Countless injections, ultrasounds, and pills, 7 IUI’s, 3 HSG’s, a sonohysterogram, and 3 surgeries all make for 4.5 years of infertility with little answers until we found NaPro, the Creighton Model and Kristin.        

Our journey started the day we got married in May of 2015. We always talked about having a family, a BIG family. I wanted to be done having kids by the time I was 30; I wanted to be that young mom when my kids graduated from high school.

At first we thought, no pressure, this is going to happen, we will just let it happen when it happens.  A couple months went by, I thought I was pregnant as I was a week and a half late. I went to the store got all my supplies to make my husband a surprise to tell him we’re pregnant (it’s still hiding for that positive someday)and pregnancy tests! Pregnancy tests said “not pregnant,” but false negatives happen all the time and I was super late compared to normal. Two hours later, my period came. Okay, well then next month is our month.

Part 2 (If you didn’t catch Part 1 you can read it here)

John Paul’s birth was a pretty traumatic experience for us. (His birth story could be its own post.) I suffered with PTSD after his birth and we made some major life changes (moved to a new state, new job, purchased our first home etc). For those reasons and many more we decided to use the Creighton Model to avoid pregnancy.

I am not going to sugarcoat it, charting postpartum is difficult! Even as a Practitioner myself, I needed another set of eyes on my chart just to make sure. When you’re not back into cycles and hormones are going crazy plus a lack of sleep, it makes charting very challenging. (This is why I always recommend seeing your Practitioner again during the postpartum phase!)

When I was 9 years old, I was diagnosed with leukemia. After many rounds of chemotherapy, I received a successful bone marrow transplant from my brother and have been cancer free since. At age 14, I did not start a period yet. My endocrinologist diagnosed me with premature ovarian failure, secondary to chemotherapy, and prescribed me synthetic birth control as a hormone replacement therapy. The first few months of starting birth control were awful. I had painful cramping, very heavy flow, and bleeding for more than two weeks at a time. When I went back to the doctor a few months later, she prescribed me a different birth control pill- the one I remained on for the next 13 years. During these 13 years, I had yearly check-ups with my endocrinologist that only consisted of “Are you happy with the pill you’re on? Okay good, we’ll see you in another year.” I returned to my appointments every year and stayed on the pill because I was told this was my only option for supplying my body with the hormones it needed.

(Part 1)

When I was 13 years old I was put on the birth control pill for extremely heavy periods. The doctor told me that because my mom had endometriosis I probably did too, so the pill would be my only way to have kids in the future. (I’ve learned how incredibly false that statement is since then.) I didn’t really have an issue being on the pill and had no crazy side effects. I knew that once I got married I would have a moral dilemma, since the pill can cause an early abortion. Because of that, I was always open to what other options were out there.

Although I did not start using the Creighton Model until 2017, my story began in 2010 when I was in college. My primary care doctor prescribed me birth control pills because I was having significantly painful periods that would incapacitate me at times. When I started using the pill, I thought it was great because I had no symptoms during my periods. However about 3 months into taking the pill, I started to get migraines again, which I had not experienced since high school. I went back to the doctor, who just prescribed me a birth control pill with slightly different amounts of estrogen in it. This cycle of switching to a different brand of pill continued for almost 2 years because my migraines were getting worse. I finally went to a different doctor to get a second opinion. She told me that I immediately needed to stop taking the estrogen pill because I was at a significantly increased risk of stroke being on the pill with migraines that had visual auras. Of course I was in a panic and asked the doctor what my other options were. She suggested a progesterone based pill or an IUD, never anything else. I tried the progesterone pill, but would have my period for 21 days straight. I stopped that quickly and decided that the IUD was a better option, especially since I was getting married within a few months.