Congratulations! It's a polyp!

At one of my last appoinments with the fertility specialist, they took a small, flexible tube and scraped the inside of my uterus. They were looking for a specific type of pre-cancer cell, which can be common in women with PCOS. They didn't find it, which was good news. The bad news, however, is that they found tissue that they thought might be a polyp.

On Friday of last week, she took a small camera and looked inside my uterus to see #1 if there were polyps and #2, how many. Well, they were there and they brought their friends...it reminded me of this movie about an arsonist who used balloons filled with gasoline that they hung from the ceiling...maybe you had to be there.

I have surgery scheduled on September 25th to have them removed.

I've done a little research on the web, and according to the Mayo Clinic website, the symptoms are excessively heavy periods, irregular periods (both in length of time between them, but also in volume of fluid), bleeding between periods, and post-menopausal bleeding. I'm not quite at the post-menopausal stage yet, but it's nice to know it could be looming on the horizon. One more reason for voluntary hysterectomy!

There is no direct link with infertility, however studies have shown that women who have an IUI after having polyps removed increase the chances of pregnancy from 28% to 63%. We'll take any help we can get!

So the action plan now is:

• Surgery on September 25th
• Follow up appointment with doctor on October 25th to make sure everything's okay.
• IUI some time in November or December.
• Baby in August or September?

Quinoa

I love my nutritionist. Every time I leave her office, I feel energized and ready for a month of healthy eating and activity.

For months now, she has been singing the praises of Quinoa. It is high in protein and fiber, and apparently makes a fantastic breakfast cereal. Tonight, I cooked a Quinoa Tabouleh for my community group dinner tomorrow night. It was fast and easy to cook, and the little bite I took was excellent. I will definitely be trying it again.

I have an appointment on Friday to scope uterine polyps, which I'm told are completely normal, but they want to see how many I may have. I took a half day vacation, since I don't know how painful this will be. They didn't say the scraping would be painful, and after I got there, they told me they sometimes prescribe valium. This time, they told me to take some Advil before I go...

How did I get here?

My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant since we got married in September of 2005.

I have PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), a condition that means my body does not read the hormones my glands create. Most women with this condition have a diabetic parent, are overweight or struggle with weight issues, and have irregular, heavy periods. Check, Check and Check!

PCOS is treated with diabetes medication, and Clomid, which makes your body mass produce eggs. (It's what Kate Gosselin was on when she had the sextuplets.) On Clomid there is a higher than normal chance of having twins. Since my mother was a twin, this was true for me anyway!

We are now in year four of our attempts to conceive, and here's what's happened so far:

• I am seeing a nutritionist and being treated by Seattle Reproductive Medicine.
• I am on Metformin two times a day, an OTC Pre-Natal Vitamin, and 3000 IU's of Vitamin D. This means my blood-sugar is normalizing, my hair and nails are super strong, and I live in Seattle! (Vitamin D can be obtained by exposure to sunlight...lack of Vitamin D is linked to depression...)
• We have a standing prescription for Clomid and Provera: Provera to jump start the cycle and Clomid to produce the eggs.

We are planning in the near future to:

• See the doctor again for polyps found in my uterus during an examination for uterine cancer.
• Attempt an Intra Uterine Insemination (IUI), which will insert sperm further into my uterus than it will go naturally.
• If no luck after three IUI's, we will have a procedure done to clear out the Fallopian Tubes.

We are planning in the far off future to:

• Try IVF
• Adopt

This has been an emotional roller coaster for my husband and I, and our extended families. I hope that by sharing this experience, other women with PCOS will see that we are not alone.