Forming A Game Plan

Today, Drew and I went to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist. The man who's, hopefully, going to help me get pregnant. Well, along with my husband, right? Haha!

Anyway, we had our first consultation with him. We sat and talked with him for an hour and a half and formed a plan on how we're going to attack this infertility issue. Obviously, our goal is for me to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and deliver a healthy baby.

We all know how a baby gets made right? Well, the ovary releases an egg. Then, the fallopian acts like a sort of vaccuum to suck up the egg. The egg then gets fertilized by the sperm in the tube. It travels through the tube and implants in the uterus. Life has started.

Well, for me, when the tube acts like a vaccuum sucking up the egg, it also sucks up a whole bunch of other gunk (like endo), which acts like "battery acid" to the sperm. Once the sperm hits it, it kills it, giving it no chance to fertilize the egg.

There are 5 levels of aggression when it comes to trying to make a baby.

• Level 0 is no contraception. That could take a couple up to 2 years to conceive.
• Level 1 is Well Timed Sexual Intercourse. This is using charting and/or ovulation predictor kits to time sex around fertile periods. This will take a couple up to 1 year to conceive.
• Level 2 is using fertility meds to increase the number of eggs that are released and using WTSI. This will take anywhere from 6-8 months.
• Level 3 is allowing the body to release one egg, but doing an IUI. An IUI is an Interuterine Insemination. This is injecting the sperm into the uterus so that the sperm has less that they have to swim. This will take about 5-6 months to conceive.
• Level 4 is using fertility meds to increase the number of eggs that are released and an IUI. This will take 3-4 months to conceive.
• Level 5 is In-Vitro Fertilization. IVF is taking my eggs and Drew's sperm and fertilizing the egg outside of the body. Then, transferring embryos to my uterus and praying feverishly that at least one sticks. This will typically take a couple 1-2 months to conceive.

I told the doctor that my choice was Level 5. No questions asked. Let's get this done, Doc! Ahhhh, but life can't be so easy. You see, the insurance company has to approve such a procedure. And obviously, IVF is quite a costly procedure. So, insurance companies like to see at least a couple tries with IUIs.

Are you asking the same question I did? "But Doc, if my tubes are like battery acid to the sperm, what's the point? Won't that just be a waste of time and money?" Apparently they don't look at it that way.

So, our game plan. Drew will be doing a semen analysis (S/A). I have to do Day 2 bloodwork. Then, when those results come back, he will decide if he wants to do an SIS or an HSG on me. Basically, those are just looking inside my uterus to see if there are any abnormalities. If there are, I will be scheduled to have a hysterescopy to remove them. After all of that, we will then strategize whether we doing Level 4 or Level 5.