Sunday, January 13, 2008

Starting to get started

I'm in a busy work cycle, which helps keep my mind off the pending IVF. To a small degree. (Note that I logged on today to do some actual work.) We are still in waiting mode, sort of. Waiting for the real ART business to start. That makes me anxious, because I like to be in doing mode. No doubt, though, I'll become a basket case when the doing gets under way.

Two appointments this week, injection training next week, and then I'll be off and running with the serious meds. BCPs, which I'm currently on, are for babies. Ha! I meant "babies," as in neophytes or wimps, obviously (to me). That sentence just struck me as funny since under normal circumstances BCPs are for no babies.

Tomorrow is DH's SA update. This will be his third one, and I hate it for him. You know what an SA is, right? It's a semen analysis. He gives them a sample, and they evaluate its quality, looking at criteria such as count, motility, morphology, volume, progression, viscosity, pH, and WBC. Have even one SA done, and you'll be tossing around those terms and what the measurements mean in no time. Especially when the dx is one of severe MFI. You will also learn that there is much disagreement about what constitutes a good or bad result, that nobody really knows what to do to improve a bad result, and that science has come through in a big way with the funding and development of ART therapies that make a bad result a non-issue (as long as you pursue said ART therapies). I certainly applaud that the research has been done and that solutions exist. Don't get me wrong. It's just that I can't help pointing out that no similar line can be drawn from female-specific IF factors to equally successful ART therapies.

The clinic could not accommodate an early morning or end-of-day appointment for DH, so it will be a nooner.

Is that too crass for a blog? Look, I have to entertain myself. I don't plan to write about every single bit of personal biz that goes into the whole circus. (Well, maybe I will in some form, but it won't always be explicitly related to my personal biz.) But you can't give an honest accounting of the fertility-treatment experience without acknowledging the extreme personal nature of what it means to seek medical intervention in order to have a child.

As a couple, we've paid our dues trying naturally and done all the main fertility tests (some of them multiple times), and yet I also want to point out that we haven't even scratched the surface of the full range of testing available. Tests we haven't done haven't been indicated, so for that I am grateful. Unless they should have been indicated and we are wasting our time.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Popped over from Stirrup Queens to say welcome you to Infertile Island. It sucks being here, and I hope you get your ticket to shore sooner rather than later.

I'm 39, have PCOS, a wee fibroid, and Mr Oro has aged sperm (he had 4 SA's overall), but my egg quality was excellent (yay), so despite the 101 cycles and 8.5 years of trying, with IVF, ICSI, and Assisted Hatching we've actually got a kid on the way.

You are doing ICSI, no? I don't know if it's standard for us oldies to begin with BCPs, but that's what I began with too before starting the Lupron, Follistim, and Menopur. Weirdly, the IVF was rather anticlimatic after the years of trying.

in any case, I hope things go well for you with the SA and IVF.

Soapchick said...

Welcome to blogland! I wish you all the best in your journey. I'm 39, we have male factor issues, one failed IVF, and hoping to do another one soon if I can convince my husband. I too have a new RE whom I love!! Good luck

Ms Heathen said...

I just popped over from Lost and Found to say hello and welcome. I'm in the middle of my first cycle of IVF/ICSI at the moment, and so also dealing with male factor issues. I wish you all the very best of luck with your upcoming cycle.