Sneha
Since young, I faced very bad period cramps that used to make me vomit, faint and sometimes go to A&E.
" Period pain is normal"
" Pop a painkiller , everyone does that"
" Everyone has the pain, its very common"
These are the advice that I often got during these monthly episodes and popping pain killers was what I did cause I thought it was normal. Only when I went for a check up did I find out I had a growth in my uterus, something the doctor called an endometrial cyst, and it was 10cm in size.
Finally, it all came to light. I didn't know that I had actually lived my whole life with something called "Endometriosis" and that it was one of the leading problems of infertility compared to other fertility issues out there. This cyst discover led to my first laparoscopic surgery. Little did I know it wouldn't be my last.
During our TTC journey of 4yrs from 2018 to 2022., I ended up undergoing :-
2 laproscopic cystectomy surgeries
8 failed IUIs
4 failed IVFs (in Singapore and Greece)
4 Biochemical pregnancies
A missed miscarriage when I was 7 weeks pregnant.
We also found out that I not only had endometriosis, but also had adenomyosis, polyps, high NK cells, Low protein C and S, IBS and my hubs had high sperm DNA fragmentation.
When I started this journey, I did not think it would take us 4 years to get a success, but I knew along the journey I had to change my mindset from "Why Me?" to "It's okay, I won't give up"
As both of my husband and I were expats, we were away from families , but thankfully still were there for each other in tough times physically, emotionally and financially. Our main motto by the end of journey became "One issue at a time, One day at a time".
We sorted out each issue one by one , and with the right guidance and time, it lead to my current successful pregnancy.
Looking back now, I couldn't have asked for more as this journey made me realise that I was stronger than I ever imagined, gave me more wisdom than I thought I could have, provided me with more positivity as well as gave me much faith in the destiny than I had ever planned.
We always believed that having a PLAN B when PLAN A fails will keep us going until we finally achieve our milestone, and it did. Through my journey I would say , never give up and trust in destiny's time.
Regards
Sneha Rao Kotte ( Endo Warrior )
Endometriosis, Adenomyosis, Polyps, High NK cells, Low Protein C and S, IBS and High Sperm DNA Fragmentation
