You might have a tumor…

This might be a long one so be warned!

February 25, 2021. The day we would finally meet with a fertility specialist. She was highly recommended and had great statistics (yes, I researched). With COVID still being around, this visit was a Telemed visit. We scheduled our zoom call and our ears were open to whatever came out of Dr. H’s mouth. She asked lots of questions (which we appreciated) and we felt very comfortable with her.

At the end of our call, we had several things to schedule. She added several supplements for Jason and I both to take. Jason had to take like two and I had about 17-20 pills per day. I needed to schedule a slew of bloodwork and a baseline ultrasound, which I did immediately. Once my cycle started, I had to schedule an HSC (hysteroscopy) and an HSG (hysterosalpingography). We would follow up with Dr. H after all those things were complete to discuss the bloodwork and procedure results.

March 1, I went in for basic routine fertility bloodwork. This included vitamin D, Varicella, Rubella, Thyroid labs, Prolactin, AMH, and Hemoglobin A1c. I have thyroid issues and am taking Synthroid, however, not consistently (I know, I had no idea that thyroid stuff was so connected to fertility). My thyroid level did come back elevated but once I started taking the medicine daily, it lowered to normal levels. My vitamin D was low so we added that to my concoction. Everything else was normal except my prolactin and AMH.

AMH shows your doctor your egg count. A normal AMH is 1-3, the higher the # you get, the more eggs you have. Mine was 8.0 – awesome, I have lots of eggs to work with! My prolactin was high – prolactin is a hormone produced in the pituitary gland of your brain and promotes breast milk production – well clearly, I wasn’t pregnant so didn’t need to breast milk but because this hormone was high, it was basically telling my body I was pregnant so “no need to release one of those eggs dawg, she’s good.”  Dr. H looked at me and said since prolactin came back elevated, she wants to do an additional lab to test macroprolactin. If it’s still high, I could have a tumor IN MY BRAIN on my pituitary gland and have to go in for an MRI. If macroprolactin was normal, no big deal, I can just take a medicine twice a week to lower the levels.

Well, my macroprolactin was high so I had to have an MRI of my brain. My anxiety went nuts. What if I have a tumor on my brain? Am I okay? Can I safely get pregnant? Will I see my kids grow up? All the questions flooded my pre-knowing-I-have-a-possible-tumor brain.

I had the HSG done on March 16 and the HSC done March 19. An HSG is when they look at your uterus and fallopian tubes via X-ray to see if your tubes are open or blocked. (Ouch, I took Valium and Ibuprofen for this one) An HSC is when they use a hysteroscope (basically a small tube with a light on the end) to look at the inside of your cervix and uterus, usually looking for polyps, tumors, etc. (this was also somewhat painful – only ibuprofen). Both of these results were normal. Tubes are nice and open and uterus is “beautiful.” (Weird, I know)

I went for the MRI of my brain on March 23, 2021. I wanted to put it off so bad but I couldn’t. We needed to know. It was the first time I’ve ever had an MRI. My earbuds were in, they put a towel over my eyes and turned up the A/C fan because THAT CAGE OVER MY FACE made me feel like I was suffocating. After lots of loud buzzing noises and about an hour later, I made it through the MRI to await my results.

I followed up with Dr. H on March 25. We went over everything and she said the words that took all my anxiety away in that moment. Your MRI was normal. You just have to take a medicine twice a week for your prolactin levels. PRAISE THE LORD. It was hard to listen to almost anything else after that. Thankfully, Jason was there to listen too.

So, from that appointment, Dr. H talked about all the options Jason and I needed to discuss and decide to move forward with. We could either do an IUI with pills/injections or IVF.