#33-Fertility

On the addvise of a good friend,
I decided to write about my experience
of trying to get pregnant.

Warning! I plan to be blunt about how the
female reproductive system works.

Best place to start is at the beginning...
15 years old, had my first period. Never had
a regular cycle. Would miss up to 6 months
between cycles. Was 30 years old when place
on birthcontrol pills to regulate my periods.
Was 33 when I was diagnosed by a dr with having
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrom (PCOS). This is the
leading cause of infertility in the US. Basically
there are some problems with my hormones, so folicals
in my overaries start to develop, but never complete
through ovulations. So, no egg, no baby.

I started fertility treatment with my first husband,
but it ended with our marriage.

When Marco and I knew we were heading toward
marriage we started our journey toward
pregnancy. So in early 2009 I got off the
pill and started taking other medications that
would help regulate my cycle, but allow for
the possibility of pregnancy.

Nothing happened.

We were married in September of 2009, in December
he added me to his insurance. We are very
fortunate thathe has medical insurance that will
pay for fertility treatment, up to $24,000.
My insurance, while very good, would not touch
fertility treatments with a 10 foot pole.

In February of 2010, we met with Dr. Dudley at
Seattle Reproductive Medicine (SRM). He was very
kind and understanding. He said we didn't have
time to waste, since we knew what the problem was.
He had a plan, and we started working on it.

I was going to see a nutritionist and work on
loosing some weight, and in the mean time we
would start on fertility drugs. I started the
drugs at the end of March. We went back at the
April, since I was spotting, and the pregnancy
tests were negative.

They desided to do an ultrasound and an HSG. An
HSG is where they inject saline solution with
idodine and take x-rays at the same time. They
are checking to make sure the falopian tubes are
open and clean out the uterus. At that time they
found a mass in the uterus. He believed that
is was a uterine polyp. We scheduled a Hystoscopy
(where they put a little camera up to check around)
It has to be done during a certine time during a
cycle, so back to the birthcontrol pills.

The Hystoscopy showed 3 polyps. 2 small ones on
either side and a large one hanging down from the
top of the uteris. It is not possible to carry a
child to term with these polyps, we we schedule
surgery for the end of July.

July 30th I went to NW Hospital to have outpatient
surgery. It went smoothly, all the polyps were removed.
After a month of recovering, we started the fertility
treatments again.

Started taking the fertility drugs again. With
fertility, so much is about the timing/days.
Day one is the first day of full flow on my
cycle. Day 3-7 I take the fertility drugs.
Day 12 I go into the dr office for an ultrasound.
They are checking to see if I have any mature
folicals ready to pop/ovulate. I did, but needed
an extra day to get a little bigger. So the next day
(day 13) I went back to the doctor's for a shot of
hormones that will stimulate ovulation. Day 14 we
return to the doctor's office for artifical
insemination. Marco had his visit at 9am. They
take his "sample" and do an analysis and "wash"
it to concentrate the sperm. I returned at 11am
and they are able to inseminate me with his sample.
Now we are waiting. It takes 15-18 days for the
pregnancy hormones to accumulate enough to be
read by a test.

So October 2nd seems like forever away, but it
is less then 2 weeks away.

We both want this so bad. I am scared to totally
beleive thatit will happen this time. I don't
want to be disappointed if it doesn't happen
this time. We are going to try this 3x, if it
doesn't work, we have to consider IVF. In the
mean time I have to keep working on loosing
weight, and hope for the best.