It’s Not Normal For Me

The last few weeks have been very rough.  I have had lots of doctor’s appointments and while I feel that they are well intentioned, my doctors often do not actually take the time to listen to me and figure out what is going on.  Sometimes I feel like I get better support and direction from other people dealing with the same issues so I figured I would share my situation.

A few weeks ago I developed an extremely bad sinus infection.  I have had them before but not like that.  I went to my GP for antibiotics which I got. She also thought I may have some type of secondary infection (I do not know why) so they took some blood.  Coincidently, I was scheduled to have my annual labs the next week.  I had not eaten anything that day so they went ahead and drew extra blood to conduct those tests.  Every year I get a comprehensive screening which includes but is not limited to the following: TSH and T4 FREE (thyroid levels and functioning), full lipid panel, comprehensive metabolic panel (lots of stuff), and eGFR (kidneys).  It turns out I did not have any type of secondary infection and all my labs were perfect.  I asked my GP for a prescription for Diflucan just in case my antibiotic led to a yeast infection (sorry TMI).  That day we also decided I would wean myself off Zoloft since I finally feel that I am at a place to manage my anxiety without medication.

A week goes by and things are great.  AF is scheduled for July 1st but does not come.  My cycles are typically regular.  They may vary by 1 to 3 days but rarely more.  A few day after I unfortunately felt the need to take the Diflucan.  It did not help.  Later, I took an OTC treatment which also did not work.  I have gotten an infection before but it responded quickly to treatment.

On July 8, AF still had not come so I took a HPT (Clearblue).  It is negative.  It was actually the only HPT I have ever taken because I had previously decided to never test until a week had gone by and that had never happened before.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I scheduled an appointment with my GP to try to figure out what is going on.  I asked her about my infection and all she said is that sometimes you have to treat them a few times before they get better.  She gave me more Diflucan but if it did not work before, I am not sure why it would work now.  I also have maintained a good diet and drink lots of plain water (that is actually all I drink) so I am pretty sure that it is not the result of a bad diet (sometimes eating extra sugars or foods with yeast can make them worse).  On top of the medications, I had been also taking probiotics and eating lots of plain yogurt.

My GP gave me a HCG urine test which came back negative.  My test for an infection came back positive as expected. At least I know for sure that is what it is. I asked her what could cause a late or possibly missed period and she rattled off a bunch of situations that do not apply to me.  My hormones are not off as indicated my comprehensive labs I took two weeks ago.  I have not had any additional types of stress.  It cannot be from going off Zoloft because I started that over a week after I would have ovulated.  I did gain a little weight from my IUI in June but it did not make me overweight and I am working on slowly getting it back off in a healthy way.  I do exercise but it is not excessive and I alternate cardio with other things like Yoga and Pilates.  I still have no answers.  I probably should have asked more questions but my goal was to get out of there without crying which I barely did.

I am really upset because we had finally made a commitment to start the IVF process in August.  It took me a long time to get to that point of commitment but I am ready.  I called my RE and told her what is going on.  She said that women who struggle with infertility can often have issues with being late and skipping cycles.  That may be true but it is not normal for me!  I have been charting my cycles for over four years so I know what is and is not normal.  She wants me to start a medication that will induce a period but does want me to take a blood test for pregnancy first (that did not happen with my GP).  At this point right now, I have accepted I am not pregnant and I am ok with that.  I just do not understand what is going on.  Also, since I am all of a sudden having problems, does this mean I should not start IVF in August?  If all of this indicates a problem that could impact the chance of IVF working, I would like to address it and fix it.  To do that, I need to know what is going on.  I hate this.