One Year of Trying, Will We Ever Get Pregnant??

[wantingababy2007]

My husband and I got married in October of 2005.  We both decided early on that we wanted a family.  He had no previous children and I had a daughter that I gave birth to in October of 1994 and gave up for adoption.  We started trying in December of 2006.  Month after month my irregular cycles would be later than usual, and I would take another PT, just to find myself more and more depressed when that one line would show up.  After almost a year of trying, my doctor did a semen analysis on my husband to find out he had a low volume and a lot of white blood cells, showing some sort of infection.  He put him on antibiotics and referred him to a urologist.  Long story short....after months on the antibiotics, the semen analysis still came back the same.  The urologist decided to do a surgery called a varicolectomy, where they had to tie off one of the veins in his scrotum because it was malfunctioning, making the testicles too hot and killing off the sperm.  Just a month ago now, he went back for his first sperm analysis since the surgery.  GREAT NEWS!  The count is up, the volume is up and the motility is up.  I'm expecting my cycle in the next couple of days and my doctor has prescribed me 50mg of Clomid, 100mg of Prometrium and 1 mg of Estradiol.  I am just terrified right now.  I want a baby so bad, that is all I ever think about anymore.  I'm constantly reading everyone elses posts and I'm constantly watching shows on Discovery Health about babys and fertility.  I guess my fear is, either I'm not going to get pregnant or I'm going to miscarry for the third time due to my hormones and low folic acid.  If anybody has any suggestions on what I should do or any input at all, it would be greatly appreciated.  Good Luck to all the future mommy and daddys that have been trying for so long!  

[Griggsy]

Best of luck at your appointment tomorrow! I hope everything is clear and you guys can get back into it!

I'll let you know how our appointment goes on Thursday!

[jess553]

Thats great that you insurance covers it. I am going to ask about it tomorrow at my appt and I will let you know what they say. Keep me posted on your cycle. Let me know when your IUI is. I will keep you in my thoughts :)

[Griggsy]

Oye, we have insurance and it's costing me $30 for 10 pills at walgreens or $25 at the apothecary (scam) for 5 pills.

With that I don't think it can be very much without insurance or at least not more than the clomid. I was very weary when talking about fertility drugs with the docs. My doc doens't like clomid, so he tends to stay from it. Again I loved the way fermara did it's job and left my moods up to me.

[jess553]

Yes I totally agree with what yall are doing. I think that most people don't understand what its like to go thru something like this. Atleast you know what you have to do to make your dreams come true.
I took clomid for 4 months but was not monitered by my OB so I don't really know how my body reacted to it. I hated the way it made me feel. I am definately going to ask about the femara. How much does it cost? Our insurance doesn't cover anything.

[wantingababy2007]

No I'm sorry I don't remember my husbands white blood cell count.  I really hope I'm as lucky as your friend was on the first try.  My biggest fear is once I'm preganant my hormones will drop again and I will miscarry for the 3rd time. :(

[wantingababy2007]

Thank You so much.  I just can't get any of this out of my head right now.  My cycle actually started a few hours ago, so in 2 more days I start on Clomid.

[wantingababy2007]

My husband had his surgery early February 2008.  He goes to Dr. Jen Graverson in Hammond.

[Griggsy]

We have had 3 SA since December of 07. He gave one just before surgery and the one he gave yesterday was the first one after his surgery. The doc told us that it will take at least 6-9 months to see any improvements. They told us that we would never be able to conceive on our own, and right now they are just trying to get us to the point of being able to do IVF with his sperm. The way we see it is that we aren't getting any younger so we need to do everything possible to be able to have a family. I'm glad you would do the same thing. . . we get a lot of mixed reactions when people ask.

The fermara isn't bad at all. I reacted to it nicely, and it didn't leave me with these nastey mood swings I've read so much about with Clomid. I was thankful for that! It's my first month on follistim (hopefully my last for both! ;-) ) It hasn't been bad, I'm rather curious as to how my body reacted.

[jess553]

I totally understand making the decision to use donor sperm. I would do the same thing. Hopefully in time his sperm will get better. That is weird that they can't find a reason why this is happening. My DH had one huge vein and a few smaller ones that the DR tied off. I have never done Femara, but I am going to ask my Dr about it tomorrow. How long ago was his last SA. I know he just did one and it has been 3 months so maybe this one will show improvement. Once you are ready for a family it is so hard dealing with the disappointment.

[Griggsy]

I'm sad to say that DH has a zero rate of everything. For some reason, unknown to anyone, when his sperm make the transition from immature to mature they break into a million different pieces. All of his test are coming back text book perfect. . . his LH, and testosterone, everything is text book, and they can't figure out why they break. The only thing they found wrong was the varicose veins.

We decided to go with a donor, and while we do that we are continuing to try and get sperm from him that we can use for us to have biological children.

It was one of the hardest decisions for us to make, but when you have the doctors questioning if they can get ONE sperm that will work we started looking over our options. We just pray that we can have a family, and that in time we can use his sperm to add to our family.

[jess553]

I think that sounds like a good plan. My DH is just on vitamins. I go tomorrow for an ultrasound to see if the cysts that I developed from my last follistim cycle have gone away. If they have I will start taking the follistim daily. I had 5-6 follies last month and DH gave a good sample but it just didn't work. What is your DH last count and motiltiy? I feel the same way. We will take however many. We just really want a family so bad. Month after month it is so hard. I hope you get your BFP this month.

[Griggsy]

DH is on arimex to help raise his hormone levels, the doc just wanted to see if this would help, as it can't hurt him in any way. They are doing an SA every three months to see if the progress is getting better. THey found that he had three times as many veins in his left side, and two arteries! The doc couldn't believe that one. He was able to preserve both arteries and tie off all but one vein.

We are starting our second round of IUI. I took 2.5MG of fermara on CD3-CD7, and I took 75IU of the follistim shot on CD3, 5 and 7. On Thursday I have an ultrasound to see how many follies there are and they will schedule me for my IUI, and tell me when to do my trigger shot.

Last month I was on 5MG of fermara from CD3-CD7, and that made 3 really good follies, but they want to try and get six this month. Anything more and they won't do the IUI. . . we are praying for 6! If we get triplets because of it then I will happily make the same choice again, and again. . . we want a family, and we're not picky on how many.

[candie429]

I am so sorry for your struggles.  We can all relate, so you have definitely come to the right place if you are looking for support!  I'm happy to hear that your husband's prognosis is looking up.  Now that he is doing well, if you can regulate your cycles you should be just fine!  I have a friend who did this drug regimen and got pregnant on hrer first try.  Once you start the clomid, maybe use OPK's to try to pinpoint ovulation.  Or maybe your doctor is going to do ultrasound monitoring to see how your follicles are doing?  That would be your best bet.  I wish you lots of luck.  

Also, if you don't mind me asking, do you remember what your DH's white blood cell count was?  My DH had a SA about a year ago and he had 1 million per mililiter.  My doctor said that was fine, but since we're still not pregnant, we're a little concerned.  I have never found anyone else with this issue until now.  I thought it could mean an infection, but my doctor blew it off.  What causes this?  Any info you could give me would be much appreciated!  

[jess553]

My husbands DR said that it can take up to 4-6 months to see if the surgery helped. So yall still have time. Our last IUI his motility was 80% which was the highest it has ever been. I hope you get some good news with the next analysis. Are yall doing any other type of treatments IUI or IVF?

[Griggsy]

DH had his varicocelectomy April 18th of this year. Ours wasn't such good news as they are just trying to see if it does any good at all. He went in yesterday morning to leave his latest sample and next week we have the follow up visit to see if anything has changed.

Wantingababy2007- I'm SOOOO glad that your surgery resulted in good news! It seems that getting sperm from DH has been one of the hardest struggles for us.

Wishing you the best!

[jess553]

My husband had a varicocelectomy at the end of june. We haven't done a SA yet b/c the urologist wanted to wait till 4 months after. We are seeing a RE and doing IUI w/ injectables. Last month did not work but we will be trying it again soon. How long ago did he have the surgery? Who is his urologist? We live right outside new orleans.