A Re-Intoduction!

MBoylan27

Hi Everyone!

I was here quite a few months back but found that I needed to take a break from TTC for a while. I've noticed a lot of new names since I was last here so I figured I should introduce myself again!

My DH and I have been TTC since January of 2012 with no luck whatsoever. After a year of trying, we decided to go get checked out. After a couple of months worth of testing between our family doctor, my OBGYN and DH's referral to a Urologist, we received our diagnosis. I ovulate very irregularly (cycles are anywhere from 25-80 days long), and DH has a low sperm count and low motility. They found that his horomones are all ok so there aren't any meds that they're willing to give him to help increase his counts. Everything else with him seems to be ok (no blockages or anything) so they figure it's a testicular defect so there's really nothing he can do about it. Our RE suggested that because we both have these issues, that we should do IVF with ICSI. Unfortunatley, we have no coverage for fertility treatments so we are 100% out of pocket. After continuing to try while saving money for treatment, we ran into a few problems. I lost my job, we had to move, and we had 4 deaths in our family. I was having a very hard time dealing with everything and TTC seemed to make everything worse. We decided that we would take a break from TTC to work through some of these issues.

Well after a few months and a 2 week vacation road trip, we're back!! Since we decided to take the break, I've lost about 10 pounds and my cycles have seemed to regulate a little bit! I'm now anywhere from 25-35 days and I am quite alright with that! We've decided now that we're going to set up another appointment with our RE to discuss trying a few IUI cycles before IVF. Where we are, IUI is around $1500 per cycle while IVF with ICSI will cost us just under $9500 per cycle. I'm in a much better mindset than I was before and ready to tackle this head-on! Hopefully this change is exactly what we needed!

MrsLolaSky

Welcome back! (But sorry that you have to find yourself here, too.) It sounds like we have similar issues (MFI and the IVF-ICSI recommendation). Good luck to you! 

catlover790

Hi! I'm sorry for your losses in your family. I'm also sorry you lost your job (I have been laid off before too so I know how hard it is).

Congrats on the weight loss and I'm happy your cycles are regulating! Good luck with your next steps with TTC; I'm glad you're able to start TTC again!

shirleymaeby

Welcome Back!

Skkuss

Best of luck! You deserve it. So sorry for your cluster of recent struggles. Btw, is that IVF quote all inclusive with meds, freezing, etc.? I got a much higher quote.

BunnyBerry

Welcome back! So sorry for your losses. And sorry for the tough news you received.

I hope you had an awesome vacation! What a smart idea to have a great memory before jumping back in to TTC.

Will you have a repeat SA since it's been a while? That could give important information to confirm your plan for IUIs. That IVF quote is a little more than 6 times your IUI estimate, so if the RE points out your chances with IVF are greater than 6x higher, you may choose to do fewer or no IUIs? But I hope a repeat SA shows improved numbers!

MBoylan27

Thanks so much everyone!! It's so nice to have the support of people who know exactly what I'm going though. It means the world to me.

Skkuss: The IVF quote is a rough estimate including the meds (may change depending on my horomones and such at the time) without freezing. I forgot to ask about freezing so I'm not sure how much that would cost us. The other problem with IVF, is our local clinic can only do so much. We have to travel to a city 4 hours away to do the egg retrival and transfer. So there's a week of hotels and stuff tacked on as well.

BunnyBerry: Yes we plan to do a repeat SA. I'm really hoping that his numbers are better than they were before. Less stress and a healthier lifestyle = hopefully better news!

rainbowbridge14: I'm not sure what his numbers were last time around. They had him do so many SA's that the numbers started to jumble together. What was really weird was that his numbers would randomly fluctuate. They would be very poor for 3 or so tests, then one would be really good, then back down to poor. They're really not sure what's going on with him. We tried to keep the circumstances the same as possible before each SA as well so who knows.

I'm really hoping that everything tests a bit better than before so it might actually be worth it to try IUI. If it happens with IUI, then that would be amazing and save us a bunch of money. If it doesn't, we we're expecting to do IVF anyways. To me, it seems worth it to try but we'll just have to wait and see what the RE says.