My Infertility Journey/First IUI

TheHauntedHauswife

Hi Everyone,

This is the first thread ive started. Ive been lurking for a bit and wanted to finally post my story in hopes of finding other moms/moms to be that could relate.

Ive purposely kept it to myself and a just a few friends, but its definitely tough and frustrating =/

My husband (now 31) had colon cancer in 2012. Before his surgery his doctor said there was a 3% chance they could potentially nick something and leave him infertile.

They recommended we bank his sperm just encase... Post surgery he did go on to have both Chemo and Radiation, so we figured it couldn't hurt to be safe and keep paying the storage fees.

Here we are in 2015, TTC and decided we would check his sperm count jussssttt encaseee.

We never expected there to be an actual issue.

When we found the results out they said it to us like it was a huge joke. They told us there was 1.....

Not 1 million... not 1 thousand... literally ONE. One lone sperm where millions should be.

Calls to the sperm banks various departments of very unhelpful people and doctors and all kinds of stressful nonsense.... 

I have found a midwife office that i feel comfortable with and will be attempting the IUI.

I should start my cycle in a few days and from there we will be attempting to figure out the right day.

I did have years of logged periods, but only 2 months of logged ovulation. So this first one is a little bit risky.

I went out and got the clear blue sticks that give you 3 options in the window -  low, high and peak instead of just 2 options or lines. 

I will start tracking using those and hopefully be able to get into the office just in time.

Its definitely stressful, trying to figure out what day to order the sperm, what day to pick it up, will it be soon enough? will it be too late?.

Having such a short window to make all the planets align is definitely stressing me out and i know that's not helpful at all. 

I would love to meet some other ladies dealing with similar things!\

Thanks for reading

-Chloe

welovehawaii

Welcome to the board and thank you for sharing your story. I do not have any experience with IUI so I am not much help. This board is full of so many supportive women who are going through similar experiences. I wish you the best of luck on your journey!

Drove2u

Sorry you're going through this. Has your husbands sperm been checked recently? It could be fine still.

AdorkablePixie

I am not in the same boat as my DH's SA was fine, but I am getting my first IUI in August as well. I will keep my fx for you that everything works out! GL.

TheHauntedHauswife

Yeah we actually waited until recently to check it for the first time. Which in retrospect might have been a good idea to have checked much much sooner. The test was i think in late June or early July, it was recent.

TheHauntedHauswife

Aww Thanks @AdorkablePixie. Fingers crossed for you too

Drove2u

Yes FX!! I'm confused. You did freeze the sperm and it was just one or you recently had an analysis done and it was one while fresh?

Drove2u

I assume he followed all the introduction too? With abstaining? Is it because of his cancer?

MKLEWIS2010

Hi, my DH actually had cancer as a child when he was 4. He did a SA in December and he has Low count and morphology. We are doing IVF with icsi. I just want to clarify that you are using the frozen sample for IUI? Will you be using the entire sample? If that is the case I would push for IVF that way you have a few embryo's just in case it doesn't work. Even though you don't have the problem nothing is guaranteed. At least with IVF you could potentially end up with a few good quality embryos and if it doesn't work the first time you can do another round. Have you seen an RE?

ErikaMG

Thank you for sharing your story. I'm trying my first IUI in September or October (must complete all the tests first). My own journey is different, but my heart goes out to you and your husband, and I am keeping all my fingers crossed for you! I hope your road to parenthood is smoother from here!

TheHauntedHauswife

@Drove2u  We have 10 viles of perfectly healthy high count sperm. Our sperm bank doesnt allow at home insemination. So we have to do it through a doctor. Yes he followed all the rules that were given to him by the sperm bank. All of the viles were tested and had high counts.

We got his current sperm tested to see if we could avoid using the banked sperm, but found out that yes we HAVE to used the banked sperm.

TheHauntedHauswife

@MKLEWIS2010 - Yes we are used the frozen sperm for IUI. We have 10 viles so we are willing to try one or two this way before going for IVF. I have a my own medical condition and issues that we all feel its best to try out the IUI before going into all that IVF entails. Basically we are trying to do it as low key and simple as we possibly can first and go from there. If it fails after a month or two, we will likely consider IVF and seeking out a doctor for that.

TheHauntedHauswife

@ErikaMG Thank you so much! I hope you have lots of luck as well!

Drove2u

Ok got it. Sorry I was confused for a bit. That's great that you have so many vials of banked sperm. Surely something will work out then. :-) good luck to you.

MKLEWIS2010

@TheHauntedHauswife that sounds like a great plan! I am really rooting for you. I hope IUI works and you don't have to go to IVF. Good luck and best wishes on this journey!

jdl330

FIrst I want to say that you guys have been through a lot and it shows your strength as a couple that you can get through anything together! Second, I would suggest going through an RE.  I know many people prefer midwives, but since you only have so many chances you want someone with the most knowledge and experience with fertility procedures.  They would monitor your hormones through blood work and perform ultrasounds, so the timing of the IUI would not be left up to the OPK (I had no luck with the advanced OPK because it's not accurate for people with PCOS and other hormonal issues). Good luck to you, I wish you and your hubby the best!

TheHauntedHauswife

Im definitely aware that this may not be the #1 best way to have the highest success rate. I just feel extremely comfortable with the midwives office (as i use the office for my yearly checkups as well) and want to just at least give it a shot first. I am willing to take a little bit of a chance but not too much. So I am thinking if i do not get pregnant within 2 cycles with everything i already have planned and set up with this office, I will go to a more 'skilled' office/doctor/professional. We likely will only want to have 2 children and my thinking is that i want to have 5 viles of opportunity for each baby (meaning i really dont want to go past using 5 of the 10 with baby #1 if we can avoid it). I totally realized that this is just a want and not necessarily will end up being the reality. Being that nothing has officially gone wrong yet, I feel as though i need to at least give this a shot the way i currently feel most comfortable and then go from there while still being smart about how much of a risk I take with the limited supply we do have.

MKLEWIS2010

You always have to do what you feel is best and is most comfortable to you. I have my FX it works.