Infertility, Health, and Hope

I've been struggling with infertility for four years.  When we first got married, Luis and I decided that we weren't going to use birth control.  We thought I would get pregnant, I'd leave my job, and I'd do what I've dreamt of doing my whole life: be a mommy and work at home.  I got a positive pregnancy test in October 2006, just a few short months after we were married.  As it turned out, either the pregnancy test was wrong, or I had an early miscarriage.  Since then, we've been trying to increase our family with no luck.

After a year, we decided to get tested to see why it was taking so long.  We had many tests done through Aurora fertility clinic in Wisconsin.  It turned out that we were infertile and our best option was to try in-vitro fertilization.  Being Christians, we wondered about the ethics of reproductive technologies, did our research, and in the end decided that as long as we limited the number of eggs being fertilized and gave every one of them a chance, we would feel like we made a good ethical decision.  Unfortunately, my body had other ideas than in-vitro, and I didn't respond well to the hormone therapy causing us to end the cycle prior to any egg retrieval.

At that time, I was at an unhealthy weight.  Fast forward to today, and though I still have not been able to get pregnant, I have new hope.  My previous doctors didn't seem to think dietary changes would affect infertility in the way that my current dietary changes have appeared to.  My hormone levels that were once far beyond what they should have been for a woman in her 20's, have leveled off to just slightly higher than average.  With more weight loss, I am hoping that future tests will show that my body has evened out to the levels it should be showing for my age.  I am working towards achieving and maintaining my ideal weight and hope that in doing so, my body might heal and be able to conceive a child.  It still might not, but at least I'll know that I've done my part.  I'm setting up healthy eating habits that I can pass on to my future children... whether they be mine biologically or mine through adoption.