Finally Updating

Well my period has come and gone and another cycle ended up with no miracles.

Todd and I sat down and had a discussion with my fertility specialist, Dr. Murray.  We are tired of throwing money at IUI and having no positive results.

Because we were both in agreement that we were frustrated we decided to move onto in vitro fertilization, or IVF.  This was not an easy decision to make.  We aren't fortunate enough to have any insurance coverage for these treatments.  Our IUI cycles could cost us up to $3,000 a month!  I don't want to throw anymore money at it, and neither does Todd.

So here is the plan...

I have to lose 25 pounds.  I am not sure how long that will take especially with my PCOS, which makes it harder to lose the weight.  As soon as I am down that much I can contact Dr. Murray to start the preliminary testing.  There are some ultrasounds and I'll need to be on birth control and there is some blood work to be done as well.  Then once that cycle is over and I get a period then I can start stimulating follicle growth.  Because I have PCOS I should have a good chance of producing over 15 eggs.  Once they feel I have enough I will go in for surgery where they will remove all the eggs.  Then they will mix Todd's sperm in with the eggs and hope for fertilization.  Depending on how they look they will transfer back two eggs and freeze whatever are left.  Then we would wait until we could test to see if one or both implanted.

The whole process will cost us about $15,000.  That's for one shot.  I never thought we would be here since the boys were conceived on an IUI cycle, but four IUI cycles and two natural cycles later and still nothing.  It's heart breaking.  I am taking some time to just work on myself and get healthy and save up money if we can.  We would love to do this by the end of the year, but we will have to see. 

I wanted everyone to know what road we were taking because it's not an easy road to choose.  Todd and I are not ready to give up.  We still want our child.  And if this is the road we have to take then so be it.

By taking this method of conception our chances of conceiving increase from 18% with IUI to 48% with IVF resulting in a live birth.  To us that is worth the $15,000.

I'll be in touch letting you know how we are doing.  I'm just hoping the weight loss is easy and we can move forward quickly.