one kidney. One uterus was small and misshapen, so she had a couple of miscarriages in that uterus before she had me.

I have PCOS, but I have three babies, two of which were total surprises. For all of my "fertile" years, I only had 3-4 periods a year, but since I had my last baby, my cycle has been every 35 days.

The human body is so weird.

[LJSDesigns]

Originally Posted by HavaDrPepper

My parents did not choose to have only one child.

My mom found out when I was 10 years old that her uterus was tilted and was pretty much natural birth control.

Mine was tilted, which meant it was super easy for me to get pregnant. I got pregnant on the pill using a what had to be a faulty condom because I knew how easy it was for me to get pregnant as it had been explained to me in great detail by the doctor when it was discovered after I had some female issues and by my mother every time I looked at a boy. LOL I wonder if mine was tipped in a different way that would explain the difference.