Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin

For as long as I can remember I've always had more hair on my body than I care to admit. My arms were a little hairy after hitting puberty and I started to get peach fuzz on my stomach. My hairy arms never seemed to bother me but my happy trail was something different. That was a little too furry for my liking. So what does a self-conscious teenager do to remedy the situation? She shaves it! I remember when I first started shaving my stomach my sister laughed at me and said that it would only get worse. I didn't believe her but boy was she right. That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever done. Of course, that was all before I found out that I had PCOS.

I'm sure there are other PCOSer's who can relate to my current situation. Now that I've gotten older I feel like I've turned into the She-Man. My hairy problem has gotten exponentially worse over the past 5 years. I've started developing little stray hairs on my chest, hairs under my chin and the sides of my face. Not little blond hairs that nobody notices, dark thick hairs like the ones you see on the chins of old women with missing teeth and greasy hair. I find myself in front of a mirror plucking these tiny Christmas trees at least twice a week. I started using Nair on my arms about twice a year, although it sometimes eats through my skin and leaves tiny scabs. Ack! Needless to say, this is getting old. I tried laser hair removal once, I got it free as a first-time visitor. It worked for about 6 weeks which is customary, but visits normally cost about $100-200 depending on how many areas you need to have done (and I need a lot). You go for 6-8 treatments and the hair supposedly stays gone for about 2 years. Then it's time to go back again. It seems like a waste of money to spend $1500 to remove hair for only 2 years but I'm seriously considering it. I'm tired of having to bring my tweezers on every vacation I go to. I'm tired of the pain of plucking and the annoyance of occasional ingrown hairs. I'm tired of feeling unfeminine. I want to feel like a real woman, not self-conscious that people might see my hairy chin and think I should apply for a job as the Bearded Lady. Hirsutism sucks, no matter how bad you have it.  I've heard there are medications available that can prevent you from morphing into a werewolf but it can't be taken while you are trying to get pregnant. So no meds for now. I think I might just bite the bullet and get the laser hair treatments. I'll rationalize the expenditure by saying it improves my self-esteem and reduces my stress. And hopefully there will come a day when I'm not standing in the bathroom next to my husband checking my own 5 o'clock shadow.

A little bit about me

This is my first blogging attempt ever so I'm curious to see how my blog will evolve as I get better at all this. The infertility world uses quite a lot of abbreviations so I will spell them out the first time I use them.

A little bit about me: My name is Christa and my husband's name is Brandon. We currently live in Silverdale, WA where Brandon is stationed in the Navy. We have two pets, a cat named Jasmine and a dog named Oso.

I have been trying to conceive (TTC) with my current husband since our marriage in October 2007. I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) in 2002 with my ex husband and we immediately started fertility treatments. I became pregnant but miscarried at 6 weeks. After that the treatments simply stopped working. We tried the fertility drugs off and on over the period of our marriage and even briefly became foster parents before we split up.

Fast forward to my current marriage. So far I have taken 3 months of fertility medications (Clomid). One cycle worked but we did not get pregnant. A sperm analysis (SA) showed that Brandon had a very low sperm count. Our local naval hospital said there was nothing more they could do and referred us to a Military Treatment Facility (MTF) an hour away (Madigan Army Medical Center). The doctor at Madigan told me that the only recommended route for us would be in-vitro fertilization (IVF). This normally costs $12-14K in the civilian world but through the military we can do it at a discounted price of about $8K. We were devastated. We had hoped to do the less expensive intrauterine insemination (IUI) treatment. This is where they place a catheter inside the uterus and inject the sperm directly into the uterus (also known as the "turkey baster" method). The doctor said we could try some IUI treatments but he didn't recommend it and the chances of success were minimal. Still, I wanted to give it a try so the doctor gave us the medications to get my cycle going.

Fast forward to today. I am currently on cycle day (cd) 11. I had an ultrasound (u/s) yesterday which showed 2 promising follicles, one at 12mm on my right and one at 10mm on my left. A mature follicle is at least 18mm and ovulation can be triggered naturally or with a hormone injection. Since this is a holiday weekend I cannot have my next u/s until Tuesday which would be cd15 for me. The follicles normally grow 1-3mm a day so I hope I do not ovulate over the weekend. If so, I will go to Seattle Reproductive Medicine (SRM) for my IUI treatment. That is the fertility clinic that Madigan contracts with and where I will have all procedures done. So the next few days will be a waiting game for me. I am hopeful about this IUI but not overly optimistic. We're still saving up for IVF.