This past week my husband and I went to another RE. I love him and his office. I have spoken with them about three times, and they return my calls within an hour. They are so receptive and respectful of our questions and concerns that I truly feel this is where we belong for our duration on infertility island.
The RE pretty much looked at my entire medical history, and my husbands, and he did a full physical exam including yet another vaginal ultrasound....yippee....not! But at least he was thorough. He also agrees that I ovulate too late, and since I have spotting before my actual period starts, he thinks my progesterone dips down a little too soon making it more difficult for any potential fetus to implant. He also stated that my FSH level of 10.0 (that I had drawn two doctors ago) was borderline high, so medication to induce ovulation would be helpful.
Ovulation stimulators do include Clomid, but I was VERY clear that I didn't want to use it again. The side effects were horrible and the medication only worked for me 1:3 times which isn't great.
The Plan: Femara for five days. This is a pill like Clomid, but often works for women that didn't respond to Clomid. Then, just to make sure I my follicles grow in a timely manner, I will take an injectable medication for three days once the Femara is done. I will be having frequent ultrasounds and some blood draws during this process, and once I have a follicle, or follicles measuring between 18-20mm I will get a trigger shot, which triggers ovulation to occur in 12-24 hours. Then, I will have two IUI's (intrauterine inseminations). One will be the day of the trigger, and one the day after, I think. I haven't gotten my specific grid, but I think that's right. Then, once I'm all sperm loaded and my egg is available hopefully a sperm will fertilize an egg, or two! To ensure that there is enough progesterone to go around I am going to take progesterone supplements for my 2 week-wait.
Back to insemination. Again, this means that my husbands sperm will be washed, and the best swimmers will be placed directly into my uterus to swim up my fallopian tubes where the egg will be. My RE says that without insemination only 5% of sperm make it to the uterus, so it increases your chances significantly if you can put the sperm directly into the uterus. Here's my explanation in a picture for you visual people:
The downfall: everything I just told you will cost about $2200.00. But, here I am. It will work, I have to go into this believing that it will work. There is no other option.
I'm hopeful, scared, anxious, eager, and honestly wondering how I will fit driving 1.5hrs daily for a few days in a row, plus at least once a week during the cycle will fit into our work schedules. But, we've both talked with our bosses and told them whats going on. They were OK with it. So we're fortunate.
C'mon Baby! Or Babies!
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