Sunday 13th September 2015.

I’m never going to forget that date. That’s the day that, with my heart in my throat and butterflies in my tummy,  I went up to TBMP (“The Baby Making Place”)  in London to find out whether my lady organs were still in functioning order.

First of all I was met by a nurse who took my paperwork and explained what would happen that day; then I was taken in to meet Dr B. He seemed nice and I’ve long got over feeling weird about seeing male doctor when it involves my lady bits – the man’s a gynaecologist,  he must be sick of the sight of vagina all day long!

Anyhoo…

Dr B went through my medical history and we discussed whether there were any known factors that might account for my periods whittling away to almost nothing. Have I lost/gained weight recently? No. Hormone levels out of whack? Not according to the tests so far. Long term hormonal contraceptives? Not for the last 3-5 years. Stress? Not really. Even breaking up with The Boy? Nope. I was happy about that!

We then discussed the AMH test. My level were right in the middle of what’s expected for my age. Yay!! That, along with the LH and FSH test from my GP suggest that we have no reason to be concerned about my egg reserve. With that happy news we moved on for part 2 – the ultrasound.

I’d never had a transvaginal ultrasound before but it wasn’t uncomfortable. There was a second monitor set up so the doctor could show me what he was looking at and explain it all.

The good news was my uterus and ovaries were the right size and shape, there were a few more follicles than he’d been expecting and they were of varying sizes, and there was no evidence of cysts, scarring or fibroids. The not so good news was my uterine lining was very thin (less than 4mm when it should havebeen around 7 or 8), there was very little cervical mucous, and although there were follicles of varying sizes the leading one was only 12mm – not maure enough to release an egg. There was also no obvious corpus luteum (a follicle that had recently released an egg). Bearing in mind I was on day 13 of a 24-26 day cycle (“normal” range for me), I should have ovulated around day 11/12/13; but there was no sign of ovulation having just happened or being about to happen. The verdict – my scanty periods seem to be the result of  not ovulating.

Dr B told me that we should do a progesterone test in a few days to confirm whether I definitely hadn’t ovulated, and suggested that we also do a HyCoSy and aquascan to check that my fallopian tubes are clear and there’s definitely no scarring/adhesions on my uterus. As for his advice on treatment – as long as those other scans are clear he said the most likely course of action would be IUI on stimulated cycles.

So that was it. Although I had suspected something up it is now official I have a fertility problem, and that’s scary.