Reba's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 6/25/08 -------------------- 4/13/08 2/18/08 1/17/08 11/24/07 11/13/07 10/31/07 10/17/07 9/18/07 9/2/07 8/24/07 8/18/07 8/15/07 -------------------- Reba's Introduction

Natural ovulation with an IUI

August 24, 2007

This month is our first treatment cycle. Sometimes I can't believe we've been seeing this doctor since May and we're just now having our first real chance (however small) at conceiving. We decided to try the least invasive option first, and slowly move up to more advanced treatments.

So this cycle, we tried natural ovulation with an IUI. Because such a small percentage of Jeff's sperm are physically able to get the job done, our doctor thinks this is the least invasive treatment that may give us a chance, even though it isn't a very big chance.

For the first part of my cycle, the nurses monitored me with blood work and ultrasounds. I had appointments on CD 3, 9, 12, and 15 of my cycle. They were watching to see when one follicle, which is basically a bag that holds the egg on my ovary before ovulation, would become dominant, or bigger than the others. For a while, I had two follicles that were the same size. They shared my body's resources so it took a while for one to become dominant. Finally on CD 15, one hadn't grown since my last appt and the other had gotten much bigger. It was 17 mm and they were waiting for it to be 18-22 mm, which is when my hormones would tell me to ovulate.

On CD 16, I gave myself an HCG shot. This shot triggered ovulation by tricking my body into thinking I had an LH surge. Incidentally, HCG is the hormone that our bodies make when we're pregnant, so I can't take a home pregnancy test for a while (not that I would anyway--I'm too scared!) because it would appear to be positive whether I am pregnant or not.

Preparing and administering the shot were definitely the most difficult parts of this process so far. The clinic had an instructional video that I watched about 10 times. They had supplied me with two vials, and I had to mix them to prepare the shot, and then give it to myself in my stomach. I wiped the kitchen counter down with rubbing alcohol before I started (a great tip I got from a book on infertility that I just finished, called The Infertility Survival Handbook). Mixing the shot was more difficult than I thought it would be--I was a little overambitious about tapping out the air bubbles, so I lost some of the liquid there, and it was really hard getting every drop of the solution out of the mixing bottle. And I didn't quite shoot myself where they said to--I got it about 1/2 an inch away from my belly button, rather than the recommended 2 inches. But all in all, I think I did pretty well for a first-timer.

The next day, my lower right abdomen hurt a lot. I took an OPK and the test line was so dark that it was purple (the dye was pink). The morning after that was the IUI.  Jeff provided his sample in a sterile cup with a green lid that the clinic gave us. He's done a couple of semen analyses by now so he was an expert at holding the precious cargo under his armpit and between his legs on the ride to the hospital, to keep them at body temperature.

When we got to the clinic, the nurse let us look at a droplet of Jeff's semen under a microscope. It was really cool to see the "essence of Jeff" as he called it. They were so tiny and there were so many of them! Unfortunately, most of them were abnormal in some way--lots with two heads and some with big clubbed tails, and none moving very far, just swimming around in circles. We had to sign a form acknowledging that we were letting the clinic prepare Jeff's sperm for their journey to hopefully meet my egg--apparently there have been lawsuits over doctors putting the wrong guy's sperm into the wrong girl. Luckily we were the only IUI at my clinic yesterday! The sperm washing, which happened in a machine called a centrifuge that looked like a big futuristic rice cooker, took about an hour. We went to the Dunkin Donuts downstairs at the hospital while we waited.

The actual IUI was not painful at all--I had been expecting much worse. Jeff came in with me and sat by my head. The doctor had us sign another form acknowledging that it was the same vial of sperm we had watched the nurse put into the centrifuge. We both noticed that there was now much less liquid in it--they had taken out about 96% of the sperm, leaving only the ~4% good ones Jeff had. I lay back with my feet in the stirrups. The doctor opened me up with an unlubricated speculum--that was really the most unpleasant part, and it didn't hurt. It was just a little uncomfortable and it felt like he had to open it up wider than they do for a Pap smear. And I love how they always put the speculum in and then go do something else--and I'm lying there thinking, "Couldn't you have done that first??"

The doctor sucked all the washed sperm up into a really long, thin catheter and then got to work inserting it. I really didn't feel much except for some odd, very faint cramping feelings, like someone poking me from the inside. He said I had been spotting from my cervix before the procedure even started and seemed concerned, although I've always spotted throughout my cycles so I wasn't worried about this, but he wants me to get it checked out. He also said I may spot a little after the procedure, and I have a little bit. He had me lie there for 10 minutes after it was over. It was nice and relaxing just to get to lie there with Jeff sitting next to me.

As soon as it was over, I felt weirdly pessimistic about the whole thing. I think I had thought I would feel immediately very optimistic, and was surprised when I didn't. Afterwards, I came home and went right back to bed and slept until mid-afternoon. Then I took it easy for the rest of the day, just watching movies and resting on the couch. I haven't felt any discomfort at all although I'm still taking it easy. Tonight I start progesterone suppositories. I thought I had to take them because I have a short luteal phase, but it turns out the clinic makes everyone who has an IUI take them.

After having gone through all the treatment parts now, I think we're leaning towards our next cycle trying Clomid and the IUI. All this felt like a lot of trouble to go through for just one egg. I'm also planning to take a cycle off from trying and have an HSG done in Sept. so hopefully that will put my mind at ease a bit and help me feel more optimistic about our chances when we start treatments again in October.