She brought me some info about all of the recommended pre-natals that I need to start taking. She encouraged me to get up to date on my flu and whooping couch vaccinations. She offered to research chewable pre-natals for me, since the swallow pre-natals are gross. (I was hoping that my dinosaur chewables would suffice, but mama knows best.) *** if you can recommend any good chewable pre-natals, please let me know!!!
My brave mama also asked me about how the IUI process works thinking that maybe we could take back some control of the process, de-medicalize it, and do it at home. Wouldn't that be awesome? If all other factors were equal at this point, I would really love to conceive in love with ML in the privacy and comfort of our own home.
I am really glad that I could go thru all that with my mom, so that she can understand what options we have and the factors that we are using to make decisions.
The thing is that all other factors are not equal at this point. The way I see it we are balancing three big factors - physical, emotional, and financial - and will be choosing from essentially three different treatment options - non-medicated IUI, aggressive medicated IUI, or IVF.
Physically
From what we know, I can get pregnant. I have regular cycles and ovulate regularly. I've never taken hormonal birth control and would rather not mess with things unless necessary.
treatment choice = non-medicated iui
Emotionally
I am a mess. I want to be pregnant now. I am done waiting. The sooner I am pregnant the sooner I can move beyond the despair of this journey. The thought of prolonging treatment cycles any longer than absolutely necessary sounds completely unacceptable to me.
treatment choice = IVF
Financially
We've already spent about 20% of our income on fertility testing & treatment this past year. We have some savings, but it is limited and it makes me sick to think about spending it all. But I know we will if we have to. We'd like to be cost effective in our decisions. At quick blush were looking at a cost of $1,200 per cycle for un-medicted iui (with a 10% chance at success), $3,000 for medicated iui (with a 20% chance of success), or $15,000 for IVF (with a 50% chance of success).
treatment choice = I don't know how to do that kind of statistics, but I think it would be medicated iui.
So that leaves us... I'm not sure where exactly, but I think in the middle with an aggressive medicated iui as our starting place.
We meet the new RE on Wednesday, so we'll get better info then. (and my cycle starts on Thursday, so cross your fingers that we can jump right in! ohhhh am I hoping.)
7 comments :
Wow, your post made me cry. I know that sounds silly, but your relationship with your mum sounds very much like mine was before she died of breast cancer 7 years ago and it has been so tough going through all of this without her. You are a very lucky girl! xox
Hope Wednesday goes well!
Foxy,
the success rates your quote are probably the success rates from your clinic, or a summation across clinics. Or is it rates put out by some governmental agency? At any rate, you must remember that people who do IUI and IVF are the only people counted in those stats. And people who do IUIs and IVF are infertile. Like you said, as far as you know, your body may have no trouble at all getting pregnant. So the 10% success rate you quote for unmedicated IUI may not be the actual chances that you would have with donor sperm. What I'm saying is that your chances might very well be higher than that.
I find it so hard with those stats because everyone is pooled together (to get a large enough sample size), no matter what the cause of the infertility may be.
Just wanted you to consider this as you look at your options.
Also, if your cycle will start on Thursday, you may be just in time for CD3 blood work, if you haven't gotten that done yet (but you probably have).
I'm excited to hear about your appointment and what will be the next steps. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.
Hugs,
A
Your mom is amazing for being so involved.
I forget, have you had an HSG done yet? Before proceeding with anything, I would recommend it. I was told it was unnecessary for the same reasons as you have - regular periods, ovulate normally. But before spending the money, I wanted to make sure my goods were okay. So talk to him about it if you haven't already had it done. Good luck Thursday!
ACK! Where are you at? My iui was 285 plus cost of donor sperm. Okay, take that back. I took Femara, and my co=pay was $30. My restrictive ass catholic insurance covered believe it or not.
I thought about doing non-medicated, but the stats on natural conception (don't quote me- but like 15%) seemed chancey. Even though we got rock bottom prices on our treatment, to do it 3 or 4 times would really add up- especially using donor sperm.
The femara is less stimulating than clomid, and I had really no side effects from it. Other than love of pudding. LOL.
Good luck sweetie- I know you will be able to do this and will handle it just fine. You have a great support system, and we love you too!!!
<3
I love my mom, and to be honest, i never really believed we would get Pregnant until she really came on board with us, for us to believe or keep trying was fine, but once she really started to see that there was an issue, that we might have to move past IUIs and that i was drowning in a Infertile depression...that was when I could START our fight, that is why she was at every u/s, she was at every appt after I got PG, she was in the operating room with us as her grandsons were born, because she was the reason I could FIGHT, because she was fighting with me. :)
Happy ICLW! I completely understand the wish to de-medicalize the process. I remember mourning each step as our IF journey progressed through more assisted cycles all the way up to where I mourned not experiencing pregnancy at all when we chose adoption. It does get better and once your baby arrives, you won't care how the wee one came to be. :-)
http://mom2reagan.blogspot.com/
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