Danielle Howe

In 2014 I met the love of my life. At just 20 years old I felt a connection with someone that I knew was the start of the rest of my life. Not only did I fall in love with him, but I fell in love with his children who were 2 & 4 at the time. Here we are just over 10 years later with a blended family full of love and laughter.

At 14 years old I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). I experienced tremendous amounts of painful, heavy periods and so many encounters with ovarian cysts. I was put on birth control pretty quickly after that to stabilize everything. Knowing what I know now, birth control was just a mask for what I endured after I came off of birth control. I was faced with worsening symptoms and, worst of all, infertility.

When one year passed it worried me but I wasn’t prepared for everything we were going to have to go through. We have been trying for just over eight years to bring a baby into this world. Eight years of emotional, physical, and mental heartache. The hundreds of negative pregnancy tests we saw throughout the years started to seem too normal. I got to a point where I just never expected a positive.

Although we worked alongside an OB for most of our journey, I felt that we weren’t heard. I remember countless times being told, “you are still so young, you have lots of time”. Lots of time is exactly what our journey has turned into.

In the early stages of our journey, I struggled with feeling alone and isolated so I turned to social media for an outlet. I soon realized that infertility was much more than I realized. I quickly connected with women and families all around the world who were going through the same thing. I wasn’t alone. I had a team of warriors who knew exactly how I was feeling and although everyone’s journey is different, we all had the same end goal. We just wanted to be a Mom.

About 2 years ago we were referred to the only fertility clinic in our province. In addition to PCOS, they discovered I had high prolactin levels, low TSH, and a new diagnosis of Graves Disease, which is a disease of the thyroid.

The last 2 years have been a rollercoaster with many setbacks and the extra time needed to get my levels to normal was dreadful. I didn’t want to wait anymore. It all felt so unfair. We were recently approved for an IUI with ovarian stimulation and we couldn’t be more excited, but also completely terrified. We just want this to work. I have continued to be an advocate in the infertility world and I continue to share my journey via social media, sharing my input where I can.

Recently, I felt proud to be invited by two news channels to speak about infertility, the impact it has on Canadians, and the changes needed to help! So many women and families are in this same spot, and all deserving of the family they desire. This journey is hard and incredibly exhausting. It has taught me to have immense patience and has shown me I am stronger than I ever thought I was.

Being 1-in-6 is something I would never wish on anyone, but since we are here we need to stick together and create a safe place for those feeling this immense heartache to be parents.

I can only hope someday this journey will take me to my destination: to be a loving, strong mother!