Infertility: One Couple's 5-Year Journey

We did everything "right." We met, fell in love, got married, moved to a town we both loved, and found good jobs. After two years of marriage, we felt the time was right to have a baby. I went to my gynecologist to have a complete check-up and received the green light to start trying to have a baby.

The first few months, we joked that it was okay that I didn't get pregnant yet, it was just fun trying. After a few more months, however, we started to wonder why I wasn't getting pregnant. Back to the gynecologist I went. He prescribed a drug that would help stimulate ovulation. Although I was only supposed to stay on this medication for a few months, I wanted to keep trying to get pregnant using it and not take the next step of infertility consultation. After a year and a half of nothing happening except for side effects such as hot flashes (who'd have thought at the age of 36, I'd be comparing hot flash symptoms with my mother-in-law!), we decided to bring in the experts.

Our fertility doctor was wonderful and felt that we were ideal candidates for treatment. His first suggestion was to have a laparoscopy, which would pinpoint any problems and also allow him to fix anything that he could. The laparoscopy was an eye-opening experience. I found out that I had endometriosis and many problems with my uterus. The doctor cleaned me out, patched me up, and a month later, we began going through the cycle of treatments.

For those of you who are fortunate not to have to go through treatments, I will give you a short blow-by-blow account.