A few summer novels

I picked a few novels for summer reading today...





I'm not a big novel reader, but I love travelogues and these are set in Nantucket and India, respectively. Can't wait to read them!

I finally did it!

I just booked an IVF consult w/Dr. Sherbahn @ Advanced Fertility for July 19th! This was supposed to be my lap date, but that got pushed back once they coordinated all the doctors' schedules (it's now set for Aug 9th).

We were really grasping at straws as to why we are not getting pregnant, and our current RE keeps telling us we don't need IVF. But with S's dismal SA results this week, we have another potential issue that we were completely unaware of before. It now seems the likelihood of egg stimulation, IUI, and progesterone support getting us the result we are seeking is low.

It's kind of ironic because our first RE was awful and wanted to do IVF w/my septum still in, and my 2nd was great to take it out, but now she is totally not concerned about his morph and still thinks we should keep doing inject/IUI cycles. I/we had been trying to avoid IVF if possible, but that was when everyone was telling us there wasn't anything wrong with us.

I am also somewhat comforted by the fact that if we fail the first time, which will max out all of our IF bennies (though Adv. Fert. has the best success rates around), we can look at doing additional rounds OOP in India @ $3-4K/. This makes me more hopeful that we will be able to have a child, eventually, without spending all of our savings. Of course, this is assuming they don't discover any deal breakers during IVF.

Depending on what he has to say, we may or may not do the lap in August. Now it seems like it could be a waste of time/$ if we have to do IVF anyway (which is the recommended work around for endo). Though I would certainly consider doing one if we fail at IVF #1. If I can get/stay pg, they say that alone will likely solve my endo problem.

Here's to moving onward and upward! :)

Indeed

source

Losing confidence

In response to my e-mail notifying my RE of S's SA results:

"[His] morphology is definitely abnormal. The impact of morphology on fertilization is highly controversial with some studies suggesting that low morphology is an indicator of the sperm's ability (or lack of) to fertilize the oocyte and other studies showing no impact. Morphology is not related (as far as I am aware) to hormones. Hormones control production of sperm and his numbers are fine. Morphology is definitely a gray area, I don't think in and of itself it is an indication for IVF (again controversial). I have had patients conceive with IUI with 0% normal morph. I would have [him] see a urologist to make sure there is nothing else going on. I usually send patients to Dr. Merrill Matschke, a reproductive urologist at (847) 295-0010.
EF"

Is it just me or is this not very helpful or reassuring? Everything with her is "highly controversial"; affect of septum, removal of septum, endo as a cause of IF, doing a lap to treat endo, relation of morph to IF, doing IVF for low morph. S is definitely going to see a urologist, but now I'm just starting to feel like we are on a wild goose chase. I feel like since we have to wait until August to do the lap, that I will be ready to do IVF ASAP after. Am I just being impatient? I'm not sure...

Teratozoospermia

This is the official name for low sperm morphology and terato=monster (I'm not making this up). There are some morphology pictures on Advanced Fertility's site. They may end up being our IVF clinic in the Chicago area, as they have the best success rates.

Dr. Malpani (in Bombay, India) also has a great website with lots of info. Who knows, if we end needing multiple rounds of IVF, we may end going there (@ a few grand a pop and family to stay with).

From his site... "Ideally, a good sperm should have a regular oval head, with a connecting mid-piece and a long straight tail. If too many sperms are abnormally shaped (round heads; pin heads; very large heads; double heads; absent tails) this may mean the sperm are abnormal and will not be able to fertilise the egg."

Pictures of sperm with abnormal heads and necks from here.






Mayo weighs in on outcomes..."If pregnancy does occur, having abnormal sperm morphology doesn't increase the risk of having a child with birth defects."
Treatments vary based on the cause, which is sometimes difficult to determine.
It could be a varicocele. Treatment of these is common but controversial.

Still waiting to hear back from my RE on our new news, but my lap is scheduled for August 9th. I guess Dr. Tu only does surgery on Mondays. So much for minimizing my time off of work that week. Thinking maybe we'll take the next week off to go to the Cape.

good news and (of course) bad news

We finally got our test results from last Friday late this afternoon. We were supposed to get them on Monday, so I called Monday and this morning. Our cultures take at least two weeks, so those results are yet to come.

First, the good news. My Crinone is working. My P4 level was 18.9, anything over 15 when medicated is good.

S's SA came back as well. We did a new one (1st/last was 14 mos. ago) because Dr. David said the morph number was so high (76%) that it was likely not performed correctly. Of course, neither of our other two RE's caught this. So his new count is still great at 87MM (normal is 20-40MM), as is his motility at 64% (they like this >50%), but his morphology this time was bad at only 1% (should be a min of 8-14%).

Of course, Dr. David is out of town until Friday, so this was all conveyed to us by the nurse. She asked me if he had been sick lately with a fever. He has not. Does he use hot tubs, use a laptop on his lap, carry his cell in his front pocket. All, no. In the meantime, I'll be talking to our RE here to see what we need to do. I have absolutely no idea...

The best of Target, on sale!

Target has some of my all time faves on sale this week. Here's a sampling...

Any size damask stripe sheet sets for $36.
These sheets are an amazing deal. I've yet to find anything as nice for the price at the discount stores, like Home Goods. They come in limited colors, but are 450 thread count (much more than that is not really noticeable). They aren't Egyptian cotton, which I like, but they are very nice and wash well. We have multiple sets in king and queen (but all in white ;)) for all our bedrooms. And at this price (which includes extra cases), you can buy an extra set for when one is in the wash.

I bought this carry-on sized wheelie a bit ago, but flew with it for the first time to NY. It was perfect! I love the laptop storage (on the side), and if you pack it before you put the laptop in (and use the expandable feature) it still holds a lot, and fits in the overhead bin. I somehow fit in five days of stuff, which is no small feat for me. It's on sale for $80, but I paid $70, so if you want to wait... ;)

I raved about these Thomas O'Brien towels here, and they are the towels in all of our bathrooms. Bath sized is only $8. Remember, life's too short to use really crappy towels...


If you need more color choices or just want to spend a few more bucks, these from Fieldcrest luxury are also great. In their line, I found just the right color of lavender to gift my mom.


We got two of these Waterpik ecoflow shower heads recently (one from Target and one w/a double head, from Costco) and I was actually quite impressed with the water pressure. It is a few bucks off at $27. They use 1.5 gallon per minute vs. the standard eco level of 2.5. We are trying to save water where we can, like installing dual flush toilets for all three of our heads.

When we decided to get rid of all the triclosan (anti-bac) products in our house awhile back, we went with the great stuff from Method, and we haven't looked back.


I also love the green cleaners from Green Works/Clorox and Seventh Generation, which are also on sale this week.

Last but certainly not least, the garden dept is on clearance and the ceramic garden stools (usually $99) are now $47! (fortunately I only paid $49) Also in white.


Happy Shopping!