welcome, and I hope you are able to find lots of answers here. I personally wouldn't fret too much over infertility. You are very young and since you have been married since you were younger I'm going to guess that there's been a lot of stress. Especially since you have custody of your siblings. If you are really worried that the depo shot messed something up I would find a local womens health center. The state has to provide a place for women to go to. When I lived in Baltimore, MD they had a GREAT womens health center in both Baltimore Co. and Harford Co where we lived. Try searching for a planned parenthood center near you. Ours went by your income as to how much the Dr.visit cost you. Most I ever paid was like ten bucks. The nurses and Dr.s I encountered were wonderful. Give that a shot and you can at least start going to the gyno regularly. It's very important to keep up with your health, for your sake and your families too. I too have no insurance (now living in Fl.) and I go to a family dr who puts me on a sliding scale because my mother in law and sis in law go to her too. Look for a family dr who has womens health experience. Its probably not going to be easy unless you know other women who can recommend a good dr. My dr gives me samples of meds until I can afford to get them filled, and dont forget chain drug stores charge more for RX than small pharmacies. Good luck, if i think of nething else that might help I will let you know. Hope this gives you a place to start. GOOD LUCK!

Wow!! I am just blown away by the amount of knowledge and support I have already received by coming to these boards. You are all so sweet, caring, helpful, and amazing!! I have heard of Planned Parenthood, we have one within 30 miles of my home. However, until your post, I had no idea what they did, or what services they offered. It is so good to hear that I'm not alone in this, and that other women, especially those without insurance, are surviving this situation. Your post could be the most beneficial I have received so far!!Thank you so much for all of your advice, and for making me aware of these important resources!! I am going to call Planned Parenthood Monday and see if I can't get started in the right direction. I really had never considered this until you mentioned it, and I am so unbelievably thankful that you did. I also didn't know that the chain drugstores charge more. I'm sure that will come in handy if there are prescriptions I will need. Thanks for this big tip!! Really, you are truly a blessing to me. You are right that I have had more than my fair share of stress, and having people like you around definitely helps me cope. God Bless You. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely,
Jessica S.

Hey Jessica,
You are headed in the right direction, taking this bull by the horns. You do sound like you have a lot to handle, especially with your sibs, so the stress might be a factor. isiys917 gave some great advice. there should be a planned parenthood in your area, or a family clinic. that is a good place to start. Once you find an GYN who will work with your income, (or maybe you can get on your state medicade?) he/she may want to know that you have been ACTIVELY trying for a year before they will consider you as a candidate for infertiltiy treatment. (the good news here is that you are 21 years old...I didn't start the infertility process until I was 35!)

You can increase your chances of of conceiving by using a fertility monitor each day to let you know when you are ovulating. Basically, you pee on a stick every morning, put the stick into the monitor, and it measures the change in hormone levels. It gives you one, two or three bars( three is ovulation time). It keeps each month's info stored, and gets pretty acurate once you've used it for a few cycles. When i got pregnant 4 times in row, (each time, the first month we tried again after my miscarriages), it was right on, and i got pregnant. It is a great tool. You can buy it at the drug store, (or online at www.clearplan.info/). it's about $150? and then you have to buy sticks each month, but it really works.
One other thing to consider...there are two of you trying to make this baby...there are tests for sperm motility, etc, also.
The bad news is that even if you did have health insurance, it usually doesn't cover infertility issues. Your OB/GYN can run lots of test on your reproductive system to determine if you have any "womens health" problems, (like endometriosis, or PCOS, and those things can be covered by insurance but will have to be coded by the doctor's office in a way other than "infertility"). But you would probably know if there was something like that going on, because your periods would be very irregular, and very painful.
OK, are you bored yet? I hope this helps. Please let me know if there are any other questions you have, or if I can help. Best of luck!

My doctor suggest I get the OvuQuick ovulation predictor kit it is only $30 but it works for me. They sell two kits one with 6 sticks for someone with a normal period of 26 to 31 days and one with nine sticks for someone with more then 31 days. If you know about when you ovulate (through BBT) then you can determine which one would be best for you. Another nice thing about this kit is once you ovulate you don't have to keep testing and can save the sticks for the next month. I bought 3, six stick tests and it will last me about 4 if not 5 months.

This one is much better price wise!

Good luck at planed parent hood. I started going there as a teen to get my birth control pill to help with my painful period (now i know it was due to endometriosis!) If you ever need to talk feel free to email me.

Welcome to the site! I hope it helps you like it has helped me. And I hope you are not as scared and confused any more!

I have to agree with the plans set forth here already (thank goodness that there are different ladies in different stages of their infertility on here) The Clinic-definately- not just for ttc but also for yourself...and the sake of your husband ( meaning that way nothing sneaks up unknown) I personally am using the bbt- to me it was the most price efficent since i only had to get a thermometer (and no you don't have to buy a specif one just a digital) If you can do the ovulation kits...try the cheaper one first just to see how it goes. You will find that a lot of ladies on here don't have ins, or are in the same boat as me they have it BUT it does not cover infertlity, it makes it easier cuz some have already been down the road and can know give you direction of how to go. I completely understand where you are coming from with the huge fear i was there 3 years ago- i am 23 and been with my hubby since i was 17 and we never had protected sex either...and yet after all these years not even a pregnancy. I found out through my gyno that i have endometriosis... so going to the clinic to find the problem makes the solution that much easier to pick out.
Please don't lose hope... and know that everyone here is pulling for you... my thoughts and prays will be with you that nothing is wrong and you and your husband can quickly add to your family, take care.

Hi and welcome here I would like the previous poster not worry to much you are young. However you should start if you have not to chart you basal body temp and use OPK to see if you are ovulating. I am sure that you are. These are inexpensive things that you can do. It would be good for you to get a ideal of when you are ovulating.Please feel free to email me if I can be of any help to you I have a daughter that could write a book on ttc.

hugs
slewis78@bellsouth.net
surrogatesolutionsonline.com

Okay, not trying to harshly disagree with anyone or make anyone mad, but just because she's young is no reason to tell her not to worry. *Especially* because she *IS* young. A woman's peak fertility is during her twenties, so if she's not getting pregnant now, then she *definitely* needs to know why. Sure, I agree that stress could have something to do with it...but aren't almost all of us here stressed? Haven't some of us successfully conceived at least once? The big concern I have is that she is probably in the same boat I was in until about 2 years ago--no insurance usually equals no OB/Gyn care, or at least it did in my situation. I, too, had issues at an early age. At age 16, my doctor put me on the pill to get me to have my first period. I got pregnant with my son at 19 while taking the pill (no one warned me about antibiotics). I was on the Depo shot for a year--and I bled the entire time (yep. That definitely worked as birth control--totally took away my sexiness factor). Since having the Depo, my periods never regulated--still amennorheic so I don't think it caused any of my issues.
Jessica, you *definitely* need to get checked out. Your younger age does not make infertility any easier, and although I'm sure everyone agrees with me on that, I just wanted to remind you. One word of advice, though: I went to the public health clinic for my Gyn stuff. I don't know if the clinic up there is anything like ours here in NC, but I found here that with their case load being a bit high, they always wanted to rush me out of the office so they could help the next person. My suggestion is that you come up with a list of questions you want to ask *BEFORE* you show up at the clinic, so you'll be able to keep your thoughts in order and get as many answers as you can during your allotted time.
Hopefully I didn't offend; those of you who know me know that I would NEVER want to offend *anyone*. :D