Monday, April 18, 2011

The RE (Reproductive Endocrinologist) Appointment

Today was the day that my husband and I met our fertility specialist, aka RE. The experience began in the waiting room. There was quite a selection of magazines in the office, one of which caught my eye: Conceive magazine. (www.conceiveonline.com). Well, hello there long lost reading friend. I enjoyed so much looking through that magazine that if it alone would have been my appointment it still would have been worth the 90 minute drive to get there.

Our RE was very kind and attentive to detail. He remembered my history without flipping through the documents I sent him, he encouraged questions and provided explanations for his thoughts. We really, really like him. He is not only a fertility specialist but someone who has struggled with infertility as a patient. It meant a lot to us to have a doctor who knows what we're going through on a personal level.

After talking with him I did feel a little hopeless. He didn't offer an exact "plan of action" because after reading my history he is concerned that many of my signs and symptoms (late, irregular ovulation, months without ovulation, lack of pregnancy, acne, and miscarriage) are pointing toward polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). This is one of the leading causes of infertility and is a condition where many small cysts form on the ovary causing an hormonal imbalance which may lead to infertility.

Also, (though we were told otherwise by our other doctor) he stated that my husbands semen analysis was borderline normal, his number of sperm was excellent, but the morphology was borderline. This means that though he has enough sperm, many of them don't swim the way they are supposed to. So my husband is having another semen analysis performed so that our RE can look at it himself.

So, more tests for both of us. For me it's an AMH test which is the anti-mullarian hormone test for egg reserve. If the level is high, its indicative of PCOS, if its low it means that I have low egg reserve, so we need to act now and pull out all the stops, as my time is limited in being able to release a good egg.

We're both really nervous. We both want to have a baby more than ever, and even the specialist seems concerned. Say a prayer for us.

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