Discovering my 'new normal' after breast cancer diagnosis at 34.

14 September 2016

Big News

Following the cessation of my medication (the most recent one being Tamoxifen), we were given the go-ahead to start trying for a baby. I had my rubella booster in October 2014 and from December 2014 we were officially going about it.

We made the decision to go straight to the frozen embryos. We had missed the first window of opportunity in December 2014 because it was Christmas time, so I was ready for the first embryo transfer on 17 January 2015. Unfortunately, the January transfer was unsuccessful. We tried again on 27 February (unsuccessful) and again on 8 May (also, heartbreakingly, unsuccessful). We had started with 7 embryos and were now down to 2.

We both knew we were travelling overseas in July (my partner) and August/September (me), so were trying to decide whether to do the last one in June/July or to wait until I was back from my travels. We definitely weren't relaxed nor had decided to take a break from continuing to try the IVF.

On 25 June, it had been 35 days since my last period. This was not unusual following the hormonal treatment, as after returning, my cycles had become long for me (30 - 34 days) with short and rather painful periods. However, as the 37th day passed, I decided to do a home pregnancy test... and it was positive! Somehow, after everything, I had conceived naturally. Coincidentally, we had a appointment with our fertility specialist 3 days later which had originally been to discuss what our plans were going to be moving forward. He was as surprised and delighted as we were with our news and sent me for a blood test to confirm. I got my results the following day confirming that I was indeed 6 weeks' pregnant (or more accurately, it has been 6 weeks since day 1 of my last menstrual period).

Our baby girl was born on 12 February 2016.