This blog is about my life and my struggles with infertility and recurrent miscarriage. If you dont want to hear me whine about my struggles then you probably shouldnt read it

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

National Infertility Awareness Week

This week is National Infertility Awareness Week.

http://www.resolve.org/national-infertility-awareness-week/home-page.html

^^^ That is the NIAW home page on resolve.org. Resolve.org is the ONLY advocacy group for infertility. Check it out. Link it to your FB and break the silence. Infertility is such a hush hush disease. And yes it is a disease. Speak up, break the silence. Let people know it exists and it is rampant. Maybe the insurance companies and government will hear us and start making it easier for us infertiles to afford treatments to expand our families. Reproduction is generally a god given right for most women, for those who are infertile it is often a financially driven privledge. If you dont have the money well then you dont get to have a baby. Its not right and it has to change.

Check it out and show your support.

Getting better with the updating

lets see where did I leave off...

Well I think I said that my first cycle of my new treatment protocol was a bust. If I didnt say that now you know.

So we did the same thing this time. Clomid 100mg CD2-6 and Bravelle 75 units injections starting on CD7. I went for my CD10 ultrasound fully expecting to have a mature follicle like I did the first cycle. Negative. I had 2 13mm follicles, one on the right ovary and one on the left ovary. So home I went to take 3 more days of Bravelle and have another US on CD13. So Monday (CD13) I went back to UCSF for another US. The follicle on the right ovary had grown to 17.5 mm and the one on the left was 13mm still. I was....disappointed, to say the least. I know one follicle is better than none, which is what I usually get on my own. But I am spending all this money and time and all this stress, I was hoping to have both follicles mature and give us a little bit of an increased chance of pregnancy this cycle.

So I was sent home to take one more dose of Bravelle and take my trigger shot on Tuesday (CD14) night. They said the 13mm follicle on the left ovary *may* mature and release an egg but its not likely. Follicles mature at a max of 2mm a day with stimulation, so at most by Tuesday it would be 15mm, the trigger shot may mature it another 2mm but at 17mm it is still not likely to release an egg. But predicting follicle maturation is not an exact science and they sometimes grow as fast or as slow as they want so there is a chance (very small) that it could mature enough to release an egg. Yay if it does. Hopefully it only results in 1 baby, but if it results in more then we will deal with that later. We knew it was a risk.

So now we are in the actively part of trying to make a baby, if you know what I mean. An a couple of weeks we will know if we were successful or if we are moving onto another cycle.

I've been thinking of going to an infertility support group. The nearest one is in Sacramento. It is a peer led support group through resolve.org. I may check it out. I feel like a bipolar person. One minute I am up and excited and the next minute I am down and depressed and convinced that nothing will make this happen. I hate feeling like that. And no one who hasnt been through it understands.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

I know, I know...I'm a bad blog updater

But here it is. My last cycle was Clomid 100mg CD2-6, Bravelle 75IU CD7-10, ovidrel trigger shot and prometrium after ovulation.

I went for a follicle check US on CD10 which showed 1 17.5mm follicle. I took my trigger shot on CD11.

The waiting was horrendous, as it always is.

14DPO, 16 days past the trigger shot and the pregnancy test was negative (that was yesterday). Of course I tested prior to that so I had a feeling it was going to be the result. I stopped my progesterone as told by my RE and now I am waiting for my period to start so I can do this all again.

My frustration levels are so high. I dont understand why I expected any different result. Everything all this time has been a failure, why would this be anything different?

Oh and my saline sonogram was normal. My uterus is perfect. Not even any scar tissue from my D&Cs (thanks Dr. Carol!). So we are back to square 1 with the recurrent miscarriages. 3 babies lost with no connecting cause.

So once again I am just waiting.....I'm going to really start exploring the options that UCSF has for financing IVF, because I really think that is the direction we are heading in. I think once I know when my next appointment is there I will schedule an appointment with their financial counselor and see what our options are as far as financing that $25K it will cost.