Advice & personal experiences appreciated

nrbg116

Hello ladies, I've never posted here before and I was really sure where to post this but I hope some of you may be able to help me. My husband and I have a daughter who is 15 months. I got very sick after I had her and they finally diagnosed me with Crohns (autoimmune disease that is in your intestines). After some medication and lots of testing, I've now gone into remission (it's currently not active). We talked to my GI doctor and he said that the best time to get pregnant is when your relatively healthy and in remission. So we TTC for several cycles and finally went to see an OB/GYN. She suggested that we do the HSG (dye test) and a SA to rule them out. Well we found out my right tube is blocked and my husbands count is 3 million. So they are assuming my tube was not blocked until after I had my daughter. So they are saying that it's not even worth trying the clomid. They suggested my husband see a urology specialist and possibly have them fix it. So can you give me your experiences on what this would involve? Also what are the chances of us conceiving without IVF (which is what they recommended) Any advice on what you would do or have done would be great. We are so lucky to have our daughter and we'd love to have more children. We've been through so much within the last two years I'm tired of surgery and procedures. We are defiantly open to adoption as well down the road a little, we'd just have to do some serious saving! TIA!

Quizzle

Have you had your husband do a second SA? Have you talked to an RE?

 If not, I would definitely recommend both of those things. An RE is much more knowledgeable than your OB will be.

I don't know the chances with IUI, but  clomid was a bust for us. We did clomid with my OB then went straight to IVf after going to see the RE, based on his recommendation. However, our issue was severe MFI -- we had horrible motility and morph and lowish count, plus I had some ovulation issues. 

I will say, after our first SA came back terribly, our RE warned us that with those numbers we'd be looking at IVF and anything else was wasting our time, but he would not say it for certain until we'd confirmed the issue with a second SA.

nrbg116

Quizzle:

Have you had your husband do a second SA? Have you talked to an RE?

 If not, I would definitely recommend both of those things. An RE is much more knowledgeable than your OB will be.

I don't know the chances with IUI, but  clomid was a bust for us. We did clomid with my OB then went straight to IVf after going to see the RE, based on his recommendation. However, our issue was severe MFI -- we had horrible motility and morph and lowish count, plus I had some ovulation issues. 

I will say, after our first SA came back terribly, our RE warned us that with those numbers we'd be looking at IVF and anything else was wasting our time, but he would not say it for certain until we'd confirmed the issue with a second SA.

 

They never even mentioned doing a second one and I wonder if it wouldn't be so bad the second time. My husband is a firefighter and was at a call for 3 hours during the night prior so the heat and stress, that affects it right? 

I will look into seeing a RE soon. Do you mind my asking what the IVF costs? My understanding is that its around 10 thousand. That's a lot of money out of pocket for us.  

AvaLikeLava

IVF can cost between 9-12 K. You can discuss payment options with your clinic, as there may be assistance, payment plans, or even studies you can participate to discount your medications or procedures.

I'm sorry that you're in this place, and I hope your Crohn's continues to stay in remission.

ela81

Hi! I'm sorry you have to come over here.

Most defiantly get a 2nd SA, it could change. With that said, I don't want to give you any kind of false hope, it very well can come back low, maybe not as low but, low. I don't know what the chances are with IUI, we bypassed it. My husband currently has a zero sperm count and when he does have a count it's in the single digits so IVF/ICSI is for sure the only way we can go. 

I have uclerative colitis which similar to Crohn's. I'm glad to hear you are in remission!  I know there are differences but, I also know it can be painful and uncomfortable.

Ditto quizzle on seeing an RE.

In reference to the cost, yes, it is about $10,000 but they don't include the cost of meds and some ultasounds and blood tests. I think total we spent about $18,000 and that was w/ a small discount. ICSI is about $1,500-$3,000 more at most clinics.

Also, so I don't sound like a total debbie downer. We have at least 1 member on here that I know of who got a surprise pg and her husbands count was a little lower.

Good luck!

Yellow_Daisy

I personally wouldn't waste anymore time with an OB.  There job is to manage pregnancy and deliver babies, not get you pregnant.  Head to a RE because their job is to get you pregnant.

You definitely need another SA and you really should have it done with a urologist that specializes in male factor infertility, if you didn't already.  Getting a SA done with a primary or regular uro could lead to bad info.  For example, my DH did his first SA through our primary and a regular lab, they said his count was too low to count, but that he had sperm.  We then went to a urologist that specialized in infertility and he had two more SA's done and both were sent to a lab with a lot of experience with SA's, not just any old random lab.  What the inexperienced lab called too low to count were really round cells that are easily mistaken for sperm if a lab doesn't know what they're doing.  It turned out that my DH has a chromosomal defect and does not make sperm so that first SA was so so wrong.

I wouldn't jump right to IVF without really exploring your options.  I know women who have had a blocked tube that have gotten pg on their own, doing TI and with IUIs.  I really think you need to see a specialist and make them really go over things with you.

Also the prices for IVF really vary a lot.  IVF at my clinic is $8500, that includes everything for the cycle from beginning to end, with the exception of meds.

If you have more than one clinic in your area I would shop around.  If you don't have insurance coverage then you really need to do that.  Also you may not have coverage for IVF, but a lot of plans cover at least some of IUIs so make sure you look into that.  IUI and clomid are not your only options either, you could do IUIs and injectables before IVF if your RE thinks it's a viable option. 

Are you close to U of I?  My SIL works there and is IF and says that their clinic is doing really good work.  Maybe something to look into.

Good Luck!

etoyama

Hi there! I also have Crohn's, and though my tubes were technically open, we suspect they were significantly scarred as a result of an infection I sustained after an ileocolic resection. We did 3 IUIs (DH's SAs were all normal), but unfortunately none worked and we moved on to IVF. Looking back on it, I'm not sure how wise it was to do these IUIs given the increased risk of ectopic pregnancy when there are tubal issues. But that is a personal decision you'll need to make. Feel free to pm me if u want to chat further. Always happy to talk about Crohn's and TTC/pregnancy. And good luck in your journey!

EmilyAnne

I had two blocked tubes that were successfully cleared. I got pregnant with Femara + trigger + iui.  As the PP said, go seen an RE, their job is to get us pregnant. GL!

nrbg116

Yellow_Daisy:

I personally wouldn't waste anymore time with an OB.  There job is to manage pregnancy and deliver babies, not get you pregnant.  Head to a RE because their job is to get you pregnant.

You definitely need another SA and you really should have it done with a urologist that specializes in male factor infertility, if you didn't already.  Getting a SA done with a primary or regular uro could lead to bad info.  For example, my DH did his first SA through our primary and a regular lab, they said his count was too low to count, but that he had sperm.  We then went to a urologist that specialized in infertility and he had two more SA's done and both were sent to a lab with a lot of experience with SA's, not just any old random lab.  What the inexperienced lab called too low to count were really round cells that are easily mistaken for sperm if a lab doesn't know what they're doing.  It turned out that my DH has a chromosomal defect and does not make sperm so that first SA was so so wrong.

I wouldn't jump right to IVF without really exploring your options.  I know women who have had a blocked tube that have gotten pg on their own, doing TI and with IUIs.  I really think you need to see a specialist and make them really go over things with you.

Also the prices for IVF really vary a lot.  IVF at my clinic is $8500, that includes everything for the cycle from beginning to end, with the exception of meds.

If you have more than one clinic in your area I would shop around.  If you don't have insurance coverage then you really need to do that.  Also you may not have coverage for IVF, but a lot of plans cover at least some of IUIs so make sure you look into that.  IUI and clomid are not your only options either, you could do IUIs and injectables before IVF if your RE thinks it's a viable option. 

Are you close to U of I?  My SIL works there and is IF and says that their clinic is doing really good work.  Maybe something to look into.

Good Luck!

We are a little over an hour away & that is where my OB wants to refer my husband too. I'm happy to hear that they have been doing well there, I think we will defiantly go see them.

 

Thanks everyone for the responses. I'm really hesitant to get my hopes up. It really helps to know there's other people who I can talk too.