Our testing seemed simple at first, I got a few blood tests which found that my hormones were either extremely low or extremely high. With hormones, balance is key. My body is not able to ovulate with my current hormone levels. I was a little sad over receiving this news but I wasn't surprised. I had a lot of signs of not ovulating and was kind of expecting it. I wasn't too upset because I knew that this could be fixed with treatment. One of the blood tests was an antimalarian test which tests for levels of stimulation. My test came back positive meaning that I would do great to stimulants. The plan was to go on chlomid which stimulates ovulation and egg production. Nate and I were actually excited to get the news because we thought that it would fix everything and we would be on our way. The only thing left was to get Nate's thought to be simple semen analysis done just as precaution before we could start chlomid. We honestly never thought the semen analysis would be anything but great and so when it wasn't we were devastated. My OBGYNs office called me at work and literally told me that they couldn't help us anymore because things were too complicated for their practice and that we would need IVF treatments to get pregnant. Talk about shock! We went from needing just a simple medication to get pregnant to needing IVF! I seriously cried for months and at times still do!
When we finally got into see an infertility specialist we were beyond nervous but excited to be seeing someone who knew what they were talking about. We are with Dr. Conway who is AMAZING! On our first visit she was extremely calm, happy, friendly, understanding, patient, and best of all Hopeful. She sat with us and answered every single question that was racing though our minds and gave us the reassurance that we needed. She explained in perfect detail how our results were looking and what we had to look forward too.
We are learning that infertility is SO complex and different for everyone. In our case both Nate and I need a little fixing. For my part, through some more testing my doctor diagnosed me with hypothyroidism which is causing the unbalanced hormones. They also found that I actually am ovulating but not regularly and it's very unpredictable due to low hormones. I will need to be on Synthroid which is a thyroid medication which basically helps stimulate the production of hormones. They found that without this I probably will have a hard time holding on to a pregnancy because of the low hormone levels. My doctor thinks that this could be the reason I miscarried the first time. My ultrasound found that my eggs are healthy but somethings are still weird about whats going on so I had an hsg and endometrial biopsy to get a better look into things. Holy moly talk about uncomfortable! The biopsy was definitely not a fun experience. We should have those results back in the next few weeks when we meet with our doctor again. Through the HSG exam they found out that I have a heart shaped uterus which doesn't necessarily interfere with getting pregnant or holding on to a pregnancy but it will make delivery difficult and may cause developmental issues as the fetus gets larger in size. I'm nervous and kinda freaking out about all of this because I have always been very healthy and never had any complications. Now all of this is coming out at once and anyone can see why it is a lot to take in. I'm now on synthroid for life to help with my thyroid. So Weird! But at least things look healthy so far and can be dealt with! I am very grateful for that! Now for my sweetheart Nathan! So many assume that infertility is a female problem when in reality it is equally on the males side. For Nathan, we found that he is producing sperm which is good news but they are not in any condition to allow pregnancy. Nate's sperm levels are extremely low and they have very little motility and deformed morphology. In numbers, a good amount in one specimen is above 5000, Nate's numbers are less than 2000. A good motility is above 40 and we are at 6, and our morphology is less than 50% as well. This has been the hardest news yet. It breaks my heart to see so much pressure on Nate. I wish that I could put all the blame on me. Nate's always the one to stay positive in difficult times. He is my rock and has always been the calm reassuring one in the relationship. He always looks at the positive in life and has been absolutely amazing through all of this! He puts on a really good face but I can tell how hard it is for him. This breaks my heart most of all. It hurts so badly to see him suffering. So where do we go from here? Nate and I are hoping for IUI treatments before IVF if possible. IUI is when they basically spin or send the sperm swimming through a maze which weeds out the unhealthy immobile ones and only takes the healthiest. I will be on hormones to help with ovulation. Once I'm ovulating regularly they will surgically inject the concentrated sperm straight into my fallopian tubes during ovulation. It saves a lot of travel for the healthy sperm as it puts them literally right next to the egg so very little effort is needed.
Luckily, IVF or IUI doesn't take all healthy sperm and eggs. These treatments kind of bypass a lot of things that could be wrong. So in order for us to do IUI we have to get Nate production increased to more than 5000. How do we do that? HORMONES! Who knew that hormones were so important? Nates also scheduled for a urology consult next week so hopefully we will find a cause or something to help! Dr. Conway, Nate, and I all have high hopes for this if we can get the sperm count up. It's half the cost of IVF and Dr. Conway says we will have a 70% chance of success if all goes as planned. So as for now that is where our hearts and prays lye. If we can't get the numbers increased then our next step is IVF. Nate's been on super vitamins and we sent in a second semen analysis about three weeks ago. We haven't heard anything yet and every time I call the clinic, they refuse to give me the results stating that our doctor has to read the results to us in person. This has been making us really nervous because it gives us the impression that something is again not right and will need further treatments. So the truth definitely has been hurting. I just have to remind myself that in the scriptures, every miracle first started as a problem and through god all things are possible. Only god knows how it all turns out and for those who belong to him, it will all turn out well!
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