A mum-to-be is celebrating her miracle pregnancy after her birth control left her infertile.
Alana Hunt didn't have a period for two years after she came off the contraceptive pill Microgynon.
She was then diagnosed with pill-induced Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).
She was given fertility drugs, but it took her a further 24 months to fall pregnant.
Alana, 24, of Essex, is now expecting her first child with fiancée Jack Costin, 26.
She said: "I started taking the pill because I was bleeding for three weeks every cycle and was getting anaemic.
"It suppressed my periods and seemed like a good solution at the time.
"I had no idea it would take so long for them to come back once I stopped taking the pill, or that it would be another two years before I managed to have a healthy pregnancy.
"I do want people to remember stories like mine are very uncommon, and things like this typically don't happen.
"A lot of the time, birth control isn't the root cause of the problem, but it can make pre-existing problems that you are unaware of so much worse and harder to manage."
Alana now urges people to do research in case they could be negatively affected.
She said: "Make sure you do a lot of your own research - don't just go with the first thing suggested to you.
"Go with the option that feels right for you, and remember you can always change your mind once you've started."
Alana, who works in marketing, started taking the pill when she was 15 following a year of abnormal periods.
She came off it five years later in 2018 because she thought it was impacted her mental health.
When Alana was 20 she knew she wasn't ready to have a child, but knew she wanted to be a mum one day.
She grew concerned when her periods had not come back.
In January 2020, she saw a doctor after not having her period for two years.
Alana was diagnosed with Pill-Induced PCOS and was given metformin, inositol supplements (a diabetes drug found to help PCOS symptoms) and a week course of norethisterone to induce a period.
In October 2020, she fell pregnant but sadly miscarried.
After further treatment, Alana fell pregnant on New Year's Eve in 2021.
Now, she is four months pregnant and scans show her unborn baby is in good health.
Alana added: "I feel immensely blessed and grateful to be pregnant because at times it never felt like we would get to this point.
"However, I've mostly been anxious. Going through infertility and pregnancy loss meant that when I did fall pregnant, I assumed things would eventually go wrong.
"In early pregnancy, I would take a test pretty much every single day and compare the line to the day before to check it was getting darker.
"I had scans at week 6, 8, 10, and 12, and I didn't look forward to any of them.
"I felt guilty about it at the time, but I always had the worry in the back of my mind that I would get bad news.
"The anxiety gets easier as the weeks go by. This pregnancy has gone perfectly and I haven't had a single complication or any reason to worry, but the anxiety never goes away.
"But I am excited to welcome this child. Everything we have gone through definitely feels worth it."
