Sherry’s Story

My experience of fertility complications goes back to being diagnosed with endometriosis and a large cyst at 16, the following year that cyst ruptured, and there it all began.

At 18 I had my first child, then four miscarriages, a diagnosis of PCOS then a further 18 months on BV Lomid, 6 months on Tamoxifen (this is back before guidelines were in place) followed by a surgery for a pelvic cavity covered in adhesions and misplaced anatomy.

In the same month as the surgery I was fortunate enough to get pregnant with my second child. I had another few miscarriages and more Clomid to get my third, and my fourth came as a surprise. I’ve more recently had another 5 rounds of own egg IVF and a donor egg cycle, three of these taking place during covid restrictions. I didn’t qualify for treatment on the NHS, and as many have probably seen or experienced, there is little treatment options to maintain your fertility with endometriosis and PCOS, so it has all been self funded.

To navigate the world of fertility given the implied costs you really have to look at what is of value and where there is evidence of good practice with positive outcomes. Unfortunately, everything I read shown that the best value for me would be to cycle abroad.

One of the reasons for my fertility issues may have been that I had undiagnosed adenomyosis. I’d bleed profusely during my cycle and had done for years, several NHS ultrasounds just shown what was reported as a bulky uterus and the view of at least one ovary was always obstructed.

I was never given a diagnosis, told the size, or actually what bulky meant.

During the early stages of IVF I went for a private ultrasound where I was told the bulky uterus was actually adenomyosis with a myometrium measurement of 32mm and a uterus length of 20cm. In terms of adenomyosis, this is a significant size.

There is very little information out there in relation to adenomyosis as the clarification diagnosis can only be made following a hysterectomy. This leaves women like myself in a constant search for information that will help them mitigate their pain management, their fertility care, pregnancy care and their other health complications that appear as a result of things like bleeding such as anaemia. Women are regularly brushed off with hormonal treatment or told they can’t be treated as they’re also trying to navigate the fields of trying to conceive.