Hi guys, I'm new to this so first of all would like to explain my situation;
I'm 23 years old. I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma stage 4B when I was 19 in 2011. I had no chance for any fertility reverse as my cancer was very advanced. Immediately started chemotherapy. After 6 months of treatment I was in remission for 5months before relapsing and ended up needing a stem cell transplant which more or less wiped out my fertility. I got the all clear for cancer in August 2012 and have been clear since.
After experiencing serious hot flushes and no period for 12months at this point I had blood tests to see if I in fact was menopausal. Test results shown I was. I changed doctors twice and third doc who I'm still with now prescribed me HRT as I was certain I wanted to have children in the future and was aware I needed to maintain my womb for IVF with egg donation in the future.
After my younger sister gave birth last month I started looking into fertility more and decided I wasn't going to accept without a fight that there was no way for me to conceive with my own eggs. This is because after chemo they say fertility can take 6-12 months to return, technically menopause occurs when you haven't had a period for 12months. I began HRT at 12months so who knows if my fertility would have returned if I didn't start taking HRT.
My doc advised the only way to check is to stop taking HRT and do a blood test in 3/4 months time. I stopped HRT 14/11/2014. Two days later I had a bleed that lasted 4 days. Bearing in mind I haven't had a real period since 2011, only bleeds were withdrawal bleeds I haven't got a clue about my cycle length.
I decided to buy ovulation tests from ebay for a few quid. As soon as they came on 5th December I just started testing that afternoon at about 3pm and it shown a positive! I repeated the taste later in the evening around 8pm and that was positive. I decided I would just test every day until I see a change just to keep my mind occupied until I have my blood tests. I have been testing now for 8 days straight, testing twice a day. 5th day in the early test was positive but the evening test was slightly negative, Wednesday I only tested once in the evening which showed a slight negative. Thursday I tested once and it showed positive. Today I tested lunch time and thus was positive and I will test this evening.
I can't help but feel optimistic that this is my body actually getting back to normal but at the same time it could be a sign if ovarian failure.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated and apologies for the essay haha
I'm 23 years old. I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma stage 4B when I was 19 in 2011. I had no chance for any fertility reverse as my cancer was very advanced. Immediately started chemotherapy. After 6 months of treatment I was in remission for 5months before relapsing and ended up needing a stem cell transplant which more or less wiped out my fertility. I got the all clear for cancer in August 2012 and have been clear since.
After experiencing serious hot flushes and no period for 12months at this point I had blood tests to see if I in fact was menopausal. Test results shown I was. I changed doctors twice and third doc who I'm still with now prescribed me HRT as I was certain I wanted to have children in the future and was aware I needed to maintain my womb for IVF with egg donation in the future.
After my younger sister gave birth last month I started looking into fertility more and decided I wasn't going to accept without a fight that there was no way for me to conceive with my own eggs. This is because after chemo they say fertility can take 6-12 months to return, technically menopause occurs when you haven't had a period for 12months. I began HRT at 12months so who knows if my fertility would have returned if I didn't start taking HRT.
My doc advised the only way to check is to stop taking HRT and do a blood test in 3/4 months time. I stopped HRT 14/11/2014. Two days later I had a bleed that lasted 4 days. Bearing in mind I haven't had a real period since 2011, only bleeds were withdrawal bleeds I haven't got a clue about my cycle length.
I decided to buy ovulation tests from ebay for a few quid. As soon as they came on 5th December I just started testing that afternoon at about 3pm and it shown a positive! I repeated the taste later in the evening around 8pm and that was positive. I decided I would just test every day until I see a change just to keep my mind occupied until I have my blood tests. I have been testing now for 8 days straight, testing twice a day. 5th day in the early test was positive but the evening test was slightly negative, Wednesday I only tested once in the evening which showed a slight negative. Thursday I tested once and it showed positive. Today I tested lunch time and thus was positive and I will test this evening.
I can't help but feel optimistic that this is my body actually getting back to normal but at the same time it could be a sign if ovarian failure.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated and apologies for the essay haha
