Have you heard of Hydrosalpinx? Hydrosalpinx refers to a fallopian tube that's blocked with a watery fluid. To break down the term, “hydro” means water and “salpinx” means Fallopian tube.

Today’s guest suffered from heavy and painful periods and knew something wasn’t right. She and her husband had been trying for over a year and she could not get pregnant. Lauren Shirk sought the help of an OB/GYN to understand exactly what was happening to her body. She went in for a HSG and was diagnosed with hydrosalpinx or blocked Fallopian tubes. Lauren underwent surgery to unblock her tubes, that was successful, but she then was diagnosed with endometriosis. In this episode Lauren takes us on her journey to motherhood, how both diagnosis have made her more determined than ever to become a mother, and the next steps in her journey. This episode is for you to listen to if you have had a block Fallopian tube or diagnosed with endometriosis and suffer from painful periods.

Lauren Shirk

Description of Who you Are (Short Bio)

Hi I am Lauren. Married to my wonderful husband Delante and step mother to two beautiful daughters! Balancing a full time job, a side business with my husband, our girls all while battling infertility. I am a Maryland native but a Georgia girl at heart where I lived for many years and obtained my B.S. in Health Services Administration at Middle Georgia State University.

Tell me about your journey to motherhood? What obstacles have you overcome?

My journey started about four years ago in 2015. I was living with my now husband and we had been living together for a year and had no scares, I was also having very painful periods that came and went as they pleased. We always talked about having another kid as soon as we got married in 2016 because he already had two daughters and we wanted to have the children as close in age as possible.



I had to be honest with him... with the painful periods that where irregular I knew something just wasn’t right, he was supportive. So I spoke to my GP and she told me to find a good GYN doctor. Well of course life happens so it took me about a year to even visit the idea of seeing a GYN I wanted to try natural and just see.



In 2017 My job changed and upstairs in the same building was a gynecologist office, my husband encouraged me to put my anxiety to the side and get serious about visiting the doctor. So I scheduled an appointment, my doctor was awesome. She understood how sensitive this matter was and scheduled a full work up.



I had blood work, which came back normal. I had a pap and ultrasound all normal. So she scheduled me for an HSG, the worst experience of my life. It was so painful, I knew something was wrong. When I got the results back both of my tubes were blocked and I had something called hydrosalpinx.

I felt defeated.



My doctor discussed with me next steps which would be surgery and that she wouldn’t know how bad the hydrosalpinx is until she goes in. So we scheduled the surgery.

Fast forward to surgery where I had to sign a waiver saying that if my tubes were to damaged they would be removed so that I could go through IVF, another scary moment no 27 year old wants to face. But I kept my faith and signed the waiver. I woke up from surgery and by Gods grace my tubes were salvageable and now open! I also found out that I had endometriosis.



I was told to wait one cycle and then we could try and get pregnant. Well on the second month and right after my 28th birthday I got the best gift a positive pregnancy test! My doctor did blood test every other day to make sure my levels were increasing which they where. But when I went in for my first ultrasound I could see the worry on my doctors face, she said I wasn’t measuring correctly but it happens sometimes, two weeks later another ultrasound and then my doctor had to have the talk with me and let me know she didn’t believe that this pregnancy was going to make it. We gave it another week and added progesterone to support the pregnancy but after about a week I started getting terrible cramps and bleeding so I went to the emergency room. They confirmed I was having a miscarriage and gave me medicine to help my body speed up the miscarriage. I bleed for what felt like forever and a week later I went to my doctor for a follow up ultrasound and there was still tissue so I still had to end up having a D&C.



I was told to wait one cycle after the D&C and then we could try again. Well nothing happened... I waited for about 5 months and then contacted my doctors office. My doctor prescribed me Letrozole so I just started my first round this month April 2019 and now starts the medicated cycles along with prayer we will see how it goes!

Any books, tools, resources that have helped you on this journey that you want to share with the audience?

Prayer! And being open and honest about how I feel. With my husband and support system!