Infertile.

So, in late September (2009), we went to Denver. Fortunately, tri-to-get-care, as my dad adequately calls it, paid for this trip and visit with our official fertility specialist. Denver was the closest one to us in Rapid City. The doctor said that my AMH levels were 0.7, and that for someone my age (30), the levels should be a 2 or 3. Once AMH drops below .5 there is only a 2% chance of fertility, and .1 is menopause. Menopause! At the time this wasn't my thought...but since then I wonder what that means for me, does it mean I will experience menopause way before my time? ugh. So the doctor put us on a regiment of injections..and recommended we pick up a book called 'The Fertility Diet' (http://www.amazon.com/Fertility-Diet-Groundbreaking-Research-Ovulation/dp/0071494790). Injections..for someone with a GIANT fear of needles..I was sentenced to inject myself in the stomach for 8-12 days in a row with a needle. I dreaded the crap out of that! Granted, I'd already come a long way, when I was 20 I found out I was missing my left kidney, so for the past 10 years I've had my blood drawn every 6 months religiously..sometimes more. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Again, fortunately tricare paid for these initial injections called Gonal-f and Ovidrel (http://www.fertilitylifelines.com/resources/gonal-frffpen.jsp & http://www.fertilitylifelines.com/resources/ovidrelpre-filledsyringe.jsp ). They apparently cover the cost of these $5,000 drugs if used with standard baby making..or more romantically known as timed intercourse.

We started our first journey with these new procedures. As soon as I started my period I was to call both my fertility dr and my obgyn for an ultrasound on days 1 or 2 of my cycle..day 3 if it fell on a weekend. So I did just that, it was a Monday, I went to the lab for blood draw, then to the ob for a vaginal (always vaginal) ultrasound. Then again on Wednesday, and again on Friday. This new schedule was exhausting me. On Wednesday (the 2nd trip to the lab and doctor), was the dreaded day we were to start injections. I was terrified..it's unnatural to stick yourself in the stomach with needles! Luckily, I have the best husband in the world..and even though he didn't want to, he didn't think twice about doing the injections for me. In the shipment with the drugs when they arrived were some ice packs, because the meds need to stay refrigerated. I had stuck a few of the ice packs in the freezer, and pulled one out to put on my stomach for slight numbing before doing the gonal-f injection. Ladies..I highly recommend this, save some of the ice packs as you will need them, then hold on your stomach for about 8 minutes...5 is too little and 10 is almost too many..this tip might not be needed so much for a single injection but on the nights you need to do 2 or more, it will certainly help a lot. The injection was not as bad as I thought, not bad at all really. What a relief! Maybe I dreaded it so much that I expected much worse.

After about 10 days of the gonal-f injection, it was time to ovulate. The purpose for the ultrasounds was to monitor my follicles (http://www.advancedfertility.com/antralfollicles.htm ). Since my ovaries were a poorer quality I had fewer follicles than other women my age. The doctor monitored the size of the follicles because they need to be just the right size before ovulation..and the ovidrel injection is the one we needed to do to force me to ovulate when they wanted. The day after doing the ovidrel injection, we did Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) (http://www.fertilitylifelines.com/fertilitytreatments/intrauterineinsemination.jsp?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=IUI&utm_campaign=Serono&CID=G2009+IUI+IUI&247SEM ) on this month. This was pretty uncomfortable for the rest of the day..and a little the following day. Yet the doctor recommended we have intercourse around the IUI, later that day and again the next morning. Sure doc, I'm going to be bleeding off and on all day and am super uncomfortable, but yeah..intercourse! And two weeks later..nada...the IUI was unsuccessful for us.

So it was now November, my cycle started and I went into the lab for a blood draw and back to the doctor for an ultrasound..and waited for the call from my fertility doc on drug instructions. My ob mentioned a cyst on one of my ovaries but that's not unusual. The doctor called later in the day and said November was a no go, that I had 4..yes, FOUR, cysts on my left ovary, apparently as a side effect of the gonal-f injections..although, I thought maybe a baby would be a side effect.. So we skipped November.