So I tried off and on for 10 years to get pregnant with endometriosis. Probably 5 years combined. Had I been trying for all 10 years combined, would I have gotten pregnant sooner? I don't know.
Endometriosis I think is the number one cause of infertility. I know that when a woman is experiencing infertility and the doctors can find no other reason they look for endometriosis. A lot of the problem is inflammation. Another problem is the woman's immune system. I think 30% of women with endometriosis have immune issues preventing implantation of a baby or the immune systems attacks an implanting babies root system and prevents the pregnancy from developing beyond 12 weeks. What happens is your immune System knows that the endometriosis implants are out of place, and so what your immune system does is it's constantly trying to heal it, like it would a cut. So your immune system is in overdrive and tries kill anything that enters your body. The implants also release a toxic fluid that is harmful to eggs and sperm, so even if the egg and sperm meet, the embryo is harmed by these toxic fluids. If the embryo is not harmed by the toxic fluids, your natural killer cells and cytokines prevents implantation. Women with these issues also can have clotting disorders and thyroid problems.
It's really hard for me to explain, but what I had to do is see a doctor called a reproductive immunologist. Regular OBGYNs or reproductive endocrinologists aren't really that educated on this because not every doctor can be an expert in all fields of medicine.
In order to get pregnant I had to suppress my immune system with steroids, IVIg and then I had to take lovenox which is a blood thinner, and then I had to do IVF to surpass the toxic fluids that are excreted by the endo implants.
Not every woman with endo will need to do this. I think only 30% of women with endo have these problems. There are women who have one or two pregnancies and then their immune system flares. As soon as I followed the reproductive immunologists protocol exactly I got pregnant. But some women with endo get pregnant without any medical intervention or they get pregnant with just IVF or iui.
There are tests that can be done to see if you do fall in the same category as myself. But they need to be done by the proper doctor. If you are in Wisconsin there is a doctor in Chicago at Rosalind and franklin university that takes most insurance. Since you seem to have two kids already I doubt you will need to do this, but you asked about my journey to conceive and this is what I had to do. Best of luck to you
