Endometriosis Awareness – My Story Part 1

By: Heidi Andsager, Vice-President of Conceive Nebraska

March is Endometriosis Awareness Month. One in ten women suffer from endometriosis. I am one of those women.

I knew something wasn’t normal when I was about 14. The pain that accompanied my monthly cycle was unbearable. When I was 16 I finally went to a gynecologist. I had never heard of endometriosis, but she said birth control would help my pain… Perfect! After that, all was good.

Jump forward 6 years. It was October 2009 and I was engaged to my high school sweetheart, John. I knew I wanted children right away, so I went off birth control in preparation of our wedding. That’s when I realized once again that something wasn’t right. My pain was worse than ever. I would miss work and school because of the pain, but I dealt with it. I didn’t want to start hormone treatment again because I wanted babies.  

We got married in May. It was finally time to start a family… this was going to be the fun part, right?! Months went by and NOTHING. It was ovulation tests, endless fertility supplements, pre-seed, propping my legs in the air, and countless negative pregnancy tests. I just couldn’t understand why this was happening to me. I did everything “right”. I graduated from college, bought a house, and got married. We were ready. I finally went back to my doctor to figure out my options. This is when my doctor suggested surgery. As expected, she found endometriosis and removed it.

Three more months went by after the procedure and still no positive test. My doctor suggested Clomid. It was just 5 little pills. Those 5 little pills made me feel CRAZY, but they worked. I ovulated and got pregnant my first month on them. I’ll never forget the night when I saw that very first positive test. I had just gotten home from work. I realized it was almost 11 pm and aunt flow hadn’t shown up yet. That was unusual because AF was always very punctual. I ran right upstairs to take a test. I was nervous to even look. I just couldn’t take seeing another negative. I glanced over at the test I had just taken. It had 2 very solid pink lines. I started screaming. My husband ran up the stairs, worried because I was screaming. We hugged and were both shaking with excitement… it was finally happening!

I would later find out I was carrying our first baby boy. Liam was born on March 2, 2012. It was fitting that he was born in March… Endometriosis Awareness Month.  Our journey to conceive our second was much longer, harder, emotional, and expensive… But I’ll save that story for another day.