My uterus has a what?

March. Wait, what? How in the world is it March already. We made it through the holiday season. We have made it to 2021.

What have we been up to? I know it’s been a long time. There are many times I say, “I should really put a new blog out there.”. I have so many blogs actually started, I just need to finish writing them. I promise my goal is to continue writing, and actually start writing more about our fertility journey.

The most common question I feel like Kory and I get is, “So… are you guys trying to get pregnant still?”

Yes, yes we are. We have been trying since the fall after Beau passed away. It has been 17 months of negative pregnancy tests. You know somehow in my head I had this thought that just maybe this time around would be easier. I mean my body went through a pregnancy, it’s just supposed to happen again, right? WRONG.

There are so many emotional feelings that come into my head when March hits. March 2019 was the month that we found out we were pregnant with Beau. Now I have those “memories” that pop up on my phone. All of the pictures and videos from being pregnant with him. The happiness, the excitement of telling our family and friends. It was truly a miracle. One that I never once took for granted, and never will.

Our 12 week ultrasound scan with Beau.

A quick little backstory of my fertility diagnosis. October 2015 I had an HSG test done. The radiology technician fills your uterus with fluid and checks to see that your uterus is healthy and that both fallopian tubes are open. They started the test and I watched on the screen as my uterus filled up, my right tube filled up and then it stopped. The technician tried to give one last push of fluid and it was so painful. We were told that my left fallopian tube was completely blocked and that my uterus was shaped like a heart. I was diagnosed with a bicornuate uterus, and I only have one working fallopian tube. We were also told by my reproductive endocrinologist that I had a arcuate uterus. That means that the uterus looks more like a normal shaped uterus, but it has a dip, or slight indentation at the top. We continued on with medication, IUI’s, surgery to remove my left fallopian tube, and our IVF journey. I will go into more detail about all of those in different blog posts.

Fast forward to 2019. I was pregnant with Beau. When we had our first ultrasound, I was told that the baby implanted on the right side of my uterus, in the right horn. In my head it made sense, that is the side with the working fallopian tube. There was still the questions from my obgyn and the high risk doctor of what shape my uterus really is. After Beau had passed away, I had my 6 week postpartum appointment. I asked my ob if we could do further tests to find out what shape my uterus really is. He agreed and I was set up to have an MRI done that October. They got the results and it turns out my uterus is neither bicornuate nor arcuate. I was diagnosed with a uterine septum/septate uterus. A uterine septum is a muscle/membrane or block of extra tissue that has grown inside of your uterus. It is a deformity of the uterus which happens during fetal development before birth. My ob suggested that I have that muscle removed as it can cause more fertility issues including miscarriage, and pre term labor. I have this septum at the top of my uterus. If an embryo tries to implant on that muscle it wont survive, there is not enough blood flow on a muscle. I was skeptical and scared to mess with my uterus. We put the thought of the surgery on the back burner and took some time to just pray that we would get pregnant again with out having it removed.

Here we are more then a year later and still are not pregnant. Something in our heads was telling us maybe its time to explore the option of having surgery to remove the septum. Will it make a difference? Will I get pregnant after it is removed? We honestly do not know that, but we are willing to try everything. I met with a different obgyn in January to talk about options. The problem is, most ob’s in this area do not do this surgery. I did some research, I joined a group on facebook with women who have uterine septums. I found a doctor in Green Bay at Bellin Health who specializes in uterine abnormalities and does the surgery. I got a referral put in for this doctor and we will be heading for a consult on Thursday March 18th. Praying that we can get some answers, praying that this is the right next step for us. Our journey has not been easy, but we do not give up.

Follow along with us as we continue on this journey to becoming parents again. Thank you for all the continued love, prayers and support.

All Our Love,

Haylee and Kory