Patience!

Today I had a follow up with my RE, Dr. T. The past few weeks I've been feeling really down and gloomy about our TTC situation and I was hoping to get some hope or at least a plan of action for the next few months. I've been especially occupied with deciding whether or not to have another surgery to fully remove my septum.

First off, Dr. T said that in his opinion I do not need a 2nd resection surgery on my septum. He said he will do it if I really want it, but he believes my uterus to be in an arcuate configuration now which is considered a "normal variant" of the uterine shape. He reminded me that the septum is not why we haven't gotten pregnant yet, but I'm still worried about miscarriages since I still have a higher risk for them. I'm worrying about a hypothetical situation, but that's what this whole TTC journey is about...what if I never have a baby? So I'm trying my hardest to focus on one thing at a time; let's just try to get pregnant and see how it goes.

I then asked him about IUI and what our chance would be if we went that route, and he said about 5-10% per cycle. Because of Daniel's low morphology he said an IUI would not increase our chances by very much.

Remember, only 2% of Daniel's sperm are "normal" but he has plenty of them, over 115 million total. Eggs will only allow normal sperm to penetrate them because they have special sensors that can tell if a sperm is defective. With so many abnormal sperm crowded around the egg, the strong healthy sperm have a hard time reaching it and therefore conception hasn't occurred. Dr. T said its like at a concert, if you are in the back it will be very hard making your way to the stage, you have to get past all those people first. Same goes with the sperm, there are just so many that are abnormal, they are blocking the path for the normal ones.

Dr. T recommends we wait and see if Daniel's weight loss makes a difference with the morphology. If not, we can continue trying naturally and hope it happens that way, or we can move forward with IVF (which is really expensive!)

So for now, we're just going to wait it out. Daniel has been working REALLY hard to lose weight and he's already lost 15 lbs! I'm so proud of him for working so hard and trying to get healthy. His next urology appointment is mid-June and hopefully I will be able to go with him since I tend to ask all of the tough questions :) I really hope we don't have to resort to IVF, but Dr. T assured me that I WILL be pregnant someday, it's just a matter of when. So for now, I just have to be patient! But man, that's easier said than done.

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!

Making progress!

Before I had the hysteroscopy, Daniel and I decided that we would take a few months "off" of TTC so I could give my body and mind a break. And I should clarify, by taking the past 3 months "off" just means that we haven't been doing my typical routine of OPK's, temping, etc. But that doesn't mean it's been off of my mind by any means. The question has been lingering in my head, "What's next?"

So Daniel and I talked it over and we finally scheduled an appointment with a Urologist on May 6th. The doctor he will be seeing specializes in male infertility so I'm confident he'll find what's wrong. I am SUPER excited!!! I'm just so grateful that Daniel is finally ready to take a step forward and hopefully get some answers. We both hope that whatever is causing his low motility and morphology will have a quick fix. We both think it could be a varicocele, which would require a minor surgery and Daniel would have to take some time off to recover. But he says he's willing to do whatever it takes. I'm so happy that he feels as ready for this as I do; it would be so much harder if he didn't.

And I've been giving more thought on my septum and having a 2nd surgery and I've decided that I'm not going to worry about it for now. I've heard so many stories of women having babies WITH a septum as big as mine was. I'm hoping that now it's much smaller that my chances of having any pregnancy complications will be much less. I don't want to put my body through another surgery if I may not need it.

Also I bought myself a bunch of Wondfo pregnancy tests online and will start using those this month. I've never been big on testing like I know a lot of other women are, but I think it's something I should be doing now to catch a Chemical Pregnancy (CP) if I have one. Plus knowing I'm not pregnant will make it easier when Aunt Flo finally decides to show her ugly face. It will still be hard like it is every month, but at least I'll know she's coming and make sure to have a bottle of wine on hand (or two!)

So I'll probably give another update after the appointment with the urologist. I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Talk to you soon!