Like many women, Lisa started using birth control as a teenager to cope with uncomfortable and irregular periods. While this did mask her symptoms and made her cycle appear regular, later in her teen years, she was told she had PCOS.
Fast forward almost a decade to 2018, and Lisa and her husband were ready to start trying for a family. Knowing her background, Lisa immediately went to go have her PCOS diagnosis confirmed. As a nurse, she knew this would make getting pregnant more challenging, and was disappointed when multiple cysts on her ovaries confirmed she had PCOS.
After trying naturally without any type of formal cycle tracking for months, Lisa decided to try OvuSense. Using the device, she saw just how long her cycles were – over five months, she only had three menstrual cycles! But three cycles with OvuSense was all it took, and Lisa found out she was pregnant in August 2019.
Read more about her experience below, and how OvuSense gave her the right information about her cycle – even with PCOS – to help her reach motherhood.
Lisa’s Experience – in her own words:
Hello, my name is Lisa and I am here to share with you our trying to conceive journey and my experience using OvuSense.
A bit of a background story … At 14 years old, my menstrual cycles were very erratic. I had very long and irregular cycles and was told that it was normal when you first start your period so they put me on the birth control pill. That masked the problem by giving me regular cycles and I never thought about it until I started having an interest in the subject and read a lot more about it, I think I was around 17 years old. It was then that it crossed my mind that my very irregular and long cycles were not normal as I was told and that there could be something behind it. I asked to have it checked, and it was then when I was told I had PCOS – although this was never an official diagnosis as it was only based on my ultrasound images. I was young and so I put that subject at the back of my mind and it stayed there until very recently.
Fast forward to 2018, my husband and I decided to start trying for a baby after our wedding in July that same year. I stopped the birth control pill that I had been taking for around 12 years in August 2018 and that was when our journey to conceive commenced. Because I knew of my possible PCOS diagnosis, I went to see my doctor to get checked again as I wanted to start trying for a baby. He asked for another ultrasound that showed exactly the same as when I was 17 years old: multiple cysts in my ovaries that “matched a PCOS diagnosis.” I left the room and I remember going to the toilet to have a good cry. With my background in nursing, I knew what all of this could mean and I was not ready to face that reality.
“Month after month was a disappointment”
Immediately after that, we started trying without tracking my cycle or anything. We just decided to try our luck and see how it goes. Month after month was a disappointment – my cycle was so long that I did multiple pregnancy tests always hoping that I was pregnant. As anyone that is trying for a baby knows, you get a little bit paranoid over it so I read A LOT about how to increase my chances of getting pregnant and what could I do.
I started by using ovulation strips and that was a waste of money, I never had a static smiley face and that was as bad as a negative pregnancy test. Then I got into tracking my cycle using a normal body basal thermometer but due to my work schedule and how strict you have to be with it, it didn’t really work for me – that was when I heard about OvuSense. I didn’t think twice and I bought it. When I got OvuSense, I was already trying for 7 months with no luck at all.
Finding hope with OvuSense
I started using OvuSense on the 3rd of March 2019 and on the 13th of August 2019 I had my first ever positive pregnancy test. And although it was after a total of 5 months and that seems like a lot, it was only three menstrual cycles as my periods were still very long! OvuSense is easy to use, very straightforward and syncs to your phone. It never caused me any discomfort and it was also very easy to keep clean.
Without OvuSense, it could’ve possibly taken me a lot longer to get pregnant. By using this little magic sensor I was able to see that I was indeed ovulating and so there was hope in getting pregnant. So much so that I am now mum to a beautiful 3 month old little boy that I love endlessly.
I recommend OvuSense to anyone that is trying for a baby and wants to make sure they’re hitting their ovulation window. It is also great support to show to your doctor – I remember going to see my midwife and she was really surprised that I got pregnant so quickly considering I had PCOS (her words). When I talked to her about OvuSense, she was really impressed and with no doubt it was a huge help for us and I will definitely be using it again when we want another baby!
Sending lots of baby dust to you all,
Lisa.