In the beginning...

I'm not very good at getting my thoughts and feelings written down. So bear with me. Most of my blogs will most likely be about the ups and downs of our infertility treatments. Some will be about my family and my in-laws. And I'll even post about our pets.

Shall we begin?

In May 2006, we went to see a local fertility doctor. That month we did what's called a trial cycle, where I would go to the doctor's office to labs and ultrasounds done on certain days of my cycle. The doctor even tested my husband. It comes to find out that we have male factor infertility. And not only does he have a nearly non-existent sperm count, my husband had a DNA karyotype (where they map out his chromosomes) done that shows he has a balanced translocation. It's called Robertsonian Translocation 13;15. That means that his chromosome 15 is attached to chromosome 13. It has no effect on my husband because he has all the genetic material needed. But it does have a profound effect on when he goes to reproduce, as he can contribute too many or not enough chromosomes. Without going into the whole genetic explanation (unless you want me to), only 2 out of the 6 combinations will yield a viable baby. Because of these two factors (low sperm count and translocation), we have to do IVF for a chance to have a biological baby. It was highly recommended that we do genetic testing on the embryos to minimize the risks of miscarriage.

In July 2006, we did IVF. My husband gave me shots in my belly 3 times a day for 12 days. Then when my eggs were done "cooking" (according to the blood work and ultrasounds) the doctor retrieved them. I had 34 follicles and the doctor retrieved 23 eggs. I've always wondered what happened to the other 11. Anyway... by the end of it all, it turns out that 18 eggs were fertilized. On day 3, only 17 embryos made it to genetic testing (PGD). The genetic testing takes about one day. After the PGD, the doctor told us that we had 8 normal embryos (5 boys & 3 girls). By this time, I was in severe pain. It was perhaps the worst pain that I've ever felt in my entire life. It felt like there were sharp knives in my belly and they were just floating around in there slicing and dicing my internal organs. I remember the doctor asking my husband what was more important...the pain or having a baby. What? Of course the pain! Needless to say, I was hospitalized for over a week. So it was a freeze-all cycle, meaning that all 8 embryos were frozen because I could not have them transferred to my uterus.

Since then, we did 3 frozen embryo cycles. All negative. So we had a meeting with the doctor to discuss what to do next, as we have 5 frozen embryos left (2 girls and 3 boys). We lost confidence in the doctor and got angry because he was telling us a bunch of lies to cover his own behind.

So we decided to seek out another fertility doctor. We found the top rated fertility clinic in the United States, and that's who we're going to for another IVF in a couple of months. We've transferred the remaining 5 frozen embryos to Denver, and the embryologist there will re-do the genetic testing on those embryos (as there was a question if these embryos that were deemed normal actually were normal or not). More about that later.

Wish us luck!