Will I be pregnant by next fall?
I finally had the phone consult with Dr. Green. I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it. After checking out all of our medical records, everything looked good to him except our SA's (sperm analysis). Apparently the criteria the lab has been using is from 1992, and it's not a complete analysis anyway. Both of those, mixed with low post-was counts point toward a problem...and it's not with me. The majority of the conversation was spent talking about IVF being our best option because of possible MFI (male factor infertility). I listened to the facts, and I tried to have an open mind, but I couldn't help thinking "don't you need to thouraly test us before you give us the IVF speach?"
Of course in order to prove his suspicions our next step would be to to visit a specialist and get ourselves a proper SA. And I'm trying to keep in mind that Dr. Green is just doing his job and giving us the facts, but we don't want to be pushed into something as drastic as IVF without getting fully tested-in person-before we proceed with anything. He did give us a few reasons why we would be wasting our money to continue with IUI's though:
- We have yet to work with anyone that specializes in infertility. So although they know the basic information, they may not be up to date on thier research or procedures.
- An IUI should not be done with less than 5 million sperm. Our highest count was 2 million.
- Even with a good egg turn out and good sperm, each IUI only has a 15% success rate. I only produced one egg each time, and our count was low.
- With my single eggs, and our post-wash counts, we've been looking at a 4% success rate each cycle. So it's possible, but not probable for an IUI to work for us.
Would we ever do IVF? Probably not. Is our sperm inadequate and the reason we aren't pregnant after almost two years? Possibly. If that's our only problem, can vitamins alone improve our count enough to get pregnant on our own? Maybe. Will we be pregnant by next fall? I hope so.
"Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will."
-Dr. Robert Anthony
4 comments:
Wow..that was a lot of information you got from your phone call. We have MFI and one interesting point to make is that though we aren't dealing with "azoospermia" or no sperm at all....the morphology, motility and overall counts are low. When I was at my Egg Retreival they Dr's said they were going to perform ICSI on only 1/2 of the 16 eggs that they retreived. I said "fine" because we didn't even think we really needed ICSI b/c his sperm weren't terrible. Turns out, they can not penetrate which is a BIG reason we are not pregnant. Though the sperm shape/form and motility aren't great...the sperm can't do their job. None of them could. So, we had to ICSI all of them and learned the big reason for our infertility. Maybe you can request further testing for your husband and a sperm penetration test where they test that....just a theory. Best of luck, my thoughts and prayers are with you!
I found your blog not too long ago, and I enjoy reading it; it seems your thoughts/reactions are much along the lines of mine.
I always need time to decompress post- meeting with a doctor. Not saying yours was impersonal, but the majority of mine are, and if I let their words impact me fully, I feel pretty helpless the rest of the day!
I've learned to take what you need from each doctor. They seem to have a "clue" for us, but we and our husbands are the ones who will really put these puzzels together and make this happen.
Your husband has "the goods." So do you. I believe it will happen, you are not "infertile", it just hasn't happened yet. You know what is right for you and your husband. My husband and I are in the same boat, so I understand your pain. I'm right there with you!
Glad to hear you finally had the appt. I totally understand the whole IVF thing. Everytime I go to the RE it seems that they keep pushing IVF and I am just not sure if that is right for us. Even if we had an extra $20 lying around it would take a lot of thinking and praying to decide what to do. I want to completly exhaust our iui option before I even sit down with my RE to discuss IVF. DH will be doing an SA next week that will be looked over by an embryologist - I'll let you know the kind of info we get from that compared to the first SA he had done. With any luck at all we might both be pregnant by next fall!
I just found your blog and can relate to your story...
thank you for sharing. My husband and I have been blessed with one miracle through IUI and one through adoption. Infertility will always be with me. It is part of who I am. My prayers are with you!
Sarah
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