I could not be more surprised to be writing this!
Background - TTC for our first for 20mths, recently got a diagnosis of endometriosis and was told I have low egg reserve. We were advised to start treatment as soon as possible - treatment being 3mths of lupron to try to shrink my endometriosis (for me, the main problem is cysts on my ovaries - one ovary appeared to be working fine but the other was not), followed by IVF. As lupron stops you ovulating and you have to take precautions against conceiving, this was literally our last shot of conceiving naturally.... against all odds, we managed it!
This month, we felt disheartened, we didn't even try that hard (just twice in the fertile period), and I was away over ovulation so we definitely didn't BD around the time I would have liked. I thought there was NO chance.
After trying for so long, I admit that I don't bother recording my potential pregnancy symptoms anywhere near as much as I did in the early days! And having endometriosis means I can get extreme PMS which can seem like pregnancy symptoms anyway - there have been months in the past that I've been nauseous or even physically sick in the lead up to my period, so I just didn't think anything of it this time.
Possible symptoms:
Sore boobs - yes, but extremely sore boobs is fairly normal for me pre-AF anyway
Nausea - once on 12dpo, which I put down to travel sickness and being hungry, once on 13dpo when I saw something particularly gruesome on The Walking Dead!
Nighttime waking - a few times (from 7dpo to 12dpo), this was unusual for me and I put it down to feeling anxious about work, house renovations and impending treatment
Bloating - yes but again this is normal for me pre-AF
Fatigue - yes, again so normal for me before AF! I workout and found my workouts this week (11dpo, 13dpo) particularly tough. I've noticed I've been breathless running up the stairs (where I'm usually pretty fit)
Cramps - yes, I'm still feel small cramps as if my body is starting a period
Spotting - yes, once on 11/12dpo - I often get spotting before AF so the only thing that made me think I might be pregnant was the fact that it stopped
I have been waiting for my period to start so that I can call the hospital and get the Lupron injection. I ignored the potential symptoms as they have been SO similar to my usual PMS, so my first real sign was a missed period. In all my time of tracking my cycle, I have never once had a period longer than 28 days, so in the evening of day 29 when I had no spotting, I bought a decent quality test and waited till this morning, day 30 (16dpo). Tested with a cheapy and a digital - both came up really clear straight away, the digital says 2-3 weeks, which is spot on.
I'm very pleased, I know we have a way to go to see whether this will stick, but we have NEVER reached this stage before, I want to celebrate where we're at. My OH said that it feels like a film - we managed it in the nick of time!!
I have found it useful to read about other people's experiences, particularly when people have had the same issues we were facing. I really hope that writing this can help someone else feel that they are not alone.
Best of luck to all of you reading this xxx