“Do multiples run in your family?” ”Are they natural?” Or my favorite yet, “Was this planned?”
People are very interested in the origins of multiples. Perhaps they are thinking “gosh, can that just happen…3 babies, could that happen to me?” or perhaps they know someone going through fertility treatments who have been warned of the risk of multiples or perhaps they are just curious. I don’t really care why they ask this question and most of the time, I don’t mind answering.
Max and I’s pregnancy was definitely planned. The plan was to have one baby. Unfortunately, we were not able to do this without any help b/c I was diagnosed with “Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (HA)”, which meant there was a disconnect between my hormone levels and how my hypothalamus responded to them. In a nutshell, I did not ovulate. When we decided we wanted to get pregnant, we visited a reproductive endocrinologist (RE) who sat down and explained all our options. We would start with Clomid, a popular first step when treating any infertility issues. Clomid is simply a pill that provides hormones to help regulate a women’s cycle. A round of Clomid, is only 5 pills you take once a day. I know many people who used Clomid and became pregnant. I also know a ton of people who had no success on Clomid. You can get it from your OBGYN. No one I knew had multiples as a result of Clomid. Our RE explained the chances of twins was rare on Clomid, only 10 %. That was all that was mentioned.
The RE explained that the majority of women with my condition (HA), did not respond to Clomid and required hormone injections/artificial insemination to get pregnant. If that failed, we would resort to IVF. So after our first RE appointment Max and I digested all the information we received. We knew getting pregnant could be a very long/expensive/emotionally draining process. I began to look up info. on fertility treatments online and filled my prescription for the Clomid, which I would stay on for several cycles, increasing the dosage each month.
Wouldn’t you know after taking one of the lowest doses of Clomid for one cycle, which wasn’t even “suppose” to work, I became pregnant. No ultrasounds of my ovaries were done, no artificial insemination was used, no other hormones were given. I simply took 5 pills.
At my 6-week ultrasound, we were told I was pregnant with triplets. The doctor was completely astounded and said the chances of this happening were less than 1%. That was how we ended up with triplets.
Do multiples run in our family? There are a few cousins/distant relatives of mine who have twins. On Max’s side there are also a few sets of twins. So yes, I suppose we do have some multiples in our family.
We were not prepared for the news of a multiple pregnancy. We didn’t even really discuss the possibility of twins. So certainly, our “triplets” were not planned. How did we react to the news of triplets? That is for next week’s post.
Boo! We’re all coming at the same time mom, are you scared?
As for my news, for those I haven’t blabbed to already, I will do a post by the end of the week.
Did you hear my Grandma’s story about some great great grandma that apparently had quadruplets? They died at birth given that they were born many, many years ago. Nonetheless, that’s something I was glad I didn’t hear was in my genes while I was pregnant. That’ll be my luck - I’ll get pregnant for 1 more and end up with 4. Ha ha ha.
Hi! I just came across your blog while reading another’s and wanted to tell you that I had triplets via clomid too! 50mg, and it was only afterwards that I found out there’s a 0.5% chance of it happening! Like your doctor, mine only told me about the “rare” chance of twins.
So….does the end of the week mean by Saturday at midnight? Technically speaking a new week begins on the Sabbath.
You have me quite curious!
News ?!?!?! …..hmmmmmm