The Husband's Turn...

By the late summer of 2011 I had figured out that my cycles were irregular, had lots of blood work that all came back normal, and an HSG that showed my right tubes were blocked. Next it was my husbands turn to get tested. From a woman's perspective it was really nice that for once he was the one to have tests and not me!

My Dr. put in an order for him to have a semen analysis done. He had 3 options on where he could give his sample.
1. He could drive to the Dr. office and do it there.
2. He could drive to the Dr. office and pick up the sealed cup, take it home and then get it to the lab within 1 hour.
3. He could go to Reproductive Biology Associates (RBA) and give it there.

He chose the last option. I'm sure he would have preferred to give the sample at home but was worried about getting stuck in traffic and not getting the sample there on time. I'll share what I know of his experience, maybe at some point I can get him to write a "guest blog".

He got to RBA and of course had to fill out the normal paperwork. After that he was taken to a room that was equipped with a video monitor. They gave him the cup to fill up. On the video monitor were several slide shows with images to aid in giving the sample.

I believe we got the results back about a week later. Here are what "normal" results should be:

• Ejaculate volume: 2 to 6 mL
• Viscosity: liquefies within 1 hour
• Gross and microscopic appearance: semen should be opaque or cream colored
• Sperm count: greater than 20 million per mL
• Sperm motility at 1 and 3 hours: greater than 50%
• Sperm morphology: more than 60% are normal

My husbands results showed a high ejaculate volume but a sperm count of around 15 million per mL and a low morphology. They had my husband repeat the test (this is pretty standard - some Dr's even like to get 3 samples). The 2nd test showed similar results, so now we not only have female infertility factors but male factors as well.

While I hoped my Dr. would still prescribe me Clomid she said: "You have a few too many factors influencing your infertility, 1) not ovulating regularly, 2) tubal occlusion, and 3) low sperm counts. I think that a consultation with RBA would be helpful so that you can decide which is the best treatment option for you. Doing clomid, may be all that you need, but most likely you will need more intervention than that."

So next up is a visit to RBA... 

A Hysteo what????

So next up in my infertility journey was having a hysterosalpingogram, more commonly referred to as a HSG. The purpose of the HSG is to look at a woman's tubes to make sure there are no obstructions or other issues. Now, you can't just schedule an HSG for anytime that suits you, this test has to be timed for a certain range of days during your cycle. My Dr. wanted the HSG to be done between days 8-12.

As I shared before I have extremely long and irregular cycles, so to speed things along she prescribed me medroxyprogesterone to take if I got to cycle day 35 and still had no period. At day 35 I took a pregnancy test just in case, and when it came back negative I started on the medroxyprogesterone. The way this drug works is to take it once a day for 5 days and then 2-3 days later you get your period. I think it mimics the way your body should naturally produce progesterone before a period starts.

Anyways, I got my period and called to set up my appointment for the HSG. During this time I turned to my good friend The Internet and Googled to learn everything I could about what they were going to do to me during this test. I found lots of useful information and read different women's experiences with it that ranged from, "it wasn't so bad" to "it was the worst pain of my life". So needless to say I was fairly nervous about the test.

Before arriving for my appointment I took the advice I read online and took some pain killers to hopefully make the procedure as painless as possible. I was instructed to get to the Dr. office early to have a blood pregnancy test done before the procedure. I totally understand the need for the pregnancy test but I never cease to find the irony of it. Once the test came back negative a nurse took me to a changing room to put on a hospital gown and then took me to the X-ray room.

They had me lay on a flat, hard table and draped a lead vest over the upper half of my body. I had a nurse with me as the radiologist prepped me for the test. She was nice and tried to distract me with small talk.

I was assured that the radiologist performed this test on a routine basis so I was in good hands. I had to spread my legs open so he could insert a catheter (a small plastic tube) into my cervix. This catheter is used to insert a dye that will flow into the uterus and falopian tubes. This should have been a very quick process but the radiologist had trouble getting the catheter in. I laid on that table for a good 20 minutes as he tried to insert it. Finally, he thought he had gotten it in far enough and put the dye through so I could have the scan. Unfortunately, the catheter was not in and so the dye just ran out of me.

The radiologist told me that I would need to make an appointment with my Dr. to have my cervix dilated.  Sounds pleasant, doesn't it? As I said at the beginning of this blog, an HSG has to be timed carefully so this meant having to wait another month.

I went in to see my Dr. to have my cervix dilated. To do this she would use a small metal rod to ensure my cervix was open. This can be painful so she first gave me a shot of Novocain in my vagina. Yes, you read that correctly. I don't think I have shared this yet but, I HATE NEEDLES AND SHOTS! So I laid there cringing at what she was about to do. In the end it wasn't too bad. What she discovered was that my cervix was dilated and I would be ready to have the HSG once my next cycle rolled around.

So jump to the next month and repeat all of the information about prepping for the HSG... Now I was finally back on the hard, flat table ready for the HSG. The radiologist was able to insert the catheter and then put the dye through. Nothing about this procedure is comfortable and when he put the dye in I did experience some painful cramps. While the dye is going into me I can see the computer display show the image that the radiologist is capturing. He also had me at one point shift to my right side then to my left and repeat to help the dye travel into the tubes.

While he couldn't give me any official results he did share that my right fallopian tubes appeared to be blocked and this was confirmed by my Dr. later that day. I think at one point in time doctors may have recommended surgery to correct this blockage but from what I'm told this is very rarely done anymore. My Dr. assured me that, while it could take longer, I could still conceive naturally with only one tube.

Some quick tips if you have to have an HSG:
 - Take some pain killers before your appointment
 - Bring along a pad for after the appointment, the dye will run back out of you for the rest of the day.

Sorry for such a long, boring post. I want to try and get down all the details if someone reading this has to have the procedure for themselves so they can know what to expect.

A Link in the Chain - Why having children is important to me

So, hopefully you read my introduction and you know a little about me. One of the important things to know is that I've always wanted a large family. I grew up on stories of my grandmother having dozens of cousins within a 5 block radius to play with as she grew up. Her cousins were like siblings to her and as they grew up, while they moved away, they stayed close.

Even at a young age I realized how amazing it is that from two people can come so many more. I wanted to be a link in that chain and create a chain of my own like my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents before me.

I knew when I got married that we would wait at least a year before we started having kids. We had some career goals, traveling and just "us" time that we wanted to do before babies came along to change EVERYTHING, FOREVER.  But finally in the spring of 2011 we decided we were ready to start trying.

In March of 2011 I went off The Pill and we, well you know, tried, and tried again and tried some more. While I knew that it takes most couples at least a few months to get pregnant I really had visions of it happening the very first month. In my head I was estimating when I would find out I was pregnant, when I would get to the 2nd trimester so I could tell people, when I would be due and all the other exciting dates. Of course, that didn't happen. But, I also didn't get my period 28 days later (or 30 or 35...). I figured it was just my body adjusting after having been on The Pill for such a long time (13 years!).

Long, irregular cycles became the norm for me. And after a few of those cycles I made an appointment with my Dr.  Now, I know when you're under 35 they typically don't classify you in the "infertility category" until you've been trying for at least 1 year. Fortunately, my Dr. recognized that I was having some sort of problem and was happy to see me and start treating me for infertility.

At my first appointment with Dr. Redmond (my main OB/GYN) she gave me a standard female workup (feet in the stirups and everything) plus ordered a huge panel of blood work. Everything came back normal, fortunately. And while I'm very glad that all the blood work was normal it didn't tell me why I was having irregular cycles and why I wasn't pregnant.

Dr. Redmond said she would likely prescribe me Clomid but first I would need to have a hysterosalpingogram (more commonly known as an HSG) and my husband would need to have a semen analysis.

More on these exciting test next time...

Peach :)

An Introduction...

Hello and Welcome to my blog! I was born, raised and still live in the metro Atlanta area. I'm in my early 30's and have been married to my sweet, wonderful husband for almost 4 years. I'm a substitute teacher looking for a full time teaching job. In my free time I enjoy being lazy, playing with my dogs, going to fine arts events in the city, traveling and spending time with good friends.

As a child I heard lots of stories from my parents and grandparents about their childhoods and families and always dreamed about getting married and having my own large family. After a lot of searching for  my prince charming, I finally found him! We enjoyed our first years of marriage; getting to sleep in, travel and do lots of "grown up" things that we know will be gone with the wind once kids appear.

In April of 2011 we started trying to have a baby. More than a year later we are still trying. The last 15 + months have been exciting, stressful, emotional and most of all isolating. Now, I know that this last part is my choice. If I wanted to I could post every last detail of my infertility on facebook or let my parents share with all of their friends what is going on, but I choose not to. In our society it's not socially acceptable to answer someone's question of "what's going on?" with, "Well, I just had a miscarriage after a year of trying to have a baby". I know our close friends would be more than happy to support me and my husband in this journey, but I am just not comfortable sharing all the details of our infertility.

So, why do I want to publish a blog that the world will see? I want to be a part of a community of women (or couples) that can understand what we are going through. I also feel that writing down my journey with infertility will not only be therapeutic but perhaps help someone else going through the same or similar journey.

During the next couple weeks I'll update the blog with experiences we've had in the last year + and then update with where we are in our process.

Thanks for reading and traveling with me on my journey!

Peach :)