I just talked to S a little bit ago and she just got done with her CD3 RE check up. Looks like all of the little eggs/follicles are doing good and while she does have a cyst, it is small and no big deal. The RE also checked to see if there would be any problems with the actual insemination and that is all clear too. So it looks like we are good to go, but I think that the RE upset S a little bit with how aggressive he wants to be with fertility treatments. He wants us to basically spend an additional $1,300 on this cycle in addition to the $2,000 we are already spending to do ultrasounds and add a few different fertility drugs depending on how the CD10 ultrasounds go. Now, I’ve been reading all of your different blogs (those of you who are TTC) and I know this is pretty normal that he would want to do this. But S isn’t a big blog reader and so I think she was surprised that he wanted to do all of this right away. Plus she is on her period so she might be a bit sensitive. And I know that he wants to do all of the testing and drugs just to ensure that we get pregnant as fast as possible (and I’m sure to make his stats look good), but we really do want to try to do this as natural as possible, at least the first try. We have no reason to think that anything is wrong with S and that this won’t work. She has very regular cycles and now that the thyroid is in check, is perfectly healthy and is only 29. I’m proud that S stood up to his doctor bullying ways and said no, that we will try this without all of this extra stuff added on.
But this brings me to a question for you all, how quickly did you/would you get aggressive about TTC? It does seem like a big waste of money to spend $2,000 a month and still not be doing everything we can to get pregnant. I think that S wants to do two unassisted cycles before moving onto the ultrasound/drug song and dance, but I think that we should do just one cycle and then move on. Really if S was down to do it the first time though I would do it. But I understand why she doesn’t want it and I support it. I just can’t stomach spending $4,000, $6,000, $8,000 etc. to try doing the same exact thing over and over again when we can just spend extra on the second cycle and up our chances. Obviously I hope/wish/think we will get pregnant on the first try, considering S’s conditions above and along with the fact that we have been charting her ovulation for the past three months and will be doing two IUI’s this cycle. I guess it’s just the money that blows my mind and the thought of waiting a single second later to meet my future child that kills me. I guess we will just have to see what the next 30 days holds and make decisions once we get to that next bridge. But I really am curious about all of your opinions on this.
-Liz
I felt the EXACT SAME way. The first doctor that I went to was VERY aggressive and the appointment was terrifying and saddening. We ended up doing 3 inseminations at home before we got a recommendation from a friend about another RE. The one we go to now doesn't make me feel pressured to do anything that I don't want to do. She's completely ok and even suggested we go natural cycle for a few tries before we got aggressive - of course, now I'm getting a little antsy and want to be a bit more aggressive, and she's perfectly fine with that too. She told us that it's our baby, our journey, and she would support whatever decision we make.
ReplyDeleteI now wish that we had gotten aggressive earlier and done doctor assisted IUI's earlier because if so I could be closer to having our baby. I do feel like we've spent a ton of money and really are nowhere closer.
Honestly, it's such a hugely personal decision that I couldn't even begin to give you advice - only let you know what I'm feeling now.
Good luck whatever you decide!
We did four rounds of unmedicated double IUIs before moving onto the drugs and monitoring, mostly because it took that long for my insurance to start covering any of it. I think if you're being monitored you'll have better odds on the timing than you would otherwise, so go natural if you want to give that a shot. I would have happily moved to the RE after the third one if we could have, and I almost want to just get to IVF now and get it over with. But you're right that she's healthy and there's no reason why it SHOULDN'T work, so if you want to go it without drugs, I think you should!
ReplyDeletethats an easy question to answer in hindsight (i wish we'd gone straight to ivf!) but an impossible question to answer at the beginning of your journey (we did at-home ICIs, then gradually stepped up medicated/monitoring levels with IUIs). i think you just have to do what you feel comfortable with (and your pocketbook can handle!) good luck!
ReplyDeleteOur doctor was the complete opposite. She said there was no reason to think we couldn't get pregnant without drugs, so she saw no reason to try them for the first several tries. After three tries, if we weren't pregnant, we would have had a meeting with her to discuss the next steps. It was always up to us how aggressive we wanted to be, but that was her opinion. My partner got pregnant on the 2nd try with our first son, and on the 3rd try with our second son by one unmedicated IUI each cycle.
ReplyDeleteHow many follicles does she have right now? (If you said and I missed it, I'm sorry!)
ReplyDeleteWe started massive drugs right away because H1's egg reserve was so low and she was 39/40 when we started.
Since you don't have insurance coverage for it, I'd want to start stim drugs right away, but you'd really need to know the follicle count. Because if she does drugs and then gets too many follicles, then they could cancel your cycle if it's just an IUI and not IVF. If he just wants to do a trigger shot, that'd be good because then you'd know exactly when she was ovulating. Are you doing more than one IUI for each cycle?
I wanted to start IVF right away, but our insurance requires 3 medicated IUI's before we did IVF. And we didn't even qualify for regular IVF because H1 only produces 1 egg no matter how much stimming we do.
Our RE is just like Shannon's (above). He is pretty confident in our ability to get pregnant and is recommending 2 unmedicated IUIs a cycle with a plan to become more aggressive at the point of diminishing returns (if it doesn't work after 3 months). We are happy with that approach, though I totally feel the "if we could do it faster, for less, that might be nice" thought
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