The weirdest thing has been happening

I moved to a new city for a new job on August 1. I moved with my cats and without my husband as he was working at his old job until the end of August, so I had just over a month alone with the cats. It meant missing a cycle of trying to get pregnant, but I was iffy on if we should be trying so soon after starting a new job, so I wasn’t too worried about it. The weirdest thing happened that cycle. I ovulated as normal, I had no timing in my fertile week, and I had no bleeding during my luteal phase, just light spotting that I only noticed because I was looking (harder than I’d care to admit) for it. Unexplained luteal phase bleeding is my infertility diagnosis. It’s the reason I’m on cycle 22 and not pregnant. Since I do have a mildly friable cervix (meaning that normal activities can cause some spotting, but not enough to explain my bleeding) I figured part of it was just that I was away from my husband, but that would not be enough to explain the relative lack of bleeding. So, I started to think of all the things that had changed when I moved. There was a huge change in my commute, going from 3-4 hours per day in heavy traffic to less than an hour each way on the bus if I made all my connections. Although I’m still working in the lab, I’m doing different work, so I’m handling different chemicals and no animals. I wasn’t drinking coffee and my diet was a bit different because getting groceries on the bus sucks and my meals weren’t as meat focused without my husband around. And, my husband wasn’t with me. To be honest, I was more than a little worried that my husband was part of the problem because he can (and does) wind me up pretty regularly, which wasn’t happening with us being a part.

When my second cycle in the new city started by husband had moved just in time for my fertile week. All of my stuff arrived a week later so I could finally start having a morning coffee again. That cycle I still had minimal spotting, only noticing because I was looking for it. My commute was even shorter now that I had my car, and it was a lot easier to car share or pick up my husband at work than it was before moving. There was no change in the lab work I was doing. I started drinking coffee and my diet shifted back closer to normal. Thankfully, with my husband back and winding me up the bleeding was still staying away.

This is my third cycle since moving. I still am having no bleeding and minimal spotting during my luteal phase. It’s hard not to be hopeful that I’ll get pregnant, because 21 failed cycles including the failed medicated IUIs suggests the odds are not in my favour, but every time I go to the bathroom and there is no blood there’s a spark of hope that I may be pregnant before my IVF appointment. The logical part of me knows that that isn’t likely because even if, somehow, my infertility problem has gone away, we’re still dealing with male factor infertility.

I’m really left wondering what was causing the bleeding. Was it the commute? Something I was handling in that lab? Was my life in Vancouver making me infertile? Was all the pain and emotional distress I’ve felt these 22 cycles something I had caused myself? If it was the commute or the lab, the odd thing is that while writing my thesis and for the entire month of July I was not commuting or going into the lab and still I was having this bleeding problem. I’ve been trying to research to make sense of it, but I don’t even know what to use as a search term. Commuting causes infertility? Uterine bleeding caused by handling lab mouse?