Doing what PhD's do: Researching shit

As noted earlier, I’m a pretty logical person. I have a PhD, and I know my way around a good journal article. I can differentiate between a well run study and the crap that is produced by people with vested interests. Further, I genuinely enjoy reading research articles (horrifying confession, I know!). Thus, it was a no-brainer for me to start doing reading on the topic of repeat pregnancy loss. I have full access to MedLine through my job, so I did quite a bit of digging. I found many good peer-reviewed research studies on related topics. As a result, I decided to make several changes: I started taking 1000 mg of DHA, 200 mg of Ubiquinol, and 3mg of Melatonin each day. That was in addition to my normal prenatal.

As always, I used opks again in late March and early April, and although I had some mid-cycle spotting around CD12, I the opks started to darken at CD16. We had good timing again. I told myself that no one gets pregnant three cycles in a row. Normal chances are around 25% per cycle. I told myself not to get my hopes up, and to remember that an April pregnancy would mean a December birth, which would be suboptimal here in the frozen tundra of MN.

I told myself a lot of things, but I guess it didn’t matter because my period didn’t show up on day 10. Or 11, or 12. A faint line DID show up on day 11, and it stayed faint on day 12, so I went in for hcg and progesterone. Values – hcg: 14, progesterone: 14. Verdict, return in two days for repeat testing. Meanwhile the home tests are staying uber-light, so I can already tell what the call will be when it comes: “I’m sorry. . . “

If nothing else, at least I’m consistent, right?