When my husband and I decided that we were ready to have a baby, I thought it would be simple and quick: I would go off of the birth control pill I'd been taking for over a decade and voilà. Turns out, it wasn't that easy. My period didn't come back for about four months, and when it did, it was extremely irregular and unpredictable.
While I have a handful of friends who seemed to get pregnant on the first try, it became clear that far more couples have a different experience. The more that I talked about the challenges of trying to conceive with friends and acquaintances, the more I realized that this is an issue for so many people. Despite all this, many women feel so alone while trying to become pregnant.
So I want to open up the discussion to those who would like to take part — I'd love to hear about your experience trying to conceive.
Maybe upon going off a hormonal contraceptive you discovered that you have PCOS and couldn't rely on your natural cycle to get pregnant.
Or perhaps you had a series of early miscarriages that took a serious toll on your mental health before you were able to carry a pregnancy full term.
Maybe after a few months of trying, you decided to pursue IUI, which ended up working for you.
Or maybe after struggling to conceive for months, you and your partner decided to try IVF, a process that came with many, many bumps in the road.
