A Big Decision

I know some of you are anxiously awaiting my husband's recent Semen Analysis (SA) results, but unfortunately I don't have them yet! I've called the clinic 4 times and finally they told Daniel that he has to make an appointment with the Urologist before he can get the results. I don't know if that's a good or a bad sign. But hopefully he can get an appointment soon because I'm very anxious to get his updated stats.

On another note, while we've been in limbo waiting for Daniel's results, I can't help but feel that we'll get more bad news. Or at least, not the news we were hoping for. We were hoping for this surgery to be the "miracle" event that turned everything around and would allow us to conceive naturally. After over 3 years of disappointments and bad news, I'm preparing myself to hear that there's no significant change.

Last week I went to another Fertility Specialist (not my usual RE, he left the practice so I met with someone new). I was there to refill a prescription but the appointment turned into something else. He wanted to know what our plan was if the new SA results were not what we are hoping for. He said that we could continue to do IUI's, but with a very low morphology the chance of conception would be about 7% per cycle. If we continued trying naturally, the chances would be about 3%.... What?! When we did the IUI last year I was told we had about a 25% chance, thus why we did it. I'm not sure if these statistics are accurate but it was concerning to hear a doctor tell me that.

To get to the point, I asked the doctor what our chances would be with IVF. He said 50-60%. He told me that he would absolutely recommend we go this route if Daniel's results haven't significantly improved. He said we would have a very good chance given our situation and my age. We then discussed the process, cost, financing, how many eggs they would expect to get from me, what we would do if it didn't work, etc. And I started to feel more comfortable with the notion, but I knew this is something I would need to talk to Daniel about.

So that night over dinner, Daniel and I discussed IVF. I told him the cost would be about $15,000, but with a 50-60% chance, we have very good odds. Is it worth the cost? Absolutely! We desperately want a family of our own, and it would be SO worth it.

After much deliberation, we made a decision. We are going to start saving as much as we can for IVF. If I'm still not pregnant by Thanksgiving (6 months from now), then we will start the process for IVF at the end of the year, or early 2015 depending on timing of things. We hope to save up at least half of the amount we need, and then we will have to finance the rest.

This plan gives us plenty of time in case we do miraculously conceive on our own, in which case the money we are saving can go towards the pregnancy and birth. But if I'm still not pregnant, I don't want to continue waiting for a miracle. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions and take action to make that miracle happen.

I'm actually really excited about this plan! I feel that we have a very good chance with IVF, and that this decision brings us one step closer to our soul baby. If you want to learn more about IVF, click here.

Thoughts? Advice? Suggestions for raising money? Feel free to comment!

Urologist Update!

Daniel went to his first urology appointment today. Unfortunately I couldn't go with him, but I made sure he had all of the appropriate paperwork and forms he needed, including a copy of his Semen Analysis (SA). Daniel told me that the urologist was pretty quick to suggest after reviewing the SA that he could have high estrogen levels, which are often caused by (and a symptom of) being overweight.

Both men and women produce estrogen and testosterone from the pituitary glands. So we all have both in our system, but in women the estrogen is dominant thanks to our ovaries, and in men testosterone is dominant thanks to the testes. Fat can actually turn testosterone into estrogen (who knew?!). Too much estrogen can damage sperm. This would explain why his count and volume are good, but the  motility is low. We will need blood work to confirm this of course, but I think it makes sense. I still need to do some research to see if this could impact morphology as well.

The urologist also examined Daniel's "fellas" and didn't really find anything concerning there, which is good. We were both worried about a varicocele but it sounds like that's not the issue. So no surgery! The urologist suggested that Daniel lose about 30 lbs and hopefully that will help decrease estrogen levels.

I'm curious to see what the blood work shows and if weight loss is the answer. It sounds simple to me but I'm not the one who has to lose weight, so I hope Daniel can stay motivated and make a commitment to getting healthy and losing weight to better our chances of conceiving. I know he wants this as badly as I do so I will try my best to support him and even work out with him if needed.

I'm so happy that we didn't get bad news today! I really feel like this is something we can work with. Like I said, we don't know for sure if the estrogen is the issue but after reading up on it I think it fits. We'll find out in about 3 weeks when Daniel gets the blood work done. I'll keep you all posted!