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tislay84 · June 2013

Newbie here and looking for some advice and words of wisdom. My husband and I are ready to start trying for our second child and we have an appointment next week for a consultation to get the process started.

Some background: We have a daughter who just turned 2. I am in nursing school (graduating in December!) and my husband is a firefighter. At the end of February he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and he is finished with treatment and we're just waiting to see the doctor one more time to get the all clear. When he was first diagnosed he did sperm banking and we are now ready to have another child.

I really have no idea what to expect in the coming months and was hoping to get some insight. I think we're going to start with IUI for a couple of months and then move on to IVF if it's not looking good with the IUI.

How do they monitor your cycle? What kind of meds are used? Success rate? What can I expect?

HairStylinWifey · June 2013

I'm assuming that even though your issue is with your DH that they will still want to do a work up of tests on you as well. Bloodwork, ultrasound, hsg, etc to make sure you are primed and ready to go. You wouldn't want to waste that special, saved up sperm on the risk that something could need to be fixed beforehand!

With my 3 IUI's I did letrozole on cycle days 3-7, had a monitoring ultrasound on cd 12, would use an injection called Ovidrel to cause me to ovulate, and then we would have the IUI a day or so later.

Your success rate should just bring you up to a normal, healthy couple with IUI. So, around 20%. My success rate was lower, more like 12-15%.

For me, the IUI's weren't a big deal at all. I didn't have much in the way of side effects from the Letrozole or the Ovidrel. I was usually just crampy the day of IUI and then all was good again.

Oh, they also had me start progesterone suppositories 4 days after trigger each cycle.

Hope this helps a little! Feel free to ask any other questions!

whirli · June 2013

I can't help with IUI protocols since my RE has moved us straight to IVF due to DOR but just wanted to say welcome and good luck!!

tislay84 · June 2013

Thank you so much for the information! I know I'm scheduled for at least an ultrasound right now but they didn't say anything about an hsg so I'm not sure if they're planning to do one or not at this point. I talked to my insurance today and they'll cover diagnostic procedures but no meds or procedures to actually get me pregnant so I'm a little worried about that cost

HairStylinWifey · June 2013

tislay84:
Thank you so much for the information! I know I'm scheduled for at least an ultrasound right now but they didn't say anything about an hsg so I'm not sure if they're planning to do one or not at this point. I talked to my insurance today and they'll cover diagnostic procedures but no meds or procedures to actually get me pregnant so I'm a little worried about that cost

Yep. Most insurance won't cover any treatment. They covered my testing up to diagnosis and then we were completely out of pocket after that. It's hard and we've had to give up a lot to do it, but having another child is so important to us we're willing to make the sacrifices we have to for the chance to try. But, good grief it's so expensive!

slstine19 · June 2013

Welcome. I just want to say that our experience was pretty much the same as HairStylinWifey, but we used Follistim for our meds. Good Luck!

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