Pregnant in a completely natural way after unsuccessful IVF

My name is Bettina, I am a partner at VivoSensMedical and responsible for marketing & sales at OvulaRing. The reason why I work for OvulaRing has to do with my very personal story. But from the beginning: I didn’t have a normal standard cycle even as a young girl. My cycles were always more like 40 days and longer. Sometimes I didn’t have my period at all for half a year. That changed when I started taking the pill. It was good for the skin and for the next 15 years I had neither problems with pimples nor with irregular cycles, because from then on my periods came punctually every 28 days.

I am a planner through and through and don’t like to leave things to chance. School, exchange year, studies, career: everything went as I had planned. Of course, it was also clear to me that I could plan my pregnancy. Career fit, I had found my dream man and our wedding was imminent. So I went off the pill. Since I had done everything in my power to prevent pregnancy for the past 15 years, I didn’t give a second thought to the idea that getting pregnant could be even remotely complicated. Here, however, I was quickly proven wrong.

When I stopped taking the pill, nothing happened for half a year. There was no sign of my menstruation far and wide. Instead, I looked like a teenager in the middle of puberty and my skin literally exploded. Even this half year was a real challenge for a planner like me. At some point my period came and the following cycles varied from 38-50 days. Since all the calculations for ovulation that I found on the Internet at the time only worked for cycles up to a maximum of 35 days, I was no longer at all sure what the right timing should be to make it work. Time for me to talk to my gynecologist and get some advice. My gynecologist at the time told me relatively quickly that I would not ovulate with such long cycles and that I would not be able to get pregnant naturally. Furthermore, I was diagnosed with PCO. He gave me a referral to the fertility center and pointed out that further waiting would only be a waste of time.

Since I did not doubt the doctor’s competence and had been lagging behind my plan for almost a year, my husband and I made an appointment at the fertility center and after tubal patency testing, uterine endoscopy and spermiogram, we immediately started with stimulation, ovulation triggering, insemination and IVF. 6 unsuccessful cycles were to pass in this way. It felt like our lives consisted only of injections, doctor’s appointments, hopes, fears and disappointments. A normal life was out of the question. Not to speak of the side effects that had me firmly in their grip.

After six months, it was clear to me that I didn’t want to go on like this. I didn’t have the energy for another treatment cycle, so we decided to stop the fertility treatment at this point. I didn’t care about the plan by now, I just wanted my normal life back. Of course, the desire to have children was still there and so, after a short break, I began to look intensively into the female cycle and alternative treatment methods. In various articles and studies I came across for the first time that the female cycle is much more individual than standardly assumed, what influence the thyroid gland has on the cycle, how a luteal weakness can affect a desire to have children and much more. Through my research, I also came across a great alternative practitioner who specializes in infertility. Together we discovered that I suffer from hypothyroidism and luteal insufficiency, but that doesn’t mean I don’t ovulate. Among other things, thyroid hormones and monk’s pepper caused me to still have a fairly long cycle, but at least a regular 40-day cycle. In addition, the alternative practitioner taught me about the negative influence of stress and the hormones it releases on reproduction and that regular relaxation exercises have a positive effect on hormone balance and thus the desire to have children. At that time I started to practice yoga intensively and to meditate regularly. The discussions with the alternative practitioner also gave me, above all, serenity and confidence in my body. I had a whole new confidence and deep inside me grew the certainty that our wish to have a child would come true and that it was only a matter of time.And that’s exactly what happened. After about half a year I was pregnant. Without hormones, without fertility treatment, completely naturally. 9 months later our son was born and exactly two years later our daughter followed, this time unplanned. Currently I am pregnant with our third child, which we are expecting this summer.

As nerve-wracking as this over two-year childbearing period was at the time, in retrospect I am grateful for it. I learned a lot about myself and my body. I also realized that many women feel the same way I do. Diagnoses are too often made too hastily and treatments are far too rarely individualized. When I learned about OvulaRing, I quickly realized that I wanted to help spread the word about this product. I would have liked to have such a tool back then and I am sure that OvulaRing would have saved me a long way.

We would be happy if you share your infertility stories with us, also to encourage other women. To do so, send us an email with your story to info@ovularing.com with the subject “My infertility story”. If you have any questions about my story, please don’t hesitate to contact me at this email address.

All my love,

Bettina from OvulaRing