I went to the OBGYN today for an "Infertility Consultation", basically a 15-20 minutes sit down with the doctor to discuss some options to get the baby factory working.
My doctor is great! I've couldn't be more grateful that she's the one I saw. She broke everything down to the basics in a language I understood regardless of how much I already knew. I guess she could of just thought I was dumb but, it was nice to have her explain things and validate the fact that I haven't done something horrible and that's why God is stopping me from having kids. Anyways, she asked me a lot of questions about my menstrual cycle and my experience with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). We talked about her thoughts on what's happening with my body, specifically my ovaries. She told me that in regards to fertility issues that PCOS is the easiest and least expensive problem to treat. She's confident that I'm simply not ovulating. Which is a relief but of course at this point its not 100% that it's the issue.
Based on the thought that I'm not ovulating, together we made a game plan. She jumped straight to IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) and said that it is definitely the most expensive and invasive way to get pregnant and only has a 50% shot at working. Don't worry....that's not what she wanted to start with. For her that is a last resort and I'm not even sure if that's something we'll want to do. Because of all the reasons though she recommended that we begin with baby steps and use medication to get my body to ovulate. I agreed and from there we created a plan.
On the 3rd-7th day of my cycle I will begin taking Clomid, a fertility medication, after that we'll have to do the deed every other day and then the wait will begin. Come the next month if I don't have a period it will be one of two reasons...1) I'm pregnant! 2) I didn't have my period just like normal. We'll be rooting for the first reason! After that I'll take a pregnancy test. If it's positive...YAYYAYA! If it's negative...we try again. Of course, couples that are "normal" even take a few months to get pregnant so it's probably not necessary to say that we'll more than likely have to try the Clomid for a few months. Clomid provides a 5-15% chance of getting pregnant. Which seems low but when IVF is only 50% it's not that bad. If after 4-5 months things aren't working out then we'll start with some other medications and move forward with a new plan. But, for now we're feeling good and confident that we just need to get some ovulation going on.
Before we start that though we have to wait a bit longer. We have four things to do before we can start the medication just to rule out some other causes of our infertile state....1) I had to have some blood work done to test my glucose, HCG, and thyroid. I had a feeling they would do this so I went to my appointment fasting which made quite convenient to go straight to the lab and have my blood drawn. One less appointment. 2) Dr. D wants to make sure my uterus is A-OKAY. So I have to get an ultrasound to check the shape, placement, etc. 3) I have to take my temperature every morning for about a month. That's how they track ovulation because when you're ovulating your body temperature increases ever so slightly. She's convinced I'm not but for good measure the thermometer and I will have a rendezvous every morning. 4) 40% of infertility cases are due to low sperm count. So, in three days we'll collect a "specimen" and run it over to the lab for testing. The hubs is super excited about that....
But yeah...that's where we're at. Now that I've finally gone to the doctor and have a plan in place I'm feeling a lot better. Thanks to those who encouraged me to go. It was hard to do. I was really anxious about it but, I'm SO grateful that I did it. Whatever happens..happens. And it'll be okay. I know that all of this is happening for a reason regardless of how much I know as to why. Heavenly Father is in control and I know that if we have faith regardless of whether or not we are able to have babies that we'll be okay. Some days will be hard and that will be that. But, we have faith and feel strongly that our little family will grow sooner or later.
