Talking about a Taboo Topic!

"We have 4 dogs, no kids"

Unexplained Infertility, What a Brilliant Diagnosis... I feel so much better, NOT!!

I am posting this because it will be easier to update my blog than everyone individually. It's easier this way to talk about it. Please don't ask me about the in vitro. When it is good news I will tell you. When it is bad news, which is has been for years and still continues, it is really hard to explain that my heartbreak continues. You are welcome to leave comments.

So here is the story. Corey and I got married 14 years ago and I said "Lets have kids" It took years for his answer to change from "NO" to "OK" So we started trying and... nothing. Finally a doctor is called and involved in what is usually a very easy private matter for most people.

The doctor test this and test that…. nothing. (Believe me we tested everything and all results were and are normal)…nothing. Then try this and that (clomid and artificial insemination) about 6 times… each... nothing. Then surgery, a laparoscopy to remove a small amount of scar tissue from one ovary, and the doctor says “you’ll be pregnant in 3 months”…nothing! So we try for another while before we decide to bit the bullet and pay big bucks for in vitro.

Quick explanation of In Vitro: A Fresh Cycle is when injected medications stimulate my ovaries to produce a huge amount of eggs. Normally 1 a month and in September they retrieved 27 eggs. The eggs are retrieved and fertilized (yes, they do put me under for this procedure). The healthiest embryos are transferred either 3 or 5 days later. Usually only 2 embryos are transferred. The remaining embryos are then frozen to use later. A Frozen Cycle is much simpler because they simply thaw, let the embryos grow and transfer the embryos.

“60-70% chance of pregnancy” the doctor says. So 6 weeks of daily shots, drives to salt lake 2-3x a week, blood tests at least 3x a week then we consult with the doctor before a little surgery to remove the eggs. We tell him we want to do ICSI (intercytosperminjection). Inject the sperm into the egg even though all test results are normal we are thinking “let’s do this right.” The Dr. quickly glances at our chart and tells us “you have plenty of eggs, it’s another $1200 (which when you see the total bill of in vitro another $1200 is nothing) and you can do it later if the eggs don’t fertilize without changing anything.” A little anesthesia and I am feeling great until… the next day he calls and reports…… Nothing happened!!! No fertilization but we can still do rescue ICSI so great we say “Do IT.” Later we find out then when ICSI is done just after egg retrieval it doesn’t change the chances. However, the egg begins to die at 8-10 hours so ICSI at 18 hours after retrieval means almost nothing, as in less than 10% chance of pregnancy. We transfer 3 eggs but know we have a very, very small chance of success. Nothing!! I was completely and totally devastated. No embryos to freeze. Now we are down 1 failed in vitro, and money doesn’t grow on trees so we continue trying and working for another chance.
We decided to do in vitro in September 2009. Everything looked great all the way until a few days before the pregnancy test. There were symptoms that it didn’t take so we confirm the negative pregnancy and move onto the next step. We have 7 frozen embryos. 4 are good. They thaw them and update us. It didn’t go very well with the first 5 they thawed so all 7 were thawed. They called the next day to report…. nothing, as in nothing was growing and not to leave to go to Boise. (We are doing all the preliminary work here with a nurse but the actual procedure is in Idaho.) There was a very small chance that it could change overnight, so we stuck around just in case and waiting for the news. Nothing had changed except our travel plans. Since we were not going to Boise we decided to go to St. George and Vegas. We had a wonderful trip and lots of fun.

Now we are gearing up for another fresh cycle. We have the $2000 of medications. We have the bulk of the procedure already paid for when we signed up for a Shared Risk Plan. Meaning, we pay more in the beginning, but we don’t have to pay any more of the actual procedure cost for fresh or frozen for a total of 3 fresh cycles and using all the frozen embryos. Don’t think that it’s paid for just yet. Each fresh cycle required medication, anesthesia and a 3 other lab fees and frozen cycles still require medications (although much less medication) and 2 lab fees. The other part is that if we go through all 3 fresh and remaining frozen we will get a chunk of money back that will cover half of adoption costs.