Today One and I had an appointment with the gyno. She told us that there was no point in continuing to try to conceive naturally; we have a 3 - 5% chance every cycle of getting pregnant naturally.
Onward to IUI it is then. IUI, for those of you playing along at home, stands for Intra-Uterine Insemination. They will take some of One's sperm (which he will prepare earlier), spin it down, wash it and extract the "normal" (as far as anything of his is normal) percentage, and insert it into my uterus, through my cervix, at the appropriate time of month.
I thought that we'd be able to try an unstimulated IUI cycle (that is, one without the use of drugs to ensure I ovulate), given that I was told last time that I was ovulating and everything was A-OK with me, but apparently not - the referral to the IVF clinic that the gyno gave us indicated that I was to be put on drugs - not Clomid, I didn't recognise the name - to make sure I"m ovulating.
She didn't say why.
I also got in trouble because I hadn't lost any weight since the last time I saw her. I saw her a month ago - not even, it was the last week of March, so three and a bit weeks ish. I've been stuck at my current weight since a little before then, but in total, since May 4th last year, I have lost 18 kilograms. I think that's a pretty fair effort - and I've managed to keep it off. It made me a little grumpy, as he implication was that I was just going to give up and sit around and put all the weight back on deliberately. Excuse me? I haven't gone to all this effort for nothing, you know!
So we headed down to the IVF clinic and made the initial three appointments we need - the clinical appointment, the accounts appointment and the counselling appointment. We have to pay a $265 administration fee up front, of which we will get nothing back, and also get both police and Department of Family and Children's Services checks to make sure neither of us have ever done anything bad to kids.
Then we can venture onto the rollercoaster.
(IUI will boost our chances from 3-5% to 18-20% per cycle. The gyno said if I'm not pregnant after 2 to 3 IUI attempts, we will probably need to move on to IVF. This is not something I am thrilled about).
Just stumbled upon your blog! It's hard to know what to say other than stay strong and try to be positive during this difficult time! Well done on losing 18kg too, I'd be extremely proud of that!
ReplyDeleteSorry about my delayed reply - I have been feeling incredibly rude, but also not in a headspace lately where I could log on and blog.
DeleteThanks for your kind words - I'm trying to stay focused and keep plugging away, but sometimes it all gets a bit much.