i all for calling around. back in the days when the doctors did not do v back brths for children. my first pregnancy was a double footling breech. the first one was fine the second one was shipped to a hospital four hours away from me and i could not see him to a few days before he died. i was adamant i was not having a c section for no darn good reason other than i had one before. i called every doctor in the county before i found one i loved and agreed to deliver vaginally after a c section. it was awesome seeing them and being awake participating.
if you want it bad enough you will find someone qualified to work with you. a place to start might be a hematologist who would be familiar with the gyn community. or vascular surgeon occasionally they have to work in that area. some one got to know. i have confidence in you. you'll find the doctor you need. don't be afriad

Well, my OB/GYN gave me the same advice you are working with, which is that I would have to take shots basically "from the moment of conception." i also do not have a clotting disorder and although it is believed that my two DVTs were caused by BC, we don't have a cause for my PEs. Still, pregnancy would be do-able if I were on shots.

My OB/GYN herself has a family history of clotting and did the shots during her pregnancy. She has really been a god-send through all this.

The thing with your risk factors is that the Yaz pill messed with your hormone levels and as a result you got clots. Pregnancy will also mess with your hormone levels and puts you at higher risk for developing another clot. Women's blood (as I understand it) becomes hypercoaguable right before giving birth, which makes sense since women who don't bleed out after giving birth are more likely to live. (Thanks Darwin!)

I can understand why you would want to avoid the shots during pregnancy, but it does seem very risky. If you threw another clot, you might put both your life and the baby's life at risk. And, considering your history (hormone fluctuations gives you clots), I would think hard about it.

But, yeah, get a second opinion. And a third and a fourth. Maybe consult someone who deals in high-risk pregnancies and see if you fit that category.

Me personally, it sounds risky. But, it is your life and your body, and you have to feel comfortable with what you are doing with it.

I am going to have to go back and find this information again, but you do not necessarily have to be on shots during pregnancy, although most doctors seem to want to go that way because they feel a bit safer dealing with the risks of the lovenox than the unknown of possible clots. Something for you to consider is that if truly your only risk factor was hormonal BC, your body will put you into a similar condition regarding clotting, whether you have a genetic predisposition or not. Also remember, there are something like a bizillion different genetic issues which can affect our clotting risk, and you were most likely just checked for the most common.

In any case, even if you find a doctor who will work with you on not taking anticoagulants during pregnancy (and really, you should find a doctor who specializes in high risk pregnancy anyway since you have a clotting risk and should anything arise, you want someone who really does know how to handle it), you should be on anticoagulants for a couple of months postpartum, as that is the time which presents the highest risk for PE.

I'm going to provide the link as well, but it discusses a lot of things, there pertinent part is this:

How great is the risk of recurrent thromboembolism?
A small observational study59 examined the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism during subsequent pregnancies in women with a prior thrombotic event. Anticoagulation was withheld during the antepartum period and restarted briefly after delivery. Among the 125 women enrolled, recurrent venous thromboembolism occurred in 4.8%, with half of the events occurring during the antepartum period. Among those with underlying thrombophilia, the rate of recurrent venous thromboembolism was 13% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.7%40.5%) to 20% (95% CI 2.5%56.5%), and those with a prior idiopathic clot without thrombophilia had an event rate of 7.7% (95% CI 0.01%25.1%). The subgroup with a prior reversible risk factor (at the time of their initial venous thromboembolic event) and without detectable thrombophilia had no recurrent events.

This study suggests that women with prior venous thromboembolism and thrombophilia or a prior idiopathic thrombotic event are at a substantial risk of recurrent thrombotic events during pregnancy. And other data confirm the high risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism in thrombophilic pregnant women.60 These women should all be offered active antepartum and postpartum thromboprophylaxis with LMWH or unfractionated heparin (TABLES 2 AND 4). Women without thrombophilia but with a history of venous thromboembolism related to pregnancy or oral contraceptive use also have a substantial risk of recurrent venous thrombosis and should be offered antepartum and postpartum thromboprophylaxis.61 In contrast, women with a prior secondary clot, no thrombophilia, and no additional current risk factors (TABLE 1) appear to be at low risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism.

That's from the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, http://www.ccjm.org/content/76/2/113.full#T1

So basically, based on that study, you shouldn't be considered a candidate to NOT receive injections because your clotting happened while on hormonal BC. If you clotted while on BC, your chance of clotting while pregnant or postpartum is quite high.

The one thing I can offer is this: as much as you may dislike having to do the shots and whatever side effects you have, those do pale in comparison to how great it is once you have that baby in your arms. I wish you all the best with that.

Thanks for the advice. It definitely gives me a lot to consider when I think about having children. My husband and I will have to talk this over further, but if we do decide to try to have children, I think the limit will now be 1 child, as I'm not sure I can physically and emotionally handle all of the trouble I will have to do through a second time around. Both my husband and I were raised only children (even though I have 2 half-siblings), so I guess we turned out alright... ;)