4 years, 4 chemicals around 5 weeks
I promised myself if we ever were successful I'd give an overview of our journey because I don't know how many nights I was up searching 'recurrent chemicals all around 5 weeks' or the result of any number of blood tests + 'infertility'.
Tldr: APS, family history of autoimmune diseases, progesterone, heparin, aspirin, hydroxychloroquine. UK-based.
My husband and I started trying back in 2022 when I had my iud taken out. We were just married and excited to try. I was 30 and my husband 38.
After 10 months of negative tests, routinely doing LH testing, following the old 'sperm meets egg' routine, we got worried and went private for testing. Everything came back normal. My AMH was i think 17nmol? or something pretty lower end of the middle range, nothing to worry about. Husband's sperm was good.
I got pregnant that month. Then was quickly not pregnant and my period arrived.
Another 6 months and we got pregnant again. Same thing happened. Around the 5 week mark, I got my period. Like the last time, we were watching the line progress for maybe 3 days and then begin to fade.
I was getting a bit panicked. Called my gp who was honestly, horrible. I told her about my family's history of autoimmune diseases (immediate family has chrohns, myasthenia gravis, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis - thats my mum, dad and brother) she told me there was nothing wrong because blood tests did not show I had active inflammation.
After probably another 6 months, I was probably at my lowest. It felt pretty hopeless and like no one was helping or bothered. We tried the GP one more time and fortunately I got a different doctor to talk to and she was amazing. Listened to our history, believed that we should have recurrent miscarriage testing despite only having 2 chemicals rather than 3.
A few months after that we got the results. All normal except for APS IgM anticardiolipin antibodies. We had to wait 12 weeks before having a second test. In that time I had a third chemical.
Once I was properly diagnosed with APS, our new doctor at the recurrent miscarriage unit of the hospital gave us a plan for what would happen if I got pregnant again: aspirin, heparin and progesterone. I also joined a clinical trial (HYPATIA) where I was either put on a placebo or hydroxychloroquine, and I would be on that a year, or longer if I got pregnant.
So, we waited 10 months, by this point it had probably been maybe 3.2 years of trying. The wait was driving us mad, but with the clinical trial we had regular access to our doctor.
At this point, we decided to go for IVF. We did not qualify for IVF on the NHS, which was just... a bitch slap. We had been pregnant in the last 2 years, so no chance for us, even though every doctor we talked to seemed uncertain if chemicals 'counted'. Our doctor i think took pity on us a little and did a lot of the tests we needed before starting IVF for free.
We did one round, got four mature fertilised embryos, 3 were euploid (PGTA tested). Did our first FET this December, medicated. Had heparin, aspirin and progesterone. Another chemical. Second FET - natural - 2 months later. This one did nothing, no implantation.
By this point, we were really having a think about what would happen if this didn't work. We had paid for another 2 cycles, but at the 3 year mark, I was actually starting to make peace with not ever having a baby. We talked to our recurrent miscarriage doctor and our IVF doctor, who actually worked closely with our other doctor, to see what we could do. We decided to try EMMA/ALICE testing and for my husband to have DNA fragmentation testing.
As the clinical trial had ended, my doctor also said why not try hydroxychloroquine, just in case I was previously on the placebo.
Two weeks later, I was pregnant again. I already had heparin and progesterone at home so immediately started taking that. This was the first time we saw the line actually get dark. I'm 13 weeks now and everything is going great!
Was it the hydroxychloroquine? No idea, it could have just been luck, but considering my family history of autoimmune diseases, I wouldn't be surprised if there was something autoimmune causing the issue and impacting implantation, whether that was APS or something else.