Round 2 - Fight!

We had our meeting with Dr. #3 this morning - Dr. MB is a very nice man, and is friends with each of our previous two doctors which is both weird and cool (I bet they talk about us like we're total flakes for jumping around so much). Let me state up front that our reasons for switching are purely for convenience - since moving last summer, the commute between home and the infertility clinic grew significantly ... not a good thing when daily blood draws are required, and Michigan winter is in full swing.

Dr. MB was kind enough to review our files last night, so was very prepared to explain his theory on the reason for our failing to concieve. He said infertility boils down to an issue with one or more of the following 4 areas: Tubes, Uterus, Sperm or Egg. In his opinion, the first three are fine, and all indicators point to egg quality as the culprit. The reason? Blood checks during the first 3 days of my wife's period indicate levels of FSH that are a bit high - he likened FSH to a car's tachometer - when revved (i.e. high FSH) the ovary will accelerate the development of follicles. If revved too high, or too low, things go horseshit and the eggs come out bad. Something like that ...

Either way, that was his prognosis - he recommended proceeding with IVF, indicating that our chances should be pretty good, and that cycles vary from one to another - perhaps our first failed attempt was just a bad cycle? Who knows, but we're proceeding, and fast ... my wife's period came this morning, so we are right in line to join the next group of IVF patients. She picked up a prescription for birth control and pre-natal vitamins. They took my blood (and I nearly passed out), and pee. Wife had an ultrasound, and gave blood and pee. We scheduled another semen analysis, and IVF "orientation" for next Monday. The cycle boils down as follows (ball park dates ... not at all precise):

• Between now and ~Feb. 10th: Wife on birth control. We conduct IVF orientation. My semen get analyzed (again)


• Feb. 10 - 13: No birth control. Holding pattern until ....


• Feb. 13: Start stimulant drugs (will provide more details in a future post, with precise details (something I have not been good at in past posts)


• Feb. 13 - Feb. 19: Administer stimulant drugs - aiming for 10 - 15 mature follicles (> 15 mm)


• Feb. 20: Harvest eggs and fertilize via ICSI


• Feb. 21: Receive fertilization report


• Feb. 25: Transfer embryos (Dr. MB prefers 5 day transfers, and limits number of embryos to 2 max)


• Mar. 9: Receive pregnancy results


• Mar. 10: Get really drunk by myself, or with my wife depending on outcome

So, it's going fast, but we talked about it, and we're ready. Wish us luck - as details emerge I'll post ... and I'll do my best to put up an exact, accurate schedule, and will include medications, doses, semen analysis numbers, etc. Want to ensure anyone else going through similar bullshit can have a reference point ...