-
@Grace: Oh how I wish I knew what it meant! If my Dr. has any insight next Friday, I'll be sure to let you know
I haven't been on my diet long enough to know if it's going to "stabilize" my cycles, but I've read it's done so for others. My cycles used to be PERFECT (every 28 days to the minute) before I went on the pill, but have been fairly wonky ever since I stopped birth control several years ago (hormonal birth control and I do not get along -- very annoying side effects).
-
Hooray, thanks for starting this!!
I don't even know where to start. All I can say is I'm REALLY glad I started seeing an RE before we were even ready to TTC because it is taking forever. Two months and still no fertility treatments, just tons of tests.
I've had blood taken three times this week already. I have to have an endometrial biopsy on Monday. If it comes back clean I can finally start Clomid next cycle. But of course only after making a separate appointment for us to come in and sign consent forms and I have to somehow get a clamidyah scan. None of which they mentioned to me previously when I asked multiple times months ago what else we needed to do in order to start treatment. It's like every time I go in they reach into a magic hat and pull out something else that needs to be done!
Oh and since my random glucose test was above normal I also had to make a separate appointment with my internist, have him run a hemogloben screening, and report back to the RE with the results. Hopefully that will happen next week but who knows?
-
Is there anyone reading this who has *just* MFI? (I might have missed a post or two - sorry, it's so hard to keep up!)
It's frustrating knowing there is not a thing I can do or treat without something like IVF. Until we got the SA results, I was trying everything! Soy isoflavones, pineapple core, aspirin, green tea, Robitussin...finally it made sense why nothing was working.
-
@Mrs Green Grass: My husband keeps telling me that I should tell my sister (and my mom, too) because he knows they would support us and this process can be so lonely. But I guess I am just afraid that my sister will feel like I'm sort of stealing her thunder...? We are thirteen months apart and she has told me my whole life that she just wants to do one thing without me following right on her heels. We met our now husbands within two weeks of each other, got engaged within five months and married within nine months of each other. My husband and I want to respect her wishes, but we also don't want to put our life on hold, of course! At this point, I hope it's a moot point and she will be pregnant soon (she's starting her second cycle of Clomid) and we will be someday not too long after.
I should also mention that I get all of my information about my sister TTC from my mom - she does not talk to me about it directly. So it's sort of a weird thing. I think if we were closer and had open communication, I might be able to tell her. Maybe I will anyway. I imagine we're both going through the exact same emotions but don't want to discuss it with each other. Another thing to work on, I guess.
-
@spaniellove: I go back and forth thinking that might be our issue. I guess we'll know soon when my husband gets his tests out of the way. My progesterone results weren't great but I was tested again yesterday so that might clear some things up. But I do have regular cycles and when I charted, I seemed to be ovulating. So I do wonder if it's male factor for us too...
-
@twodoghouse: I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that you get some helpful answers out of your tests! Male factor is supposedly the reason for 40% of IF although I know guys really drag their feet about doing the testing.
-
@spaniellove: can you tell us what MFI is? Is it male factor? BTW, I love your puppy avatar, so adorable!
-
Yay for an infertility support thread!
@spaniellove: My DH has really low morphology (although good numbers and motility), but I also have a blocked tube, so that's why we went straight to IVF. DH has had two SAs (both relatively the same) and also saw a urologist to see if he could recommend anything for improving his stats. No one we talked with really had any recommendations because generally he is healthy, doesn't smoke, drink excessively, etc. We added a multi-vitamin, selenium, L-arginine, and zinc at the suggestion of my acupuncturist. Not sure if all those helped, but we did get really good fertilization of my eggs (with ICSI) during my fresh IVF cycle.
-
Has anyone done a frozen cycle? I am hoping to do one next year but I don't know what to expect.
-
@Grace: i know @ staying sane, didn't help that my family and in laws wanted grandkids so bad. my mom even had a grandson via my bro but she still got like her entire church to pray for us. ugh.
also, re: unexplained infertility - that's what we were. on one hand, it's bad cuz i wanted to know what was wrong and treat it. on the other hand, my doc said it was good, that she found that many go on to have successful pregnancies after ivf. not sure what was wrong with us, but ivf definitely worked!
-
@brownie: i haven't, but i can't imagine that it would be that different from fresh cycle except you probably don't have to do as many shots in the beginning to harvest the eggs (bravelle, menapur, etc).
-
@kentuckygirl: Yes, MFI = male factor infertility. That dog in my avatar is currently annoyed that no one has tended to her breakfast needs!
-
I too am coming out of the shadows of lurking and am glad this thread is up. DH and I have been TTC and know we face an uphill battle. With my irregular periods, thyroid conditions and PCOS, it seems like I am just a maze that no one seems to understand. I know these are all relatively common issues, but my doctors have commented that my mix seems especially challenging. DH jokes that I always have to be special.
I have been doing weekly acupuncture and just got prescribed metformin. My gyno wants to put me on clomid. Hopefully this will work, but I will keep you posted.
One thing I know for sure, talking about this and getting support from people that have been there is key and I am really grateful to have you guys!
Thinking of you all! Happy Friday
-
My joining this thread might be premature, since you've all gone through so much more than I have- seriously, hats off to all of you, your strength is amazing!
My periods have always been irregular. They will be normal for a bit & bam! They disappear!
dr put me on BC to regulate them & since we were getting married & wanted a baby ASAP, I came off BC a few months before our wedding because I wanted it out of my system & if we did get pregnant right away, we were both fine with it, so we were NTNP for a couple months, then started trying but my periods just got further & further apart. So it's been 16 months & no pregnancy.Saw my reg obgyn in June & she did blood work & said she wanted to induce my period & see if I O'ed the next cycle, today is cd80 & no O, so that didn't work! She's inducing it again after wed after a neg preg test. I told her I wanted to try to do it as naturally as possible. She said to give that a couple months then she'd do a SA for DH & give me clomid to O. So I'm doing acupuncture with a fertility specialist & taking herbs. She says I'm too cold & have a weak yang. She said loosing weight might help, but doubted it. Obgyn also wouldn't count the first 2 cycles off BC because she 'doesn't allow people to start trying right off BC' really??
I'm frustrated. It's been 16 months & I'm not ovulating & I feel like she's being dismissive. Our ins sucks & I've spent a great deal of our 'baby money' on acu ($90/wk), herbs ($15/wk), etc. even my useless labs were almost $1000, but since I had to pay them somehow they adjusted them to to a few hundred. Dr wouldn't say I def did or did not have PCOS (even though pc thinks it is), wouldn't call it infertility because the first 2 months didn't count to her since she doesn't 'allow trying right after BC' so to her it was a month shy of 12 months of trying last time I saw her. I wanted to yell 'I'm not O'ing, it doesn't matter how long!' but I didn't. I'm reluctant to do clomid because twins are not feasible for us $$ wise. I want to try femara but obgyn won't use it, she's painfully cautious. I'm reading about REs in our area to get us pregnant & then I'd like to find a midwife for care. Today I need to go over our IF coverage with our ins & see what needs to happen to get us in to see an RE.
Now that our story is out there, I promise my posts will be shorter than that one
off to call ins about REs!
-
@mrs. bird: I think the whole "not allowing people to get pregnant after BCP" is so that you don't count the first two months in your "months trying to conceive" when the odds of getting pregnant is so low. I don't know about you, but I get depressed after each big month (like 6 mo) has passed. I'm guessing she wants to prevent the depression.
I do agree that your obgyn is being rediculous though. That stat of one year is meant for people that don't have any obvious problems. Since you haven't O'd for nearly 3 months, that's a problem!! Is it feasible for you to find another OBGYN? It sounds like she's fighting you tooth and nail.
-
@mrs. bird: I would be so frustrated in your position - I think it's good to move on to an RE if your insurance will cover it. I know that some OB/GYN doctors are qualified to treat infertility, but it sounds like you need to talk with someone who is more sensitive to the process.
Good luck with the insurance calls and finding an RE. It took me a while to get in to my chosen RE and I had to go to an "approved facility" for my insurance to cover fertility treatment. Ask plenty of questions so you feel informed. The money part of this really sucks, doesn't it?
{hugs!}
-
@Grace: I think I'm just going to see if I can get in with a RE at this point. I'd rather have a midwife for my ob care so if I switched obgyns now, I still would probably end up needing a RE and then once I got pregnant I'd want to switch to a midwife. I've had 3 periods so far in '12, one of with was induced with provera, so it's pretty apparent that we need some help in the TTC department, not sure why current obgyn is so reluctant to acknowledge it
-
Just curious - is anyone else going through this knowing that your insurance will cover absolutely nothing? (or without insurance)?
I am self-employed and have independent insurance coverage. It is outrageously expensive for me to be added to my husband's plan, so that's not an option for us. I basically only have insurance so that if something horrific happens to me, I'm covered (after I chip in $2500, that is).
That said, my insurance explicitly does not cover anything fertility or pregnancy related (with the exception of pregnancy-related emergencies). We've already done our research on how we'll afford pregnancy and delivery (a local hospital has a great program for those without maternity coverage) and are saving toward that, but I of course didn't think about the fact that we may have to spend money to actually *get* pregnant!
The doctor I am seeing next week was very understanding, and said they could code things certain ways to get my insurance to cover it or at least some of it (saying an initial consultation for infertility is "contraception counseling", for example), but beyond that initial meeting, I don't know how you can re-code something like an HSG or an IUI to be not fertility related.
-
@alie: ours did not cover infertility. We each maxed out our flexible spending accounts and that gave us 10k that was automatically taken from our paycheck so we had to save it. It also came out all year even though we did the procedure in July.
The other helpful thing for us was the ability to take the medical deduction on our itemized tax return. We were able to claim 4k (above the 10k fsa which is already tax free) on our taxes. That gave us a larger tax return. The tax will also allow you to deduct things like hotel and mileage to the doctor.
Ultimately, we maxed out both credit cards but in the end it is totally worth it.
-
@brownie: you were very blessed. i think the hardest thing is to max out all your credit cards and the process doesn't work.
-
@tequiero21: yes we were lucky. We still would have done it either way. The main thing was the money went out through cards and came back through fsa and tax return (not quite all but a good about).
-
@alie: Our insurance doesn't cover anything related to infertility. The only reason they covered DH's urologist visits was because he was technically going to get a condition checked out that could lead to IF. From here on out they won't pay a dollar until I get pregnant. Supposedly NJ has laws about covering ART but since DH's company isn't based here we're on our own.
-
@alie: I am in the same boat as you. My husband and I have 'good insurance' with a large company, but in our state, fertility treatments of any kind are not covered. I'm still waiting to hear if my lap will be covered and I'm terrified. I just want to hear that it's covered. We'll STILL have to pay about $3000 for it but that's better than $20k. I'm sure the stress of that isn't helping my TTC . It's definitely what makes me hesitate to go ALL OUT with the testing. For me to get my thyroid and blood panels run it would be about $5k. Yikes.
-
@alie: Mine did not cover anything beyond a few diagnostic tests. Each Clomid IUI cycle was $505 (plus meds - about $50) and we did this "success guarantee" option for IVF which gives you money back if you use all of your follicles and are unsuccessful which was $18,000! plus meds which were around $3,000. SO MUCH MONEY!
-
@alie: I roasted my chicken last night and my broth is in the crock pot - thanks for the help yesterday! Our house smelled wonderful this morning!
@Mrs Green Grass: Why must it be SO HARD and expensive to have babies!?!? I mean, I think it's easier/cheaper to have elective plastic surgery!
-
Oh my goodness, it would stress me out so much if I had to worry about how to pay for things! Is there any insurance available that you could buy that would cover such things?
I'm pretty sure that diagnostics would be covered by provincial health care and the drugs are likely covered under my company's plan. We aren't planning to have IVF/ICSI but I'll have to find out about IUI. Akk, more things to ask about!
-
@alie: When I talked to the insurance company about my HSG I was told it would not cover any treatments or procedures related to infertility. They cover tests up to a certain amount but that's it. I think this is why I am a little hesitant to start talking to a RE. That and I think I'm in denial that we will need help. It's so frustrating and annoying.
-
Hi ladies. I'm happy to see this thread. Here is our story:
My husband and I started trying May of last year. We started by throwing out our condoms, then I started tracking my period, taking my temp, and eventually full out charting. After nine months I had my annual exam at my gynecologist. I mentioned to her that we were trying, that I had regular periods, etc. She recommended my husband have a SA and I have some blood work done. All of my work came back normal. My husband's SA was not. He had a low count, practically no motility, and low morphology as well. My gynecologist referred us to a urologist.
The urologist ran a bunch of tests and discovered that my husband had varicoceles present on both sides. He recommended the surgery. He told us that even if the surgery didn't help us conceive on our own, it could increase his counts enough so we could do an IUI. He had the surgery on March 1st. It was really stressful. They had him in the OR a couple hours longer than expected. We've had a few appointments since the surgery to check on his healing and he has done a few more SAs. During all of this we continued TTC each cycle just in case.
At our last appointment the urologist said he isn't suing enough of an improvement. The new SA put us at the cut off for IUI. He prescribed some vitamins to see if that increases things any. On Monday we have another appointment. Since I didn't get pregnant this past cycle we'll be finding out if we'll be doing an IUI or IVF. I'm hoping that IUI will work for us.
@allie: everything we've done so far has been covered by our insurance. Moving forward, though, everything is on us. Our insurances covers everything that leads to a diagnosis, but no actual procedures. We have a few thousand dollars set aside, but not enough to cover an IVF cycle. I'm praying that IUI is the answer for us, because we can afford a few cycles of that.
-
@Leialou: Out of curiousity, what vitamins did he suggest? My DH has low morph and he is on Fertile Aid for Men. Hopefully IUI will give you the little extra help you need!
-
He is on these. They have to be kept in the fridge for some reason.
-
@Leialou: What is the cutoff between IUI and IVF for your dr? It seems like they have different cutoffs.
-
Apologies if I am barging in, since I'm not TTC, but those of you who are paying some or all of your fertility treatments out of pocket - do you just make a check out from your savings? Or are their payment plans available? Is it possible to get private loans for these kind of things?
-
@brownie: I'm going through a frozen cycle right now and it is actually really different from my fresh cycle. I was on BCPs for about a month to calm the natural cycle down. Then I started Lupron injections to prevent natural ovulation. Now I am on estrogen (patch form - but there are pills and injections, too) to build up my lining (since natural cycle is suppressed) and then I will start on progesterone injections a week before the transfer (Oct 4th).
For me, it has been a lot easier so far, and less stress on my body (I developed OHSS during my fresh cycle). Also, there is far less monitoring than for the fresh cycle. They do an U/S and blood work before you start Lupron to make sure your lining is thin and that you aren't gearing up to ovulate and then blood work and U/S a week before transfer to make sure your lining is thick enough and that your estrogen level is appropriate.
Otherwise, transfer itself is the same. Let me know if you have any questions.
-
@MK0180: Your words sound like they could be mine...from:
"It's a tough pill to swallow sometimes when you see others able to get knocked up for "free" and being so blase about it."
to
"That and I think I'm in denial that we will need help. It's so frustrating and annoying."
I had to work through these same feelings over the past few months because I didn't know what to do. I kept thinking, maybe this month it will happen! Maybe I can do this without intervention! And meanwhile best friends get knocked up with one shot, other friends have MCs and then carry a baby to full term all while I'm just still trying...and not having any results.
I've been angry. And frustrated. And angry some more. Then I see a cute baby on TV and I get angry...and cry, because I'm angry that this is so hard - but that I still want to achieve having a child of my own. But unlike my friends, I have to shell out $$$ to achieve that dream. And all they have to do is love their husband. I wanted to achieve it that way too. And I'm angry that it's not that simple for me.
It's a real mental battle. Who feels like they WANT to go the doctor so much and have so many people "down there" (besides their husband) before they are even pregnant? I don't. And I'm still trying to work through all of this as I'm a week away from my first RE appointment. I'm still in denial. But I'm also ready to feel like I'm moving forward.
...while still secretly hoping that this past "month off" results in a BFP (see?! denial!)
sigh...I think I needed to vent. Can you all tell?
-
@alie: The insurance thing sucks! We do not have insurance to cover our treatments (IVF) beyond anything diagnostic (and are actually still fighting to have DH's 2nd SA covered, my HSG was covered since it was diagnostic). So we used $$ we had been saving for a house downpayment for our first IVF (BFN unfortunately) and actually borrowed $$ from my gracious parents for our second attempt with frozen embryos this fall. I think this will be it for us for awhile if it doesn't work. Each frozen cycle is about $3,500 so we would have to save for a bit and maybe try again in the spring. Fresh cycle was about $11,000 but we did get 10 frozen embryos out of that, so we can do a few frozen cycles and hopefully have success without having to do a full fresh cycle again.
-
I want to hug all of you that have the added stress of insurance not covering your treatments...no one deserves that added stress to this already trying process.
-
@sweetooth: I totally feel your frustration. I've been angry, too, since learning about our IF issues. I have actually had a really hard time dealing with friends who have children or are pregnant, seeing anyone pregnant, TV, the works! I'm bitter because this isn't the way it is supposed to be! I'm mad that that pure simple joy of POAS and seeing two lines has been taken away from me. Having to pay to get pregnant makes me so mad, especially since there is no guarantee it will work.
But despite it all, I know it will be worth it in the end, like @brownie said. Even though I am going through it, too, I am so sorry that any of us has to deal with infertility. Plunging in and seeing an RE can be one of the toughest parts. It was hard for DH and I to admit to ourselves that this was our lot in life. Even though I have (mostly) accepted it now, DH still thinks a miracle will occur somehow and I guess it is kinda wonderful that he still has some hope.
Anyhow, I wish you much luck at the RE - at least you are moving forward and hopefully you will get some of the answers you are looking for.
-
@Leialou: I'm so sorry to hear that the surgery didn't work as you had hoped and I really hope that IUI will work for you guys. That is a lot for you and DH to go through!
-
@mrs. bird: The situation with your doc does sound really frustrating. But, I definitely understand not really wanting to switch up docs if you have to see an RE anyways. Are there other docs in the same practice that you could see without having to actually switch offices entirely? Is she willing to refer you to an RE? I know it can be tough to advocate for yourself when you feel like the doc is the professional (at least I have a hard time), but it sounds like you need to light a fire under her. This is your body and your life. Some docs are definitely more proactive than others. Mine actually told me to come back in 6 months if we weren't pregnant (I thought we would have to wait a full year) since everything seemed normal for us at first glance. Once we had some diagnostics showing there were issues, it was right off to the RE for us.
-
@Trailmix: Wishing you the best of luck for your IUI cycle!! And hope the injections don't give you too much trouble. I don't love them, but they haven't been terrible. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed for you!!!
dr put me on BC to regulate them & since we were getting married & wanted a baby ASAP, I came off BC a few months before our wedding because I wanted it out of my system & if we did get pregnant right away, we were both fine with it, so we were NTNP for a couple months, then started trying but my periods just got further & further apart. So it's been 16 months & no pregnancy.
off to call ins about REs!
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite3
2958 comments