Our Infertility Story

I have been off of BC (birth control) since 9/2008 (after having been on it for 12 years). DH (dear husband, but we'll call him B in this blog) and I used protection sporadically until 6/2009, when we got married.  We just figured that we had been very lucky because we hadn't gotten a BFP (big fat positive on a pregnancy test) until that point. Once we were married, we decided to stop using protection, and just let what ever happened, happen.  If people asked about our plans for starting a family now that we were married, we would just slyly smile and say that we were not trying not to get pregnant anymore.

We didn't get a BFP during that first year of marriage, but we still figured we were just lucky.  However, by then, the thought was starting to creep into our minds that maybe we were actually unlucky since nothing had happened in nearly 2 years of not being careful.   In 6/2010, after our one-year wedding anniversary, we decided to start "actively" trying (timing, charting, researching, making lifestyle changes, etc).

Within six months, I pushed for us to start with infertility testing (12/10), since I'd watched a few friends my age (I am 30, B is 39) go through some infertility struggles, and I just wanted to be proactive and know if there was anything out of the ordinary we were dealing with.

B's first sample came back low, but he did it at home in WI, in the middle of January, and we to this day think that the cold damaged it during transportation to the clinic.

In April 2011, we saw a Urologist who specializes in male infertility. B gave 2 more samples and had a defragmentation test done. This time, all counts came back within the range of normal, though borderline low. We did learn that B has something called varicoceles, but given his counts, his doc didn't think they were causing our infertility at this time.

I started my testing in the Spring of 2011 and into the Summer. Everything was coming back perfect (regular 26 day cycles, ovulating between days 14-16 like clockwork, blood tests fine)... until the HSG. They couldn't get the dye through my left tube.

After this, I switched from my OB/GYN's clinic to the clinic that my B;s testing had been done at with the urologist. They did 2nd HSG on me in July and the left tube was blocked again. This time the Dr. was able to break through it and the dye spilled through! Both this new Dr. and my old one assured me that whatever caused the blockage wouldn't come back, so I didn't need to worry about it anymore.

By October (three months later), we still didn't have a BFP, so we underwent our first IUI.  When I went in after B gave his sample, we learned that his post-wash counts were too low for them to even recommend going through with the procedure (4.3m)! We did anyway, but weren't surprised when we got a BFN.

After learning how low B's post-wash count was, we decided to move on to IVF instead of more IUI's. The other option would be varicocele repair surgery, but as B is wary of elective surgery, we looked into going this route first.   If it didn't work, we figured we'd try the surgery and attempt things naturally for a few years while saving up for IVF again.

We followed through a very difficult and at times traumatic journey all the way to the very brink of doing an IVF cycle, and at the last minute, decided not to do it at this time.  See the page on our IVF story for more information about what happened.

Now we are back to our doctor's original plan of doing another IUI.  If B's post-wash count comes back the same, we'll move forward with his surgery and then try naturally the rest of the year.  If things don't improve, we'll look into more IUI's in 2013 or start over with saving up for IVF if needed.

Update:

We went for another round of IUI shortly after deciding not to do IVF in January 2012, only for B's post-wash counts to come back so low that the doctors could not in good faith encourage us to even go through with the IUI.  We immediately scheduled the Varicocele Repair surgery for April 2012.  The months that followed the surgery did not show any improvement and at the one-year point past the surgery, we discovered that there had been no changes to his counts whatsoever.  We are no planning financing IVF in early 2014 lest something else changes in the meantime.

I'll update this page as things develop, in order to keep the story complete and in one place.  But the updated blog posts will carry the true emotions and excitement along the way!