After over a year of trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant, we started the blood work. The tests showed that my thyroid and blood sugar levels were high. My iron levels were low. My cycles were lasting more than 60 days. Every second we waited was heavy with longing for our baby. Although I'd tried to hide it, I was exhausted, anxious, and heartbroken as each month passed by. My doctor didn’t know what the problem was, and referred me to an infertility specialist. It took months to do the  blood work, ovarian ultrasounds, and fallopian tube checks necessary to find out why we weren't getting pregnant. 

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Finally, in February of 2020 I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). The infertility doctor told me I had likely gone undiagnosed for many years because I was thin and weight gain is one of the most common symptoms. He then told me that even though I was young and overall healthy, I would not get pregnant without the use of fertility treatments. I trusted that my doctor knew best and we agreed I would start Letrozole (an ovulation-inducing hormone treatment) at the beginning of my next cycle.

 

I returned home from that appointment and immediately began researching PCOS treatment. I came across hundreds of stories of women who managed PCOS symptoms through diet and lifestyle changes. Many of them had gotten pregnant after years of struggling to conceive by avoiding foods high in sugar and carbohydrates, possible inflammatory foods like dairy and gluten, and instead focused on eating tons of fruits, veggies, healthy proteins, fats, and complex carbohydrates...Pretty much the opposite of the way I was used to eating, but I was desperate. And so even though I had no clue how I was going to do it, I decided to completely rebuild my diet and lifestyle.

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The first week without sugar was painful. I was irritated, I had headaches, I had cravings. The second week was slightly less bad, but I still felt cranky and wanted chocolate more than anything. But just 10 days after cutting out sugar, something amazing happened. For years I’d had eczema around my eyes, which was mostly manageable but sometimes would swell up, leaving my skin puffy and red. 10 days after cutting down on sugar, I woke up to find the skin around my eyes completely smooth. I couldn’t believe it! I felt like this was a sign my body was responding well to the diet and motivated me to keep going. As the days went by, I felt the inflammation in my body go down. I noticed my anxiety was much lower than normal. I stopped feeling panic from being stuck in traffic and no longer had heart palpitations when getting into bed at the end of the day. After years of needing melatonin and sleep meds every night, I was falling asleep without a single pill. Three weeks after starting this lifestyle, something even crazier happened. I got my period, which I wasn’t expecting for at least another month given how long my cycles were at that point. I had started to gather a tiny bit of hope that I could have one of these crazy miracle stories that are too good to be true. And I said let’s just wait one more month before starting the treatments.