Part II

Okay, part two.

So M and I went to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist, we'll call him Dr. B. He is a very nice, but busy man, who upon consultation, declared that I would be pregnant within 6 months. I can't tell you how happy that made me, but I had my doubts. He also decided that a lapororoscopy would be necessary, as he suspected endometriosis.

In the mean time, since I was already taking Clomid and was near ovulation, he introduced me to the trans-vag ultrasound. I was then given some Ovidril and sent off to trigger before doing my first IUI. I even got to take home my very first sharps container! We figured what the hell, it's worth a shot before having surgery, and maybe I'd be lucky.

A few weeks later, nothing. I scheduled the surgery in hopes of getting some good answers. The surgery went smoothly. As suspected, I have mild endometriosis sprinkled with a few polyps for good measure, but overall, everything looked good. In case you’re wondering, I'm in overall good health, I'm of a normal weight (meaning I'd love to lose 10 lbs.) and I have regular cycles.

Dr. B said that my best chances for conceiving would be in the year following the surgery, so we were to begin a monthly ritual of Femara, Ovidril, and IUI. We kept that up for quite some time, finally giving in after 5 rounds and a couple of birth control pill breaks to quiet some unruly cysts.

At the urging of M. and some friends, I did seek out a second opinion at another local clinic. I was not impressed with the Dr. or his theories. He seemed a little suspect, I don't know why, but he was creepy and he said some things that seemed untrue. Being desperate for answers, I did agree to have an endometrial biopsy through his practice. He offers a test that my regular RE does not, Dr. B thinks its bunk. It's a test that looks for Integrin. Supposedly this is often missing in women with endo and is thought to be necessary for an embryo to implant. If it is missing, then a few months of Lupron should fix the problem. Well...I wasn't missing it, so back to the drawing board.

By the time we got to the 6th IUI, we were getting desperate, so I started acupuncture. I can't say that I enjoyed getting stuck by little needles, but I was willing to do just about anything if it would help. After my last IUI, I started an herbal regimen as well, but it didn't seem to do a damn thing.

M and I agreed that I could end acupuncture in February; 6 months seemed to be a reasonable amount of time to expect some sort of progress. I was not enjoying it, and it was becoming a drain on the finances. Our insurance doesn't cover any thing fertility related except labs, not even acupuncture. So we have been spending a lot of our resources each month on trying to get pregnant.

That pretty much brings us up to date.

So far, I've been laying out the basic facts of our past treatment, but I've neglected to share the emotional toll it has taken on M and me. I'll have to get around to all that fun stuff later.