From our blog. We want to thank Brittany again for sharing her story with us and with the Glow Community! Please keep us updated!

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My name is Brittany and I am 24 (almost 25) years old. I have been with my husband since I was 16.

At the beginning of our relationship I was on birth control. But soon enough we became very serious and let the chips fall where they may. We were not actively trying to conceive, we were also not doing much to prevent it. It was curious: We were young. Healthy. Sexually active. Why was I not getting pregnant? Month after month. Year after year.

It got to the point that we decided to get checked out. A blood work and a sperm analysis later – the doctors called us “lucky.”

I didn’t feel lucky. I just felt worried.

Thankfully, not long after that, I became pregnant and delivered my now 2-year old son. But what had I done differently to conceive him that I had not done before? If anything his conception had been a surprise. I did not feel that getting pregnant solved any of my questions – it just posed new ones.

Shortly after my son’s birth, my husband and I started trying again. Since we did not know why it had taken so long to get pregnant the first time, we did not want to risk waiting.

This time, I became pregnant in just a few months. But even as my HcG levels were rising, something felt wrong. I was having terrible cramps and had started to bleed heavily. Clearly it was a miscarriage – but no one could find the embryo. Not in my uterus. Nor in my fallopian tubes. Nonetheless the pregnancy was ruled ectopic and I was given a series of Methotrexate shots to end the pregnancy. And these shots wrecked me. I was in and out the ER for ten days.

The whole process debilitated me not just emotionally, but also physically.

Once my HcG levels zeroed out, we started trying again. Once again, I become pregnant. Once again, it was an ectopic pregnancy. Once again, I had to endure a series of methotrexate shots – which thankfully did not put me in the ER this time.

My questions were mounting. I was a healthy woman in my twenty’s. As far as I could tell, I was doing everything right. And no one could tell me why this kept happening to me – but even more importantly, what I could do to prevent it from happening again.

Now I know that 2 in every 100 pregnancies are ectopic. And that once you have your first ectopic pregnancy, your chances of having another one jumps from 2% to 10%. I know that ectopic pregnancies may be prevented by avoiding conditions that cause scarring or blocking to the fallopian tubes. This includes early diagnosis and adequate treatment of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), STDs, and the avoidance of smoking. I know all this because I made it a point to seek out this information.

And that’s why I like Glow. Glow does not wait until bad things happen to you to give you information. Glow is pro-active. Like a friend who tells you that your long cycles might mean you have PCOS, or your sister who tells you that pain during sex is not normal. Glow’s insights are tailored to me. The other day I was tasked with eating an omelet. Once I did, the insight told me that eating eggs was positively correlated with a reduced link of miscarriage – and linked me to the source of the study. Now that was cool!

I like Glow because I love knowing more about my body and I feel with that knowledge comes power. So thank you, Glow! Hopefully soon, I will hold another healthy and happy baby in my arms.