PCOS to Parenthood - Part 2

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Fast forward to my senior year, and things started happening to my body that were not expected. I began growing small patches of facial hair, but nothing that wasn’t remedied by a pair of tweezers. My abdomen was where I was holding most of my weight. I wasn’t a fan of how I looked and it’s where I first began to really have body image issues. When I was diagnosed with PCOS, I was unaware of the long term effects and what havoc it could wreak on my body. That’s when I first started researching possible treatments for PCOS, which at the time, there were none. Being on birth control was my best option, so I kept at it. The pill gave me a monthly cycle, for which I was grateful. It seemed to be working the way it was meant to. I was in a long term relationship at the time and I figured as long as I kept up with the hormone treatment and kept my handy dandy tweezers with me, I was all good. Of course as time wore on and I grew older, the effects of PCOS began to take hold of me. I still grapple with most of the symptoms today. But, in reading and researching this seemingly “phantom” disease I have, I read the one word I didn’t want to…infertility. At the second I read that word, I knew then that I would need medical assistance in becoming a mother. I had always had a dream of being two things in life: A wife and a mother.

A few years ago, I was an avid fan of the HBO show Sex and the City. There’s a character named Charlotte who was trying to get pregnant with her first husband, Trey. She tried for 3 months before diving in head first into IVF treatment. I was unaware of IVF treatment and the invasiveness of the procedures, but was aware of the occurrence of multiple fetuses in such pregnancies. When Charlotte and Trey divorced and Charlotte met her husband Harry, the two (Charlotte and Harry) were having a conversation about having children. When Harry expressed his desire to have children, Charlotte’s face shows the hurt and fear she held before telling him “…it’s not impossible, but it’s difficult”. In watching that scene and how accepting Harry was of Charlotte’s issue, I knew I would have to have that same conversation with my future husband, and I would only hope and pray that he would be as loving and accepting of my issue as Harry.

To be continued...