My Fertility Journey: An Infertility Journey And What I Wish I Knew Sooner
I was in my early twenties when I was diagnosed by my GYN with premature ovarian failure (sometimes called diminished ovarian reserve, or DOR). I was told that if I ever wanted to have children of my own, I would need to do in vitro fertilization, aka IVF.
At the same time, I had just parted ways with my long-term boyfriend, the man I thought I would marry and build a family with. So when the news of infertility came, it felt like a double loss.
At 23, my world shattered.
So I did what most women do: I listened to my GYN and scheduled an appointment with a reproductive endocrinologist.
I want to be clear here, I loved and trusted my GYN. I had dealt with a long list of gynecological issues for years: random pelvic pain, irregular periods and spotting, persistent cysts, and more. She always did her best to investigate symptoms and help me find real solutions. The problem wasn’t her care, it was that getting to the root cause of my diagnosis was outside the scope of her training (more on that later).
With the reproductive endocrinologist, I went through another workup: bloodwork, ultrasounds, scans. I even underwent an endometrial biopsy to rule out endometriosis.
The results:
AMH: 0.014
LH: 5.2
FSH: 30.7
Progesterone: <0.5
Ultrasound: clear and structurally normal
No blocked tubes
No mature or visible follicles
His conclusion was the same as my GYN’s. He recommended cycling Provera to try to induce a period and casually mentioned hormone replacement therapy “if I wanted to” because with an AMH that low, it wouldn’t change much. My odds of a future baby were slim to none.
At 23, I felt overwhelmed trying to process all of this on my own and unsettled by how many unanswered questions remained.
No one could tell me why any of it was happening.
And deep down, my gut was screaming.
Don’t go on Provera.
Don’t start hormone replacement.
Don’t do another procedure.
Instead: let your body heal.
That instinct, that something deeper was going on, was just the beginning of everything that came next.
What Traditional Medicine Left Out
Here’s what traditional medicine left out: the body is connected.
Your sex hormones don’t operate in silos, and they definitely don’t just bottom out for no reason. Your gut health, toxin exposure and burden, stress levels, lifestyle, thyroid function, blood sugar regulation… all of it impacts your hormones and fertility.
That realization changed everything.
I started looking at my body differently. Instead of viewing each system as separate, I began thinking of the body like a car.
A car can’t run on fumes, it needs fuel. In the same way, your body needs nutrients to function. But fuel alone isn’t enough. A car also needs a functioning engine, transmission, drivetrain, electrical system, steering, suspension, wheels, and tires, just to name the basics.
When a car stops working or the check engine light turns on, a technician doesn’t just replace one random part. They run a full diagnostic to figure out what isn’t working and why.
So why wouldn’t we do the same with our bodies?
Your sex hormones depend on adequate nutrients, a healthy gut, effective detoxification, regulated stress, balanced blood sugar, quality sleep, and more to function optimally.
As my fertility journey continued, I started asking better questions, searching for deeper answers, and running more comprehensive tests, many of them outside the traditional scope of fertility clinics, OBs, and reproductive endocrinologists.
Unexplained Infertility
I carried that perspective with me for years, and still do, even as my body began to change.
Fast forward to 2020. I was 27 and four years had passed since my first and last appointment with my original reproductive endocrinologist. COVID hit, and life changed.
Between my initial diagnosis and 2020, I had done a lot of work on my diet, gut health, stress levels, and lifestyle. My hormone levels improved, and physically, I felt so much better. But I still wasn’t getting a regular period, and I knew I wasn’t ovulating.
So I went to a well-rounded fertility clinic in Boston.
After a full workup, and I mean full, including genetic testing, cycle day 3 and day 19 bloodwork, an HSG, SIS, and multiple ultrasounds, here’s what they found:
Genetic testing: completely clean
Improved, but still low AMH
In range FSH and LH
In range progesterone
No blocked tubes, polyps or fibroids
Minimal uterine scar tissue from prior surgery (a cyst removal in 2015)
Ultrasounds structurally normal
Visible follicles
Their diagnosis?
Unexplained infertility.
No identified cause for the inability to conceive. Just: this is the way it is.
While I wasn’t surprised by their findings, what they said next is what truly blew my mind.
I wasn’t a candidate for egg preservation or IVF because of my hormone levels. Instead, they suggested more Provera and estrogen and told me to come back in a year.
“Give your body more time.”
Excuse me? More time for what?
More time to take medications you don’t know will help, because you don’t know why my hormones are low?
For clarity, I never took provera, estrogen or any other hormone medications.
I went to two other well-known fertility clinics after that and received essentially the same response.
And listen, I can appreciate that they didn’t try to push aggressive treatment. I truly believe that’s because I asked a lot of questions and came prepared with my own thoughts and ideas. But at the same time, they didn’t offer a solution.
No real answers.
That was the moment I stopped asking what treatment I needed and started asking what my body was asking for.
And that direction changed the trajectory of my life.
The Real Solution: Functional Medicine
At that point, I did what I could with the knowledge I had and realized I needed help.
A word of encouragement here: asking for help is one of the bravest things you can do. I know it’s hard. I know it can be difficult to trust. But please, ask for help.
I decided to invest in a functional medicine practitioner, not because I was looking for a miracle, but because I was finally ready for real answers and after the research I had done, I knew it was what I needed.
Before we ran a single test, she took my entire health history. Then she started asking questions no doctor had ever asked me before.
Questions about my digestion.
My stress levels.
My exercise routine.
What I did for fun.
Whether I actually enjoyed my job.
If my life felt fulfilling.
My childhood and early adulthood.
The places I had lived.
It was the first time anyone looked at my fertility through the lens of my whole life, not just my ovaries.
From there, we ran a GI-MAP right away and followed it with the most comprehensive blood work I had ever had done. What we found finally gave context to everything I had been experiencing for years:
H. pylori
SIBO
Systemic candida
Low immune system function
Low iron
Anemia (not iron-deficiency related)
Sluggish thyroid
Congested liver
Chronic dehydration
For the first time, my diagnosis made sense.
We went to work.
Within just a few months of addressing the actual root causes, everything started to shift. My cycle returned. I was ovulating monthly. My digestion worked better than I could ever remember. I had more energy, slept more soundly, felt less inflamed and puffy, and noticed improvements in my body composition and mental clarity.
My body wasn’t broken. It was overwhelmed, stressed out, and doing its best to protect itself.
No traditional doctor had ever asked me about any of these things, let alone tested them or offered a plan to address them.
Healing didn’t happen overnight and it certainly wasn’t linear, but my body began responding in ways it never had before.
What Healing Made Possible
I’ll be honest, the short-term goal was never pregnancy. It was healing.
I trusted that if I took the time to truly understand what was happening in my body and addressed it at the root, the long-term outcome would take care of itself.
So I let go of timelines and deadlines and focused instead on creating a body that felt safe, nourished, supported, and able to breathe again.
And when I did that, something beautiful happened.
I was able to conceive and carry a healthy baby naturally. No medications, fertility clinics, or forcing my body into interventions that never addressed the root issue.
My body didn’t need more pressure, more forcing, or more waiting. It needed understanding, support, and space to heal.
And when it got that, it did exactly what God designed it to do.
What I Learned About Hormones, Fertility And Healing
Looking back on my journey from diagnosis to healing, there’s some things I wish I knew sooner.
Fertility isn’t just about egg count or hormone levels, and medication alone isn’t going to solve root problems. In many cases, it masks them.
Fertility is about creating an environment where your body feels safe, nourished, and supported enough to ovulate, conceive, and sustain life.
I wish I had known that a body stuck in survival mode with a dysregulated nervous system, poor gut health, and constant stress will never function at its best, let alone ovulate consistently or conceive.
I wish I had known how gut health, environmental toxins, thyroid function, and nutrient status influence hormones and ovulation.
I wish I had known that medications like Provera don’t induce a true ovulatory cycle or even a period, and can often cover up the real issue instead of addressing it.
I wish I had known that symptoms aren’t random; they’re signals meant to be listened to.
I wish I had known that AMH isn’t gospel and that “unexplained infertility” just means unexplored physiology.
Why I Do This Work Now
I share my story because I’ve experienced how isolating, discouraging, and exhausting this journey can be.
I’ve sat in rooms with good doctors and doctors who should have been able to help me and still walked out with heartbreak and confusion. I know what it’s like to be told some labs look normal, try this medication, there’s nothing else that can be done, but knowing deep down your body and your gut is telling you something different.
My fertility journey taught me that my body wasn’t broken. It was just adapting, protecting and communicating, which is exactly what it’s designed to do, too.
What I failed (and so, so many doctors failed to do) was actually listen and decipher what it was telling us.
That’s what led me to this work.
I help women who feel dismissed, confused, hopeless or stuck in “unexplained” diagnoses learn how to look at their bodies with curiosity instead of fear, and support instead of pressure. Not to promise outcomes, but to help them understand why their bodies are doing what they’re doing, and how to create an environment that supports healing, hormone balance and fertility.
If you’re reading this and seeing yourself in any part of my story, I want you to know this: you’re not broken and you’re not running out of options.
There is another way to approach fertility, one that looks at the whole picture, asks better questions, and honors the need for real, root-cause healing.
And you don’t have to navigate it alone.