Wednesday, April 11, 2007

First TTC appointment down

I had my doctor's appointment this afternoon with my GP, Dr. C. I almost chickened out, thinking that I was kind of overreacting given that it's only been 3 months since no-pillness and that I was either going to get the "why do these hypocondriacs keep bothering me" tone or she was going to push some chemical form of period kick-start and send me on my way. Gold star, Dr. C., for doing neither. I played dumb a bit, saying I was there because I hadn't had a period for 3 months and was wondering if that was something to be concerned about. She said that I should have had a period by now but that it wasn't anything to be too worked up about. She asked me how my cycles were before the pill but I really can't remember. I am 99.9% sure that they weren't this irregular because I would have FREAKED OUT as a teenager if I had to wait 3 months for a period, but I can't remember any better details. Dr. C even mentioned the dreaded "post-pill amenorrhea" potential (too bad self-diagnosis in this instance is nothing to be proud of).

In the end she did a pregnancy test on me just to make sure (negative, of course - good thing because I had sushi on Monday without really thinking about it and it was making me slightly nervous) and sent me for some bloodwork. I can't remember all of the things they were checking for (such a newbie!), but I know they are checking for:
1) some follicle stimulation hormone to make sure the ovaries are working a-ok
2) some lutein hormone that makes sure my uterine lining is the cushy home it should be
3) prolactin levels. Apparently, some people have unexplained increased levels of prolactin in their system, which is the hormone that you produce when lactating. If these levels are too high, your body thinks you're breastfeeding and will prevent you from ovulating. Not helpful until after the baby comes, unfortunately.

So the blood's been drawn and Dr. C will call me if anything weird shows up on the bloodwork but I'm to come back if still no period in a month for a 7-day dose of progesterone to get things started. I haven't decided yet what I'll do at that point but there's time. I'd like to see what the blood results are first. Ah, Medicare. And I have a naturopath appointment the first week of May, too, so I'll see what he says about all this.

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