New girl

blackrose-9

Hello, my name is Samantha! My husband and I have been married for 3yrs. We're both 23 and we both decided that because we wanted a big family we would start right away. I wasnt on any birth control or anything like ( haven't been since I was 17 and that was only for a few months). Well months went by and it was almost a year worth of trying. I started to get the feeling something was wrong and that we should see a doctor. At the time my husband was active duty in the military and his contract was almost up so the doctor's there didn't really want to help me. They checked if my tubes were blocked (they were fine) and that's all they would do for me. We moved away once his contract was up and I joined the national guard to get us tricare again. We continued to try up until the point that i left for training. After my basic training/AIT, we started trying again. Here we are three years later with no luck. Now my periods can be a little irregular at times. For the most part I have a 34 day cycle, but every now and again I can have two periods a month or skip a month. I had a feeling this might be the problem. A few months ago I started going to the Arizona Reproductive Institute. There they did blood work and ultrasounds in order to see what is really going on. Turns out that my follicle count was a little on the high side...PCOS. I have a friend who has this and she has been struggling to get pregnant for 5 years now so instantly I was worried. But considering my period is only slightly irregular and my follicle count is just a little high she told me she thought things would be fine. I worked up the courage to call my mom who lives in another state and told her everything. Everyone has been asking about grandkids since everyone my age pretty much already have at least one kid. To make things worse two of my cousins who are my age both got pregnant the same week so everyone is waiting on me. Turns out my mom found out a few years ago she had pcos too, but that didn't stop her from having me and my two sisters. (She had me at 16) anyway, on December 28 my RE started me on my first round of clomid (50mg) and wished me luck. On day 15 I got my lh surge from the home ovulation kits and went in for an ultrasound and bloodwork.  I had two very big follicles ( larger one at 30 the second not far behind). She recommended a trigger shot just as a boost but then changed her mind after looking at my blood work. She said my levels were "hella high" and said that I didn't need the shot and to go home and "do my homework". That night my husband got sick..throwing up and everything. So nothing happened. The next morning (day 16) he was a little better but not well enough to do anything. Today is day 17 and we were finally able to do our "homework". I was so worried about our time frame that we did it around 1am. The rest of the day my husband had to work and I'm afraid that we lost our opportunity for this month. I'm trying to stay hopeful that this morning was enough to maybe get a positive, but at the same time I feel like I shouldn't even get my hopes up. We did have intercourse on day 10 and day 12 as well, but I'm not sure if that was close enough to the right time. Right now I'm just trying to relax and not get my hopes up. I go in on the 23rd to see my results so wish me luck! Sorry for the long story!

rainbowwishes5

Welcome and thank you and your husband for your service! 

carterh33

Welcome!

blackrose-9

Thank you

MariaBend25

Welcome to the group. I'm also a PCOS sister. However, the surprise cane that my husband has semen issues as well. I hope your doctor has done the work up on him too because you never know and at the very least it can remove him as a possible contributor to your IF. If it comes back abnormal your doctor might want to proceed to IUI or IVF so you don't waste your time trying naturally. My doctor won't put me on any stimulating drugs to get my ovaries to produce an egg unless we agree to do IUI, he says it would just risk the complications to the drugs and we would most likely not get pregnant. Worth checking in to. 

mandasd

Tricare covers nothing except testing. If at least one of you is active duty, there is a military infertility program. I know of two clinics, one in DC and San Diego (my clinic). You have to get a referral from your PCP but if you are accepted into the program, IUIs are covered 100% and IVF is significantly reduced (I'm paying $3950, inclusive of procedures and meds). If I was at a non-military clinic, I would be paying $4-8k for meds, 2k for testing and &12k for procedure. If you can figure out how to get into the military infertility clinic, I suggest doing it! 

blackrose-9

@MariaBend25 He has done his testing as well and everything was okay with him. He is completely covered by the VA so any issues that involves him would be handled by them. Thankful there wasn't and pcos is our only problem and hopefully stays that way. 

blackrose-9

@mandasand neither of us is active duty, but so far I just pay deductibles and the most I've paid was $65. If we have to do other things besides clomid then yes it'll be more expensive. But the infertility issue wasn't the reason we wanted tricare. 

funkykey

Welcome Samantha! Though I'm sorry you have to be here. I hope you find these boards helpful. I would have been beside myself if my DH were sick during my LH surge. I know, logically, that day 12 shold have been fine, but IF makes me anxious sometimes. I just want it to work so badly! I'm sorry you had that experience, and FX for you this cycle!!!

blackrose-9

@funkykey thank you. I know that he couldn't help it, but I was still so upset. I guess it's just a wait and see. If it's meant to be this month then it will happen. 

MariaBend25

That is good news for him! Our doctor was confident in treating my presumed PCOS until the tests showed problems on his end and confirmed PCOS for me. As AD AF, Tricare only covers testing, however our clinic will also give a military discount of 20% off procedures which is pretty nice. Perhaps you guys can ask for discounts if you can't get to the military infertility clinics mentioned earlier. I wish you luck as you explore your options!

blackrose-9

@MariaBend25 My husband is covered through the VA so before they would let us move to a fertility clinic they had to run tests on him. Any problems that would have been on his end would have been taken care of by the VA. Luckily he is fine and its just the PCOS. My RE feels confident that clomid will be all we need since I only have a few problems with the PCOS. She thinks the most we would have to do is IUI. Tricare doesn't cover past TI I believe, but the clinic does offer discounts for military members. Hopefully she is right and just a few cycles of clomid will do the trick!