Ready..Set...GO!

Our consultation with Dr. Corfman was very positive and motivating. Although my cycles were quite abnormal, this was fixable with medication and monitoring. The sperm morphology results turned out to be okay as the levels reported weren’t low enough for concern that it would affect our fertility. We’d keep Jason on the vitamins and that’s it. At the end of the appointment, I took blood tests and had an ultrasound to check for PCOS and again….free and clear! One more thing checked off our list and off our worries.

The last thing we needed to do was a post-coital test to see if his sperm could survive in my cervical mucus. (you can probably assume what a post-coital test is, so I won't go into details) We had the test a week later and the results were not what we wanted to hear. None of the sperm survived. Although it wasn't good news, we now felt like we had an answer as to why we couldn't get pregnant and now we had a solution to fix this and make it happen. Instead of timed intercourse, we'd do inseminations to bypass the mucus and get the sperm where they needed to be.

We now had a plan of attack:

-          Day 2 of cycle:  Baseline ultrasound to check ovaries and make sure they are clear and also measure uterine lining to make sure it’s thin and ready to go

-          Days 3-7 of cycle:  10mg of Femara (Letrozole) daily to increase my follicle quantity and growth. (Letrozole is a non-FDA approved fertility drug like Clomid but without all the bad side effects)

-          Days 11 or 12 of cycle:  Ultrasound to measure uterine lining thickness and also measure the follicle quantity and sizes in ovaries

Depending on this second ultrasound and the thickness of the lining and the size of the follicles, we time the hCG injection to enduce ovulation. Ovulation occurs about 36-42 hours after injection and that's when we have our IUI (intrauterine insemination).

This was our plan for up to six cycles.
Dr. Corfman was confident to tell us that he didn’t plan on seeing us as patients long. I wish I had gotten that in writing.

Time for some help

It had been a year of TTC and now I was convinced I had no eggs (stupid ovulation kits), so I made an appointment with my OB to ask her for some help. Our meeting was short and constructive. We looked at my tracked cycle for the last year and my medical history and although she didn’t see any issues, our next step was a semen analysis for Jason and an HSG for me. Along with that was a referral to an RE (reproductive endocrinologist).

My thought:  So you mean you don’t just give me Clomid to take and I get pregnant? Nope. Not that easy.

For those of you who’ve had an HSG, then you know how much fun that is. Not. For those of you who haven’t had it, I don’t recommend unless you need to; injecting dye into your uterus and fallopian tubes isn’t as painless as you’d think. But the outcome was all I needed to ease my mind…free and clear! My uterine cavity and fallopian tubes were open and everything looked normal! As for the semen analysis, we had some concerns. The first test showed low count and low morphology so Jason started taking some fertility vitamins I found at GNC and a month later, retested. His levels were higher but the morphology was still a bit low. Although this was concerning…we assumed that we had found the issue and now we’d just need to overcome this and get pregnant!

Our first appointment with Dr. Corfman was December 2^nd, 2010. And here began our journey…

Bring on the ovulation kits

What can be so hard about peeing on a stick to find your ovulation cycle? Turns out really hard!!

The first kit I bought was the simple 7 day monitoring. I thought it would be super easy. Just follow the directions, pee on the stick every day and then I’d magically see the positive lines telling me that I was ovulating, right? Not quite. 

After two months of those kits and no positive ovulation sign, I stepped it up and bought the 20-day pack so I could test more days of my cycle. What if I was an early or late ovulator? Again, nothing. 

So I then bought two of the 20-day packs and tested twice a day during my next cycle. This is when I started to get scared. The “what if I have no eggs?!” thoughts started to set in.

Not only had I spent a hundred some dollars on these stupid tests, but how accurate were they and did I really have something to worry about?? Were my ovaries empty tombs??