Something worth talking about..

Well, I have thought long and hard about how I'm going to do this - and it's not easy topic to talk about, and most people could not possibly understand. Though, having started going "through this" now, I realize that it's absolutely astonishing how many other people are in the same situation as we are. 


When we were dating, the questions everyone asked.. "when are you getting engaged?" "married?" "Are you going to move in together?" Then you get engaged, and it's "when's the wedding". The wedding is over, and now it's "when will you have kids?" 


If you know me at all, you know I adore children. From a very young age, I wanted more then anything to be a Mom. I had nothing other then what a perfect example of what a mother should be, growing up with my mom and my grandma's close by - I always had a constant example of an amazing mom, and I want(ed) to be that person. 


Something worth talking about.. getting pregnant is not all that easy. We're seeing a specialist for fertility. The amounts of people in that office every single day is staggering. I absolutely feel like we're NOT the only ones going through this. It's been a eye opening experience. When I first got the referral, I was sad, upset and just wanted for us to be a "normal" couple. Then once I started talking about it, I learned about friends, family and people I grew up with - people our age, going through the exact same thing too.  


Not everyone shared stories of people they knew who also received help getting pregnant. Not everyone was supportive. Some were surprised, shocked and asked questions or made statements like "you obviously haven't tried long enough" "maybe you're not doing it right" and "why do you need to go there, you're so young?" - well as much as those were not what I had expected, I realize - the majority of people have no what to say, and have no idea what it's like to be "us" - "us" meaning, the percentage of couples who do need to get a little, or a lot of help to become pregnant. 


So the long and the short of it was, that we did try before we got ourselves in to see the specialist. It's not just like something you sign up for, it's a referral process and it can take time. 


When I was 19 years old, I began seeing a family doctor that I worked with at the hospital. After assessing my overall health and well being I brought up some concerns, and she brought up some of hers. Mine were my extremely heavy & irregular periods, that I had a hard time losing weight, I never felt like I had a whole hell of a lot of energy, and a year prior to that I had a very painful ovarian cyst that had ruptured. 
It didn't take long for her to write up a requisition for me to do some blood work, and an ultrasound. She followed me closely for about 6 months, and then it was decided I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). She told me that that time, that I have a high probability of needing assistance through medications when it came time to start a family. Obviously at 19 that wasn't exactly in the "near" future plans, but of course it's always been in the back of my head. For the sake of consistency, I was put on birth control for medical reasons. 


And 8 years later, here we are. 


It's not my intention to broadcast our story in great detail. If you have questions, just ask. I'm not hiding anything and willing to talk (you know me) about my experience. I may from time to time share some things on here. The point of me sharing our story, is because people need to know there are many people in this world who are wearing the same boots as me right now, some hide it - some share it, some choose to share with close family and friends. 
We shared with close family & friends, until now, but in order to receive support and awareness for people struggling with infertility, our friends and family needs to know that the amounts of couples needing help is staggering, and with these statistics it is more than likely in your family, or group of friends may need the same support we are getting now. 


I really feel like this is something that is worth talking about. Hope you didn't mind. :)